Game 20 Recap: BRUINS 1 ISLANDERS 4 PAIIIIIILLE

Hum-hoom, nothing to see here.

1-1.

And that was a pretty sweet goal. This is the only good thing about this game. Except I saw some college friends there, and that was nice. Otherwise...

1-4.
Loss.
(8-8-4)

Here's to gelling on the road (and Lucic and Savard both traveling with the team! Hope is on the way!)

GO BRUINS!

Game 20 Preview: Bruins vs. Islanders ON A MONDAY I WAS ARRESTED UH HUH

Game 20
7pm ET, November 16, 2009
NESN, 98.5 FM
v. New York Islanders (7-6-7)

Well let's see here...Still no Savard or Lucic, but the Islanders are missing Rick Dipietro (out with blinging retirement since making 1 million a game last year)

Here's an interesting thing over at CapGeek.com: If the Islanders bought out Dipietro right now, he'd draw a salary of 1.5 million/year until 2032, and that counts against the cap. Rick will turn 51 in 2032. For comparison sake, Alexei Yashin is still on the books for the Islanders until 2015. Their cap management makes Chiarelli look good! Hooray!

Tavares has about a million points in the last 2 games or something (4g 3a in 4gp) so look out for him or Okposo to light it up. Woof.

When deciding which jersey to wear to work, I figured Thomas might not start. So we'll probably see him tonight. Islanders goalies have been rotating and it's Martin Biron's turn, who knows? Left Wing Lock knows. (when the logo turns opaque, the goalie is a confirmed start - hey, that line reminds me of that line in Ghostbusters about the ghost-holding thing they've got.)

UPDATE: TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKK

As you can tell, I've been getting a lot of sleep and definitely not playing Modern Warfare 2 until all hours of the night, I swear.

Stats!

See? 0.1 percent more points out of total points. Don't write off the season just yet.
At least the Bruins can't go for it on 4th and 2.
GO BRUINS!

Game 4 Review: BRUINS 4 ISLANDERS 3 HAHAHAHAHA WHAT

So I missed this game because of a wedding (Congrats to the happy couple!) but I was following along via phoneternet. So right about the time wedding cake was getting served, preseason superstar John Sim was scoring for the Islanders.

Yeah, THAT John Sim. ugggh

John Tavares also baby-faced his way to a goal. Whoop-de-freaking-do.

Seriously, he's playing pretty well so far.

So it looked like the Bruins were going to drop another game and end up going 1-3-0 to start the season, and then the third period started. By all accounts the Bruins stole the game, which is always good. Then they realized that HELLO IT IS THE ISLANDERS WE SHOULD NOT BE LOSING TO THEM PEOPLE LETS GET THIS TOGETHER

Oh, I get it! Score THROUGH the goalie!

Seriously, look at the hole in his chest. Nice going. Now it's time to put some pucks in there.
Ready?

GO!
Savard.
1-3.
Bitz.
2-3.
Hunwick.
3-3.
End of the third.

Shootout city.
4-3
WIN!
GO BRUINS!

Game 4 Preview: Tavares @ Bruins TAVARES TAVARES TAVARES

I'm at a wedding this weekend, so here's your even-more-mailed-in-than-usual preview:

John Tavares was the first overall pick in the last draft.
Roloson and probably Thomas in nets. Boychuk might not be playing. I assume if the Bruins lose to the fucking ISLANDERS we'll be seeing Tuukka and Johnny on Monday.
GO BRUINS!

Game 82 Recap: BRUINS 6 LOLANDERS 2 PHIL KESSEL HAT TRICK

Phil Kessel got a hat trick.
Thomas made some amazing saves.
It's finally time for the playoffs.

I feel bad tagging this "Recap." Bruins won, 6-2. Is it Thursday yet?

vs. NYI: 4-0-0
Final Regular Season Record: 53-19-10 (W 1)
Final Away Record: 24-13-4 (W 1)
L10: 8-2-0
April: 4-2-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 82 Preview: Bruins @ NY Islanders BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR

April 12, 2009 5:00 PM ET

TV: NESNplus
Radio: WBZ 1030 AM
@ New York Islanders (26-46-9)
Notes:

If the last game meant very little, than this game means even less. The Islanders are locked into the worst place in the league, meaning they get one of the top 2 draft picks this year. Bruins are locked into top in the east, won't get passed in the league standings and won't be passing the Sharks. Seriously, this game will not change anything if the bruins win, lose, tie, or don't show up.

My hope is that nobody gets hurt and the Bruins stay under 200 goals against this year. That means fewer than 5 goals against today. The islanders have scored 4 goals in 3 games against the Bruins, but the Bruins might just sit in the locker room for the season.

Games That Matter:

• Rangers/Flyers: Flyers are playing the Penguins in the first round. If the Flyers get to OT or win, they get home ice. If they lose in regulation, Pens get home ice. Go....Rangers?
• Blues/Avalanche: Blues win and they leapfrog to 6th place and face the Vancouver Luongos. Lose and they stay in 8th and play the San Jose Sharks. Overtime doesn't matter in this game. I don't care much about who wins this one.

Stats:

GO BRUINS!

Game 70 Recap: BRUINS 2 NYISLANDERS 1 KESSEL AND THOMAS GET THIRTIES

Well, at least the Bruins managed to win in regulation.  Yannick Danis was still waking up early on, but then once he arose from his booze-and-whatever-drug-the-islanders-are-taking-induced haze, he was unflappable.

Tim Thomas isn't infallible, I had to explain to my friend.

First off, Kessel picked up where he left off last night and scored the Bruins trademarked Early Goal.  He bangs home a big juicy rebound like my roommates cat sneaks wings bones out of the trash.

GOAL!

1-0.  Phil Kessel is the Bruins first 30-goal scorer this year!

Then like one minute later, the bruins have the puck behind their own net, which is dangerous.  A home run pass up to Kessel, who sees Savard across ice.  Savard sees a big-enough hole.  He puts it in.

GOAL!

2-0.  It's not yet 5 minutes into the game.  You're pretty excited.  Danis is just waking up.

He stones the Bruins for the rest of the game.  Luckily, Bruins are playing good defense and Thomas is playing well, too.

Streit.

2-1.  halfway through the game.

Blah Blah Blah defense.

Game.

WIN!

Tim Thomas's 30th Win.

vs. NYI: 3-0-0

Record: 45-16-9 (W 2)

Home: 24-6-5 (W 3)

L10: 5-4-1

March: 3-4-0

GO BRUINS!

Game 70 Preview: Bruins vs. NYIslanders BEWARE THE SPOILER TEAM

Mar 14, 2009 1:00 PM ET
TV: NESN
Radio: WBZ 1030 AM
vs. New York Islanders (23-37-8)

Notes:

• This has trap game written all over it
• Early game, no time for a good, in depth set of notes
  
• The giveaway today is those Green St. Patrick's day bruins hats. Someone's going to score a hat trick, I can feel it.
• Islanders have won 3 of 4 and have 2 more wins in their last 10 than the bruins. They are in Spoiler mode.
• We'll likely see Manny in net, since there's a game against a hot Pittsburgh team tomorrow.
• Speaking of goalies, check this out: Roy vs. Brodeur
• Brodeur WILL tie Roy's win record IN MONTREAL. TODAY. Otherwise, how can he beat it on St. Patrick's day? I wish he would so everyone would just shut up about it.
• HubHockey's March Meltdown got ended pretty quick. Seemed pretty harmless to me.
  

Previous Games
(skip past this post to see them)
Early game, don't have time to read, much less link to other previews. The links over to your left will have stuff.
Stats:

The Bruins Magic Number is 9. For the division, it's 12.
GO BRUINS!

Game 44 Recap: BRUINS 2 ISLANDERS 1 THANKS FOR NOT PHONING IT IN MARTIN ST. PIERRE ALSO FIRST PLACE AGAIN

The Bruins weren't able to get much going in this game. Thomas stood on his head for 40 saves on 41 shots, giving Boston the win with 2 goals. Let's take a look. First of all, just to not kill your browser, here's the list of highlight saves from the game:
The Danis save deemed worthy by the NHL was a shoulder-shrug save on a one-timer after an islander takeaway turned into a giveaway. Not bad. But that's the 3rd period, and the Bruins did the same thing I did: Think ahead too far.

The first period has not a whole lot going on for it.

The second period, 3+ minutes in, and Savard gets into the zone. He slaps it from the halfboards, but Danis isn't letting that beat him. So it bounces off to the blueline. Luckily, a team of intrepid zone-keepers are in the area. Stuart clears it back in, and Savard picks it up behind the net. Savard looks left looks right goes left shoots right and roofs it shortside on Danis. GOAL!

1-0. Milbury and Tappen spend the next 5 minutes seeing who can say "Gretzky's Office" more times.

Shawn Thornton fights Tim Jackman, lands one hit and then they wrestle to the ground. HockeyFights.com says: Draw.

Third period. The Bruins are playing with fire by phoning it in like this. Luckily, Thomas has been making saves left and right.

And then, like a beam of light peaking through the clouds on a rainy day, Thomas clears from behind his net all the way out to Sobotka in the neutral zone. Vlad slaps it in as soon as he gets in the zone, but misses completely. Luckily, this is all a cunning plan. From center ice, Martin St. Pierre (generously listed as 5'9") reaches his league-maximum stick over and taps it in behind Danis. GOAL!

2-0. Martin St. Pierre just scored his 2nd NHL goal! Somebody needs to get him, Pedroia, and Chara in a picture together.

1 minute left, mr. Danis has left the crease and the Islanders are trying to get something going with 6 attackers. The Bruins almost clear it but the Islanders manage to keep it in the zone. Bill Guerin takes it behind the net and puts it in front of the net. It goes off a skate or something.
2-1. Thomas looks surprised. He should know from bear hunting that you can't consider it dead before it's over. He was really hoping to get on the top stats list for shutouts, too.

Game.

WIN!

Other Random Thoughts:
I made this last night:


The Instigators is hilarious. Also, I've finally figured out that they're just in a bluescreen studio and HAVE NO DESK. Which is more hilarious.

Sens Army Blog has mailed Mr. Chara a letter congratulating him on his GWG against the Habs the other night. NO HABS NO! I support this campaign.

vs. NYI: 2-0-0
Record: 33-7-4 (W4)
Away: 16-4-3 (W7)
L10: 8-2-0
January: 4-2-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 44 Preview: Bruins @ NY Islanders SPONGETECH KIDS T-SHIRT NIGHT

Jan 15, 2009 7:00 PM ET

TV: NESN

Radio: WBZ 1030AM

@ New York Islanders (12-27-4)
Notes:

• The Islanders are last in the conference and the league, with 5 fewer points than any other team. The Thrashers are second-worst.
• Rick DiPietro (pictured above) is in the first year of a 15-year contract. He is hurt and likely out for the season. Their backup, Joey Macdonald, went out in the middle of a recent game but is back playing with them. If he can't, they could always get their former backup goalie and current GM to play.
• Scott Gordon, the coach of the Islanders, coached the P-Bruins last year.
• Aaron Ward did not travel with the team, but Lucic, Ference, and Bergeron did. This is more a practice thing than a playing thing, I'm pretty sure.
  
• Kevin Paul Dupont of Boston.com wants the Bruins to drop all of the long-term building they've been quite successful with and sign Vinny Lecavelier.  He also wanted to bring in Brian Burke.  At least we have good reporters in the Metro.
• Jack Edwards was kicked out of the Tournament of Announcers, but he did write quite the story on Zdeno Chara.  Choice Quote: "He is the green sweep-arm of the radar scope."

Previous Games:

• Game 23: Bruins 7 NYI 2: Bruins debut their third jerseys on Black Friday and embarrass the Islanders to a rockin home crowd.   The high-noon shootout was quite one-sided, but former P-Bruins star Nate Thompson scores in the first 2 minutes.  Manny shuts it down pretty well for the rest of the game.
  

Other Previews:

First of all, Congratulations to Stanley Cup of Chowder for joining the SBNation network.

• HubHockey: "this is a real mismatch on paper but with injuries plaguing both teams right now you never know what could happen. "
• Cameron Frye: "I'm not saying it's going to be easy like a Vivid girl, but I'm thinking the B's should be able to pull off a win with no major problems."
• The Bear Cave: "Although being at home could be comforting for New York, Boston's 15-4-3 road record should definitely send chills down the spines of the home team."
• Matt Kalman: "The New York Islanders are a disaster area."
• NESN First Shift: Tim Thomas and Yannick Danis.
• Local Papers: Boston.com | Herald
  
• bruins.nhl.com: Preview | Game Notes (pdf)
  

Stats:
 

GO BRUINS!

L10: Third ten games (8-2-0)

It's been quite the little trip here.  Phil Kessel is the NHL 1st star of the week, and Puck Daddy has a whole article on him.  The Bruins continue to show that they'll stand up for each other.

• Game 21: Bruins 2 Habs 2 SO WIN. Roy's number is finally retired by the Habs, the Bruins come in and win right in front of all of those fans. Blake Wheeler gets the only goal in the shootout, and gets a No Habs No letter from Sens Army Blog.
• Game 22: Bruins 2 BUF 3 Loss.  In the 18 Buffalo-Boston games, the home team has won.  This one was played in Buffalo.  Derek Roy shot one in off a Bruins stick. Despite trying to get it going in the third, they just couldn't put it in.
  
• Game 23: Bruins 7 NYI 2 WIN. Black Friday in the new Third Jerseys brought a blowout against the league-basement Islanders.  The 7th goal in this game was super-pretty.
  
• Game 24: Bruins 4 DET 1 WIN. Detroit comes to Boston to try to pick up a win.  Luckily, the Bruins aren't scared of the reigning stanley cup champs.  After 12 minutes without a shot, Blake Wheeler buries it behind Osgood on the first shot of the game.  They go on to win.
  
• Game 25: Bruins 3 TBL 1 WIN.  Lecavelier-to-Martin St. Louis starts the scoring about a minute in, but Thomas starts taking the game seriously and the Bruins come back to win, 3-1 with an empty netter.
  
• Game 26: Bruins 4 FLA 0 WIN. Manny Fernandez pitches a shutout.  The Florida Coach after the game: "We could have been out there for three days and still not scored."
  
• Game 27: Bruins 5 TBL 3 WIN. This was the game that the Bruins got up 3-0 in the first 10 minutes, then stopped playing altogether.  P.J. Axelsson's Empty netter made this score look less scary than it was to watch.
  
• Game 28: Bruins 1 WAS 3 Loss. Proving that the Bruins can't win them all, Washington continues a home winning streak against the Bruins.  Ovechkin got the empty-netter.  It was a pretty hard-fought game.  I can't wait until Washington comes to Boston.
  
• Game 29: Bruins 7 ATL 3 WIN. 14 Players have points in this mega team effort.  4 fights make this quite the game as the first of the home-and-home series.
• Game 30: Bruins 4 ATL 2 WIN. The Bruins pick up where they left off in Atlanta, and 6'7" Thrashers defenseman Valabik has to answer to Chara after picking on Kessel.  Valabik is star-struck and throws no punches.  How do you fight your idol?  Chara doesn't even knock him down.  Sort of a sad fight, in a way.  That said, back off of Kessel or one of our bruisers will Crush you.  By Bruisers, I mean Lucic, Chara, Thornton, or Savard.  Savard?  Yeah, check his PIMs for the season.

Stats/On-Pace Projections:

Best goal of the last 10 games:

Maybe this one's just fresh in my mind, but Michael Ryder's second goal against atlanta on Saturday was pretty dominant:

It was his 10th of the season.
L10 Record: 8-2-0
Overall record: 21-5-4
GO BRUINS!

Game 23 Recap: BRUINS 7 ISLANDERS 2 BLACK FRIDAY

This was an awesome game. It was sold out, the crowd was all in their seats by the first puck drop, just a fantastic game.

Let's start ourselves a post-thanksgiving recap.

(Email and feed subscribers, you may have to click through to see the videos)

First off, Nate Thompson comes back to the team that put him on waivers and - oops! - scores one 1:46 in to the game.  It was a nice corner shot.  One of those goals where you wonder, "Is it going to be one of THOSE nights?"

0-1.  The guys next to you try to start a "put in thomas" chant, but you saw this in the Buffalo game.

Lucic absolutely pastes Jackman into the boards.  Jackman doesn't get up for a minute.  But he skates off the ice, and plays later in the game, so I guess he's ok.

The Bruins come out flat.  And by flat, I mean Utah salt flats before they flooded flat.

So Head Coach Claude Julien talks to the team:

The Bruins respond.

Second Period.

We go on the PP, the whole bench crashes the net.  Seriously.  Axelsson-Kobasew-RW-Axelsson-MacDonald-Kobasew-NET.  GOAL.

1-1.  That's more like it.

Then Krejci gets it down low behind the net, but Hilbert gets it away from him.  He dumps...into the waiting hands of Michael Ryder.  High glove side. GOAL.

2-1.  Solid.

During the second intermission, the Islanders look down and realize they're the islanders.

Bill Guerin gets the breakaway, but Manny hasn't let any goals in yet and doesn't see a reason to start now.

2-1.  Solid save by Manny.

On the rebound from that save, they work it out of the zone, Krejci gets going on a 2-on-1 with Wheeler.  You know how this goes.  Krejci-Wheeler-Net.  GOAL.

3-1.  How about that.

Krejci decides that that looked like fun, so 10 seconds later, well...

He brings it in, fakes the pass, stuffs it in like Thanksgiving dinner.

4-1. You start to feel better about the game.  Joey Macdonald gets to watch the rest of the game

A couple minutes later, Wideman fires it in, it bounces all the way around to Hunwick, who passes it to Kessel.  Kessel gets it across to Wideman, who wrists it high short side.  GOAL.

5-1. Well, I think that will....

Oh, look at that, Lucic and Witt decide it's fightin' time.  Hockeyfights.com has the video, and votes Lucic the winner.

22 seconds of game-time later, Shane Hnidy and Tim Jackman - who Lucic had flattened in the first - fight as well.  Hockeyfights calls it a draw, leaning towards Jackman.

But fights don't win games.  Goals do.  Richard Park understands that, and the Islanders get on the Power Play, and he looks like he's going to work it up the boards, but turns around and wrists one home.

5-2.  

Ryder sits at the other blue line, gets the pass from Wideman and wrists it into the net.  GOAL.

6-2.  Second goal from Ryder.  Sick.

Then with 2:40 left in the game, Lucic picks up the puck in the Bruins end.  He skates it up, drops it to Savard.  Savard gives it back to Lucic, and the both go wide to pull apart the defense.  Let's see, who else is on that line?  Oh yeah...  KESSEL!  Lucic gives it to him, Kessel buries it.  From the clip: MacDonald is ANGRY.

7-2.  Watch that one again.  Seriously, look at how two guys go with Savard, two go with Lucic, and the point-man D just gets burned by Kessel.  What a pretty play.

Thirty seconds left, they try to give Ryder the hat trick, but he has to settle for just 2 goals on the night.

Just a wonderful game to watch.  Especially the last 40 minutes.

Pretty much the only thing missing is another Hunwick goal.

Record: 15-4-4

L10: 8-1-1

In November: 10-1-1

Home: 8-1-1

Streak: W1

GO BRUINS!

Game 23 Preview: NY Islanders @ Bruins HIGH NOON GAME

Nov 28, 2008 12:00 PM ET

On TV: NESN

On Radio: WBZ

vs. NY Islanders (9-11-2)

Notes:

• Early Game.  Mailing it in.
  
• Scott Gordon coached the P-Bruins to a winning season last year.
  
• Boston.com: Marc Savard likes music.
  
• Nate Thompson is on IR, apparently.
• Milan Lucic leads the league in hits.
• Matt Hunwick is playing well.
• Stanley Cup of Chowder is doing a live blog.

Other Previews:

• Stanley Cup of Chowder: Has the full IR list.  This cuts the amount of players on the team I know down significantly.
• The Bear Cave: Defense seems to be the only healthy position for the Islanders right now.
• boston.com thumbnails
• NESN.com First Shift: Tim Thomas vs. Joey Macdonald
• Bruins.nhl.com: Preview | 

Stats:

GO BRUINS!