Game 50 Preview: Bruins vs. Senators WELP

Last time they came to town it sucked. Early game, not much in the way of preview. They're wearing the Winter Classic jerseys. If you see a guy in a #1 Brimsek classic jersey, come say hi. if you're not going to the game, chat over at Stanley Cup of Chowder Enjoy, y'all.

GO BRUINS!

Game 42 Recap: BRUINS 4 SENS 1 USA 6 CANADA 5 USA! USA! USA!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THE UNITED STATES IS YOUR
2010 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPION!!!!

Eat it, Canada.

But I get ahead of myself. The puck dropped for the Bruins at 7:30 in Ottawa, aka "asshole-town" as soon as the cheechoo train guy finds out Cheechoo is traded. (HEY CHEECHOO GUY: MAKE MORE VIDEOS!)

The Bruins got off to an early lead, scoring about a hundred thousand goals and making it so if you had NHL network you were flipping over to the gold medal game. Hell yes.

Bruins prospect Jordan Caron got an assist on the first Canadian goal, but Lucic said he "liked his style of play" so that's a positive.

annnnnyways,

USA ends up up 2-1, tied 2-2, up 5-3. Here's the game in 10 minutes:

If you don't want to watch just those ten minutes, they're re-showing it tonight at 6pm on NHL Network. Hell of a game.

This is how the game ends:

huh, the sound cuts out a bit there. wonder why...
GO BRUINS!
USA! USA! USA!

Game 42: Bruins @ Senators: Shit, Bergeron's Out for a couple weeks at least.

Patrice Bergeron will be out 2-6 weeks as described by ESPN and, according to Darren Dreger, 3 weeks. He's apparently got a broken thumb. So...Hmm. Before the Olympic break, after Lucic is back, and probably right around when we drop out of 8th in the standings.

It's OK, though, since MIROSLAV SATAN will be rocking #81 tonight. This is picture-perfect, folks. SATAN #81. You couldn't write a better script. (Shut up, devils fans, he's ours).

This is your game preview. Both squads are banged up, which is pretty shitty but hopefully Thomas will play better than whatever jerk the Senators trot out tonight.

GO BRUINS!

Game 10 Recap: BRUINS 3 SENS 3 SO WIN I'LL TAKE IT

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.
How about a video?
Dafoomie does the lord's work.

WIN!
5-4-1
GO BRUINS!

Game 10 Preview: Bruins @ Ottawa THE QUEST FOR OVER .500 CONTINUES

Game 10
Oct 24, 2010 7pm ET
NESN, 98.5 FM
vs. Ottawa Senators (5-2-1)

A win tonight could get the Bruins into the division lead 10 games into the season. Ottawa's got Boston fan favorite Alex "lazybones" Kovalev. Remember that picture from the preseason? Yeah, not happening tonight since Lucic is out. But Thornton might be back and he's always good for a scrap. So who knows what's going to happen. I'm pretty much happy with whatever we can get this month. Let's beat ottawa and score a million goals so we lead the division, why not?

So we're all in agreement then. Fantastic.

Be sure to click the links on the right-hand side of your radio dial for other previews around the (B)logosphere, they're writing some good stuff out there.

Stats:

Milan Michalek has a hat trick already. Sheesh.
GO BRUINS!

Game 79 Recap: BRUINS 2 SENS 3 ONE WEEK LEFT

Yup, the Bruins played last night. With the loss, they're probably not going to get the president's trophy. There's a banner in the garden for that one. It has one date on it. 1990.

Do you know what banner isn't there? Champions, 1990. So whatever.

Schubert.
0-1.

Dany Heatley gets a penalty.
Fisher.
0-2. Shorthanded.

While you're down in the dumps in the first intermission, I'm busy watching the habs get beat by the rangers. Both teams are in the bottom third of the league in record since new years'. Bruins will likely face one of them.

Phil Kessel gets riled up. He gets in way close to the net and scores one off his own rebound.

GOAL!

1-2. One goal game.

Ottawa gets a powerplay.
Dany Heatley.
1-3.

With 10 seconds left in the second period, the Bruins are set up on the PP. Chara slaps one in. Toronto takes a few minutes to see whether it went off Recchi. Nope.

GOAL!

2-3.

Third period: no scoring.

The bruins pulled Manny even though they were on the PK at the end of the game. Ottawa even got an icing call. The Bruins definitely showed up for that part of the game (and much of the rest, to be honest) but couldn't finish.

Game.
Loss.

I'm about as interested in this loss now as I was when I was half-watching it. I probably missed some crap. Prove it.

Florida bandwagon update: Montreal or New York will have to get zero more points (start rooting for Boston and Pennsylvania teams) and the Panthers will need to beat Atlanta and Washington.

Central division Bandwagon update: Anaheim needs to lose out to Dallas and phoenix and Nashville needs to beet Minnesota and Detroit. St. Louis should ideally beat columbus in OT and then we'll see what st. louis does against Joe Sakic on the last day of the season.

So few games left. Day by day, there are 2, 11, 4, 13, 4 over the next 5 days. That's 34 games total. most teams are playing 2 more at this point. 8 teams have 3 games left. Boston is one of them.

Is it Thursday yet?
Is it next Thursday yet?

I want my playoff ads.

vs. OTT: 5-1-0 (final)
Record: 51-18-10 (L 1)
Away: 23-12-4 (L 1)
L10: 7-2-1
April: 3-1-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 79 Preview: Bruins @ Ottawa TRAP GAME

Apr 7, 2009 7:30 PM ET

TV: NESN

Radio: WBZ 1030 AM

@ Ottawa Senators (35-34-10)

Notes:

• Ottawa is on a two-game winning streak, having just beat Montreal last night.
  
• The Montreal game last night was pretty hard-hitting, (64 hits in the stats) with some late-game heroics by Dany Heatley.  Ottawa will either be beat up and tired or on a roll.
  
• Puck the Media gives us the stunning conclusion to their (excellent) Jack Edwards interview.
• Thornton, Kessel, Aaron Ward in.  Axelsson, Ference, Wideman out.  The rotating injury list continues.
• Manny in net.
• Everyone and their dog is hurt with a day-to-day undisclosed injury.
• Blake Wheeler is in the running for Goal of the Season on NHL.com.
• Sens fans started the No Habs No campaign.  They got a reply!
• One more reason to root against BU.  (Last question)

Big Games tonight:

• MTL/NYR: Habs could help knock out the Rags with a regulation win.
• CGY/VAN: Always good games this season, they are bitterly fighting for the top of the northwest division
• FLA/PHI: A win tonight and a loss by the Rags would put them in eigth tomorrow morning.  Here's a reason to jump on the panthers bandwagon.
• NSH/CHI: Nashville has a tough schedule to finish the season and St. Louis is nipping at it's heels.
• STL/PHX: St. Louis is trying to get into the playoffs.  If nashville and st. louis both can leapfrog the ducks, the whole Central division would be in the playoffs.

Previous Games:

5-0-0

Other Previews:

• Stanley Cup of Chowder: "The Bruins have been very tight-lipped about injuries lately so there is no indication of how serious any of these injuries are. The team is likely being cautious and allowing players to rest before the playoffs start."
• The Bear Cave: "Looking at injuries and lineups, aside from Marco Sturm, the Bruins will definitely be without three players on Tuesday. PJ Axelsson, Andrew Ference, and Dennis Wideman did not make the trip to Ottawa, as all three are dealing with some type of injury."
• NESN First Shift: "The Senators may be out of the playoff picture for the first time since 1996, but they are playing for jobs and won’t be an easy foe. They beat the Canadiens 3-2 last night and are 6-4-0 in their last ten games."
• Matt Kalman: "Player to watch: This is the spot where I usually pick an opponent to keep an eye on, but tonight it’s all about Phil Kessel. Assuming the speedy winger returns, it’ll be important to watch him and see his level of rust after missing five games with an undisclosed injury"
• Papers: globe thumbnails | herald scouting report
• bruins.nhl.com: Preview | Game Notes (pdf)

Stats:

GO BRUINS!

Game 77 Recap: BRUINS 2 SENS 1 FIFTY WINS AIN'T HALF BAD

First of all, I finally broke down and joined twitter, because it was getting annoying having it all come into google reader. Here it is:

http://www.twitter.com/HBAdventure

Who knows how much I'll do with it, but there you go.

Second of all, ESPN is reporting that Thomas is getting a contract extension. This could be huge.

Thirdly, there was a game last night. That's why we're here.

First Period.

It was ugly. The Bruins were getting outworked by a team playing for pride and pride alone. Luckily, they seemed to wake up later on in the game and managed to be just good enough to beat Ottawa. They also removed the 0.000004 chance of Ottawa making the playoffs with the Ottawa loss.

5.5 in, Alfredsson.
0-1. Please don't let Ottawa embarrass the Bruins. They've beaten them every time this year, now is not the time to change that.

Hnidy pastes Ruutu along the boards.

Basically the rest of the period is some crap hooking call and the puck getting battered from place to place. And some nice saves by Auld and Thomas, including one by Auld on Savard on a breakaway out of the penalty box.

Second Period.

About two minutes in, some good chaotic defense leads to Lucic getting a half breakaway. Slapper from the top of the circle.

GOAL!

1-1. Lucic goals are awesome, and then the crowd does it's LUUUUUUUUUUCH thing, not unlike YOOOOOOUUUUUUK. I mention to my friend that Boston fans are bandwagon fans, which is as true here as it is anywhere else. The arena came alive after that goal.

Late in the period, Ruutu runs Thomas and Hnidy and Winchester drop the gloves and hug it out for matching roughing minors.

Third Period.

The bruins like to score early. Both defenses and goalie seem to settle in and not allow much after the first 5-6 minutes. Take for example this third period.

Savard shoots it on net, Wheeler forechecks. It gets to Axelsson on the other side, he gets it to Savard in the slot. Savard does his thing.

GOAL!

2-1. The Bruins finally take the lead!

Recchi gets a high-sticking penalty to give the senators a 2-minute powerplay to end the period, and they pull Auld for the 6-on-4. It doesn't manage to get anything. Then Spezza takes a call with 3 seconds left.

GAME.

WIN!
That's 50 wins. Five-Zero. Nice.
Washington loss or Bruins win clinches Eastern Conference.

vs. OTT: 5-0-0
Record: 50-17-10 (W 5)
Home: 27-6-6 (W 3)
L10: 7-2-1
March: 1-0-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 77 Preview: Bruins vs. Ottawa TWO WEEKS TO GO

Apr 2, 2009 7:00 PM ET

TV: NESN

Radio: WBZ 1030 AM

vs. Ottawa Senators (33-33-10)
Notes:

• The magic number to clinch the 1 seed in the east is 4.
• Stanley Cup of Chowder is in another contest.
• Tim Thomas Hunts Bears is 6-0-0 with 1.32 goals-against average and two shutouts in his last six starts versus the Senators.
• People are pledging to Right to Play for Bruins achievements.
• Kessel is skating, but not back.  Neither is Thornton.
• Thomas vs. Auld in nets.
• The leafs are mathematically out of the playoffs.  Brian Burke is going to send an offer sheet to Krejci or Kessel this offseason, maybe.
• There's a new Fluto mailbag.  "Good bet that the Bruins will start on Thursday, April 16. Game 2, then, would be on Saturday. Not sure whether it would be an afternoon or night game. "

Previous Games:
4-0-0
Other Previews:

• SENShobo says there's plenty to fight for.  Other Sens blogs: Sens Army, Silver Seven.
• The two above and to the left are behind the No Habs No campaign.
• Cameron Frye: "I would take a loss only if Carrie Underwood was in town and for some freak reason during the t-shirt toss, she got shot in the face with a t-shirt gun. I'm not saying kill her, I'm just saying - a black eye or bump on the forehead would be amusing to me."
• Stanley Cup of Chowder: "The Senators have the highest winning percentage in the league when leading after the first period (.875)."  Public skate today, as well.
• HubHockey: "I would watch the Bruins power play and traffic in front of the net tonight as tonight's keys to victory."
• The Bear Cave: "Manny Fernandez got the nod in the first two, making 47 saves on 53 shots for an .887 save percentage with his 2-0 record. Tim Thomas has started the most recent two games, going 2-0 with an .880 save percentage after stopping 44 of 50 shots."
• Matt Kalman: "The Sens are going to start looking toward next season. That means rookies trying to get a headstart on training camp and veterans trying to either earn a chance to stay or impress other teams that will be shopping for free agents."
• NESN First Shift: "It would be very easy for the Bruins to take their foot off the peddle [sic]  right now against an Ottawa team that they’ve taken six-straight decisions from and a team that has nothing to play for except pride and roster spots next season."
• Thumbnails: Globe
• bruins.nhl.com: Preview | Game Notes (pdf)

Stats:

Is there significance to the selected box?

Also, it's Ottawa, not Tampa.  

GO BRUINS!

Game 69 Recap: BRUINS 5 SENS 3 KESSELS PAIR WINS IT FOR BRUINS

WOOOOOOO Gotta love a win. Even a home win streak. Fun game, lots of scoring, good overall. Phil Kessel is definitely the star of the game. Let's remember the good times.

The Canadian national anthem gets me riled up.  I don't know what it is, but it's certainly something.  

First of all, the Refs decided they would take the game over early, calling 2 penalties (one and a makeup one) about a minute in.  Then Wideman got a hooking call about 40 seconds later.  You love 3-on-3 hockey, so you're hoping this continues for the whole game.

Aaron ward gets out of the box and the Bruins are down a man.  But he picks up the pass and slaps a shot at the net.

GOAL!

1-0. Aaron Ward's career first short-handed goal.  Not bad for a 36-year-old defenseman playing his 750th game.

The Bruins kill off the rest of the penalty (because P.J. is a stud) and then go on probably about a second of even strength play when P.K. Axelsson gets called for some crap.  Really bang-up penalties in this game.  The Bruins kill off most of the penalty and then comes out of the box to get the pass.  Axelsson-Krejci-Axelsson-NET.

GOAL!

2-0.  You're turning to the guy next to you and yelling "What'd I tell you about P.J. Axelsson?  What'd I tell you?"  Later some drunk guy whines about p.j. because his only experience with hockey was playing some in Juniors.  Whatever.

Chris Neil and Milan Lucic realize that "staged fights" are going to go out of style soon and they better get it on now while there's still time.  Hockey Fights.

The refs blow the whistle again and Ryan Shannon is the unlucky winner of penalty roulette.  Chuck Kobasew and friends put together a little ditty called the "garbage goal" (if memory serves).

GOAL!

3-0.  Yeah, this feels more like the Bruins of late 08.

Then the second half of the period happens.

Spezza's illegal toe curve.

3-1.

Spezza also scores a penalty for too many men on the ice with 2 seconds to go in the period.

The second period has less jumping out of your seat.  It looked like the bruins scored once or twice, but Alex Auld managed to keep the puck out for a full 20 minutes of play.  So did Thomas.  Half-assed chants of "Aaaaaa-Lllleeeeeeex" waft through the arena.  The crowd needs to get a little crazier.  Sometimes you need to get electric.  Sometimes you need to get Arrested.

The third period gets off to a Kesselicious start.  Savard gets his second assist of the game.

GOAL!

4-1.  You're thinking "Nail, meet coffin."

But the Sens aren't.  They're thinking "Plenty of hockey to go."

Schubert

4-2

Spezza

4-3

Things get a little worrisome with that last one, but then the Bruins play shut-down hockey for the next 10 minutes.

Auld is pulled.  If this is the last 2-3 weeks, the Sens are tying it up.

But Kessel finally got over Mono.  He's got all kinds of hammers.  That last nail wasn't quite keeping the zombie Senators in their coffin.  Time to do some pounding.  Kessel magically appears with the puck between the defence and nails it like he did whoever he got mono from.

GOAL!

5-3.  One minute left.  Game over man, game over.

WIN!

• It's sad that I want to say a win over the 12th-place Senators is huge.
  
• Anyone that doesn't like P.K. Axelsson doesn't like the Bruins.  Even you, Juniors-playing hockey expert.
• This was a should-win game.

vs. OTT: 4-0-0

Record: 44-16-9 (W 1)

Home: 23-6-5 (W 2)

L10: 4-5-1

March: 2-5-0

GO BRUINS!

Game 69 Preview: Bruins vs. Ottawa IT'S TIME TO BREAK SOME NON-SCORING STREAKS

Mar 12, 2009 7:00 PM ET

TV: NESN

Radio: WBZ 1030

vs. Ottawa Senators (27-29-10)

Notes:

• Bruins are still slumping.  Dammit.
• Everyone except THE GERMAN (remember him?) is healthy for tonight, even though Kessel and Krejci sat out of practice on wednesday.  Maybe they'll get benched?  Worked last year.
• SensHOBO: "They won’t make the playoffs, nor will they draft Tavares or Hedman."
• Jack Edwards has a pain in his gut:  "If you pulled that crap on the kids in my neighborhood, you wouldn’t even get picked the next game. Nobody would have wanted you on his team. You could sit and think about being such a dink." Get well soon, Jack!
• Tim Thomas is going to start having a backup cage around so he doesn't have to wear Manny's mask: "It's a mask, and I don't wear a mask," said Thomas. "They're hot, you can't hear, and you can't breathe . . . otherwise, they're OK."
• Puck Daddy notices how the Bruins are doing.
• Shawn Thornton talks about the GMs proposal on fighting in the NHL.
• P.J.'s P.J. drive nets 12,000 P.J.s for kids.  He's also a stud PKer.
• On a relatively unrelated note, apparently Lundqvist was puking in between periods of the Sunday game.
• Byron Bitz did an online chat.  He listens to "90% country, the only time I don't listen to country is before a game, then it's all rock... Nickelback, Metallica, Linkin Park to name a few"
• Milan Lucic is one of the Bruins named to the Pruins clear day roster.
• Krejci, Kessel in, Yelle still out.  
• Sens Army Blog is the creator of the No Habs No campaign.

Other previews:

• Stanley Cup of Chowder: "Will we see celebrity puck bunnies Carrie Underwood and Hillary Duff at the game? Apparently this is the most interesting story about the Sens this season. In other news, NHL.com has turned into Us Weekly."
• Cameron Frye: "I've been debating back and forth about what to say about the Bruins, but words cannot describe the utter and complete disappointment I feel while watching them. I don't get it."
• HubHockey: Takes time out of the March Meltdown Bruins Ice Girls contest to say "Please don't lose again. If this was my birthday and I was blowing out the candles on my cake I would wish for a Bruins win tonight."  I think we all can agree on that.
• The Bear Cave: "Manny Fernandez has gotten the nod in the other two tilts, going 2-0, while making 47 saves on 53 shots. Both of Fernandez's victories came at the expense of Martin Gerber, who was recently claimed off of waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs."
• Matt Kalman: "The Bruins have to find a way to light the lamp more consistently to prove that general manager Peter Chiarelli didn’t under-reach when he failed to add a big-time scorer at the trade deadline."
• NESN First Shift: "the Senators come into this game off a 3-2 overtime win over Tampa Bay last night and winners of four straight games, and playing their best hockey of the season."
  
• Papers thumbs: Globe | Herald
• bruins.nhl.com: Preview | Game Notes

Stats:

GO BRUINS!

Game 53 Recap: BRUINS 3 SENS 3 SO WIN WE BARELY BEAT SUPER NINTENDO

I now feel for the red wings fans who were whining about when the Red Wings barely beat the blues last week. Oh well, let's take a little walk through it.

Someone's been whispering in Wheeler's ear. They've been saying he was in a scoring slump. They've been saying the Bruins can't score on the powerplay, which hadn't scored in 17 chances over the last 4 games. It was still overall ranked quite highly. And then Blake Wheeler goes to the front of the net after Ottawa takes some crap penalties or whatever. Ference lines it up at the blueline. Shot, tip, goal.

1-0. Oh hey a powerplay goal, why not?

Second period.
Chara used to play for ottawa blah blah blah. They boo him whenever he's got the puck. Chara has plenty of practice playing in Montreal, where they do the same thing. He does the same thing whenever they do that. Lines up at the point, lights the cannon.

2-0. Chara's 300th point. Maybe the goalie saw last night's game and decided he didn't want to crumple?

5 minutes later, we find out that when they announce scorers, the whole arena says the last name along with the announcer.
Nick FOLIGNO
2-1.
Daniel ALFREDSSON
2-2.
Jason SPEZZA
2-3.

Gwah? The Bruins give up a 2-goal lead just like that. There's 10 minutes to go, and they've gotta score. Then Antoine Vermette decides he's going to be the hero tonight and uses his stick to cut the hell out of Ryder's face. Ryder is bleeding bad. That would be good for the blood drive today. He leaves the ice for the night, and the Bruins get on the PP for four minutes. Their "slump" (law of averages working out how they do) is "erased" and then they get some folks in front of the net. Bergeron-Chara-Bounceback-Chara-Wheeler-Kobasew-net.

3-3. Oh thank goodness. I can't believe the Bruins looked like they weren't going to come back.

They play 5 minutes of shutdown hockey, and Thomas turns on the Tornadonator.
The Bruins go on the powerplay to start the OT, and the Sens have been watching what the Bruins 4-on-3 PP does. Krejci can't pass to Savard at all, because they put a stick on the ice between them.

Shootout.
Blah blah Thomas and Elliot play really well, make a ton of saves. And then, here comes...

P.J. AXELSSON! in the fifth round.

Nice tie.

Game.

vs. OTT: 3-0-0
Record: 39-8-5 (W 4)
Away: 20-5-3 (W 4)
L10: 7-1-2
February: 3-0-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 53 Bruins @ Ottawa 8-6 W?

Feb 5, 2009 7:00 PM ET
TV: NESN
Radio: WBZ 1030 AM
@ Ottawa Senators (17-25-7)
Notes:

• The Bruins are holding a Blood Drive tomorrow afternoon at the Garden from Noon to 6.  Give blood, get a free shirt!
• Ottawa just got a new coach, and has since lost 1-0 to the Kings. If you think they don't want this win, you don't know anything about anything.
• The Bruins need to, in the words of Doc Rivers, "Circle them back."
• Kevin Paul Dupont talks about Dave Semenko taking in some Bruins games.
  
• The Instigators blog tackles fighting in College Hockey, and is absolutely correct.  Yes, that's right:  Mike Milbury and Jack Edwards agree on something.  They're also going to be on tonight before and after the game, standing in a blue-screen studio with NO DESK.  Seriously, see how long you can watch it for.  6, 10:30pm.
• It's thursday, and that means that Nemmy over at the two man advantage rambles on about some topic.  This week it's warm up music.  I'd quote some highlights, but I don't have the space to quote the whole thing.
• Um...there's a betting site that keeps Referee stats.  Wow.
• Here comes the Bruins asks a Dangerous question.    "If the Bruins can maintain a 10-point gap entering their 2/28 game against Washington, a win in that game would effectively clinch the conference."

Previous Games:
vs. OTT: 2-0-0

• Game 4: BRUINS 4 OTT 2: Marco Sturm scored the first goal a minute in, the red sox beat the Rays that night.
• Game 41: BRUINS 6 OTT 4: The Bruins won this one with an empty netter to make it 6-3, then they managed to scored after the empty netter.

Other Previews:

My guess is a light amount of these, due to the game last night.

• HubHockey: "Senator Daniel Alfredsson now has Twitter."
• Sens Army Blog: Their reader poll thinks Hartsburg was a scapegoat.
• SensHobo: "According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Senators seem to have an impatient fan base, and are trying to do whatever it takes to get fans in seats."
• Stanley Cup of Chowder: "The Senators get almost all their production from their first line (Spezza, Alfredsson, and Heatley). The Bruins need to shut that line down."
• Fluto's Morning Briefing: "This is Boston's 10th back-to-back set this season. They are 8-0-1 in the second game so far."
• Matt Kalman: "the Bruins have done well avoiding 'trap games.' Their only loss since November that can fall into that category is their shootout defeat to St. Louis Jan. 19."
• bruins.nhl.com:  Preview | 

Stats:

GO BRUINS!

Game 41 Recap: BRUINS 6 SENS 4 THEY SCORED AFTER THE EMPTY NETTER WTF

Well, that was interesting. The Senators were playing a desperate, chippy, hungry, whatever game. It looked pretty bleak there for a minute. The Senators winning in Boston would be huge for them. But look at their third jerseys. They reversed the "N" and "E."

Crappy SENS/SNES jokes aside, here's how it all went down.

Early on in the game, like in the first few minutes, Boston owned the puck. They moved it around a bunch, Sens would dump and change, and then boston would bring it in again. The Bruins weren't doing a whole lot of "skate in and shoot" so much as "skate in and set up an offense for 2 minutes." During one of those, they're moving it all over the place. Krejci makes a pretty outlet pass to Old Man Ward, who is all alone. The clock strikes noon. Ward draws before Gerber. Slapshot from the point, no deflection. GOAL.

1-0. Ward's first goal of the season, at least he scored in the first half. He was super-excited about it.

Then one of the Sens slips on the ice with no one around him (right in front of where Lucic broke the glass) and gives up the puck. Wideman, Kobasew, Kessel, and one more bruin I can't pick out move down the ice. Kessel-Wideman-Kobasew-Gerber-Post-GOAL.

2-0. It looks half-sketchy, but the puck was over the line before Kobasew fell on Gerber.

10 minutes later, there was some sort of issue 3 rows back, and when you turn around it looks like Manny got scored on.
2-1. Later the announcer tells you Chris Phillips scored it.

Second Period.
Wheeler gets it at the other blue line, but hits post. But he taps it behind gerber to Ryder who sweeps it in.

3-1. You're wondering if you're going to get to see Auld play in Boston again.

A Minute later, Manny stops a 2-on-0, but Chara decides to play Hog Pile on the Goalie and Kelly puts it on the top shelf.
3-2. You're arguing that garbage goals count just as much as pretty ones.

4 minutes later, something just terrible happens. The Senators tie it up.
3-3. You don't want to talk about it.

after the second, they're tied. Julien talks to his team.


Third Period.
The first ten minutes, everything's starting to look bad. But then the clouds roll away, and a gleaming beam of light descends onto the ice...Oh wait, that's just Krejci. He steals the puck off of Alfredsson's stick and has no one except Gerber to beat. Gerber lets it through, but it hits the post. "No matter," says Krejci, "I'll just hit it out of the air on the other side of the goalie." Yes, that's right. Krejci only had one person to beat, so he did it twice.

4-3. You're wondering if someone laced your drink, that was so beautiful.

About 4 minutes later, the bruins dump it in. The senators give it to Savard, who proves he can still score. Bonus: Kessel pushing a defenseman out of the way to give Savard the far side shot.

5-3. Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now.

Ottawa pulls the goalie on a faceoff in the offensive zone. Manny makes a save, Savard grabs it, get both d on him and makes the outlet pass to Axelsson. Axelsson puts it in.

6-3. And that's the end of the ga-

WHAT!?!?!

With 20 seconds to go, Manny is caught a little out of position, lets in a 4th goal.
6-4. "Surprised" is one way of putting it.

Game.

Usually after a win, the Bs all come out to congratulate the goalie. This time he's getting to the locker room as soon as he can.

The last time the Bruins won 30 games this quick, it was 1930.

vs. OTT: 2-0
Record: 30-7-4 (W1)
Home: 15-3-1 (W1)
L10: 8-2-0
December: 2-2-0
GO BRUINS!

Game 41 Preview: Ottawa @ Bruins BATTLE OF THE BITERS

Jan 8, 2009 7:00 PM ET

TV: NESN

Radio: WBZ

vs. Ottawa Senators

Notes:

• Ottawa is not having a great year. "Tank for Tavares" talk is pretty prevalent among fans.  The owner said he wasn't going to fire the GM or coach.
• Lucic is out with an undisclosed day-to-day, Sturm and Bergeron are on the IR, Ference stopped skating, Hnidy didn't participate in practice yesterday because his eye was swollen shut and won't play.
• Tim Thomas, Marc Savard, and Zdeno Chara were all honored today, but not by robots.
• Jaarko Ruutu is out tonight for the first of two games for biting.  Marc Savard once got 1 game for that, but he bit Darcy Tucker.  I think that deserves a medal.
• Thornton: "I’ve never been bit, thank God. Not on the ice."
• Carrie Underwood may be in the crowd.  I feel so dirty for knowing that.
• Puck the Media has quite the biting article on AOL FanHouse, and I unfortunately agree.
• Martin St. Pierre was named to the AHL all-star game, which will be televised.  He counters:  Tonight's game will be televised, too.
• The Sens may be tired because they are on their 8th straight road trip.
• The Bruins should keep out of the box in this one.  Duh.

Previous Games:

• Game 4: Bruins 4 OTT 2: Sox were in the ALCS at the time. It's been a while for a division rival. This is the first home game against them. We'll probably have like 4 games in a row in march or something.
  

Other Previews:

• WickedBruinsFan: "What the heck is with both teams' goaltenders sharing the exact same save percentage? Weird."
• HubHockey: "The Bruins just came off one of its longest win streaks ever about a week ago, yet today the team is in trouble? Last time I checked sitting atop your Division and Conference was a good thing."
• Double A Hockey: "PJAX still needs one more goal for his career 100th goal."
• Stanley Cup of Chowder: "The Bruins will look to end their New Year's hangover (1-2-0 in '09)"
• Sens Army Blog: No preview up right now, but they're behind the No Habs No campaign.
• Matt Kalman: "It’s hard to believe that at this time last year the Ottawa Senators were sitting pretty with a 27-10-4 record."
• The Bear Cave: "Although they are division rivals, this will be just the second meeting of the season between the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators."
• Print Media: Globe | Herald
  
• NESN First Shift: "Gerber will start for the Sens."
  
• Bruins.nhl.com: Preview | Game Notes (pdf)

Stats:

GO BRUINS!

Game 4 Recap: Bruins and Red Sox 4, Senators and Rays 2

I tried watching the game last night, but everyone else was like "it's the playoffs, man. c'mon" so I didn't. Both teams won, 4-2, so I'm happy with that. So let's go through this game together.

I'll be honest, I was scared of this game because the Sens were ridiculous at converting the power play going into the game. However, it seems like it all worked out.

First Period:

1 minute in, the man I like to call "The German" shows what a well-engineered and efficient deflection can do:

7 minutes later, this Foligno kid comes by and goes high stick side from the top of the circle:

Second Period:

Nearly five minutes in, and Gerber stops Bergeron


Seconds later, Savard shows us why he wakes up in the morning:


Kessel is a beast


Wheeler takes a penalty that leads to an Alfie goal.


Lucic scores a goal on a rebound off a Ryder shot

Looks like lots of ugly goals. Hopefully, they're learning.

And here are all of the videos that the MLB lets me post from their website about the sox/rays game:

Oh right, the MLB isn't yet at that level. But they want me to download Microsoft's Flash knockoff to watch the video on the official site. Thanks but I've got enough crap on my computer already.

Sox play tonight in Game 7 of the ALCS. Hoooo boy.

Record: 2-1-1
GO BRUINS!