Late game lapse sends Bruins into All-Star weekend on loosing note

(Photo by AP)

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins lost their final game before the All-Star break, a matchup with the Colorado Avalanche, by virtue of something that has become a regular occurrence in the Bruins recent meetings with the Colorado; the late goal.

The Bruins allowed two goals in the last two minutes of periods Wednesday night. Ultimately, they squandered a 2-1 lead in the third period when they allowed Ryan O’Reilly to score for Colorado with the goalie pulled and 1:45 left on the game clock.

The Avalanche, invigorated by their comeback, dominated overtime and scored the only goal in the ensuing shootout, winning the game.

“We played a good 58 minutes of hockey and killed a lot of good penalties,” said Bruins defensemen, Torey Krug. “(Rask) came up big for us in some key moments. They just out-battled us at the end and they scored the only goal in the shootout that mattered.”

The Bruins out-hit the Avalanche for all three periods of the game. They held onto the puck with ease, recording 0 giveaways and were gritty in the defensive zone with 27 blocked shots.

Their goalie, Tuukka Rask played well and, for the near entirety of the first period, held the Avalanche off the board. It was not until former Bruin, Jarome Iginla, batted in a rebound with 0.4 seconds left in the period that Colorado managed to draw blood.

The Bruins responded 4:47 into the second period when David Pastrnak’s shot ricocheted to Krug who proceeded to score his ninth goal of the season.

The Bruins played “competent” hockey Wednesday night but struggled with discipline. Even as they eventually took a 2-1 lead off of Brad Marchand’s first goal since his suspension, they were called for penalties. By night’s end, seven Bruins went to the penalty box.

“I thought  we played well the first two periods. We were moving the puck well and skating well for a back-to-back games and again, those penalties took their toll on us,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien.

Julien expressed frustration at an apparent discrepancy in penalty calling. Notably, Jarome Iginla, seemed to get away with an overt trip of Brad Marchand early in the game. No penalties were called and in fact, the Avalanche were called for just three minor penalties Wednesday.

“It's too bad. It's such a close game and to have an edge on us in power-plays is unbelievable,” Julien complained. “There were some blatant missed calls out there and its' getting frustrating. Because at the end of the day, guys work hard they kill penalties, they get burnt out and run out of gas at the end. That took its toll."

Still though, the Bruins seemed displeased mainly with the fundamental issues that took place within their own team; especially on O’Reilly’s game tying goal in the third period.

“We have to look at ourselves here,” Julian said. “It's poor management. We had the puck at least three maybe four times with 27 seconds left where we could have done something much better and we didn't. That's our own fault. And at the end of the game, we need to be a little more aware of when they pull their goalie, we have to collapse a little better and we allowed a guy to come into the slot there and score.”

With the NHL’s All-Stars competing in the All-Star game this weekend in Columbus, the Bruins are off for the next week. Though a loss to Colorado stings, they can seek solace in the fact that they enter the break having taken at least a point out of 12 of their last 13 games.

“It's pretty disappointing obviously but we battled hard and we had a lot of good penalty kills there,” said Tuukka Rask. “It's too bad we got scored on in the last two minutes, but we played a good game today.”

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3 takeaways from Bruins 3-1 loss to Columbus Blue Jackets

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins were dealt a painful loss Saturday night, losing by a score of 3-1. Carl Soderberg scored Boston's only goal while Tuukka Rask was good for much of the game.

Below are some takeaways from the loss...

Winning streak over

The Bruins were riding high going into this game. They had won five straight contests and taken points out of their last 13 games.

Though they played similarly to the way they have been throughout this streak, Saturday's loss ruined the absoluteness of their early 2015 run. The Bruins, having also watched as the Rangers beat the Blue Jackets the night before to reclaim the first wild card spot, now have their record drop to 24-16-6 on the season and will have to wait until Tuesday to get their next chance at leapfrogging New York.

Bruins absorb loss of Marchand

One of the biggest storylines going into Saturday's game was that surrounding the suspension of Brad Marchand for slew-footing Rangers forward Derick Brassard. Marchand was suspended two games by the Department of Player Safety Friday and spoke to media Saturday morning on the topic.

While there was little opposition to the suspension within the Bruins or even Boston as a whole, there was much to be said about how the team would absorb the loss of him vs Columbus.

Very simply, the Bruins seemed to play seamlessly without the grit of Marchand. Fourth line winger Danial Pallie was promoted to Marchand's normal line consisting of Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith. He and his line rattled off 10 shots and played normal ice time.

Though the Bruins definitely missed Marchand, Saturday's game seemed to settle some fluttering fears that his absence would devastate the team's momentum.

Milan Lucic dominates finesse game

Milan Lucic, who already had three goals in the new year, played one of his best fundamental games fans have seen out of him in a while.

He and linemates, David Krejci and David Pastrnak, were connecting on passes with showstopping consistency Saturday. Furthermore, Lucic himself put up five shots in the loss, more than he had in any game this season. Though he did not factor into the score sheet in a major way, Lucic was arguably the Bruins best offensive player vs the Blue Jackets; something that has not been true for a long time.

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Takeaways from Bruins/Senators: McQuaid gritty in return, Chara continues alarming trend

(Photo by the AP)

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins fell to the Senators Saturday afternoon in Boston, loosing in overtime by a score of 3-2. The game was dotted with budding animosity and had fans watching closely as young stars, Tory Krug and Seth Griffith complimented a host of Bruins veterans working to get the game to overtime. 

Bobby Ryan's overtime goal sent ultimatly them home sad for a second straight game though as the Bruins fell to 19-15-5 on the season. 

Below are a few takeaways from the game. 

Bruins take it to overtime once again

As much as December was a down moth for the Bruins they did get to overtime in five of their fourteen games. Though they were not winning with consistency, they were snapping up meager points where they could get them.

The same was the case Saturday with Boston dragging the contest past regulation for the second straight game.

Boston battled hard, tying the game in the second period and jumping out to a lead midway through the third. Despite then conceding to Ottawa, the Bruins held down the fort in the final frame dominating in the face-off circle and forcing Ottawa's shots to the perimeter.

Though they did not get two points, the "looser's point" which came for their getting to overtime locked them into a tie with the Panthers for 5th in the Atlantic Division.

Adam McQuaid gritty, fundamentally strong in return

Adam McQuaid who had not played for the Bruins since November 18th, made his return for the Bruins Saturday afternoon. He bumped young defender Matt Bartkowski out of the lineup and returned to his rightful spot alongside veteran Dennis Sidenberg.

McQuaid played 17 minutes and 26 seconds in his return. He blocked a shot and worked on the Bruins penalty kill unit all afternoon logging over a minute of shorthanded time.

His main strong suit as a player and as a player in this specific game vs the Senators however is his physicality and battling spirit. McQuaid did not hold back in his return. breaking out the face washes and late jabs to the chest by the dozen. He cleared the front of the net all afternoon and repeatedly sent Senators players complaining to officials in search of judicial retribution for various sneaky infractions.

Only once however did the officials oblige as his sole violence penalty came in the second period in the form of a rough against Clarke MacArthur.

McQuaid's physicality worked for the Bruins and gave them impressive grit and fire especially in the first period. If he can sustain that kind of lead-by-example play, he could be soon working wonders for this team.

Tory Krug continues hot streak, getting more aggressive in offensive zone

Tory Krug scored again vs. the Senators when he ripped a second period slapshot past Craig Anderson to tie the game at 1.

Krug now has goals in back-to-back games and also has points in four of his last five games. He has been jumping into the attack with more and more confidence and seems to be earning the trust of his coaches who are letting him do so.

One of the best examples of his offensive activity vs the Senators actually came on a play that was not reflected on the score-sheet, in his favor, in any way.

On Brad Marchand's slick skated, elusively placed goal to start the third period, Krug, who started the play at the blueline, rotated in behind Marchand as he skated out from behind the goal. As Marchand brought the puck out beyond the tops of the face off circles, Krug slid into a screen position and in turn drew tight coverage from the Ottawa defense.

That left Marchand open enough to get his clear, goal scoring shot off before being taken down by Clarke MacArthur.

Krug's involvement in the offense has the Bruins rolling. The addition of his slapshot goal to his resume also gives Boston a defender with 7 goals this season. That aspect alone is one that they can brag about being one of the best in, in the NHL.

Zdeno Chara uncharacteristically struggling with positioning, keeping on opponents

In his 16th NHL season, Zdeno Chara is finally showing signs of age. He has just two goals and six assists this season and has a +/- of two.

Chara is also moving slower and is almost appearing less aware of where his assignments are on the ice this season. That was starkly evident Saturday.

The Bruins captain was on the ice with shutdown partner Dennis Sidenberg for the overtime shift that was eventually end with Bobby Ryan's OT winner for Ottawa. As the play that spawned that goal developed, Chara ended up chasing opposing captain Erik Karlsson into the corner. Karlsson spun out of the corner and, in doing so, felled Chara to the ice.

Chara hobbled on his knees for a split second as Bobby Ryan shook off his defenders and cut back towards the goal. Unfortunately, by the time Chara slowly found his feet Ryan was already in front of him enough so that when the puck came back to him, he was able to tip the puck into the net before Chara could play the body.

This marks the second straight game where Chara has been at fault for a goal. On New Year's Eve vs Toronto, he was caught moving in the wrong direction against James Van Reimsdyk and, as a result, gave up a clear breakaway that resulted in a then go-ahead-goal.

Finding his strength has been a spoken about struggle for a little while now with Chara; but the sudden appearance of these positional miscues has Bruins fans both worried and angry as their captain continues to cost them in key moments.

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Bruins needing to change their shootout approach following loss to Maple Leafs

(Photo by Gregory Fisher/USA Today Sports)

by Dakota Antelman

As much as the NHL knows how much fans and players alike seem to hate the convention of the shootout, the absolute way of determining a winner in EVERY hockey game has it going nowhere.

As a result, the Bruins, who were most recently hurt by the shootout in New Year’s Eve game with the Toronto Maple Leafs, are in desperate need of an internal overhaul to their approach to the shootout. With it likely being a part of hockey for many years to come, the Bruins need to find out how to win shootouts. This is simply because right now, that is not happening.

Their December 31^st game that ultimately ended in the shootout loss began uneventfully. The Bruins fell behind 1-0 but kept pace when Tuukka Rask stopped a key penalty shot in the first period. The Bruins came back firing following the first intermission, tying the game and eventually trading goals with the Maple Leafs in the second period. They finished regulation tied with the Leafs at three goals a-piece.

After bouncing through overtime without a game winning goal, the game went to the shootout.

The TD Garden rang with boos of the shootout convention while its few supporters tried to explain its rules to still others who did not understand it.

As the Zamboni drove off the ice and the administrators of the dry scrape walked down the maintenance tunnel, the Bruins and Maple Leafs conferred with officials.   

The home Bruins elected to have Toronto shoot first as they finalized their own shooters.

Needless to say even that was not enough to stave off the shifty shootout goals and five round win enjoyed by the Leafs.

But it was not their talent that doomed Boston, it was the Bruins’ own mismanagement of their shooters that prevented them from closing out 2014 on a winning note.

Accounting for the sudden death rounds of the shootout, the Bruins sent five shooters to center ice. They started with Reilly Smith, then they sent Tory Krug, Brad Marchand, Seth Griffith and finally David Krejci who missed on a must-make shot that ended the game.

The lineup was bizarre to say the least with a defensemen taking the second shot and a 50% career penalty shot shooter in Patrice Bergeron never taking the ice. Of a fundamentally talented Bruins attack, Claude Julian selected a group of five players with a career penalty shot conversion percentage of 19%. Furthermore, he did so against a Toronto shootout attack that came in with some of the best numbers in the league.

Boston was swiftly embarrassed by Maple Leaf shooters who entered with a shootout conversion percentage of 39% and nailed two of five shots on Rask.

So what is the problem? How can this be fixed?

Well, not too long ago mind you, the Bruins were, hands down, the best team in hockey in terms of winning shootouts.

Two seasons ago, in the season of their dominant run to their second Stanley Cup in three seasons, the Bruins reaped the benefits of a near immaculate winning percentage in shootout games. That sterling reputation was the direct byproduct of their lights out shooting lineup.

Each time the shootout was needed, in almost painful repetition, the Bruins would send Tyler Seguin, Patrice Bergeron and Davis Krejci to the puck.

Those players would constantly score on 40-50% of shots. They legitimately capped off hours of play with three minutes bearing three darting goals from the top of the opponents crease.

Things changed though after Seguin left Boston following the season. The Bruins started sending Marchand out in the top three and testing Loui Eriksson in the number two slot. They dropped Krejci out of the traditional shooting lineup and over time even let Bergeron fade.

And what for; so that they could let Seth Griffith shoot, so they could let a lucky Tory Krug pound a shot off Johnathan Bernier’s pad?

The Bruins need to rework their shootout approach. Bergeron needs to get back into the mix and we need to see somebody come through as a prime shooter for the team. 

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Bruins offence continues slump in 2-0 loss to Kings

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins lost 2-0 to the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday night in LA. The game served as the middle portion of a three game Southern California road trip.

Johnathan Quick stopped 31 shots in his third shutout of the season while a first period goal by Tanner Pearson stood up as the game winner. Throughout the night, strong defense by the Kings stifled the Bruins attack. They defended their blueline with ferocity throwing 28 hits and confined the Bruins to the perimeter of the offensive zone with apparent ease. Though the Bruins did get 31 shots off from that position, they recorded far fewer scoring chances.

The latter of those statements bit the Bruins noticeably.

“We’ve done a lot of good things, but at the same time when we’re not scoring then any small mistakes turn into big ones,” said Bruin center, Patrice Bergeron. “We don’t make up for it on the offense. We’re playing a pretty stingy game when it’s 1-0, so defense isn’t a problem. We just have to find a way to score more goals.”

Furthermore, even though they forced more giveaways, more takeaways, and blocked far more shots than the Kings, Boston was still outshot as they failed to create sustained pressure in the offensive zone.

The Bruins inability to solve the Kings defense long enough to fabricate rebounds into additional shots was partially due to Quick’s dominance. Beyond Quick though, LA’s defenders backed their goalie up with clearances and physical back-checking in the corners and along the boards.

Quick and the defense were actually crucial in initiating the play that resulted in the King’s first goal. In his own end, Quick managed to usher a long Bruins shot wide of the net. He then watched as Kings defender, Jake Muzzin, hammered Bruins forward, Loui Erickson, off the puck in the neutral zone. Ultimately, Muzzin turned the puck towards Niklas Svedberg and the Bruins goal.  There, through crisp passing by Kings forwards, Anze Kopitar and Brandon McNabb, Tanner Pearson took a shot from open space that beat Svedberg.

The first goal demoralized the Bruins. They entered the game with LA with a purpose and saw the Kings as a team that they could jump on early. In the four games they played before the game with Boston, LA had been outscored 6-1 in the 1^stperiod. But after getting behind the ball early with a long 5 on 3 penalty kill, the Bruins were tired and disorganized in their defense. That defense was caught bunched up near the net and allowed the Kings first goal to play itself out without any of the Bruins getting a stick on the puck.

From there though, Boston tried and at times succeeded in generating shots. Beyond offence, goalie, Svedberg, played shut down hockey between the pipes stopping 20 straight shots between the Pearson goal and when he was pulled for the extra skater in the final minutes of the game.

"They've given us a chance to win hockey games,” Bruins coach Claude Julian said of his goalies’ performances in not only this game but Monday night’s meeting with the Ducks as well. “Again, we just can't find ways to score some goals here. It's hard to get mad at these guys when you see the effort being put in and the commitment and everything else.”

Despite strong efforts by the Bruins goalies, there has been little offensive support of late. That is because several players that the Bruins rely on for goals have fallen into simultaneous slumps. Reilly Smith has not scored in 10 games while Loui Erickson has gone 11 games without a goal. Even players who are dominating regularly this season and played well rounded games vs the Kings have struggled to win “puck luck” in recent weeks and days.

Carl Soderberg saw almost two fewer minutes of ice time Tuesday than is regular for him and failed to score on the one shot that he took on goal. He himself has gone 10 games without a goal. On a somewhat lesser scale, rookie David Pastrnak, despite leading the Bruins in CORSI, +/- and shots on goal since being called up from Providence, has yet to log an NHL point for the team.

The Bruins are struggling to score goals but will play Thursday night in San Jose looking to salvage some points from this three game West Coast trip.

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Tuukka Rask bails out slow Bruins offense: Bruins beat Jets 2-1 on Hamilton OT winner

November 29, 2014

by Dakota Antelman

The Boston Bruins and Winnipeg Jets engaged in a gritty, up and down game Friday night that ultimately culminated in an overtime decision in favor of the Bruins.

The Bruins, fresh off back to back losses to Montreal and Pittsburgh entered the game rested and revamped after a week of tough practice.

But after all their preparation, things did not get off on the right foot for Boston. An early penalty kill situation in the first period was not executed adequately by the Bruins and resulted in Jets forward, Dustin Byfuglien scoring with just four minutes left in the opening frame.

The late goal served as a bit of a slap in the face for the Bruins. They had spent most of the week addressing their scoring problems and stressing the need to work harder defensively in the middle portions of the ice. Of course, none of that happened.

“Everything we talked about (yesterday) morning didn’t happen in the first period,” said Julien.

The Bruins did manage to turn things around following the Byfuglien goal however. Bruins goalie, Tuukka Rask stopped a seemingly endless quartet of breakaways while stuffing countless shots on any number of the ensuing power plays that the Jets got.

“Tuukka’s one of the best goalies, if not the best goalie, in the league,” said forward Reilly Smith. “Sometimes we rely on him too much, but he does a good job handling the pressure that’s put on him.”

Rask ended the game with 35 saves, several of which came in some key moments during a four minute penalty kill at the end of regulation and the beginning of overtime. 

As for the goal that got the Bruins to overtime; that came from big bodied left winger, Milan Lucic.

After Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said earlier this week that the Bruins needed more size and physicality in front of the net, Lucic demolished Jets forward Mark Scheifele by skating hard to tip teammate Carl Soderberg’s pass into the net.

Finally, something they had worked on in practice paid off for Boston.

“We worked on that this week – going D-to-D and up, and that’s what we did,” Soderberg said. 

“Looch skated to the middle and left the puck for me, and I drove the net. So that’s how we scored.”

With the game tied, the onus was put back on Rask to at the very least keep it that way. Things were complicated in the final three minutes of the game though when Bruins pest, Brad Marchand, took a double minor penalty for high sticking.

Even then though, Rask stood tall once even gloving the puck down to his stick and clearing it out of the zone on his own.

“You’re just in survival mode there,” laughed Rask after the game. “You’re trying to secure that point.”

His work was finally rewarded by the rest of the team roughly four minutes later when defensemen Dougie Hamilton smacked a wrist shot from the hash marks into the net to win the game for Boston.

The goal was yet another product of a Bruins odd man rush that seemed to get better and better as the game went on. Carl Soderberg took the puck in the neutral zone and skated with it into the Jets end as Lucic and rookie David Pastrnak curled in towards the net. Rather than passing it to them though, Soderberg turned towards a trailing Hamilton and slid the puck to his stick.

Hamilton, using the screen of Pastrnak and Lucic let rip a screaming shot that decisively ended the game for Boston.

“Obviously, it felt pretty good. I don't know if I ever scored an overtime goal before, so a pretty — pretty good feeling, and a pretty good feeling to get the win after the start that we had.”

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Dennis Sidenberg goal catalyzes Bruins comeback: 4-3 final on Kokhlachev shootout winner

November 21st, 2014

by Dakota Antelman

A slow start proved to be nothing that could not be overcome by a resilient Bruins team Friday night.

After falling behind 2-0 early in the first period, the Bruins scored three times in the final 20 minutes of the game to eventually tie things up and secure at least a point . From there they stumbled through a tight OT period and a seven round shootout before finally rookie forward Alex Kohlachev ended things for Boston. 

For those present, the polar changes made between the first two periods and the third were so drastic that they seemed to break Friday’s game in two.

“As a team we kind of let go of our 1st period problems and started going hard in the 3rd period,” said Bruins goalie Niklas Svedberg.

The Bruins were outshot, out hit and generally outplayed early on with Svedberg himself making key positional mistakes. Both of his goals allowed came on deflected shots taken when he was deep in his own net. 

 Beyond that, the Bruins defensive core was physically lacking with younger defenders Matt Bartowski and Kevin Miller surrendering the neutral zone to Columbus’ rushes with frequency.

But however bad as things seemed, the coaching staff seemed to diagnose and remedy their problems with ease and decisiveness during their address to the team during the second intermission.

“We were doing good things in the first two periods but in the end it was those little things that were getting us,” Bruins coach Claude Jullian said of his addressing the team at the break. “Little things we had to get better at. Those being just getting some presence on our shots, we were taking these shots with nobody there for rebounds. We just needed more net and that’s what we got in that third period.”

The Bruins, ignited by whatever was specifically said in that second intermission, saw their 

competitive spirit fanned into a roaring bonfire when Dennis Seidenberg hammered an 80ft slap shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to break the shutout. The goal which was scored just over a minute into the third period was the catalyst of the eventual comeback.

“Those first two periods were kind of boring, but that third period must have been fun to watch!” Said Svedberg.

Svedberg would surrender a late goal that sent the game to overtime but was generally strong. He stopped 8 of 9 third period shots. For him though, the dominance was most notably felt in the shootout where he stopped all of Columbus’ seven shots.

Jullian glowed about his goalie’s performance after the game.

“They got some pretty good shootout players on their team and Svedberg stood tall and really played great in that shootout,” he said.

Needless to say, some sort of scoring must be achieved to win a hockey game. In the end it was another rookie who got the job done. Alex Khokhlachev, who still does not have an NHL goal, grabbed his first shootout winner when he slipped a wrist shot under the pad of Bobrovsky in the seventh round.

The goal served as Boston’s walk off for the night with the Bruins skating over to congratulate Kokhlachev before immediately turning their focus to Saturday’s meeting with the Canadians.

All and all, the team was happy with how they exhibited their ability to turn games around when they seem surely lost.

"That was a good comeback win, knowing we're down two goals going into the third," said Julien. "To be able to get that short-lived 3-2 lead was a good sign from this hockey club."

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Seth Griffith excels as Bruins snap two game skid: Bruins top Hurricanes 2-1

November 15th, 2014

by Dakota Antelman

After a disastrous two game Canadian road trip in which the Bruins were outscored 11-2, the team came home to Boston with a sense of urgency. In their matinee game Saturday, the Bruins made good on their urgency, beating the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 2-1.

The Bruins had fallen from grace this week after their five game win streak was snapped and soured by 6-1 and 5-1 losses to the Maple Leafs and Canadians respectively. They played soft making mistakes by the dozen and watching as their goalie, Tuukka Rask uncharacteristically fell apart vs the Maple Leafs.  

They understood the mistakes they made in those games and came home with a brand new will to win.

"I think it's probably the most important part of going into today's game, was upping our competitive level, emotional level and physical play," said Bruins winger Milan Lucic.

Coach Claude Jullian eluded to a subliminal reigniting of the competitive flame after those losses.

"What you've gone through the last two games, I don't think you're automatically going to turn the page. We've got to build ourselves back up there, and today was a good start."

Yet with all their preparations, things seemed to get off on the wrong foot for the Bruins. They were outshot for most of the first period and eventually fell behind when Juri Tlusty banked in his 7^th goal of the year.

"We started on time for sure. But for whatever reason, we didn't have 60,"said Carolina head coach Bill Peters.

As he suggested, the Bruins turned things around soon after the Tlusty goal. They killed a near two minute 5 on 3 man advantage for the Hurricanes that started mere seconds after the goal.

"That always comes back to haunt you. It gives you momentum if you can kill it, and it hurts you a little bit mentally if you don't score," Peters said of his team’s losing momentum from the 5-3 failure. "It would have been nice to get one."

Eight minutes after the 5 on 3, a strong hustle play by Bruin rookie forward Seth Griffith combined with a weak pass in front of the net by Andrej Sekera led to an awkward goal for the Bruins that tied the game at one. The goal was Griffith’s fourth of the season and signified yet another moment where a younger Bruin stepped up to make a huge play for the team

“These games are about the veterans leading the way,” said Bruin center Patrice Bergeron. “But with all the injuries, the young guys have to seize the moment and come up huge; and that’s what they did today.”

Bergeron himself scored with 49 seconds left in the first period giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

From there the team managed to hold down the fort. Rask made 33 saves and the Bruins hit hard and often to keep the Hurricanes out of the zone for much of the second and third periods.

 All and all Saturday was a much better effort for the Bruins as it also featured the 60 minute consistency that was lacking on their recent road trip.

“It was good,” Bergeron said. “Everything was a step in the right direction. The second was one of them as well. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s definitely better. It’s definitely something we can build from and keep working on, but that being said, we’ve been able to keep the lead and that’s something that you can definitely build from.”

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Up and down Bruins top Sabers in OT thriller, Brad Marchand gets back on track

October 31st, 2014

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins moved back to 500 on the season with a 3-2 win over the Sabers in Buffalo.  The victory was their first sealed in the overtime period this season and, like so many other games, it seemed to reassure fans of the team’s integrity. 

After a painful late game collapse earlier this week in Minnesota, the Bruins entered this game suddenly lacking the services of not only Zdeno Chara but also Tory Krug. Furthermore, great worries were spawned during a Wednesday practice when reports began circulating that Brad Marchand had left practice with an apparent injury.

But when the team travelled to Buffalo, they filled the void left by Krug with AHL’er Joe Morrow and Marchand was revealed to be healthy enough to start the game.

In fact by night’s end, Marchand had, by virtue of his sheer actions, proved his health.

He scored two goals in the contest. The first came midway through the third period and ultimately tied the game while the second ended it in overtime. 

"Brad has been having a slow start to the season and, again, in the third period he just showed his true colors and what he can do when he decides to play the way he can," coach Claude Julien said. "He's got good speed and he can be pretty slippery, but he's been playing a lot on the outside with the puck and without it and it doesn't bode well for him. So it's nice to see him get rewarded with the things that he needs to do, so hopefully that encourages him to do a little bit more."

Marchand’s goals were just his second and third of the season. The winning goal, a cross bar down wrist shot from the hash marks was hailed by many of his teammates as one of the best of the year.

Marchand however digressed and heaped some of the praise on his teammates.

"It was a great play by Dougie [Hamilton] to get it over to [Reilly]," Marchand said. "[I] saw him coming off the bench and I just tried to pop open for [Smith] and he made a great pass and I was just lucky it went in."

Beyond Marchand, defender Adam McQuaid scored his first goal in over a calendar year while Niklas Svedberg stopped 13 of 15 shots and made several clutch saves late in regulation.

“This was a game that we really wanted to win,” Marchand said. “We didn’t want to go down two games below .500, especially with the way we finished last game. We wanted to make sure we had a big effort tonight, and we came out with a win.”

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Bruins survive without Chara, Hamilton ties career high in points

October 26th, 2014

By Dakota Antelman

One day after learning that their captain Zdeno Chara had suffered a torn PCL and would be missing the next 4-6 weeks of games, the Bruins took to the ice in Toronto with a lot to prove.

Present Saturday night were new call-ups, Joe Morrow and Zach Trotman as well as several incumbent Bruins blue liners who were looking to make an impression in Chara’s absence. The Bruins were well aware of their need for those players to preform but prior to the puck drop there was certain fear that they simply would not be able to.

Needless to say, those Bruin defenders silenced the doubters against Toronto and proved that the sky was not yet falling.

"I think it's just a lot of focus and everybody knew without him, everyone had to step up,” said a cool headed Dougie Hamilton after the game. “So I don't think it's one guy - it's everyone as a team and our D corps and everything, and I thought we did well. Probably our best defensive game this year."

While the rest of the team may have played their best game of the year, Hamilton played one of his best games of his career Saturday.

He tied his career high in points with three. His assists on goals by Carl Soderberg and David Krejci helped put the game out of reach early while his stunning break-away goal in the 3^rd period earned the deserved praise of the Bruins fan base.

Such was a common theme Saturday as beyond Hamilton; the defense would fire off eight shots on goal sustaining the offensive minded presence that Chara would always bring to a game.

"I was just playing, and things happened, and wasn't really thinking about it. I just knew that we were facing a good line with Kessel and me and Seids had to play good defense and play solid,” said Hamilton. "And I think it's just a bonus that you get the offense."

Partially due to a stand out game by Rask but also due to a strong performance in the neutral zone, the Bruins allowed just one goal which was scored with only five minutes to go in the game.

"I thought defensively, we kept most of the shots to the outside. They did get some great chances, but Tuukka was up to the task,” said coach Claude Jullian.

All and all, the Bruins stood tall in a game that they could very well have lost. They silenced many who were in states of crazed panic after the Chara injury and played an all-out, leave-it-all-on-the-ice type of game.

"It should be that all the time, but when you lose a guy like Zdeno, you have to rely on it a lot more and it's got to be a total team effort,” Jullian said.

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Seth Griffith goal big step down the long road to good team chemestry

October 22nd, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

Midway through the 3^rd period of Tuesday night’s Bruins and Sharks game, rookie winger Seth Griffith charged in between the hash marks towards a large crowd of opponents and teammates. As the puck eventually trickled out of said crowd, Griffith swooped in to launch an off balance wrist shot on net. Sharks goalie Antti Niemi was already down on the ice at the time of the shot and could not get up in time to put a glove on the puck. As a result, Griffith scored.

The goal, scored just a few seconds after the five minute mark of the third period, was the first in a very young career for Griffith. His elated yell and open armed call of attention signified the importance of the moment.

“It was great,” Griffith said after the game. “I’ve had a couple of chances the past few games, so it’s great to get the first one out of the way.”

But beyond giving him a personal milestone, Griffith’s goal represented a much better effort by his entire line.

Since the departure of Jarome Iginla last season, the Bruins first line including David Krejci and Milan Lucic has lacked internal trust. There was loud talk this offseason about who would replace Iginla on Boston’s most crucial line and for a long time the answer was not known. Furthermore, even when it was, Bruins fans did not like it very much.

Nevertheless, due to a decent preseason, Seth Griffith ended up partnered with Lucic and Krejci on opening night. Bruins fans hoped that he could somehow bring that line together.

Though Tuesday showed that that did eventually happen, it has taken longer than expected.

But who is to complain?

“We’re starting to get a little chemistry going, so it’s good to see,” Griffith said of his line mates. “But it’s not too hard playing with two great players like that.”

The Bruins first line starters are good players but they are also at times painstakingly inconsistent. After failing to contribute earlier this month, Lucic broke out on Tuesday assisting on three of Boston’s five goals. Furthermore, Krejci who took some time to get his timing back after a shoulder injury in preseason, stretched his point streak into its 4^thgame with an assist and a goal.

Speaking to reporters about Griffith’s confidence in particular, Lucic talked about the joy and confidence getting a first goal gives a player.

“When you get that first one, the confidence starts coming and you can start feeling a little bit more loose. When you’re in those positions, they seem to go in once you get that first one. He’s done a good job so far playing on our line and hopefully he can pop in a few more if he gets a few more chances,” he said.

As the Bruins top line has since became more of a unified group, Lucic’s statement about confidence could be said not only for Griffith but for the entire line. Griffith getting his goal makes his achievements in the NHL more real and in a way it makes him seem like more of a solid player.

As Griffith’s reputation improves his teammates’ trust in him improves and thus the team’s communication follows suit. As the unit communicates more, passes are made. As passes are made, shots are taken; and as the entire first line begins firing off shots, an all-star attack in born.

Such is the evolution of this thing we refer to in sports as “team chemistry.” Team chemistry is something the Bruins have worked to foster for much of the past decade.  However, team chemistry is no easy thing to build. Though its process can be summarized in a few sentences, it takes hours of ice time to learn another player’s habits with and without the puck. In all truth, it is the willingness to spend that time that separates the good lines from the bad lines and by extension, the good teams from the bad teams.

The Bruins are a good team and that comes as a direct result of the emphasis they put on their players playing as a team.

We have seen that emphasis come through time and time again in the historic saga of trust building that Claude Julian has brought to this team. This recent evolution of trust between Griffith, Lucic and Krejci is only the newest example of that in action. 

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Bruins get back on track with 4-0 win in Buffalo

October 19th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins who currently sit in last place in their division nabbed a reassuring win Saturday night in Buffalo.

Just a few days after getting humiliated in Montreal, the Bruins downed the Sabers by a score of four to zero with goals coming from Bruin’s youngsters like Tory Krug, Dougie Hamilton and Carl Soderberg. Their defense played better than they had all season and their goalie Niklas Svedberg atoned for a shaky performance in his debut with a 32 save shutout.

Svedberg, who allowed 2 goals vs Colorado last week, replaced Rask late in Thursday’s loss to Montreal. After attracting the attention of the coaching staff, he was given the start Sunday.

"He came in [against Montreal on Friday] cold and had to make some saves,” Said coach Claude Jullian, “I'm pretty happy with the way he's handled himself. In that first game that he lost, he was really good as well. It was tough to give up that goal with half a second left, and we know it wasn't his fault, so been pretty happy. We've been fortunate that we've got a good goaltender in Tuukka, and everybody that seems to come in continues to do the job, so that's great."

Svedberg made 32 stops Saturday. In doing so, he logged his first NHL shutout and also gained considerable support from fans who roasted him after the Avalanche game in which he allowed a goal in the final second.

In his postgame interviews Svedberg was assuredly happy with his play.

"It's a great feeling," he said. "Most of all, to get the win for us was huge today, and of course, I'm happy with the shutout, too."

Zdeno Chara, an observer of countless all-star Bruins goalies commented on Svedberg’s improvement in the past week alone.

"He's working really hard. He's making great steps forward, and everybody was really happy for him.” He said. “…If you look back, he made some really big saves in the game. Buffalo had some chances and actually could have made it a tighter game than it was."

Chara himself was decent in the game. He became one of three Bruins defenders who scored in this game when he put in a dribbling snap shot late in the first period. Among the other Bruins blue liners who scored were Tory Krug and Dougie Hamilton.

Hamilton’s 60 foot wrist shot early in the game served at the eventual game winning goal while Krug’s first of the year which came midway through the second period effectively put the game out of reach for Buffalo.

All of the shots came from positions far from the net and were only squeezed past goalie Jonus Enroth because of intense screen plays and thick clogging of the front of the net by the Bruins forwards.

"It's something that you don't see very often," Chara said. "When you have good traffic and guys are driving to the net and staying in front of the net, it makes it hard on the goalies to see the puck. It creates a lot of good things, offensively."

Carl Soderberg added his second goal of the season in the dying minutes of the game contributing to a two point night for his line.

The Bruins got back on track Saturday. Their win was convincing and answered several questions regarding the Bruins defense, their involvement of said defense in the attack and the strength of their trusted backup Niklas Svedberg.

Needless to say however, the Bruins still sit in last place and will have to do more than win one game to get where they want to be. Confidence is a good thing though, its importance being something that cannot be understated.

“It made a big difference, and it gives you an opportunity to go home feeling much better about yourself as a team, knowing you got four out of six points [on a 3 game road trip] and our game is starting to come around,” Jullian said. 

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Bruins lose, season wasted

Are we in Boston spoiled by our divinity in the sports world? Yes. But at the same time are we wrong to when we see a Bruins team with a Vesnia Trophy favorite (Tuukka Rask), a Selkie Trophy finalist (Patrice Bergeron), two 30 goal scorers as well as one of the most balanced attacks in the hockey universe, look at them and expect more than a second round loss? No. 

In truth, we expected a championship. But the Bruins failed to give that to us when they lost to the Montreal Canadians in Game Seven of the semifinals Wednesday night and so, for the sake of complete simplicity, the season has been wasted. 

You see from day one of the season, the Bruins seemed to have had the makeup of a Stanley Cup winning team from top to bottom. As listed earlier, the team has all the right players positioned in all the right places. Their goalie Tuukka Rask dominated the league with 36 wins in just 58 starts. In a season where he started more than 10 more games than he had ever in his career, Rask was consistently amazing.  His GAA held fast at or around 2.00 all season long and not once did his season save percentage dip below .910. From his first few starts of the season, Rask's play was eerily reminiscent of the shutdown hockey played by Tim Thomas in his second Vesna Trophy winning season back in 2011.

But as we turned towards these playoffs, watching the Bruins demolish their March and April opponents with 12 game winning streaks and 14 game point streaks, Tuukka Rask was not the only player on the team whose game was whispering of postseason dominance. 

The entire Bruins top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Jarome Iginla had taken changes in personal makeup from the season before to the present one in stride. Aside from a few rough weeks as the beginning of the year, Lucic found his regular season scoreing touch coupled with his rediscovery of the body-check as a prime method of intimidation and puck possession and became a huge role player in every Bruins win  this season. At the face off dot, David Krejci actually climbed out of the shadow of Patrice Bergeron this season and gave the Bruins as huge one-two punch at center on each of their top two lines. Also, though he did not score in bunches (aside from his March hat trick against Florida), Krejci's proved his talent cannot be defined by the number in his goals column. After playing in 80 out of 82 games this season, Krejci was a +39 with a team leading 50 assists and an average ice time per game of almost 20 minutes. 

Finally perhaps the best part of the Bruins top line this season was their gifted right winger, Jarome Iginla. After finally signing with Boston during the off-season, Jarome played with a youthful drive that could only be attributed to his lack of a Stanley Cup ring on his finger after over a decade and a half in the NHL. With 78 starts this year, Iginla crafted 2013-2014 into a season involving 61 points, 8 game winning goals and his 13th 30 goal season which just so happened to be the first 30 goal season by a Bruin since 2010-2011. 

In addition to Iginla, Patrice Bergeron also scored 30 goals in 2014.  

All and all, the Bruins were filling the mold of all gritty Cup winners in past few years perfectly and many experts picked them to earn the same finish to their season that the teams who made that mold enjoyed. And in their first round series with Detroit they solidified the expert's reasons for picking them to win it all. 

After losing Game One, the Bruins came back with a vengeance over the course of the next 4 games, winning them all and bouncing the Wings from the playoffs in swift fashion. In that series it was the predicted stars like Rask, Iginla, Lucic, and Krejci that played like the stars they were. 

After winning that series however, off we went to Montreal where it quickly became evident that the Bruins would not breeze though this series. The Canadians snagged game one in double overtime and would have stolen Game Two from Boston if it were not for a historic 4 goal 3rd period by the Bruins that erased a 2 goal lead for Montreal and replaced it with a 5-3 win for Boston. After dropping Game Three, the Bruins found a spark in games four and five delivering crushing hits and relentless shooting en route to back to back wins that gave them an opportunity to win the series in Game Six. 

They gave it their best shot, no, that's not true. In a pivotal Game Six, the Bruins got blasted 4-0. And then came Game Seven which was a disaster from the start. The Canadians came out blazing with 2 goals in the first 30 minutes of the game. Though Jarome Iginla would answer with his 5th goal of the postseason, Danial Briere would seal the game in the 3rd with a power play goal with just about 3 minutes to go. 

When the clock ran out, the Bruins were done. Their season of dominance overshadowed  by a final two games of patheticness and failure. 

"It's going to be tough to swallow this one," Milan Lucic said. 

Yeah, real deep there.

Peter Charelli had a little more thought behind his remarks about the loss. 

"We have a young back line right now and I'm partially to blame if you want to assign blame," Chiarelli said during his annual season-ending news conference. "Maybe we didn't get enough at the deadline, maybe we overestimated the youth and where they were."

Maybe, what if, it does not matter because the Bruin lost one game they had to win. 

Their Presidents trophy no longer matters when all it is followed by is a second round loss, just like any individual accolades awarded to Bruins players do not matter after the team lost when they did. 

After a regular season for the ages, the Bruins could not make things work in the playoffs. So I have two words for you Boston: season wasted.

 

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Fraser's fairytale: Call-up scores OT winner for Bruins...ties series with Montreal

The goal itself was simple. It was scored Carl Soderberg dug the puck loose from the right pad of Carey Price, as big bodied Matt Fraser pushed past a pair of Canadians and as he fell to the ice, blindly whacked the puck through Price's five hole. But in all its grit and lack of finesse, the goal served as a whacky, cheesy, Hollywood ending to a game described by those same adjectives. 

Since the Bruins started their death-match second round series with Montreal back on the first day of May, they had made a habit of starting slow as through those 3 games, 8 of the team's 10 goals had been scored in the 3rd period of later. While that sure makes for some exciting 3rd period hockey, it also evolved into 2 losses in the first 3 games of the series with the only victory for Boston coming out of a game that held a one in a million 4 goal 3rd period.

A game like that was not going to happen again and so, as the Bruins went into the Bell Centre for Game Four, they did so knowing that they could not fall behind early in this game. If Game Four was a game to be won by the Bruins it was one that had to be won with decisiveness and execution. Among the biggest factors that had prevented that from happening in the first 3 games and would try to do the same in Game Four was PK Subban. 

Subban, a 4 year veteran of the league came into the series already known as a Bruins killer. He only solidified his reputation for dominating Bruins defenders in the first games of this 2014 series. After logging a goal in regulation as well as the double OT winner against the Bruins in Game One, PK would assist on 3 more goals and score another in games two and three playing a near reckless offensive minded defense. However, the Bruins were soft and never exploited the many times in the first 3 games where Subban was caught momentarily out of position after a reckless pinch or hard shot.

To stop him from getting into the offensive side of the game, Boston would have to send their forwards right at him as well as simply sky the puck out of their zone whenever Subban was able to get into a shooting position. Much of the Bruins game plan was tailored to the threat of PK Subban's shot.  

Their tailoring paid off. The Bruins limited Subban to just 2 shots in the game one of which was a lackluster roller Subban bounced in on Tuukka Rask from the half line. However in their obsession with eliminating Subban's role in the Canadians attack, the Bruins stymied their own attack. Though the game was very fluid in its gradual shifts in momentum as well as highly tactical moves made by the coaches on both teams, both teams focused on defense and body contact. Not many of the 68 shots taken in the game were taken from anywhere but the blue line or the boards. 

                                                                                       

However, what did happen almost constantly in this game was body contact...big body contact. In 61 minutes and 19 seconds of game play, the Bruins and Canadians launched 72 hits or an average of 1.2 hits per minute. From the first puck drop to the end of the game, every time a player whering any sweater of any sort crossed the blue line a player of the opposite team was there to cave in his rib cage. At one point in the 3rd period even, Canadians defender Douglass Murray delivered 3 hits in under 7 seconds of game play decking Carl Soderberg, Reily Smith and then Soderberg again in the Canadians corner. 

"We're working tough enough to get that next goal," Daniel Paille had told 98.5 The Sports Hub after the end of regulation. "What it's going to take is someone outbattling the other, so that has to be us." 

In the end it was the battle that won out. In the most magical of finishes, Matt Fraser poked in the OT winner that also served as his first goal as a Bruin and his first career playoff goal.

For the newest Bruin to step up, Thursday was one of the greatest days of his life.

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Bruins wreck Canadians with 4 goal 3rd period comeback: Recap of Game Two

Grandma and Grandpa, in your day, you cheered for Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. But in ours, we get to cheer for players just as good. In our day, we get to watch Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara shred the hockey world and prove that Boston might finally be the greatest town in hockey. 

After falling down in Game One of their second round, semifinals series with Montreal, the Bruins were a little lost. Though they out-hit the Canadians 56-45 and out-shot them 51-33, the Bruins were undisciplined taking 4 penalties one of which would cost the Bruins the game when PK Subban scored the overtime winner on the power play. Also during the game, the Bruins struggled to actually notch quality shots on goal and for that reason they scored just 3 goals. Finally, they started slow and though 3 goals may have been okay, they were down 2-0 after one period and had to work through an unfathomably exhausting 3rd period comeback to even get the game to overtime. 

After the game ended Tuukka Rask stated with harsh reality "when you suck, you suck". He was of course speaking of his own play in the lackluster game. Furthermore, players like David Krejci tried to address more finite aspects of the loss. "I thought we had so many chances, we could have scored like 10 goals [in Game 1]," Krejci said. "But we didn't and hopefully we're saving it for the next game."

Milan Lucic also talked about how to capitalize on the goal scoring opportunities the Bruins were generating "Going into next game, I guess the main focus is you don't want to grip your stick too tight and bury those opportunities when you get them, it sucks losing the way that we did, it was a tough loss to swallow, but you've got to have short-term memory and forget about it as quick as you can and focus on the next one because it's coming soon with a 12:30 game tomorrow. We're excited about it." 

But once again, things did not go as planned as Game Two kicked off. Though they got through the first period with a 1-0 lead that came off of a Danial Pallie snapshot 13 minutes into the game, the Canadians pulled their Bostonian rivals back with two goals in the second period scored by Mike Weaver and Thomas Vanak respectively. 

Down by a goal after 40 minutes, the Bruins were once again showing signs of collapse that were prevalent in Game One. They had allowed uncontested shots from all over the ice and were failing to clear bodies away from their net. They skated with neither force nor direction and were caught out of play far to many times for fans to be happy with the game at that point and above all they simply were not breaking out of their own zone with nearly enough efficacy. After the Canadians extended their lead to two goals at the start of the 3rd period, the Bruins finally got their heads on straight and got to work. 10 minutes and 56 into the period, Patrice Bergeron finally launched a clean cross ice pass over to Brad Marchand who then dug his skates into the ice and pulled off an ankle breaking pivot turn that shock off any defender who tried to cover him. With nobody in sight, Dougie Hamilton skated into the offensive zone and took the pass from Marchand with not a single Canadian within 20 feet of him. Hamilton then skated with the puck for a second thus drawing those defenders whom Marchand had lost into a blinding crossing pattern in front of their own net. With ease, he then pushed his wrist shot into the net. But the game was not tied yet. No way. 

But less than 4 minutes after the Hamilton goal, the game was tied. Brad Marchand dug the puck out of the corner and Patrice Bergeron skated with his back turned towards the net over to the hash marks. Once the pass did come however, Bergeron had turned towards the net and proceeded to rip a wrist shot towards the goal that skipped ridiculously off the ice over the shoulder of Carey Price. 

It was that goal that not only tied the game but ignited a fire in the team and the fans that gave you a feel that the Bruins were not done scoring. After a furious attack that spanned several shifts, Reiley Smith shot a long pass up to Zdeno Chara at the point. As Chara moved the puck down to the opposite side of the offensive zone, Brad Marchand got taken down in front of the net but in doing so got tangled up with Alex Galchenyuk dragging him awkwardly into the crease thus obstructing Cary Price's view of Reily Smith as he was once again delivered the puck. When he shot a top corner stab at the open part of the net, Carey Price had no chance. The puck beat him by a mile and the Boston Bruins had once again harnessed their playoff magic by obliterating a team that was so sure they had the game won. 

"It was a fun last part of the third period," said Torey Krug, who set up Smith's goal. "We're very excited with how things turned out, but we've got to move along from it pretty soon." 

That last part his brutally true. The Bruins will fly out to Montreal for games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday where they will try to win both games and get home with a chance to keep this a short series. But in all likelihood, that will not happen because we all know how these stories go. When the Bruins and Canadians meet 7 is a number fans know they will have to befriend. 

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Series even: In rough and tumble game, Bruins even series with Detroit at 1-1

Game One was a small hiccup for the Bruins that took place where the eyes of the league were on their backs. The Bruins were and still are tentative favorites to win the Stanley Cup this year. That accolade by definition makes them clear cut favorites to win their series with Detroit in this first round.

But Game One threatened to change that. The Bruins were bested by the Redwings via a last second goal that very well should have been saved by Tuukka Rask and at times were made to look confused and unorganized in the face of the omnipresent-in-the-playoffs Redwings.

But the Bruin did not panic. In fact they handled their defeat very well minimizing the loss while at the same time stressing the importance of getting a win in Game Two. They lived in the moment and accepted that the past was the past. 

“We’re fine,” Coach Julien said. “It’s a seven-game series. You certainly don’t get down on yourself because of a 1-0 loss; it could have gone either way. It just shows you how close and tight it is. We just have to be better in certain areas that we talked about this morning and hopefully we’ll be able to bring it to the game tomorrow, and if we do that hopefully the outcome will change.”

Other players on the team seemed more focused on how important it would be to avoid going down by 2 games in the series. The Bruins have proved to be a resilient team in recent years, most notably overcoming 0-2 series deficits against the Canadians and Chanuks in their 2011 cup run. But even that does not make 0-2 a favorable position for Boston as the series shifts to Detroit on Tuesday. 

“We’ve got to do a better job of playing our game, establishing more time in the offensive zone,” Milan Lucic said Saturday. “A lot of the times, what we talk about throughout the season that has made us successful is puck management and obviously that’s going to be an important part of this series for both teams, and that needs to get better heading into tomorrow.”

And not only did they understand the importance of Game Two but they also worked to find what went wrong in that Game One and what they could improve upon. 

“I think we were physical enough [Friday],” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “We still had a lot of good hits, but they do a good job when it comes to our forecheck. They get there and like to have bodies in front of us on the forecheck to kind of slow us down, and we’ve got to find ways to get through that. There’s no question about that."

“That’s one of the reasons that we weren’t as effective on our forecheck [Friday] as we have in the past, so we’ve got to find ways to get through that," he added. "And if they’re going to slow us down, if we’re skating hopefully they’ll end up taking penalties. But we’ve got to work through those kinds of things and establish the forecheck that we feel is an important part of our game.”

Physicality wise, the Bruins were dull in game one failing to exploit that 'edge play' that intimidates opponents. Just 3 penalties were committed in Game One.

But none of that was the case in Game Two as the Bruins beat up the Redwings intimidating their first round foes and leveling the playing field in the series. They mashed 33 hits and took 7 penalties in a game that frustrated and humiliated the Redwings. At times it seemed that one of the few teams with more playoff experience than the Bruins were completely petrified by them. 

The Bruins outscored the Redwings 4-1 with at least 3 of their 4 goals coming in the worst ways. They included goals off giveaways by Jimmy Howard and cheap five hole poke shots from the front of the net that all brought the play of the entire Detroit defense under question. 

But perhaps the most humiliating aspect of Game Two for the Redwings was the incident that took place at the 20 minute mark of the first period. Frustrated at the state of the game, pint sized forward Brendan Smith tried to pick a fight with Bruin monster Zdeno Chara. While they did not actually fight, Chara basically made the Detroit star look like a graceless kid with no care for his own well-being. 

And the humiliation for Smith did not end at the end with the game. After the game his Boston Bruin brother, Reily Smith told reporters that it was "probobly not the best decision" his brother had made and soon after that, photos of Chara's demonic smile as he pummeled Smith's face circulated the internet and furthers this delegitimasation of the Redwing's physical presence.  

All and all, with a stunning 4-1 demolition of the Redwings, the Bruins climbed back into the series and seized momentum as the battle shifts west to Detroit for games 3 and 4. 

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The Inaguration: Bruins win Presidents Trophy in brutal clash with Buffalo

The NHL first awarded the Presidents Trophy in 1985 to the Edmonton Oilers. Since then, it has been given annually to the NHL team with the best regular season record and yet, though they had been given 27 cracks at taking home the shiny trophy, on just one occasion had the Bruins won it.

Instead, in the first 27 years of the trophy's existence, teams like Detroit, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary dominated the regular season and by default dominated ownership of the Presidents Trophy. The Redwings won 6 times in the 13 seasons between 1994 and 2008, while the Oilers, Flames, Chanuks, Avalanche, Stars, Blackhawks and Rangers all won twice. Sandwiched in there were solo Presidents Trophy wins by the Sennators, Rangers, Penguins, Blues, Sharks, Capitals and Sabers.

Prior to today, the Bruins were included on that list.

But now, after a triumphant but brutal at the same time 4-1 victory over Buffalo, the Bruins 101 point Presidants Trophy winning 1989-1990 season no longer stands alone as the highest seed the Bruins have ever achieved going into the playoffs.

Having already played 80 games out of 82, the Bruins came into Saturday's game with Buffalo with 115 points and the knowledge that a win of any sort would give them a 5 point cushion on the Ducks for the number one spot in the league. Basically, it came down to one simple fact, if the Bruins won, they would be the Presidents Trophy winners.

But for a team that has spent the entirety of its 6 year, Claude Jullian coached string of dominant seasons, they could easily be labeled one of the most regretful recipients of the Presidents Trophy in the Award's history. All season long they have villinised individual accolades never getting to high and never getting to low. Even during their run of 14 games without a regulation loss, the Bruins were constantly muttering about how they could get better and how their game still was not good enough for the playoffs.

Even after they won Saturday, humility was almost involuntary within the Bruins locker room.

Also they say it starts with the top. “The Presidents' Trophy identifies a team that’s been good for the regular season; the other thing is, it also guarantees home ice as long as you’re in the playoffs,” Head Coach Claude Julien said “So those are two things we’re really proud of, but that’s where it stops.”

“The next step is we still got to do some work here in order to get the trophy that we all really want here.”

1st line center David Krejci also had things to say about not saying anything about the win and what it gave the team.“It is a nice achievement, that’s for sure, but that wasn’t our goal going into the season. So one thing that’s good about it is as long as we’re in the playoffs, we’ll be starting at home, so that’s good. But we’re trying to accomplish something different, so we have one more game tomorrow, and we need to play a really strong game and feel good about our game going into the playoffs.”

For a few frustrated reporters who should have known better than to try to get some Presidents Trophy oriented quotes out of the Bruins, they quickly realized that the only thing the team would elaborate on was the list of players they lost in game. After scoreing his 30th goal of the season, hugely successful Bruins center, Patrice Bergeron failed to get back in the game in the 3rd period. 

And yet his worrisome departure was not the worst thing that happened to the Bruins and the bodies of their players in the final period of the game. 

Just over 7 minutes into the 3rd period, Bruin 4th line winger Danial Pallie turned up ice with the puck and failed to see Sabers defenceman Jake McCabe barreling towards him. Though he was not carrying much speed up ice, Pallie lunged forward in an attempt to launch a targeted pass to one of his line mates. As he did so however, McCabe delivered a massive but clean hit on Pallie launching him back onto the ice and halting play immedealty.

As Pallie pealed his dazed figure off the ice, two Bruins rushed in to give McCabe a piece of their mind while still more gathered around Pallie to see that he was okay. He was not. Though he tried to get to his feet on his own, Pallie lost all balance and fell backwards only staying upright because of the 4 players and referees around him who grabbed his body before it fell back to the ice. 

Pallie who has already suffered 2 concussions this season while scoring 9 goals on the crucial Merlot Line, was by far the biggest casualty of this game and the Presidents Trophy that was rewarded at the end of it. He will be sorely missed and will remain a huge question mark going into the Bruins first round series with Detroit. 

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