With all that’s going on off the ice in Bruinsland, it was hard to bring our focus back to the on-ice affairs of the team. Last night, the team’s focus seemed to be elsewhere also, as the B’s fell to the surging Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 in overtime, at the TD Garden.

The B’s jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage on goals from Nathan Horton and Mark Recchi. 27 seconds after Recchi’s second period goal, Buffalo cut that lead in half, with Tyler Ennis lifting the puck over a sprawled out Tim Thomas to get the Sabres on the board. Later in the second, it was Thomas Vanek, the team’s leading scorer, who knotted the game at two goals a piece, scoring on a feed from Ennis on the power play, to take the game into the second intermission, tied at two.

Embattled team captain Zdeno Chara earn his second assist of the evening early in the third, adding a helper on Gregory Campbell’s 10th goal of the season to give the B’s another lead. That advantage was short-lived though, as the Sabres cashed in on a 5-on-3 opportunity with a goal from Tim Connolly.

The game ended regulation time even at three goals each, but ended less than four minutes into overtime, when a pair of ex-Boston area hockey players delivered a win for Buffalo. Ex-Boston College Eagle standout Nathan Gerbe put the puck on net and ex-Boston Bruin Brad Boyes tipped home the rebound past Thomas to earn Buffalo two much-needed points to add to their playoff hopes.

For Boston, the B’s dropped their third straight decision after winning seven in a row. The point they do get for taking the game to overtime, coupled with Montreal’s 4-1 loss to St. Louis, extends Boston’s division lead to four points. The B’s now sit in third place in the Conference however, one point behind the red-hot Capitals.

With the two-point win for the Sabres, Buffalo now sits in a tie for seventh place in the East, knotted at 74 points a piece with the Rangers. Buffalo has two games in hand over New York, and faces them Saturday to wrap up their season-long seven-game road trip.

Boston hits the road again themselves, this time for a four-gamer that begins Friday on Long Island when they take on the New York Islanders. From there, next week’s schedule includes stops in Columbus, Nashville, and Toronto. All very winnable games, from my view.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | No comment
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So obviously, the focus since Tuesday night’s loss in Montreal has rightfully been on the Zdeno Chara hit on rookie Max Pacioretty that sent the Habs’ winger into the turnbuckle of the glass between the benches, instantly knocking Pacioretty unconscious. Since then, Pacioretty has been diagnosed with a severe concussion and a broken vertebrae in his neck, injuries that will likely cost him the rest of the season and that have sparked a criminal investigation.

Obviously, the Chara-Pacioretty saga will continue to develop in the days and weeks to come. The two teams face off for the final time in the regular season on March 24th in Boston, which will definitely be “appointment television” for hockey fans everywhere. But until then, the B’s have a full slate of games to focus on, beginning tonight against the hungry Sabres, who are fighting for one of the East’s final playoff spots. So enough jibber-jabber, let’s get right to tonight’s pre-game notes…

The Lead-up

Tonight marks the sixth and final meeting between these two bitter division rivals. Boston won the first two back in the fall, but Buffalo has taken the last three, including a 4-2 win in their most recent contest, back on January 20th.

Both teams are coming off losses from Tuesday night, with the lifeless Bruins dropping a pivotal Northeast Division battle to the Canadiens, 4-1, while Buffalo fell to the Penguins in Pittsburgh, 3-1. The Sabres make the sixth stop on their season-long seven-game road trip tonight here in Boston, having gone 3-1-1 so far on the trip.

Both teams have struggled on the power play lately, with the B’s mired in an 0-for-16 slump across their last seven games. Buffalo hasn’t scored on the man-advantage in their last four contests, going 0-for-14 in that time.

Playoff Races

The Sabres currently sit in a tie with Carolina for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Buffalo does have a game in hand over the ‘Canes.

All three Eastern Conference divisional races are in full blown nail-biting mode. The Northeast Division lead is down to just three points for Boston over second place Montreal, while Philadelphia and Washington enjoy slim two-point advantages atop their divisions, over Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, respectively.

Boston’s Dealings

The Bruins tinkered with their forward lines at yesterday’s practice, making a small swap between their second and third lines. Mark Recchi was dropped to the third line to pair with Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder, while newly acquired Rich Peverley will begin tonight’s game skating with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on the team’s second line. The Bergeron-Marchand-Recchi line had gone unchanged for over two months up until yesterday’s change.

The Boston blue line has turned into the “black and blue” line lately, as Bruin defensemen continue to get banged up. Andrew Ference returned to the ice for his second day of practice this morning, with hopes of making it back into the lineup some time next week. Steven Kampfer, out with a mild concussion, could skate today, after doing some time on the stationery bike during yesterday’s practice. Shane Hnidy, who rejoined the B’s recently, is still about a week away from being ready for game action. And Johnny Boychuk practiced yesterday with a fresh new shiner on his left eye after losing a fight in the first period of Tuesday’s game. The eye was very red and nearly swollen shut, but Boychuk does expect to play in tonight’s game. Oh, and Chara wasn’t suspended and will play tonight, if you hadn’t heard already… unless the Canadian mounties hop on their moose en route to Boston and arrest Big Z before game time.

Boston’s one goal Tuesday was the team’s 200th this season, making them the seventh team in the league to reach that mark. The B’s have only given up 156 on the year, lowest in the NHL.

Buffalo’s Arsenal

Flipping our focus over to Buffalo now, we’ll catch our first glimpse of former Bruin Brad Boyes in a Buffalo uniform tonight. Boyes was traded to the Sabres on deadline day from the St. Louis Blues, who are way out of playoff contention out west and were in full salary-dump mode pre-deadline. Boyes has two goals and two assists in his first five games as a Sabre, and ranks second overall on the team in points (combining his stats from St. Louis), with 14 goals and 31 assists.

The team’s leading scorer, Thomas Vanek (23G, 32A), missed his first game of the year in Tuesday’s loss to Pittsburgh, after battling severe flu-like symptoms. The winger did return to practice yesterday though, and is expected to be back in the lineup for tonight’s tilt at TD Garden.

Tuesday, the B’s found themselves facing last week’s Third Star of the Week from last week, in Montreal’s Carey Price. Tonight, they’ll go up against the league’s reigning Second Star of the Week, Buffalo defenseman Andrej Sekera. Sekera has two goals and eight assists in his last six games.

Buffalo’s goaltending is of course led by Ryan Miller (28-19-7, 2.67GAA). Miller is backed up by youngster Jhonas Enroth (4-2-1, 2.59GAA).

Other News

Lastly, for you hockey/politics crossover fans out there, Massachusetts senator John Kerry and others will appear on “NHL Hour with Commissioner Gary Bettman” tonight at 6pm on NHL.com and Sirius XM Radio. Kerry will be joining several other politicians later tonight at the Verizon Center in our nation’s capital to play in The Congressional Hockey Challenge charity hockey game, which benefits the Fort Dupont Ice Hockey Club and Ice Arena. Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives will take on a group of federal lobbyists in the third annual event. Watch those turnbuckles, Mr. Senator!

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | No comment
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Boston will finally have a welcome addition back in their lineup this evening, as all signs point to center Marc Savard making his return tonight after missing the last 15 games with a broken foot. This could be the first time this season that the Bruins will have all hands on deck with a completely healthy lineup. We have to say “could” though because it is still unknown whether goalie Tim Thomas has recovered from an undisclosed injury that kept him sidelined for the past two games. Tonight’s starting goalie is yet to be determined.

Based on reports out of yesterday morning’s team practice, look for Savard to at least start the game centering a line with wingers Marco Sturm and Byron Bitz. The other lines skating together at practice yesterday included a Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder line, a Lucic-Bergeron-Recchi checking line, and a fourth line of Thornton-Begin-Paille. Vladimir Sobotka will be the likely scratch this evening.

Here now, a closer look at tonight’s opponents, the St. Louis Blues…

• Both St. Louis and Boston will head into tonight’s matchup looking for their first 3-game win streaks of the season. Boston is coming off two wins in Atlanta and Buffalo, while the Blues have home wins over Phoenix and the New York Islanders to their credit.
• The Blues have owned the B’s in recent years, by a landslide. St. Louis is 13-2-2 vs. Boston since the ’96-’97 season, including wins in 8 of their last 9. Last season, these two squads split the season series, each winning on the other’s home ice.
• Special teams will certainly play a huge role in tonight’s skate in the Midwest. While these two teams can currently be found at the very bottom of the league’s power play rankings (Boston is 29th at 13.2%, St. Louis is 30th at 12.7%), both teams’ penalty killing units are among the league’s best (Boston is 5th at 84.0%, St. Louis is 3rd at 84.9%). Look for the return of Marc Savard to help the B’s climb the ranks quickly on the man-advantage.
• The Blues are led on the score sheet by young defenseman Erik Johnson (2G, 12A), followed by center Andy McDonald (6G, 7A), and wingers David Perron (9G, 4A), and veteran Keith Tkachuk (4G, 8A).
• Judging by this morning’s practice for the Blues, St. Louis will likely start Chris Mason in goal tonight. Mason is 6-6-3 with a 2.16GAA in his 15 starts this season. He is backed up by journeyman netminder Ty Conklin (2-2-1, 2.24GAA).
• Looking at local ties on the St. Louis roster, ex-Bruin Brad Boyes is the first name that jumps out. Boyes, who put up 103 points in 144 games with Boston during his nearly 2 seasons in black and gold, went to St. Louis in 2007 in exchange for current B’s defenseman Dennis Wideman.
• Also with ties to Massachusetts is Melrose-born veteran Keith Tkachuk. Tkachuk played his high school hockey at Malden Catholic, followed by a year at Boston University in ’90-’91. Since then, Tkachuk has skated for the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, Atlanta Thrashers, and now with St. Louis.

© Brian Kintz for Sports of Boston, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
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What can I say? A young, promising player, on the block, because his offensive production declines (a bit) while he’s learning to play on both sides of the rink? What’s the problem here? Well … there’s no problem. However, it illustrates how short-sighted Kevin Paul Dupont is. This is not the first time that KDP has written a column about trading young players. He wrote the same thing about Brad Boyes, Hannu Toivonen and Milan Jurcina. These three players were qualified as “strugglers” by Dupont, but became very decent NHL’ers elsewhere.

Phil Kessel had 29 points in 70 games in his first season (where he successfully recovered from a cancer) while Joe Thornton had 5 points in 55 games in his first season. Of course, through the years, KPD was all over Thornton and criticized him on many occasions. When Thornton was traded, Dupont was the first to applaud, but the final result was disastrous, at the very best, for the Bruins. Of course, KDP blamed Mike O’Connell for not getting a good “return,” but the fact of the matter is that Dupont was dead wrong in his evaluation of Thornton.

There’s a general rule in every sport that says that “developing young kids takes time.” The Bruins hit rock-bottom for years because of their unwillingness to be patient with their young players. They adopted an ill-conceived strategy where a long-term building process is replaced by some free agent signings. Sadly for the Bruins, it didn’t work, but this result is not surprising since the New York Rangers adopted this same strategy for years, yielding pathetic results. Once again, it raise this hard and, yet simple, question: Does this organization ever learn?

© luc for Sports of Boston, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments
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- Glenn Murray’s injury forced Claude Julien to shuffle his lines. Murray will be re-evaluate after Christmas. Expect Phil Kessel to take the spot on the first line.

- Dennis Wideman and Brad Boyes will make their debut against their old team. No words on the goaltender who will be in the net for St-Louis.

© luc for Sports of Boston, 2007. | Permalink | No comment
Filed under: Bruins.