Game 24 Preview: BRUINS vs. WILD IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

Game 24
8pm ET, November 25, 2009
NESN, 98.5 FM / KSTC, 830 AM (Wild Radio Network)
at Minnesota Wild (15th, 8-12-2)

So this morning I'm on my way into work and I've got a bruins hoodie over a Wild sweater. Awesome. Once again, my two favorite teams are playing each other again. Brilliant.

The Wild lead the league in short-handed goals against while the Bruins are tied for 5th in short-handed goals, thanks to Marco Sturm's ridiculous goal against the Blues. No really, I don't think that's talked about enough. Granted, Mason basically tosses it out to Bergeron who just puts it on his stick, but then Marco does this little move and Mason just doesn't even know what the fuck. Go ahead, watch it again. Here's the nhl.tv link. I'll wait.

Actually, no I won't. It's time to talk staches. Owen Nolan, oldest player in the league now that Chelios is ou- Wait a minute. The oldest player is actually Owen Nolan, the only guy over 40 playing right now. Owen Nolan is comparitively a spry 37. Last year he led the Wild in goals with 25. 25 goals led the Wild last year. Where am I going with this? Here's him, celebrating one of those goals:Stache city. The Bruins will have to go into the Xcel Energy Center ready to deal with Old Man "Irish God of War" Nolan and the Mustache he brings. BUT WAIT - THERE IS A CONTENDER.
Fucking motherfucking Patrice motherfucking Bergeron in the house, y'all. Don't even sweat. Kid can dish, he can hit, he can score, he probably did your mom last night, but he's a gentleman - he'll call her again.

Speaking of dishing, here's a gent who you may recognize (or maybe not - he does play in the west and not on the red wings): Mikko Koivu. The Wild's top center, he's the brother of former habs captain (now Anaheim second-line center and buddy with Teemu Selanne) Saku Koivu and now is the Wild's first permanent captain.

Like it was even a question.

Other notables on the Wild: Cal Clutterbuck set an NHL record for recorded hits in an NHL season last year, having an awesome name.

Brent Burns is a really good defenseman, but is out indefinitely with a concussion. Brent Burns also turned his house into a menagerie. It's awesome.

One of my favorite hockey writers, Mike Russo, is the Wild beat writer for the Star Tribune.

Oh and their goalie is a Finn, too. Oh yes. Niklas Backstrom, baby. Calm under pressure.

He won the Jennings trophy with Manny Fernandez 3 years ago. Manny won it with Thomas last year. Now Manny's back is fucked and he's not playing anywhere. But we have this kid Tuukka Rask who's pretty alright. Where is he from? OH YEAH FINLAND FUCK YEAH!!!!!

Basically I'm really pumped for this game. Catch y'all in the game threads on Stanley Cup of Chowder and Hockey Wilderness, and I might check to see if my old login a the Wild official boards still works.....nah.

Oh, and Chris over at Hub Hockey is relentless in tracking things down. This time, he's got the Pride Motor Group commercial with Shawn Motherfucking Thornton:

Anyhow, party at my house tonight. Here's some stats and I'm out.

Stats!
(Orange=good. Green=applies here)

(For the record, I do want the Bruins to win this game. I just want it to be in overtime, is all.)
GO BRUINS!

Game 40 Recap: BRUINS 0 WILD 1 EVERYBODY BLAME ME READY GO

1-0. And that's the game. Lots of good rushes, no successful shots. Sometimes you win, sometimes the Wild grind you down to a 1-0 loss. I saw a grand total of 5-6 Wild fans at the game.

The Wild have been having a good couple of games, beating San Jose, losing in a shootout to Detroit, and beating the Bruins.

Loss.

Thanks again to Wild Road Tripper and Greg Nation for their participation in 5 questions!

Record: 29-7-4 (L2)
Home: 14-3-1 (L2)
L10: 8-2-0
December: 1-2-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 40 Preview: Wild @ Bruins SPECIAL EARLY EDITION

Jan 6, 2009 7:00 PM ET

TV: Versus

Radio: WBZ

vs. Minnesota Wild (19-16-3)

Notes:

• I'm a fan of both teams.
  
• Minnesota just beat San Jose and took Detroit to a shootout. Otherwise, they aren't doing so hot. The leading scorer of previous years is out and likely never to return.
• The Wild have trouble scoring, but are excellent at preventing goals. The Bruins and Wild are fighting for top spot in that stat column.
• Sturm is having surgery on his knee. He'll be out indefinitely.
• Minnesota not only had Jessie "The Mind" Ventura as governor, but they also just certified comedian Al Franken as Senator.
• The Bruins have not beaten the Wild in Boston.  The Panthers are the only other team with a winning record at the Garden.
• Neither Patrice nor Marc-Andre Bergeron are playing tonight.
• Owen Nolan, Irish God of War, is playing tonight.
  
• Aaron Ward is a game-time decision with a charley horse.
• Fluto is saying most likely Manny in Net.
• Andy Brickley will be doing Color commentary tonight.
• Derek Boogaard is out with an upper body injury.  Shawn Thornton breathes a sigh of relief.

Previous Games:

Game 2: Bruins 3 Wild 4, Marc-Andre Bergeron scored. Link goes to the preview. It's got quite the analysis of Wild/Bruins over the years, too.

5 Questions with the enemy SPECIAL EDITION!

Helping out today are a few Folks. There's Wild Road Tripper (WRT) and on the Wild side of things, and because I'm a fan of both teams, I asked friend of the blog Greg Nation 5 questions about the Bruins.  Here's Wild Road Tripper, of Hitting the Post.

1) We're nearly halfway through the season. Who's been impressive?

WRT: Impressive? Three stand out:

A. Cal Clutterbuck (#22). He started the season out in Houston, and was brought up to give a physical presence to an otherwise wimpy frontline. He has done that, already registering enough hits in less than one-half a season to surpass the Wild franchise hit record (115).

B. Mikko Koivu (#9). Wild fans don't call this guy 'the Franchise' for nothing. He has indeed stepped it up a notch while the Gaborik saga has dragged on. On any other NHL team, he would be named permanent Captain.

C. Owen Nolan(#11). The 'Irish God of War' has scored four goals in his last 3 games since coming off the injured list at his own insistence New Year's Eve vs. San Jose. He is showing why the Wild invested $5.5 million over the next two seasons on him.

2) Gaborik. Crap. Do you think the Wild will get anything more out of him?

WRT: I point you to the rant I wrote on Sunday on the Hitting the Post blog. He's not coming back this season; he will not ever wear a Wild sweater again; and he would love to go to a more wide-open system, where he would be able to strictly 'cherry-pick' in the neutral zone, and never have to go within 65 feet of his own goal except after the final horn has sounded.

See ya later, Gaby.

3) You travel to many Wild away games, and have home season tickets. Is that awesome or totally awesome?

WRT: With the number of Wild games I see in person (50 this season alone) I have somewhat of a feeling of how players and the rest of the teams' travelling party feels like. For them, it's a real grind. Thank God, they get to fly charter. The rest of us are stuck with commercial flights, a lot of which are late and/or cancelled. Say what you will, but the NHL really needs to rethink how it schedules games. To ask anyone to play hockey in Southern California (or Florida) one night and in sub-zero Minnesota (or, Ottawa) 48 hours later is asking a lot. It's good and it's bad for me (and my wife) as our schedule is set so far in advance we normally get cheap air fares (cheaper after Southwest begins serving Minneapolis-St. Paul, March 6) but then we have very little flexibility to change our minds after we commit to a game. I know the B's don't have that much of a problem with it, but out here we are really screwed.

4) Who is most likely to be with the Wild next year: Riseborough, Lemaire, Backstrom, Gaborik, Skoula?

WRT: My best guess is that Lemaire will be here as long as Risebrough is, Gaborik is gone (no way in hell he comes back), Backstrom will probably sign somewhere else (hopefully I am wrong there, but DR doesn't seem to see any urgency in re-signing him, despite his great numbers), and we all hope and pray someone (preferably in the KHL) will take Skoula off our hands. He is absolutely worthless. Even he knows it. But Jacques thinks he's better than apple butter so he plods on, like the big oaf he really is.

5) Predictions for Tuesday's game?

WRT: The Wild always seem to do well vs. the Bruins. Their styles seem to make for great skating, up-and-down affairs. And, unlike the last time these two teams met in the Garden (I was there, BTW) this time it's the B's who have the momentum and the Wild are the team on the fringe looking in. Will Manny start? And, if he does, can Jacques get under his skin enough for him to lose his cool?

Once again, that's WRT from Hitting the Post. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Now, because I'll be wearing a Wild jersey to the game, here's friend of the blog Greg Nation, answering 5 Questions about the Bruins:

1. It's halfway through the season. Who has impressed so far?

A tough choice between Krejci and Kessel, but I'm going to have to go with Kessel. From the moment I first saw him play, I noticed he possessed an innate abundance of talent that will only continue to be refined into skill by experience. Even at his young age, his play is punctuated with flashes of brilliance and I expect he will grow quite a highlight reel over the course of his career.

2. After this year, there are 11 free agents, most notably Thomas and Fernandez as UFAs, and Krejci and Kessel as RFAs. Also, P.J. Axelsson's contract will be up. Which goalie do you keep?

Thomas because he puts up better numbers. I obviously think we should hang on to Kessel and Krejci since they have impressed so far, and as much as it pains me to say, P.J.'s time might be up. I like to think of him as the Mark Bellhorn of the bruins, I just hope the habs don't pick him up.

3. Which is worse: Bergeron getting another concussion or Sturm undergoing surgery?

That's a tough one. For surgery, we'll lose Sturm for the rest of the season but a concussion doesn't necessarily mean we'll lost Bergeron for very long. Looking at the bigger picture though, I don't think the Bergeron we're seeing this season is the same Bergeron that played prior to Randy Jones' cheap shot. Patrice is only 23 years old and probably has trouble remembering his name. As it seems that knee surgery for Sturm is inevitable, I say the Bruins should focus on bubble-wrapping Bergy's head.

4. Which Boston-area mascot is the best?

I hate mascots. In fact, everyone above the age of 5 does. They're stupid, cartoonish creations that detract from the seriousness of the sport. But, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Boston Massacre Roller Derby's mascot, which appears to be a drunk guy in a lobster suit with a rifle.

Watch your back, Minnesota.

5: Predictions for tonight's game?

Shawn Thornton will score the first goal to everyone's, including his own, amazement. Owen Nolan will throw out his hip. The ice girls will throw me a free T-shirt. Sobotka will injure Brent Burns on a huge hit. Patrice Bergeron will get a concussion. Krejci's line will produce two goals. Kessel will score one goal. Bruins win, 4-1.

Thanks again to everyone above who answered!

Other Previews:

• Here come the Bruins!: "they have some of the best names in hockey."
• Bruins Blog: "Minnesota is one of only five teams that has defeated the Bruins in regulation this season."
• Iron Ref Champ Stanley Cup of Chowder:The B's are 3-0-1 on Versus this season.
• Bruins Hockey Blog: "Tonight, the Wild will be without star forward Marian Gaborik"  Oh, if only you knew....
• Double A Hockey: Ways to beat the Wild.
• The Bear Cave: "Minnesota is ranked 27th in the NHL with 96 goals scored, and has just two players on the roster with ten or more goals."
• Matt Kalman: "Without injured forwards Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm, two members of the Boston Bruins’ top power play unit from the start of the season, the club went through a three-game stretch in late December where it went 0-for-12 with the man-advantage."
• NESN First Shift: "Manny Fernandez (13-2-1, 2.02) vs. Niklas Backstrom (18-12-2, 2.21)"  It's like the Wild goalie rotation from 2 years ago!
• Boston Herald: Thumbnails
  
• boston.com: Thumbnails
  
• bruins.nhl.com: GameDay | Preview | Game Notes (pdf)
  

Stats:

Ok, I pretty much want both teams to win, if possible. And me to not get beat up at the game.

GO BRUINS!

Lazy Links: Tuesday

Oh, screw it.   Look to the left for more stuff.

More importantly, Marion Gaborik is looking likely to be back for wednesday's game, and none too soon.  The wild have been anemic in scoring, and could really use a 40-goals-when-he's-healthy-which-is-never guy to take passes.  Then trade him 5 games later.

Or just sit on it, Doug.  I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

Yeah, I like the wild.  Deal with it.

Also, check out Stanley Cup of Chowder's post about the Blackhawks. BURN!

GO BRUINS!

Game 2: Bruins @ Wild

Game 2: Bruins @ Wild
Oct 11, 2008, 8:30 PM ET
On TV: NESN (HD), FSN-N (HD)
On the Radio: WBZ 1030

Notes:

• My two favorite teams face off for the first of two (!) times this season.
• Manny Fernandez is in goal tonight, used to play for the Wild, and is the nephew of the Minnesota Wild coach, Jacques Lemaire. We sent Petr Kalus to them in exchange, but he remains on the Houston Aeros, the Wild's minor-league affiliate.
• Brian Rolston used to play for both teams. (We got him in exchange for Bourque from Colorado, then he signed with the Wild as a free agent.)
• Chuck Kobasew is out tonight with an injured ankle. Owen Nolan is still on loan from the morgue.
  
• Other Previews: bruins.nhl.com, Russo's Rants, an alzheimer's survivor, Bruins Nation, WickedBruinsFan,
  
• Aaron Ward talks about "Chasing the Pats."
  
• Fluto has the lines: Bruins | Wild ....though "lines" in Minnesota are sort of a long-running joke with Lemaire coaching. He changes lines more than Vegas.
  
• The Bruins are 1-5 all-time against the Wild, thanks to the old schedules at hockeynut.com. While looking into analyzing those games, I found that CNNSI.com has box scores all the way back to October 1st, 1997. They just never deleted them off the server. Edit the URL to go to a day....sort of. Links below will show the way:

The 6 Games between Minnesota and Boston:

1. Saturday, Nov. 18, 2000 Minnesota - Boston 6-1 Box Score
   
2. Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2001 Boston - Minnesota 1-2 Box Score
   
3. Friday, October 11, 2002 Boston - Minnesota 1-5 Box Score
   
4. Thursday, March 18, 2004 Minnesota - Boston 2-0 Box Score
   
5. Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 Boston - Minnesota 3-2 Box Score
   
6. Thursday, Mar 8, 2007 Minnesota - Boston 2-1 Box Score

And as for analysis, the most effective player against the big, bad Bruins turns out to be a little guy on the Wild, Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Here he is, getting absolutely robbed by Thomas in a March 2007 game:

Here's the list of other players that have scored against the Bruins while on the Wild. Note, if they had zero points, they are not listed:

And from melt your face off, comes The Boogaard Waltz:

And just to be fair with the video-embedding, here's Darcy Tucker getting levelled by Shawn Thornton:

Praise be to the new nhl.com. It's video-embed goodness is making the internet fun again.

GO BRUINS!

Report on State of the Bruins

Well, State of the Bruins is over, Lucic showed off the third jersey and it looks a heck of a lot like the one they showed off last year. Also, I learned that people who write about the Bruins as a job generally will beat me to the punch on anything like this. So you can read Fluto's and Bish's reports. Some things to add:

• Julien mentioned that if Ryder didn't pick up, he'd just have to remind him "of a bag skate I had him do when he was 17. I don't think he wants to do that again."
• Phil Kessel is talent, everybody knows that. Julien said he "can't let him off the hook."
• There were a couple of reasonable requests from fans, like "If you're not going to make new program books for every game, can you give season-ticket-holders free roster printouts?" The money quote was "I already have 3 or 4 of these books at home." Personally, I print those out for free myself, but if the Bruins could do it for me, that would be great too. I went to a Minnesota Wild game last season and the program was specific to that game, with full-color pictures throughout and stuff on the wild and on the other team. They also had a custom game intro for a game in December against the Oilers. It was a sick game.
• Charlie Jacobs said that one of the reasons that Game 6 last year was so huge was that the building was rocking. Cam Neely compared it to the old Garden. Guys, you should really look into student rush instead of student nights. There are a ton of Boston fans that would really enjoy going to Bruins games, but can't afford it. Look into Pittsburgh's student rush program.
• There was talk of bringing back Bruins Alumni, similar to what happened in Chicago last year. Neely mentioned that there were a lot of bruins alumni in the boston area, that he'd like to bring back. Now they just have to stop hating the team. Charlie, you should get together with Rocky Wirtz and learn a thing or million.

I'm also starting to learn about just how much people hate Jeremy Jacobs. Few people clapped for him at the event, and the internet is full of anti-Jacobs stuff. Just check out his wikipedia page. I didn't realize he bought the team so long ago. Ah well, it's a learning opportunity.

As is this post. I had great plans for it (I took ten pages of notes at the event and took pictures) but I'm suffering PensBlogitis. Already. Without their dedicated readership and insanity. Oh well, they always say the second issue is the hardest.

So It Begins

Tonight marks the start of the Bruins season for me, as I'll be attending the Bruins "State of the Union" (BrUnion?) at the Garden tonight at 7pm.  If you have any questions I should ask (if there even is an opportunity) leave them in the comments.  

If I had an iPhone, you better believe I'd be live-blogging the event.  Unfortunately, I'll just have to take notes and get back to you.  The Bruins also never got back to me about my press pass application.  Maybe my lack of an editor is to blame, maybe they just don't know what they're missing. 

Some links to tide you over:

• Better-than-being-the-leafs Dept:  Here Comes the Bruins! lays out why the Thornton trade wasn't that bad.  Let me cut to the chase for you:

Average games played last season: 52.8
Average points scored last season: 28.4 (not counting goalies)


Yikes. Put that roster on the ice today and you've got yourself a lottery draft pick. About half a dozen of these guys will not start the season on an NHL squad. Only Thornton, Rolston and Knuble have avoided career collapse of some sort... and they're not exactly what you'd consider the core of a dynasty.

• Weight-Gain-3000 Dept:  Tukka Rask, Mark Stuart, and David Krecji all bulked up over the offseason.
• Real-Journalists Dept: Fluto gives us a killer Depth Chart.
• I'm extremely jealous that Chris over at Icethetics has time during the day to hold a live blog, but I'm happy that he is able to let me know that the Hurricanes are going to be unveiling their new third jersey today, and showing it live on their web site.
• Amazon.com sold out of NHL 09, continuing to give them a horrendous track record when it comes to day-of-release sales with me.  I'll have to wait until next week to start my EASHL career.

And from the Wild branch office:

• Franchise-deciding-years Dept: Marion Gaborik is negotiating with the Wild front office.
• Can't-wait-til-the-season-starts Dept: Wild puck banter is counting down the top 10 players of the Minnesota Wild.  Number 6 is Nick Schultz.

Tom Lynn takes on the Trap

Tom Lynn for the Wild talked about the Trap today.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been watching the olympics and nothing happens in August. "Zorkon Talks Hockey" should be seeing a re-invention soon. (I got my photoshop, and I should have a better mouse before too long!).

Owen Nolan WILL NOT DIE

Thanks to the NHL Frozen Moment, which needs it's own RSS feed, I was reminded of the most exciting pickup by the Minnesota Wild this offseason - Owen Nolan.

Here's the thing about Owen Nolan: He's a Brit. Not only that, he's one of two active British players. The other one? Daniel Taylor, who has played all of 20 minutes backstopping the Kings last year, letting in 2 goals on ten shots (including letting in the first shot) in the third period, letting Dallas turn a 5-1 steamroll into a 7-2 blowout and giving himself a career GAA of 6.

With so few British players in the NHL, and Owen Nolan having had a long and illustrious career, you'd think that he is one of the best british players ever. You would be correct. He's second best in Games Played, Goals, and Points behind Steve Thomas. Nolan is also second overall British player in Penalties in Minutes, to another Steve - this one's Smith.

Steve Thomas played with Toronto, Chicago, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Toronto, Chicago, Anaheim, and Detroit between 1984 and 2004, when he retired at the age of 40. Nolan? He's only 36 this year, and just signed for 2 years. He's gotta get 40+1 goals in 167+1 games to best those totals...and he's also 124 assists behind Thomas.

As for national team aspirations? Both Thomas and Nolan have played for the Canadian National team, but not at the same time. Also, no mention of Owen Nolan is complete without this:



It would of course be wrong to mention British players without mentioning Ken Hodge, who won two Stanley cups with the Boston Bruins after coming over as a part of the deal for Phil Esposito. Remember when that used to happen? Me either - it was over 10 years before I was born.

Home openers/HOME-AND-HOME

So, the new NHL schedule has each team playing:
Divisional rivals: 6 times (24 total)
Non-division conference rivals: 4 times (40 total)
Western teams: Once each + 3 home-and-homes. (18 total)
It's still 82 games, but each team has to play each other at least once, which is awesome.

The full schedule is due at noon today. For those keeping track at home, that's less than 12 hours since I started this post, and less than 5 from when I'm actually posting it. Many (all?) teams have announced their home openers, as well as which teams they're playing the 3 extra extra-conference games.

Luckily for me, Wild and Bruins fan that I am, the Bruins and Wild are playing each other TWICE this season. In fact, the Bruins will be the Wild's home opener team. Last year, the Bruins were the home opener opponent for the Anaheim Ducks. The Bruins lost, 2-1. Two years ago, the Bruins hosted the Minnesota Wild. I totally went to that game, even though it was right before spring break. Regardless, I enjoyed the Wild's 2-1 win then. I'm not sure I'll be so happy about such an outcome this time.*

So, the extra divisional games for the Wild are Boston, Tampa Bay, and the Islanders.
The ones for Boston are Minnesota (duh), St. Louis Blues, and...The Chicago Blackhawks!

I'm pretty excited about the Blackhawks/Bruins matchup, because Chicago has raised itself up out of a what, 10? 20? 30? year slumber and are now quite the exciting team. Heck, they're hosting the winter classic this year at Wrigley Field.

Also, the Bruins' home opener is on October 20th (2 weeks into the season) against the Pittsburgh Penguins. I'll see you there.

*Actually, screw it. I still like the Wild a lot. They were the team, with the rotating captaincy, that really got me into hockey in the first place. Both teams have lost Brian Rolston to a non-conference team (he went NJ-Boston-MN-NJ). That guy is good at teh hockies. That said, I hope Manny Fernandez backstops the Bruins to a spoiler. I like minnesota a lot, but they don't have the long history that the Bruins do. Luckily, both GMs seem to have a "long-term-plan" (aka the "lack of" plan) about their respective teams. They DO NOTHING AT THE TRADE DEADLINE. They both lost in the first round to teams that had crushed their hopes and dreams earlier that season. My first hockey Jersey was a Wild jersey, (My name, #1) but my second was a Bruins jersey (Chara, at the 50% off merch booth behind the bad guy balcony seats).

Matt Foy Signs with Blues

Ah, Matt Foy. I knew ye well, ever since that time when I watched you in your first NHL game with the Wild, where you scored twice and then were so excited you ran right into some guy, got a penalty, and then were sat for the rest of the game. I remember it well, watching on the Center Ice free preview at my parent's house a couple years ago. Good times. I wonder if he'll be playing with the big club, or in the AHL still. In fact, I wonder what the blues' minor league team is. Huh...oh well.

Foy, I know the fine folks on the wild.com message board didn't like you much. Oh well. That one game was a hell of a time. Have fun with the...whatever they are.

In similar news, former Bruin Brandon Bochenski got picked up by the Lightning earlier this month. I remember going to a game and seeing him bring the hustle, all game long. Rookies are exciting like that, I guess. Then it turns out they're not that great, but there's a whole new crop of them, trying to push the slightly older guys out.