Archive for the 'Recaps' Category
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.
Posted in Recaps November 1st, 2007
Busy, busy, busy. I’ve been a busy man. I’ve got something work-related in development right now that hopefully I can share with everyone in a couple of weeks, but I don’t want to jinx it. It’s only been a week since my last post, but it seems like I’m a month behind.
So let’s recap some recent events:
Biron, Broad Street Bullies, Buck Bruins, Bergeron Busted. It kills me that I couldn’t use this as a title for a post. So now I’m just shoehorning it into this one. The Bruins lost a tough one but the Randy Jones hit was the real story here. Fortunately, after being carried away on a stretcher, Bergeron appears to have just a concussion and a broken nose. Hopefully he’ll be back on the ice soon. With the Broad Street Bullies apparently making another comeback in Philly (Jesse Boulerice and Steve Downie also being suspended for dirty shots this fall), I don’t know whether to be appalled or pleased. Don’t get me wrong…I certainly don’t advocate dirty shots, but it’s somewhat refreshing to see aggressive hockey being played, even if it’s by another team. Another plus? It gives me another reason to hate the Flyers and will also hopefully stir the Boston faithful next time the Flyers come to town (unfortunately, not until March 15th).
Fernandez injured, Jordan Sigalet recalled. Manny suffered a strained right knee in practice and will be out of action for a while. Not sure of the exact medical terminology, but with a 3.93 GAA and an .832 SV%, I think he pulled a stink muscle.
Posted in Recaps October 25th, 2007
Tim Thomas. Five starts, four wins, each one with him only surrendering one goal. In his only loss, he let in an astonishing two goals. What that translates to is the Bruins being tied for the 3rd most points (12) in the Eastern Conference as of this writing with only the even hotter Sens and Hurricanes ahead of them.
Performances like that almost make me forget Monday’s blowout loss to the Habs. Almost. Losses to the Canadiens always fester.
This has to mean that, much like Toivonen last year, Manny Fernandez must be close to having his portion of the time share greatly reduced. At this point, it’s simple math. In four games, Fernandez is sporting a porous 3.93 GAA and an .832 SV%. With tonight’s game, Thomas now has a sparkling 1.20 GAA and a .962 SV%. To me, it’s a no-brainer who should start Saturday’s game against the Atlantic Division leading Flyers.
Also of note, Kessel potted goals #4 and #5 tonight, putting him ahead of Marco Sturm and Chucky K for the team lead.
