10 Questions Moving Forward

1. Will Bruins wingers ever get in the face of Ryan Miller? KPD and Matt Kalman are asking the same question.

2. What happened to Marco Sturm on March 11? In the first 6 games following the Olympic break, Marco had 3g and 4a. Since then, in 17 games including last night, Marco has one goal and one assist! What happened?

3. Will Michael Ryder continue to play like he did in Game 1? I gotta hand it to him, he was pretty good last night. If he keeps it up, goals should come.

4. Why is Mark Recchi our best winger at the age of 42?

5. How long before one of the Bruins rearranges Patrick Kaleta's face? Steve Begin started by running him into the boards with no helmet last night, but if he keeps taking dives like he did against Chara in the first, he is going to get a beating. I enjoyed Claude's jab that Chara is not going to worry about a player (Kaleta) who hardly sees the ice.

6. What is going to happen as a result of Tyler Myers' cheapshot on Boychuk? As Johnny said, he didn't have the puck and it was a blindside hit. I doubt there will be any league discipline as a result, but it might lead to the Bruins seeking some in-game justice for the hit. Time to give the rookie his playoff initiation if you ask me.

7. What was Toni Lydman thinking? He's lucky Lucic didn't kill him. Ryan Miller made a comment to the effect that the hulking Lucic shouldn't be picking on Lydman, but he must have missed the part where Lydman started it and got what he asked for.

8. How long will Ference's groin last? Apparently it made it through last night in his 13+ minutes of ice time.

9. Will Blake Wheeler be re-signed after this season? I hope not. He showed me nothing yet again last night.

10. Will Tuukka continue to play like he did last night? I have to think so. He made some incredible saves during those powerplays in the third.

B's Blow 3 Leads; Leafs Still Blow.

Ayup, B's lose tonight to Toronto, 4-3 in sudden-death overtime. The B's blew 3 leads, never trailed in the game until 49 seconds were left in the overtime session, where Ryder dove into Thomas to prevent a pass (and prevented the pass), knocked Thomas down, and Kulemin had an empty net to score the winning goal.

• Boston goals by Recchi, Sturm, Bergeron. Actually, they may have changed the scoring on the Recchi goal and it's actually Bergeron's.
• Thomas had a good game, made some crazy saves, but let in a wicked softie to Wayne Primeau. I was actually going to reserve some space in the post-game blog post about how RIDICULOUS it was to have Primeau's name bandied about in trade deadline talks. The pride of Whitby, ON: he's got hands like bricks, can't do anything but get in the way, maybe knock some folks around. Then he scores on Thomas on a 2-on-1 break.
• Still no word on the Cooke hit from league sheriff Colin Campbell. On Toronto radio (590 the Fan or something like that), Campbell made it sound like it wasn't that bad of a hit.
  
• With no Chara tonight, Wideman looked exceptionally retarded out there. Kessel smoked him at least twice for breakaways on Thomas.
• Ryder is still a shithead and remains View from 311's doghouse. Today, he was witnessed performing kegel exercises between shifts.
• The ACC played 2 Tragically Hip tunes during the game: "Fireworks", which mentions Bobby Orr; and "Fifty-Mission Cap", which is related to the Leafs never winning the Cup. The TD Garden? We play songs that bring fear into the heart of the opponent and have everything to do with hockey, like "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive. What should they be playing? I nominate "Blood and Thunder" by Mastodon.

B's win again - Life not so horrible

Don't look now, but your favorite hockey team is 6-0-1 in their last 7 games. It certainly doesn't feel like it, with all of the shootouts and stuff.

Last night, the B's beat the Lightning, 4-1. The line of Bergeron, Sturm, and Recchi was insane. Thomas was also nuts, stopping 38 or so shots. Okay, I'm too lazy to check the box score to publish any real numbers.

Watch the drama unfold on Saturday, as Phil Kessel comes back to Boston. I predict that he will be booed lustily. Maybe some B's fans will take it to the gutter and throw batteries at him, Philly-style. Either way, I don't think he'll be greeted nicely. More on this Saturday.

The contributor known as Minnesota is really hating Wheels these days: "He reminds me of Landon Wilson - same body type, same skill set, same number". Landon Wilson ("land of the lost" according to KPD) disappeared in Europe for awhile, but resurfaced in North America recently by signing with the Dallas Stars. He currently plays for the Texas Stars in the AHL. We'll try to have the Mayor grab his autograph someday.