Archive for the 'Recaps' Category
Posted in Recaps March 4th, 2008
Ouch.
It figures. Everything’s going well, the Bruins win their last six games, Dennis Wideman’s defensive woes haven’t been as obvious, and then this.
And to make matters worse, when prompted by a Caps blog on Sunday for a quote about tonight’s game, I go mouthing off. So, as it turns out there ARE other people on the Caps roster aside from Ovechkin. Like Nicklas Backstrom and Matt Cooke and Matt Bradley and Brooks Laich and even Donald frigging Brashear. It got so bad that, at the 8:29 mark of the 1st period, I was looking for the “reset” button on my Sega because that was about the last time I saw a Bruins game get so out of control, so fast. Way for me to give the opposing team something to post in their locker room.
If there are any positives to take out of this, one is the time-worn cliche that a 10-2 loss means the same in the standings as a 3-1 loss. And given their recent winning ways, this game can written off as an anomaly. So lets just pretend this never happened, coax Thomas and Auld out of their fetal positions in the corner, and just focus on Tuesday’s game in Florida.
Besides, who do the Panthers have on their roster besides Olli Jokinen?
Personal notes:
- I actually got to watch this game in near-real time! (slightly delayed since it was on my DVR and I got home an hour late). I’ve actually been able to watch the midnight replays on NESN recently since I splurged on DirecTV’s sports package that lets me see non-game NESN programming. Of course, it wasn’t a full blown “Center Ice” package splurge…just a little one…kind of like hopping into the shallow end holding my hose and wearing a ducky inner tube.
- I even drank a beer! I think I only have five Samuel Adams’ Octoberfest beers left from the fall and dammit if I didn’t drink one of them. If I’m lucky, I’ll have the Winter Lagers finished off by July. I never thought I’d say this, but I really need to drink more. And with another Bruins effort like the one last night, I see the pace picking up quickly.
Posted in Recaps January 20th, 2008
That’s right, you heard me…a game recap. Now that the Bruins are playing a team local to me, I get to actually WATCH a game. I’m sitting here, at 4 AM Sunday morning watching the game on my TiVo because I was out during the day with the family. So just a few notes from the game:
- Holy smokes, are Willie O’Ree and Scatman Crothers long lost brothers?
- What a disappointing 1st period. Disorganized, shoddy play. If ex-Bruin Paul Mara hadn’t scored that goal for them, they’d have easily been scoreless at the end of the period. Even more entertaining is that Mara did that twice more this game, he’d have equaled his career goal total while playing FOR the Bruins…
- How many times is Wideman going to be made a fool of this game?
- Apparently, this is some sort of “Father’s Day” for the Rangers and we get to hear interviews with the father of nearly every player on the Rangers roster. Why? Is it June already? With Willie O’Ree’s anniversary Friday and Martin Luther King’s birthday on Monday, I’m detecting some…sort…of THEME that the Rangers should be capitalizing on here…
- Nice Kobasew goal from his knees near the end of the 2nd. Well deserved considering that the Bruins started the 2nd period on fire but were unable to capitalize.
- What a drive by Sturm towards the net with the follow through by Kobasew to tie the game at three. It almost makes me forget the turnover by Chara earlier that led to the Rangers’ 2nd goal. Almost.
- I had to ask that Wideman question earlier didn’t I? That’s TWICE he’s fanned on critical shot attempts on the power play! This time in front of the net with 1:20 left in OT!
- Wow! What an ending to OT! It’s a shame that they couldn’t take advantage of the full 2 minute power play that resulted from a Jagr penalty at the 3:00 mark.
- And a Chara slapshot to win the shootout. Okay, NOW I’ve forgotten about his earlier turnover.
Posted in Recaps, Alex Auld December 11th, 2007
If there’s one thing to take away the sting of (another) loss to the Habs, it’s having a nice two game win streak follow it. Emergency goaltending acquisition Alex Auld put up his second quality effort since joining Boston, beating the Sabres and the Barney Rubble toupees that adorn their jerseys. This game was in the Bruins’ hands early when they capitalized on multiple Sabres’ turnovers to jump out to a quick lead…one they never relinquished.
When the B’s offense gets going, they’re hard to stop. Tonight’s victory makes them 11-2 when scoring 3 goals or more, with one of those two losses being the OT loss against the Devils last week.
I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but this team is now 16-10-3 in the standings and are tied with NJ and Carolina for the 2nd most points in the conference. They keep this up and I’ll be throwing that seven-letter “P” word around here soon. You know that”P” word that they haven’t experienced in four years since before they traded away the eight-letter “T” word guy. Hey, this is pretty fun! I think I’ll make my next post a crossword puzzle!
Injury note: Sturm took a puck to the eye in the 1st period and didn’t return. Initial reports were that it wasn’t serious and that he shouldn’t miss the next game against the Thrashers.
Posted in Rask, Recaps November 21st, 2007
Wow, that’s easily my most obnoxiously cutesy title yet. Just be happy Mark Stuart didn’t do anything noteworthy, otherwise I’d have crammed him in there too.
As you may have guessed (or at least hopefully translated), heir-apparent franchise goalie Tuukka Rask won in his first NHL game by stopping 30 of 32 shots on goal. After a somewhat shaky start…including a soft goal given up to Sundin…Rask settled down and let the Bruins get back into the game. Kobasew scored the game winner with 3:31 left and then potted an empty netter for his 2nd of the game.
As for Rask, the only way this could have had a better ending (well, aside from a shutout) would have been if he bested Andrew Raycroft…the man he was traded for…instead of Vesa Toskala.
Posted in Recaps November 10th, 2007
Wow, has it been a week already? As Neb pointed out in my last post, I’ve got some catching up to do. So here’s what’s happened recently.
Bergeron’s concussion is bad. Pretty damn bad. As you all know by now, Bergy’s hurting. The guy can’t do simple tasks without feeling the effects of post-concussion syndrome. The team has placed him on long term IR, meaning he’s out until at LEAST 11/24. Don’t be surprised if he’s not back until after the holidays and it wouldn’t shock me if he wrote off this season altogether. Right now, he’s just got to get better.
Slip sliding away. Back on the 25th, I noted that the Bruins were tied for 3rd place and that only the Sens and Hurricanes had better records. That feels like such a long time ago. Since then the Bruins have gone 1-5 (adding only four team points…two of them courtesy of losing in OT), and have dropped down into a tie for 7th place. The main culprit has been their inability to score goals. Of these last five losses, the most goals they’ve scored in a game was two and they only did that once (in Ottawa). Remember that eight goal effort they put up in LA? Well, they’ve scored only eight goals in the five games that make up November. Unlike last year, you can’t blame the defense and goaltending for this one. That being said, among the offensive performers who have been pulling their weight, Marco Sturm and Chucky Kobasew deserve special mention for sporting an uncharacteristic (for the team) plus/minus of +6 and +8, respectively. That’s pretty darned good over a 15 game stretch and considering the Bruins are a -2 in goal differential (they’ve scored 34 this season and given up 36). One positive note to finish with: the Bruins have hung tough in all their recent losses…even against the Sens. If they keep playing this way then a few favorable puck bounces will land them in the win column more often than not.
Tuukka Rask. Manny Fernandez’s injury has landed him on the IR and after a week of Jordan Sigalet sitting on the bench, the Bruins decided they wanted Tuukka Rask to get the splinters instead. The B’s don’t play two consecutive games until 11/23-24 (which usually is a good time to start your backup goalie), but if we’re lucky we may get a glimpse of the Bruins’ future sooner than that.
