The Buffalo Sabres played Wednesday’s game as a team desperately needing wins to keep its playoff hopes alive should: intelligent but physical, controlled but aggressive.

The Boston Bruins played as a team with a chance at the Eastern Conference’s top spot should not: lazy, disorganized, brainless.

Who do you think won?

The Sabres scored twice in each period Wednesday, cruising to a 6-0 blowout victory over the Bruins in Buffalo.

Poor Defense Rattles Rask

It was clear just minutes into the game that Tuukka Rask hadn’t brought his A-game to First Niagara Center. When Christian Ehrhoff fired from the blue line following a d-to-d pass from Tyler Myers, Rask misjudged the puck once it glanced off Gregory Campbell, giving the Sabres a 1-0 lead on just their second shot of the game.

The Sabres went up 2-0 with just over five minutes left in the first when center Ville Leino made a nifty spin in the Bruins’ left circle, avoiding the defense and centering the puck to Jason Pominville. Pominville quickly chipped it in, with defenseman Mike Weber also assisting.

Clearly rattled by two goals that were as much his defense’s fault as his own, Rask lasted just 1:52 into the second period, when Andrej Sekera found Tyler Ennis in the neutral zone. Ennis changed direction twice in the Bruins’ zone, eluding multiple defenders before ricocheting a backhand off the goalpost and in for the 3-0 lead.

Rask exited the game following Ennis’ goal, having given up three goals in just 10 shots. It was his worst outing since lasting just one period and giving up three goals to the same Sabres on Jan. 1, 2010.

Thomas Can’t Hold Off Sabres Long

Tim Thomas replaced Rask, and for the first few minutes Thomas’ aggressive, energetic goaltending looked like it might hold the Sabres off long enough for a Bruins comeback. Following an interference call against a Zdeno Chara four minutes into the second, Thomas survived a Sabres power play in which they fired off seven rapid-fire shots before the Bruins finally cleared.

But such success would not last, especially with the unfocused, out-of-position hockey the defense continued to play. Strong puck possession by center Paul Gaustad in the Bruins’ circle led to a tight-angle shot for Patrick Kaleta. The puck deflected off Adam McQuaid‘s skates and between Thomas’ pads for a 4-0 lead late in the second.

The Bruins’ defense checked out for good in the third, leading to two more Sabres goals. Pominville scored his second when the Bruins left him completely alone in the crease for an easy rebound goal (Leino and original-shooter Sekera assisted) at 1:18. Then Joe Corvo turned the puck over behind his own goal, leading to a simple two-stage pass from Nathan Gerbe to Ennis to Drew Stafford in front for a 6-0 lead with a minute left.

Miller and Defense Dominate Bruins

The Bruins appeared to tie the game midway through the first when Milan Lucic put a slapshot past Sabre goalie Ryan Miller, but a goalie-interference call against Rich Peverley wiped out the goal. Replays showed only the barest contact between the two.

That was the closest the Bruins would get to an actual goal Wednesday, as both Miller and his defense played error-free hockey the rest of the game, including through the Bruins’ 17 third-period shots (out of 36 total). The defense completely neutralized the Bruins’ fore-checking, always finding open men to advance the puck back across the blue line. They quickly cleared most shots Miller couldn’t corral to the sides, and they stood the Bruins up on those rare occasions when a loose puck bounced in front of the net.

The Sabres controlled the puck better, giving nothing away on defense. They passed better, hitting teammates in stride and on the stick-blades. And they skated better, winning numerous sprints for the puck.

The Brutal Bruins

Buffalo handled all the physicality the Bruins brought to the game – three fighting majors, three 10 minute misconducts and six two-minute penalties – without backing down or losing focus. No pointless, juvenile display of idiotic brutality (sorry: no “hockey fight“) upset Buffalo enough for them to make a mistake, and Boston never came away from a fight so fired up they made a play themselves.

Not even the massive “brawl” in the final minutes of the game – in which the referees handed out nine penalties – disrupted the Sabres’ near-perfect performance. Which begs the question: if fights don’t really motivate, or at least not as much as actually playing well, what point do they serve?

© Matt Goisman for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
Filed under: Bruins, Featured, Top Story.

The Bruins started the second half of the season at home against Ottawa with a win 4-3. The Senators played the Bruins tough, which is not a surprise with a huge improvement from last season for them. With goals from Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Milan Lucic, and Brad Marchand along with 30 saves from Tim Thomas Boston took home the two points. Nathan Horton was not in the line up tonight, still out with concussion problems.

Power Play Paves the Way for B’s

The Bruins had the worst power play for most of last season. This season, it has been better, but is still up and down. Tuesday was a good night though, as the B’s scored two power play goals on four man-advantages for the Bruins.

The first power play goal came from the captain, who let go a bomb from the point that found net. The power play goal was the 8th of the season for Zdeno Chara. With Chara on the point for the power play, this unit should score goals.

Brad Marchand added his 18th goal of the season on the power play early on in the third period. If Marchand could have avoided some suspensions this season, he very well could have been an All-Star.

Dennis Seidenberg, meanwhile, scored from roughly center ice, as he has done in past seasons. He baited the goalie into playing the dump in and beat him with the long slapper.

Has Tim Thomas come back to Earth ?

Tim Thomas made 30 saves on 33 shots, which was just enough to win; nothing more, nothing less. Thomas had been playing so well at the beginning of the season and now he is leveling off. His last shutout came on December 17th, but the recent fantastic play of Tuukka Rask could push Thomas to bring it to another level.

The Bruins are one of the few teams in the NHL who don’t need their number one goalie to play like one every game. With Tuukka as an alternate and a strong offensive attack, the Bruins can win a lot of games even with Thomas letting three goals in.

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
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Thursday night the NHL All Star Draft happened in Ottawa. Zdeno Chara and Daniel Alfredsson captained the two teams selecting two All-Star rosters. Chara called the puck toss and won the first pick.

Pavel Datsyuk was the first name called. Many people thought Chara would take Tim Thomas (though he did grab him in the second round), or Evgeni Malkin. Datsyuk is arguably the best two-way player in hockey and is one of the best puck handlers in the league.

Alfredsson answered with his first selection of hometown defenseman Eric Karlson, who is leading the NHL in points for defenseman, but Alfredsson left a few top players for Chara to take.

Chara had Joffery Lupul as his assistant. He selected his teammate Phil Kessel, and it will be interesting to see if Kessel and Seguin play together on the same line.

Team Chara looks really good and is my pick to win the Sunday game, with guys like Datsyuk, Malkin, Perry, Kane, Iginla, Gaborik, Kessel, and Seguin. Chara did benefit from Alfredsson selecting his teammates earlier than he should have.

Mr. Irrelevant this year was Logan Couture from the San Jose Sharks, taking the title from Kessel. Couture is a first time All-Star and he seemed to take it pretty well. Of course with that last pick, Couture received a car. The MVP of Sunday’s game also receives a car.

My MVP prediction is Evgeni Malkin. He has been on fire leading up to the All-Star break and I think he will light the lamp a few times.

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
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The 2012 All-Star game will be held in Ottawa on Jan. 29. The fantasy draft, meanwhile, will be held on the 26th. Zdeno Chara and home town hero Daniel Alfredsson will be selecting the teams.

Last season, we saw Eric Staal and Niklas Lidstrom have some fun with it making teammates sweat it out. It will be interesting to see if Chara selects Tim Thomas or Tyler Seguin.

Another interesting storyline that will unfold is what player will be taken last. Phil Kessel was the last All-Star standing at the draft last season, and he came away with a new car and some motivation for this season.

Chara will be defending his hardest shot title again this season and that will take place on the 28th along with the rest of the skills competitions. Chara is having himself a nice season with 27 points and a plus 25 rating good for fourth best in the NHL. The former Senator deserves to pick his team and wear the C on his All-Star sweater.

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
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Joining goalie Tim Thomas, who is set to start in net, will be forward Tyler Seguin and defenseman Zdeno Chara.

In just his second season, Seguin leads the B’s with 17 goals and 38 points (2nd on the team with21 assists). He leads the NHL with a +33 plus/minus rating.

Chara, meanwhile, is having another stellar season. The 6-9 defenseman is fourth in the NHL with a +27 plus/minus. He also has 7 goals and 18 assists.

Perhaps the biggest Bruins snub is center Patrice Bergeron, who has still not made an All-Star game in his career. This year, Bergy has 11 goals, a team-leading 25 assists, and 36 points. Like every other Bruin, his plus/minus is also off the charts: +27.

© KC Downey for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
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As a young boy, I played on a recreation-league soccer team in Brookline, Mass. We weren’t very good, but I liked the team’s name: the Flames.

I’m pretty sure we could’ve given the Boston Bruins a better game than the Calgary Flames gave them Thursday night at TD Garden.

Patrice Bergeron and Nathan Horton each scored two goals and assist, providing more than enough power in a 9-0 Bruins blowout over the Flames.

Bruins Win a Minute Into First

The Bruins won Thursday’s game just 1:14 into the first period. Benoit Pouliot – moving up a line because Brad Marchand had the flu – took the puck through the neutral zone and into the Flames’ zone. Pouliot then dished the puck to Bergeron along the boards by the right circle. Bergeron took the puck behind the net, then at the last second passed it in front to an awaiting Tyler Seguin.

Seguin wasted no time putting it past Calgary goalie Leland Irving for the only goal the Bruins would need. Not that that slowed down the offense or anything.

The Bruins went up 2-0 two minutes later on a bizarre shot by Milan Lucic. Stationed behind the right circle and not facing Leland, Lucic fired off a wristshot. Wherever the puck was supposed to go, it instead bounced off Flames center Olli Jokinen, ricocheting with such force that it went past a very surprised Irving and in for a 2-0 lead at 3:17. Horton and David Krejci both earned assists.

The Flames, meanwhile, looked completely over-matched on offense. Behind so quickly in Thursday’s game, they never established any kind of offensive rhythm, firing off random shots but never really challenging Tuukka Rask. And as the NHL’s leader in goals-against and save percentage, Rask didn’t have too work to hard to corral the few shots the Flames actually put on goal.

The Bruins went up 3-0 at 8:49 on a power play drawn by Zach Hamill on right winger Tom Kostopoulos. The Bruins worked the puck from the left circle to Zdeno Chara at the center of the blue line, who then dished it to Rich Peverley in the right circle. Peverley then cross-passed to Krejci, who fired off a wristshot from 29 feet for the goal.

Though the Bruins’ play slackened slightly following the goal, they still proved far too much for the Flames to handle. Boston played more aggressively, out-shooting Calgary 15-10 in the first, and more physically on face-offs, winning 15 of 17.

Flames Goalies Come Unglued in Second

Any hope the Flames had of somehow getting back in the game died less than two minutes into the second. Pouliot picked off a Flames pass in the neutral zone, then fed the puck to Seguin. With a typical burst of speed, Seguin took the puck all the way behind the Flames end-line, pulling several Flame defenders along with him and freeing up Bergeron, who snapped Seguin’s centering pass past Irving for the 4-0 lead.

Facing so, so many shots, Irving abandoned the glove save, instead just trying to deflect everything coming his way. That set up plenty of rebound opportunities, and the Bruins didn’t waste them. At 2:06, a shot from Andrew Ference bounced in front of Irving, and Chris Kelly slapped it back in for a 5-0 lead.

Just two minutes later, Horton scored his first goal in similar fashion, banking home a rebound from a shot by Lucic for a 6-0 lead that chased Irving from the goal. He added a second rebound-goal at 14:31, this time following a shot by Dennis Seidenberg at new goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

Rask’s only real challenge came in the second period, when Jerome Iginla came away with a rare loose puck in the Bruins’ zone and fired point-blank on Rask. Rask came slightly out of the goal and stonewalled Iginla, denying him his 500th career goal for another night.

The Flames never got a better shot at Rask Thursday, and the Bruins always kept enough defenders back to prevent any man-advantage situations for the Flames.

Bruins Take it Easy in Third, Still Score Twice

By the time the third period started, the Bruins had already out-shot the Flames 34-19 and won 17 more faceoffs. With victory long-since assured, they took a break in the third period.

That didn’t stop Bergeron scoring his second goal of the game to go up 7-0, but it did lead to two Bruins penalties in the final period. The second featured a big shot by Iginla at Rask with five seconds left in the game, but Rask easily made his 25th save of the game.

Daniel Paille also became the 12th Bruin to score at least one point, putting scoring a breakaway shorthanded goal for a 9-0 lead at 8:43 in the third.

Bergeron and Horton lead the Bruins with two goals and an assist apiece. Seguin scored one and notched two assists, while Pouliot assisted three times. Peverley and Chara each had two assists.

The Bruins will face the Vancouver Canucks Saturday afternoon in their first meeting since the Stanley Cup. “We want van!” the crowd cheered throughout the third.

With an offense this good, the crowd is right to call them out.

© Matt Goisman for Sports of Boston, 2012. | Permalink | No comment
Filed under: Bruins, Featured, Top Story.

Zdeno Chara made his return to the Bruins line up today as the Bruins took down the Flyers 6-0 in Philadelphia.

The Bruins had a great start to the game when Benoit Pouliot re-directed a nice pass from Rich Peverley 27 seconds into the game. Zdeno Chara made sure his return was noticed when he dropped the gloves two and a half minutes into the game. Daniel Paille scored off of a rebound at 2:50 of the first forcing Philadelphia to use a time out.

Zdeno Chara added a power play goal at 8:08 of the first. Milan Lucic added another power play goal at 17:10 on a five on three advantage. Johnny Boychuck stepped up and dropped the gloves when Scott Hartnell took a run at Brad Marchand.

Philadelphia opened the second period with a good shift but couldn’t break through. Nathan Horton put home a power play goal off of a rebound at 7:06 of the second period. Chara took the shot giving him the Gordie Howe hat trick. The Flyers changed goalies after the fifth Boston goal. Milan Lucic made a big hit on a Flyer player that led to Nathan Horton dropping the gloves. Lucic received a game misconduct for the hit.

Tyler Seguin and Shawn Thornton traded right-wing spots for most of the game, maybe a message being sent from the coach to Seguin. Seguin scored at 12:12 of the third, and from then on was back with his normal line for the goal. That was the final goal of the game for Boston making it 6-0.

Tim Thomas

Thomas once again was on top of his game, a Flyer player landed on his right arm early on in the game but Thomas was ok. His style of play really helped him in today’s game with skaters crashing the net left and right and Thomas flopping around in the blue paint. Thomas recorded his 30th career shut out today on 31 saves. Thomas is on pace to have better numbers this season than he did last season for which he took home some hardware.

Special Teams Play

The Bruins had a great day with the man advantage gping 3-8 on the power play. If this team can get the power play going on a regular basis they will be the best team in the league. The penalty kill was even more impressive holding Philadelphia to an 0-6 showing on the man advantage.

Game Notes

• Claude Julien recorded his 200th win as the Bruins coach
• Shawn Thornton played in his 400th NHL game
• Tim Thomas recorded his 30th career shut out

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | No comment
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It took a while to get on track in this game and the past few games, but the Boston Bruins finally started a new winning streak in Columbus, taking the win 5-3. Starting the game, it looked like Boston’s losing streak would be pushed to three games; just 5:46 in, the Blue Jackets took the lead over Boston with a wrist shot. At 11:09, they took advantage of a power play to take a multiple-goal lead over the defending champions. It took until 1:34 remained in the 1st Period for Boston to finally get on the board, thanks to Joe Corvo. With 49 seconds remaining in the period, Nathan Horton tied the game and gave Boston an uneasy sigh of relief heading into the locker room.

But the momentum didn’t cool off in the intermission. Just 58 seconds into the next period (and 18 seconds into a power play), Zdeno Chara launched a bomb right into the net to take the lead. That lead lasted well into the period until Tim Thomas, in a rare occurrence, was caught napping and allowed the tying goal with minutes remaining until the final period.

Columbus gave a lot in order to try and retake the lead, but in the end, Boston showed why they’re the best 3rd Period team in hockey. It was hard-fought hockey with only two penalties in the period, but Boston made the most of both of them. 6:44 into the period, Corvo struck again on the man advantage to retake the lead for Boston. Then, with 1:34 left in the game, Columbus, down by one, really shot themselves in the foot. A hooking penalty necessitated a shorthanded goal just to get a point out of the game, but Chris Kelly snapped in a goal with just 26 seconds to go to finish off the NHL’s cellar dwellers.

Scoring Summary

Penalty Summary

Goalie Stats

Shots on Goal

Game Notes

• Milan Lucic’s three assists gave him 100 on his career.
• Chara left the game in the 2nd period with a leg injury of unknown severity. Stay tuned to Sports of Boston for future updates.
• Tim Thomas was pulled from the game to begin the 3rd Period, the first time he’s failed to finish a start this season.

© John for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | No comment
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The Florida Panthers shut out the Bruins 2-0 Thursday night. Despite out-shooting the Panthers 40-30, the B’s couldn’t get one by Jose Theodore.

The Panthers have been one of the surprise teams this season in the NHL. Coming into Thursday, the Panthers sat in third place in the Eastern Conference, also riding a two-game winning streak and looking to leap-frog Boston for the number two spot in the conference.

The Bruins really had strong offense to start, as they fired pucks at Theodore for the first two and a half minutes of the game. The Bruins hit a post early on a deflected shot from the point.

Later, Daniel Paille took a high hit that sparked a reaction from Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton (Paille did not return). Thornton got to Barch first and stepped up for Paille but not many punches landed.

Boston went on the power play after the fight due to the high hit, but the PP once again produced nothing. The Bruins played the power play along the boards, but they needed to get the puck to the middle of the ice. The Bruins have the players to score on the man advantage, but they need to change the way they go about it.

Boston hit two more posts around the halfway point of the first, with Dennis Seidenberg and Patrice Bergeron doing the honors.

The Bruins then went back on the power play when Bergeron drew a tripping penalty. Boston couldn’t light the lamp again with the advantage, and the Panthers answered with a few chances on the next shift from the top line (Tomas Fleischmann, Stephen Weiss, Kris Versteeg).

The first good chance of the second came from Rich Peverley, who made a nice rush right to the front of the net. Brad Marchand took an elbowing penalty on the next shift, but the Panthers didn’t score on the advantage. Boston went on a third power play and still got no production from it. The fourth PP generated some good chances, but still no goals.

Johnny Boychuck had a huge hit in the second period and that was followed up by his first fight of the season. Boychuck handled himself pretty well, Boychuck had a visor on his helmet and Jack Skille couldn’t get it off, so it wasn’t really fair.

Boston put the pressure on five minutes into the third. Milan Lucic had a clean look in the slot, but Theodore made the glove save. Theodore made several saves on rebound chances and clean shots for the first ten minutes of the third, and he played well, including the help of five goal posts.

The Chris Kelly line had a pretty good shift with Peverley getting right in on goal again. The Krejci line followed that up with more offensive pressure. The Panthers finally got into the offensive zone with five minutes left in the game, but Tim Thomas made two huge saves.

Thomas didn’t get many shots on him for most of the third but he came up big when he got shots. Potential playoff match up of Thomas and Theodore would be a great series.

Thomas Kopecky scored the first goal of the game at 17:28 on a rebound that had Tim Thomas out of the net, Kopecky didn’t miss the open net. Boston pulled the goalie with a minute left in the game and got a good look from the point, but it was blocked. Kris Versteeg scored the empty net goal to make it 2-0 with under a minute left.

Brad Marchand got into a scrum with ten seconds left when he ducked a check. It was a nice move by Marchand with ten seconds left, but with Florida up two goals, why is he trying to make a huge hit?

Boston is back in action Saturday in Columbus.

Tyler Seguin

We all expected Tyler Seguin to have a strong game and he showed energy early with a couple of shots and even had a check in the defensive zone. He got a few shots off in the first and looked to be skating pretty well. Seguin got a couple slap shots from the wing but that’s not where he is most dangerous.

Seguin is a natural center playing wing, but I think he is more dangerous in the middle of the ice where he can open up some space to shoot or use his play making ability to set up his teammates.

Clearly it was a good offensive game for Seguin, but he did have chances all night. That doesn’t mean that he took being sat down the wrong way. Tyler did have a great shot at a tip in on a nice pass from Chara late in the game, but he couldn’t get his stick on the puck.

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | No comment
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Toronto came into the night riding a three game winning streak and had a one point lead over the Bruins, but Boston was too much for the Leafs and came away with a 6-3 win.

Boston had control of the puck for most of the early portion of the first period until Rich Pervely went to the box (high stick).  The Leafs took advantage of that with a goal from Mikhail Grabovski at 7:29 in the first period.

Tyler Seguin took a high sticking penalty with about six minutes left in the first but Toronto gave it right back and then some with back to back penalties giving Boston a two-man advantage. Milan Lucic scored at 15:08 on a nice pass from Tyler Seguin on the two-man advantage. Both Toronto and Boston had good movement and several scoring chances on power plays in the first. The Leafs nearly answered after the Lucic goal when Phil Kessel took off on a break away, Thomas handled it no problem.

David Krejci gave Boston a 2-1 lead at 3:33 in the second period. Nathan Horton made a nice rush up ice on the outside with a ton of speed and Krejci tapped home the rebound in traffic. Dion Phaneuf rang a post soon after the Bruins took the lead as Toronto took it to the Bruins at the end of a shift. Joffery Lupel tied it up again at 7:00, Phil Kessel set him up with a nice pass on a two on one.

Zdeno Chara broke the second tie with a wrist shot from the circle on a semi rush. The goal was set up by great work from the Krejci line, Horton again using his speed created the chance. Once again Toronto answered with strong play but Tim Thomas held up again. Boston entered the third period with a one goal lead and a 10-0-0 record when leading after two periods.

Boston went on an early power play in the third that produced no goal again. Benoit Pouliot scored in the vulnerable minute after the power play, Joe Corvo hit him with a nice pass from behind the net and Pouliot put one under the cross-bar. Matt Frattin beat Tim Thomas from a bad angle after another good answering shift after the Bruins score.

Toronto went on full attack for the final half of the third but Boston played smart and just cleared the zone and got pucks in deep. David Krejci handled the puck behind Toronto’s net for a few seconds then moved out and found Lucic out front for his second goal of the game. Boston had a 5-3 lead with roughly four and a half minutes to play, Toronto pulled the goalie with two minutes left in the game. Brad Marchand added an empty net goal with fifty seconds left in the game to seal the deal.

Boston finishes the month of November with zero regulation losses. The Bruins now sit in first place in the division and will look to expand on that lead Saturday as they face off with the Leafs in Boston.

Line Grades

Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton: A+, totaling seven points on the night, maybe the best game of the season for the top line.

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin: B-/C+, totaling only two points, got chances but we have seen what this line can do and it wasnt on display tonight.

Rich Peverly-Chris Kelly-Beniot Pouliot: B, totaling two points, had a strong game with chances and puck possession all night.

Shawn Thornton-Greg Campbell-Dan Paille: B-, totaling only one point, brought energy and got the job done just like every other game.

Goaltending

Tim Thomas: 34 saves, .919 save percentage

Jonas Gustavsson: 34 saves, .872 save percentage

Shots

Boston: 39

Toronto: 37

© Bobby Doherty for Sports of Boston, 2011. | Permalink | One comment
Filed under: Bruins, Featured, Top Story.