B's lose in OT, 3-2

Kept from posting during the winning streak due to superstition. It's probable that there was a direct correlation between the win streak and the lack of new posts here at Vf311.

• Hurricane O'Reilly's doesn't have Captain Morgan? wha...??
• No Bergeron last night and it showed. I think we went 0 for 1,000,000 on faceoffs. Okay, I just checked, the B's actually beat the Pens at the faceoff dot, 29 wins to 27 wins. But let's not let the facts get in the way of my misinformation dissemination - Bergy took a personal day to wax his eyebrow and the B's paid dearly for it.
  
• Jackass in front of me and his brat kids were standing about 3 seconds before the Krejci goal that tied it, missed the goal. 1st goal, though, Lootch was just a huge beast, screening Fleury so he never saw Chara take a shot.
• Power play still looks anemic. Things appear smoother with Kaberle around, but they're just not getting anything into the net. It's weird.
• I like the snarl that has appeared in Nathan Horton's game. I'm not sure what has caused this, but it results in him being engaged in the flow of the game, therefore he's taking more shots and beating on people in the corners, looking to make hits, and generally causing a ruckus. It's probably the Lootchian influence. Still, I was watching Lootch & Krejci at the other end of the ice when Horton beat? Craig Adams down.
  
• Shawn Thornton had a rare loss, fighting the much bigger Mike Rupp. Rupp is just a big dude. Rupp is 6'-5", which reminds me of Blake Wheeler. Imagine if Wheels played with Rupp's physicality (or if Rupp played with, uh, Wheels' offensive, uh, finish?) That would be some kind of power forward, yah?

That's a dude. Look at that perm, boinging away. Look at that Letang jersey. Thankfully, he was quiet & respectful. But too many Pens fans (frontrunners) were at the game last night, ruining everything. Also, spied some Nordiques jerseys (huh?), and Whalers jerseys. Son, if you're wearing a Whalers jersey out in public, you're pretty much admitting to the world that you've given up on life.

• Gregory Campbell is due to haul ass on some poor sap's face. I dunno if he got a stern talking to from Poppa Soup, but he's been quiet with his fists lately.
• Bob McKenzie (TSN) chips in with some PHX to Winnipeg talk. So does Darren Dreger ...anything to get rid of Confederate Flag hockey. I'm convinced that the only reason for warm-climate hockey is so the players/coaches, etc. get to play golf during the season.
  
• Is "McKenzie" to Canada what "Chang" is to China? NO. According to this, it's not even in the top 20. Nothing like obliterating a stereotype. Now I feel empty.
• When the B's fire Claude Julien, is the Herald going to use the banner headline "De-Claude" on the back page? I should copyright that shit right now.
• It irritates me to see Seguin pull up on delivering checks, not big checks, but just checks against the boards. It is this whiff of Kesselosity that's in his game that really annoys me. In a somewhat related note, Taylor Hall blew out his ankle the other night in his first fighting major of the season.
• Nice open-ice hit by Seidenberg on Letang, later negated by Seidenberg's assist on the Pens winning goal.
  

Out of Hibernation

It's time to start thinking hockey again...three weeks of mourning was about enough...I think...

In the past few days the Bruins signed Thornton and Seidenberg to extensions.  Their respective cap hits are $812,500 and $3.25M.  Thornton for two years and Seidenberg for four.  The pricetag for a fourth liner is a little high (he made $550K last season), but Thornton has earned it by being good at his role since he came here and being one of the few Bruins that were actually "big and bad" during the lackluster regular season.  He stands up for his teammates which is more than we can say for a number of Bruins. I like the signing.

Seidenberg going to be here for years to come (photo from Boston.com)

The Seidenberg deal is a good one if he plays anything like he did in his short time here before getting injured. They likely got him at a discount compared to what he would have commanded in free agency (this blogger guesses at least $3.75M per). The fact that they got this deal done, however, makes me despise the Ference extension even more than I already did. In a perfect world, I would have liked to see both Stuart and Boychuk back in the fold (Stuart moreso to be honest: grit and leadership - Johnny is a little too metrosexual for my liking even though he provided us with one of the greatest hits I've witnessed against Buffalo). This signing means someone is gone. Perhaps Chiarelli will be able to pull off some sort of salary dump trade and offload Wideman or Ference, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that. Instead, I'm afraid Johnny or Stuart will walk and I think it will be Johnny because he will probably command more money with his solid play in the postseason, and money is very tight for the B's at this point.  Please keep Stuey around Chia!

So here's my priority list among the remaining free agents:

1. Do not sign Wheeler (Aggressive Wheeler-Hater Guy in Row 10 is completely right to rank on this guy)
2. Re-sign Mark Stuart
3. Sign Vladdy Sobotka - he's ready to take over the Yelle/Begin role for this team and will be a good guy to have around should one of the three centers miss time (which they certainly will).  Could his play in the first round before he hurt himself give him some value on the trade market?  Remember how good he was?  It's hard to think back past the Flyers debacle, but he was great until he tweaked his shoulder.
4. Bring Recchi back if he wants to play another year

Random crap:

• David Krejci is a stud and is an incredible bargain at $3.75M
• Patrice turns 25 in July...25!
• Lucic and Chara were fighting injuries all last season and will be better in 2010-11
• The Bruins will end up with Taylor Hall one way or another - the media posturing by Tambellini and Chiarelli is fun to follow (Chia: Seguin can play the wing.  Tambellini: Hall can play center.)
• Tim Thomas - I don't know what to think about this one.  I think Timmy wants to play so he might approve a trade, but who's going to take that 35+ contract with 3 years left on it.  Also, look at the Cup Finals this year: Niemi vs. Leighton.  Are teams going to want to sink that kind of commitment into a goaltender when Chicago and Philly had success with low-rent goaltenders?  The Bruins could REALLY use that cap space.  They could bring in some high-priced talent to make a run at the Cup a la Chicago this year.  Things are going to change this time next year when Chara and Bergeron's contracts are up.
• Michael Ryder is in a contract year in 2010-11.  Will that motivate him?  No.

So Far, So What?

The Bruins got rid of Derek Morris and Byron Bitz in a cap clearing move. This gets rid of roughly a pro-rated $4M for the remainder of the season. They brought in Dennis Seidenberg who has a $2.25M cap hit.

This just allows them to bring in a Raffi Torres ($2.25M cap hit). A recent tweet from Joe Haggerty says talks are heating up with Columbus, but that they want a 1st rounder. I imagine Columbus will back off on that stance before the deadline passes since Raffi is a UFA at the end of the year. Look for this to be the only other move the Bruins make today - maybe a 2nd rounder and a prospect.

After watching last night's debacle, I'm mostly looking forward to the draft. The only thing that would get me excited for this season would be if they could pull off a miracle move for a Tomas Kaberle. And when I say miracle, I mean it - not likely.