Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Game 39: Bruins vs. Thrashers: NOT DON CHERRY NIGHT

Game 39
7:00 PM, December 30th
NESN, 98.5 FM
v. Atlanta Thrashers


Well this was going to be a celebration of Don Cherry but he's not coming tonight so nevermind. Who is coming? The Thrashers are coming. If the Bruins hadn't put up 3 goals in 1:08 last wednesday we might have lost to them, so here's hoping Ondrej is in net for Atlanta again tonight. (he is!) Here's how the teams match up, stats-wise:
Congratulations to Chara, Sturm, Krejci, and Bergeron for making their respective Olympic teams. Team USA will be announced right after the Winter Classic.
GO BRUINS!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

JACK EDWARDS GOT ON TWITTER

JACK EDWARDS IS ON TWITTER!!!!!!!!!



Bruins couldn't score for shit last night, but hopefully when I return to blogging for-real we'll see some scoring again.

Also holy crap if you're clicking my link from Puck Daddy I usually do better.

GO BRUINS!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Happy Boxing Day!

From P.J. Stock:

The best thing that happened in the pooh-bear sweaters, ever.

I met a habs fan at the Boston@Leafs game that was wearing one. Because of this fight. Really.

GO BRUINS!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

*** TRANSMISSION INCOMING / TRANSMISSION ENTRANTE***

Hello / Bonjour
I am typing this from behind enemy lines. / Je suis tapant cette derrière les lignes ennemies.
I fear that I will be found out soon. / Je crains que je vais être trouvé prochainement.
Tell my wife I said, "Hello." /Dis à ma femme, je l'ai dit, "Bonjour".
Meet me at Air Canada Center / Rendez-vous au centre Air Canada
7 PM Tonight / 7 h ce soir

GO BRUINS!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Game 33 Preview: Bruins @ Blackhawks BATTLE OF BASEBALL WINTER CLASSIC HOSTS

See! The incredible flying Wheeler!
Game 33
8:30 PM, December 18, 2009
NESN, NHL Network, 98.5FM
at Chicago Blackhawks (21-8-3)

I had a couple choices when picking out pictures. I chose that one. Here are the two I was looking at instead:
I think I made the right choice.

The Blackhawks have a lot of talk about their potent offense, but don't forget they've also got the fewest goals against in the league. Shit. Welp, we're boned.

This either is going to be a ridiculous blowout or a tight game. I expect the Bruins to lose both. I'll take $100 on red, please. Not to be a debbie downer or anything.

Oh, and one more thing: the last time the Bruins played in Chicago, these were your three stars:

Stats!
Why yes, these are the top 2 PKs in the league. Why do you ask?
Anyhow, I'm off to Toronto this weekend to watch the Bruins play the Leafs AGAIN! HAHA! I'll have pictures when I get back, for sure. Just don't expect many updates this weekend, unless one of my other writers wants to step up (hint hint). All of that aside,
GO BRUINS!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Revenge of the Lazy Links

First of all, if you like to hear what I have to say about various Bruins topics, please head on over to Somethings Bruin to check out part 1 and part 2 of the round-table discussion I participated in last night. It was fun to talk about the team with some fellow bloggers and I'm sure somebody reading will disagree with something I said, so go ahead and let me know.

  • No really: check out part 1 and part 2 of the round-table discussion
  • In other news, Mark Stuart is out 4-6 weeks with a broken sternum, due to playing with too much heart.
  • As a result, here's a tweet from someone at practice:
  • Dennis Wideman won't leave on the road trip with the team, but could join them later.
  • Derek Morris is hurt too, but he'll travel with the team.
  • Yeah, did you look at that tweet up there? That top line has a pair of deadly cannons from the blue-line, and of course Wozniewski was leading the AHL in points earlier this year. Also, this:

Are you shitting me, Andy Wozniewski?
  • McQuaid is making his NHL debut. He'll play with Hunwick.
  • Somebody hold me, this defense is scary.
In non-Bruins news:
Yeah, I got nothing else.
GO BRUINS!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

L10: Games 21-30 (8-1-1) THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, BABY! WOOOOOOO

Ho boy, those Bruins sure do like to yuk it up. I mean, come on. Letting the leafs almost come back from being down 3-0? LAUGH RIOT!

No, really though, I'm not recapping thursday night's great game with the two Mark Recchi goals and such. I'm going to leave it at this face right here, the face of a champion:

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Or at least the face of a man one assist away from a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Awesome.

Anyhow, here's how the Bruins did over their last ten games:


They're 30 games in and half of the wins of the season have come after game 20. That's pretty ridiculous. I'd say they're back and all but I know Two Line Pass would just ridicule me. My poor blogging heart couldn't take it.


Moving on, let's look at some important stats:

%18.35
The Bruins' power play percentage. Up from 12.86 ten games ago, the Bruins now have the 21st-best power play rather than worst last time. 1835 was quite the year, as Charles Darwin got to a galapagos, Hans Christian Anderson put out his first book of fairy tales, Andrew Jackson almost got assassinated, and Mark Twain was born.

0.932
Tuukk-Nuukkem's save percentage. He's third in the league. Pretty soon I'll have to write another In Defense Of... post about Tim Thomas. Yeah, maybe. Either way, Miller for Team USA starter right now.

%86.36
The Bruins' penalty kill percentage. Don't look now, but it's the tops in the league. Hell yeah. That's really been helping the Bruins get some wins. They don't allow a whole lot of powerplay goals against.

0-0-0, -3
Phil Kessel's stat line against the Bruins. Spite? No. I just want that first-rounder to turn out well. (Ok, it's spite but that's sports.)

Yeah, so basically the Bruins are getting their game on (and Marc Savard back). Lucic should be returning soon enough. The next ten games have a couple highlights, book-ended by Flyers games and capped off with game 40 on January 1st, the Winter Classic. Should be a good time.

Oh, and before I forget you should watch this video if you haven't already:


and the man in the back/ said everyone attack/ and he passed it up to Byron Bitz/ Byyyyyyron Bitz
GO BRUINS!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Game 30 Preview: Bruins vs. Toronto BLAKE WHEELER IS A SAINT

Game 30
December 10, 2009, 7:00 PM
NESN, 98.5 FM
vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (10-13-7)

Last time we played, we played the leafs at home. The next post down will tell you all about it, or if you don't like reading here's a pretty accurate recap I saw on Down Goes Brown:

Delightful, no?


Anyhow, the Leafs have won the 2 games since then, giving them their first winning streak of the year. In fact, they're 7-2-1 in the last ten, which is also where the Bruins are in those last ten. As this is game 30, I'm of course hoping for a 7-2-1 record in the headline of the next L10 article. I don't know if Savard will be able to pot another three goals but if Bergeron can slice through the defense like a hot knife through butter we'll be in for some good times.

I expect this to be a tougher game than Saturday's and to be honest quite a bit closer.

Stats!

Orange highlights the better stat. It's actually a pretty even split.
On game at a time. Should be a bunch of fights. Blake Wheeler first career fight maybe? Maybe. The Leafs didn't like him dumping Ian White into the boards for some reason...
GO BRUINS!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Game 29 Recap BRUINS 7 LEAFS 2 TAY-LOR-HALL TAY-LOR-HALL

Yeah, so I missed a couple games. Basically, if you're getting all of your bruins news from this blog (hi mom! I'll come up from the basement in a couple months) then I have been remiss. Here's what I missed, in Hockey Blog Adventure headline form:

Game 26 Recap BRUINS 3 SENS 3 SHOOTOUT WIN THAT'S HOW ROUGH RYDER ROLLS
Bruins manage a shootout win, find themselves close to first in the division as a result.
Game 27 Recap BRUINS 4 BOLTS 1 I'M NOT SEEING STAMKOS
James Wright has an okay game, rest of Tampa doesn't. Good defense, some scoring.
Game 28 Recap BRUINS 1 HABS 5 HAPPY FUCKING BIRTHDAY MONTREAL
Don't even bring it up. There was some cool shit, but basically it just has me lusting for 15 years from now when the Bruins get their own version of this:



Look, I'm not a habs fan by any stretch of the imagination, but that right there is pretty awesome. Was the no-voiceover on CBC as well, or was it some internet-stream camera? Either way, sweet video if you appreciate hockey history. Then the Bruins shat all over themselves and lost. Go figure, a habs team that has no business beating the Bruins goes ahead and does it. Whatever. Happy birthday montreal, here's to a 4-1-1 record against them.

Which brings us to the most recent Bruins game, Toronto at Boston.

Now of course Phil Kessel plays for Toronto now, joining other former Bruins luminaries as Joey Macdonald, Colton Orr, and Wayne Primeau. He apparently told Marc Savard not to sign with Boston (and probably come to Toronto, of course) so that's a pretty good reason to not like him if your first couple run out. Either way, lets look back at the game, no? I mean, it was pretty sweet.

To start off with, the Garden crowd was in rare form last night. Every time Kessel touched the puck, people booed. It was awesome. The other great part was that every time he touched the puck, a Bruin got real close real fast. Kessel got 2 shots on net, was a -3, and had 16:28 of ice time. And with the Leafs' best player by far shut down, the rest was...

A little over 5 minutes in, there's a faceoff in the offensive zone. Bergeron shows up to play, and wins the draw. Back to Sturm, who gives it to Morris. They move it up and down the right side of the zone and Morris one-times it in. The puck bounces off Bergeron and Sturm and the back of the net.
Hell yeah, baby. Goal for Berge-Sturm.
1-0.

The leafs know that they should take the crowd out of the game if they want to do better here. So naturally they goad Shawn Thornton into a fight. It's not like he's a fan-favorite pugilist looking to back up his truculence in the Pride Motor Group commercial. Colton Orr is all, "does it come in red?" Here's the fight, called by Hockey Night In Canada In Punjab:

They both land some good hits, Shawn Thornton gets half a takedown before Orr gets back up and they hug it out.

It works wonders, because the Leafs keep the Bruins off the scoreboard for the next 32 seconds.

The Bruins are working it around in the offensive zone and Wheeler gets it back to Chara. Chara shuffles across the blue line and then wrists it in, ready for a deflection. Bitz deflects it off his body somehow and Marc Savard's bright, beautiful, dreamy blue eyes see the puck. A quick scoop and everyone in the arena sees a red light go on.
Savard. Marc Savard.
2-0.

A couple minutes later Mark "Down for whatever" Stuart and Jamal Mayers try to fight, but the Refs don't give them the satisfaction of fighting majors.

Sturm gets a slashing call to close out the first. So far so good.

Second Period.

About 2 minutes in Chara grabs the puck just inside the zone after Kessel flubs it and then Chara lightly wrists it just over everyone. It's a really slow shot, actually, but if that's how Chara scores then I don't care if his pucks are slower than a Wakefield fastball.
OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
3-0.

And it's on. Blake Wheeler is getting all kinds of people after him tonight, and Colton Orr takes a solid 4-minute penalty. That gets killed, then Ian White decides to be a hooker. More powerplay? Why not? Of course the Bruins PP is still pretty crap, so when Derek Morris passes it up and Savard and Ryder enter the zone you expect they won't get much out of it. Savard loops it around the boards to Ryder, who then comes behind the net and does a quick pass to Savard waiting on the doorstep.
JAMES BOND HAT TRICK WATCH ACTIVATED
4-0.
Huge goal. Reminds me of the game against the lightning. I wonder if the Bruins will be able to have a better third in this game? Hrmmmmmmmm....

Third Period.
NEW GOALIE
Vesa (Toskala): He's everywhere you want him to be (if you're a scorer).

Matt Stajan takes a tripping penalty. Yes, I do believe I will have seconds on the powerplay scoring. It was just so delicious. I know it will go straight to my stats, but I JUST DON'T CARE RIGHT NOW.

Neither does Tuukka Rask. Tuukka settles the puck behind his net, leaving it for Patrice. Bergeron skates it up the ice, Recchi by his side. Bergeron and Recchi, and if they're not passing back and forth Bergeron makes it look like they do. Patrice skates through all 4 leafs. Literally through them. Look, here he is:
MARK RECCHI HAS 550 CAREER GOALS! NOT BAD FOR AN OLD MAN!
5-0.

Oh hell yeah. Tuukka Rask has more points than Phil Kessel in the game.
TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKK

But the game isn't over yet. Through the first half of the period, the bruins scored one. They enter the zone about 12 minutes in and Krejci skates the puck around a little. Boychuk pinches in and one-times it from the top of the circle. They weren't kidding about Boychuk's shot as it was probably the hardest shot of the night. There's a loud crack, followed by a siren. No, you didn't just get shot. Vesa did. But he let it get by him anyhow.
JOHNNY BOYCHUK FIRST NHL GOAL
There are a lot of fangirls on twitter that are VERY happy about this one.
6-0.

Yeah, that's a pretty good score. Off the faceoff, Savard wins it. They get into the zone. Savard to Wheeler, Wheeler gives it back and the leaf defensemen shift over to block savard's notorious point shot. Marc drives his aston-martin up the halfwall and converts it to underwater mode. Walther PPK's a wrist shot right past The Man Who Blew Too Much - Vesa Toskala.
HAT TRICK MARC SAVARD BABY
What kind of hat does james bond even wear?
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7-0.

Well this game is over. Jamal Mayers finally gets that fight he's been looking for all game, goading Steve Begin into a little throwdown. In that after Mayers throws a few punches, Steve Begin throws him down. Here's a link why not?

Mayers does manage to swing the momentum away from the Bruins, and the leafs manage to score 2 afterwards. Excellent game. It's a shame Rask doesn't get the shutout against his former team, but you can only ask for so much. In between the 2 Toronto Goals, Ference and Stempniak get double-minors because the refs don't want to hand them each a one-game suspension for a fight. Great job, refs!
7-2.
WIN!

Take us home, Steve. We're too busy celebrating to remember the way.

Hell yeah what now?
GO BRUINS!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Game 26 Recap? Fuck you. GAME 27 PREVIEW: SEEN STAMKOS? Nah. Today it's all Savard

Yeah, things have continued to be a little crazy around here so I haven't been writing as much.

Whatever. Look, I think Savard took the AWESOME DEAL he took because look at this (cribbed from Stanley Cup of Chowder, where you should really be rocking the gamethreads):
Year 1: $7 million
Year 2: $7 million
Year 3: $6.5 million
Year 4: $5 million
Year 5: $1.5 million
Year 6: $525,000
Year 7: $525,000

Now do the math: 7+7+6.5+5+1.5+.525+.525=
28.05 million total
Now we take that total number and divide by the length of the contract, namely
7 years
and what do we get?
4.007 cap hit. Yeah. That's about 1 million less than the cap hit we've got for him right now. Except it's not quite 1 million less.

We've added on .007



Marc Savard passes like he was James Bond seducing a woman, or killing a goon, or whatever, is what I'm saying.

"When the contract is over Marc Savard will have turned into Marc Recchi" - Greg Nation, friend of the blog

And if you like the numerology, check out this video here:

GO BRUINS!