Different Season, Same Result

The Bruins rolled into the Bell Centre last night for the first time since their season ended there last year, looking to start off the season series against the Canadiens on a positive note. The B's had a lot going against them last night: Montreal had yet to lose in regulation, it was their home opener so the "Ole!" chants were going to be extra loud, and it marked the beginning of the Habs "Centennial Season" celebration, complete with old Canadiens legends coming back out onto the ice.

As I said in the previous post, if the Bruins could weather the storm early, they'd be in good shape. Well, they did that, and were actually able to control the flow of the game for a bit in the first period, giving the Montreal crowd little to cheer about.

Shawn Thornton welcomed Georges Laraque to the Northeast Division in this early-first period bout:



Tough to say who won this one. Thornton scored an early takedown when he caught BGL off balance, but allowed him to get up and continue the fight. BGL got some good "clubs" off of the back of Thornton's head, but neither really landed any good shots. I'd have to say that this one goes in the books as a draw, or maybe the tiniest of edges to Laraque, simply because he landed more punches.

After the usual hijinks were out of the way, it was back to the regular game. The Bruins had done a good job staying out of trouble and away from the penalty box, a place one never wants to find himself against Montreal. However, Dennis Wideman finally lost his cool, getting called for cross-checking one of the Kostitsyn sisters after a mild dust-up. Sister Kostitsyn actually leglocked Wideman and tripped him before Wideman hit him back, but the ref, as is usually the case, only saw the retaliation.

16 seconds after Wideman went into the box, Alex Kovalev scored a power-play goal to give the Habs the lead, bring the building to life, and put the Bruins behind the eight ball early. However, that wasn't big enough of a hole for the B's who gave up another goal to Saku Koivu a little over a minute later, then decided "What the hell, we're already down two, may as well get lazy on the power play", and gave up a shorthanded goal to Maxim Lapierre. Ouch. 3 goals in a little over 3 minutes. Lights out, right?

Well, seemingly, yes. But this Bruins group showed no signs of fear or intimidation at the hands of Montreal, despite the playoff exit and last season's numerous embarassments. Instead, the Bruins came out charging in the second, again controlling the play, and finally got one on the board when David Krecji beat Carey Price with a slap shot moments after a Bruins power play expired.

The B's would keep up the pressure into the third, when Marc Savard fired one past Price to bring the Bruins within a goal. After that, the B's pressed on, desperate to tie the game. With just under a minute left, Tim Thomas began to head to the bench for an extra attacker. The puck was fired into the Montreal zone, intended as a dump-in to try and get possession of the puck, and Price went around behind his net to try to stop the puck. However, the puck took a funny bounce off of the boards and ended up squirting right out into the crease of an empty net. A streaking Savard seized the opportunity and banged the puck into the net, tying the game with 48 seconds left.

The Bruins trailed gave up three goals in three minutes, on the road against the Canadiens, and then came back to tie the game with seconds to go. This is the kind of performance that builds teams, and shows that this team will not be a pushover, no matter what obstacle it's facing. It wouldn't have been surprising, or even hard to fault the B's had they disappeared after those horrendous three minutes in the first period, but they fought back and tied the game, standing up to Montreal and giving hope to fans as well.

As overtime came to a close without any real scoring chances from either team, save for a breakaway with moments left by Kovalev that may not have even counted even if Thomas didn't save it, it was time for a shootout. Phil Kessel shot first for the B's, and had Price beat but the puck didn't lay flat for him and he lost the handle, the puck sliding harmlessly into Price's pads. Thomas then stopped Andrei Markov, and Patrice Bergeron, who did the same "5-hole" move he does everytime he's in a shootout, was stopped by Price. Alex Tanguay, an offseason acquisition by the Habs, beat Thomas with a wicked wrister, leaving the game on the stick of the third Boston shooter, none other than...Michael Ryder.

The former Hab was jeered all night by his former fans, and could have really shut them up by tying the shootout. However, it was not meant to be last night, as Price slammed the door on Ryder and gave the Habs the win.

Despite ultimately coming up short, the fact that the B's got a point out of a game they trailed 3-0 before the game was 10 minutes old is encouraging. The Canadiens are, by all "expert" accounts, the class of the Eastern Conference, and the Bruins showed that not only can they play with them, but they can control the play as well. Sure, the B's didn't get the win, and still haven't beaten the Habs in a regular season game in over a season. But a point is a point, and the B's can take note of the fact that if not for those three wretched minutes in the first, they may have left Montreal with a 3-0 victory.

Final Roster Set

After announcing their final cuts today, the Bruins now have their 2008-2009 opening night roster.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2008-2009 Boston Bruins:

FORWARDS
Marc Savard
Patrice Bergeron
Michael Ryder
Marco Sturm
Phil Kessel
PJ Axelsson
Petteri Nokelainen
David Krecji
Milan Lucic
Chuck Kobasew
Vladimir Sobotka
Shawn Thornton
Blake Wheeler
Stephane Yelle

DEFENSEMEN
Zdeno Chara
Aaron Ward
Mark Stuart
Andrew Ference
Andrew Alberts
Shane Hnidy
Dennis Wideman

GOALIES
Tim Thomas
Manny Fernandez


The last three cuts were: Nate Thompson, Jeremy Reich, Matt Hunwick, and Peter Schaefer.

Hunwick is being sent directly to Providence, as he doesn't have to clear waivers. Thompson and Reich both do, and speculation is that Thompson will be claimed by some team before tomorrow's noon deadline, meaning he would no longer be Bruins property. Reich could be claimed by a team looking to add some grit to its lineup. Schaefer is the more notable one, as the Bruins essentially dropped him to make space for Wheeler. They are still on the hook for his salary, even if he gets claimed by another team, but it doesn't count against the all-important salary cap.

Schaefer turned it on in the playoffs last year, and may get a few looks by some teams looking to add a viable second or third scoring option. However, he didn't really show much life at times here with the B's, so it remains to be seen if any team wants to take a flyer on him. Even though he was basically "dropped", it seems like this was something he expected, according to Fluto Shinzawa's Bruins Blog on Boston.com. Best of luck to Schaefer, wherever he ends up.

Here are my proposed opening night lines:

Ryder-Savard-Lucic
Kessel-Bergeron-Sturm
Wheeler-Krecji-Kobasew
Axelsson-Nokelainen/Sobotka-Yelle

Chara-Wideman
Ward-Stuart
Ference-Hnidy/Alberts

Thomas
Fernandez

Basically, there will be 3 healthy scratches a night it seems. Above, it would be 3 out of Hnidy, Alberts, Thornton, Yelle, Nokelainen and Sobotka.

This is all barring some more moves before the season starts, which, though unlikely, are entirely possible as well. If not, this line-up looks pretty solid, and looks like it should have more scoring punch than last year's group. We'll find out on Thursday night.

Back at the Bell Centre: New Season, Same Result

Wednesday night, the Boston Bruins returned to the scene of their last loss of the 2007-2008 season, a 5-0 loss in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Granted, this was a preseason game, with a level of importance not even close to that of postseason hockey, but it was at the Bell Centre nonetheless.

This game, like all but one of the B's preseason games thus far, wasn't available on television, and the only radio feed available was that of CJAD out of Montreal. Uh oh, homer alert! But listening to play-by-play through bleu, blanc et rouge glasses is better than not listening to hockey at all.

The Bruins ended up losing this one 3-1, with Manny Fernandez giving up three power play markers in the defeat. Fernandez made 25 saves in the losing effort, but according to coach Claude Julien, played very well. A solid game seems like a must at this point for Manny. After reading this article by ESPN.com's Scott Burnside, it was hard to imagine Manny has all that much confidence in himself. One of the many things the NHL has proven over the years is that a solid 1-2 punch in net is never a bad thing, and the B's need Fernandez to play like the number one they acquired him to be.

It was a pretty decent game for the Bruins (from what I could hear, anyways, as it's always hard to judge without video, but...), who seemed to turn up the heat big time in the third period. There were a couple of occasions where they seemed to be knocking on the door, sometimes literally, with scrums for the puck in front of Jaroslav Halak, but they just couldn't put it away. Their one goal came on the powerplay, on a goal that the Habs' broadcasters seemed to describe almost as a "tic-tac-toe" goal, a perfectly executed power play strike, one that I believe they termed "inevitable", given the pressure the B's were putting on.

Here are some other pro's and con's from the game:


Pro's:

• Milan Lucic seemed to have a pretty good game. He's had a less than stellar camp so far, and probably needs to play better in these last few tune-ups to secure himself a spot on the roster. Yes, he's a fan favorite, but in no way is he an incumbent for a roster spot. Lucic has a ton of potential, and needs to turn it up a bit to solidify his standing.
• Blake Wheeler, a bit of a dark horse to make the team at the start of camp, seems to have almost assuredly gotten himself a place on the roster. GM Peter Chiarelli would have to do some juggling to get Wheeler on the team, as he has a pretty big (over $1 mil.) bonus that would need to be absorbed into the salary cap, but by all media accounts Wheeler seems to have been a standout throughout the entire camp. His name was mentioned quite frequently on the broadcast tonight, and always in a good manner. It's early, but Wheeler seems like he's been a great pick up by Chiarelli so far.
• Zdeno Chara, in his first game-action in the preseason, was unloading from the point on the power play. Some of the shots could be heard booming off of the pads of Halak even on the radio feed, so hopefully Chara's surgically repaired shoulder is at 100%.
• Patrice Bergeron and Mark Savard both seemed to be making plays as well, with Bergeron's name appearing all over the dial throughout the game.

Con's:

• This one could probably be split into two con's, but it'll instead go under one: special teams. The Bruins PK remained suspect, allowing all three goals (though one was on a 5-3, which is a situation where a team really can't be blamed for allowing a goal). To compound matters, the Montreal power play seemed as strong as ever, showing no signs of coming down from their #1 power play ranking from last season. This is bad for the Bruins, as the Montreal power play burned them almost too many times to count last season. The Bruins PK needs to improve from their bottom-half of the league ranking last year, and should do that with the acquisition of Stephane Yelle, a strong defensive player.
• Michael Ryder probably shouldn't be named as a complete "con", but he didn't do much in this game to shake his reputation of no longer being able to finish that followed him from Montreal. One of the reasons Bruins fans grew tired of Glen Murray was due to his inability to put home goals, despite constantly seeming to be in prime position. Ryder seemed to have plenty of shots, but missed the net fairly often. If Ryder is going to be the scorer the Bruins need him to be, he's got to start hitting the net.
  
• The physical play seemed lacking tonight. It almost seemed like the Bruins were shying away from their physical game, something that almost always led to trouble last season. When the Bruins impose their physical will on their opponents, their defensive style of play is far more effective. Plus, what real Bruins fan doesn't like to see a member of the Black and Gold lay out, as Shawn Thornton put it the other day, one of those "little French guys"?

Overall, a loss is a loss, but in the same vein, a preseason loss is just a preseason loss. No big deal, take the positives and negatives from it and move on. The B's next game is on Saturday, at home at the TD Banknorth Garden versus the New York Islanders. The game is on NESN too, for readers in the Boston area. I'm planning on going to this game, and should have more to report on after seeing the team in person.

Until then, go B's.