2014 in 8 Days: Top Bruins Moments

(Photo by USA Today Sports)

by Dakota Antelman

2014 for the Bruins started off great got rough in the middle months and ended even rougher. They ended the regular season with their second ever Presidents Trophy by virtue of their clinching the best record in the NHL. 

They rolled into the playoffs and promptly defeated the Detroit Redwings to move to the second round where, after seven games, the Bruins season ended in a game seven loss. 

From there the Bruins blew it up in the offseason. They did not pay Jarome Iginla and thereby lost him to the outbidding Avalanche. They drafted Czech forward David Pastrnak and then promptly traded Johnny Boychuck to the Islanders. 

What has that gotten them? Well, whatever way you put it, with just four days left in 2014, the Bruins are 18-14-3 and out of the playoff mix...

1) Bruins fall to Canadians in second round

After their dominant dispatching of Detroit in the first round, many favored the league best Bruins to easily topple their French Canadian rivals.

The long and the short is that many were wrong. 

The Bruins and Canadians split the first four games of the series. Though the Bruins then won game five to take a 3-2 lead, Montreal used superior speed and puck smarts to win Games Six and Seven.

2) Bruins trade Johnny Boychuck

On October Fourth, just days before the season began, the Bruins traded longtime defensive rock, Johnny Boychuck to the New York Islanders. Though they snagged a pair of second round picks and a conditional third round pick in either the 2016 or 2017 draft, many within the team and the fan base were unhappy with the departure of Boychuck. 

A Bostonian of six years, Boychuck brought physical defense to the top of the defensive zone and played smart up against his own net. Without him, the Bruins defense has been marked with youngsters and penalty kill misalignments. 

3) Zdeno Chara goes down with PCL tear

Without Boychuck, the Bruins needed their few experienced blue-liners to stay healthy. They took their first blow in trying to do that when Zdeno Chara delivered a hit on John Tavares and, in doing so tore his PCL, a ligament in his knee.

Chara missed over 7 weeks of play with the injury and even once he returned, he was nowhere near top shape

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Bruins roster taking shape ahead of season opener

October 7th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

In the past week or so, the Boston hockey universe has been abuzz with talk of trades, demotions and contested promotions. 

On Friday, Johnny Boychuk was traded to the Islanders. Just a few hours after the Boychuk trade was finalized, the remaining Bruins took the ice in Detroit as they provided their final auditions for parts on this year’s starting roster. Guys like Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak were tested hard and often in the game that culminated in a shootout in which the two were Boston’s only shooters.

Members of the Providence blue line made their case to be picked to fill the role of Dennis Sidenberg’s defensive pairing left by Boychuk while many other players who had since been cut watched from afar.

By Tuesday night, just under 24 hours before the regular season kicked off, the roster had begun to take shape.

Perhaps the most talked about young prospect in this year’s preseason, David Pastrnak, was informed of his destination for the 2014 season Tuesday afternoon. In short, he has none; at least not now.

“We’ll have a little more time to watch and assess him,” Bruins GM, Peter Chiarelli said.

Pastrnak missed much of the preseason with a shoulder injury making the Bruins indecisiveness understandable.

“We'd like to see him down there and play some games. It’s a good opportunity to have him on our soil and close by to watch him,” Chiarelli said. “In two or three weeks we’ll look at it and make a decision as to what the next step is.”

Thanks to a team friendly rookie contract, the Bruins have the freedom to have Pastrnak play in the AHL, send him back to the Swedish Elite League where he spent last season or call him up to Boston. Furthermore they could foreseeably toss Pastrnak into an awkward back and forth transit between Providence and Boston. Basically they have very little that they need to commit to in regards to Pastrnak.

Beyond him however, the Bruins shook things up in much more unexpected way Tuesday when they announced that 33 year old Bobby Robins had earned himself a roster spot.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Robins said. “It definitely proves that sticking to the game plan and the program of just working hard every day, and getting a little bit better every day and over the course of a long time -- nine years actually -- so over the course of that long time you can improve and get better and accomplish your dream.”

Robins’ is a long story. 9 years in the AHL have spawned 81 fights and a painful list of concussions and upper body injuries for him. His massive 220 pound frame is a mix of the hard skating power of Milan Luchic and the fists-flying ferocity of Shawn Thornton. The latter of those two established NHL’ers just so happens to, by no instance of coincidence, be the sole reason Robins made the cut this year.

In the wake of Thornton’s signing with Florida, the Bruins needed an enforcer. 9 years in the violent street fight league that the AHL can sometimes periodically become have made it so that Robins can be that.

“In Providence he was a great forechecker. As Claude said, he finished all his checks, he’s a hard player,” Chiarelli said. “Right through this camp he’s shown that he’s belonged, and it’s a great story.”

Robins does not deny that his place on this roster was not earned through skill but rather through physical power. He literally fought his way to where he is now.

“When you’re playing that style of hockey, fights are going to happen,” Robins said. “I’m going to be playing that style. I’m looking to hit guys and get on the forecheck. Then when somebody challenges you, that’s when you fight. All the stage fights are getting weeded out of the game, but when you’re playing with passion and fury, fights are going to happen and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”

Between the decision to not do anything drastic with Pastrnak and the impressive leap of faith to bump Robins up to Boston, the Bruins were praised by fans. Though they had not yet erased the confused pain solicited by the loss of Boychuk, the front office proved that they were doing what was best for the team.

But not everything was so fun in Boston Tuesday.

Former Edmonton Oiler, Simon Gange lost his battle with Ryan Spooner for the title of 3^rd line right winger. Also, highly touted goaltending prospect Malcom Subban lost a close race with Niklas Svedberg for the backup goalie spot late last week. He will start 2014 in Providence.

Lastly, the Bruins were dished a major blow when it was deemed that 2^nd line center, David Krejci would be unable to make Wednesday’s start.

Krejci missed Tuesday’s practice following an injury suffered when he collided with the boards in last weekend’s preseason finale. He was placed on IR Tuesday afternoon meaning that he would have to sit out at least 7 calendar days following the injury.

After the missed practice, Krejci was non-descript in regards to the actual injury and how it was suffered.

 “I don’t really want to talk about exactly what happened. It didn’t feel good enough to finish the game, so I was just being cautious,” Krejci said. “Obviously, I wasn’t on the ice today. It didn’t heal as fast as I would like to, so I would say it’s kind of day-to-day. We’ll see when I wake up tomorrow and how it feels tomorrow.”

His veteran presence on the back half of the Bruins 1-2 offensive punch will be sorely missed verses Philadelphia. However at the same time, if the injury is to his upper body, starting a game like this, against a team as physical at the Flyers could be greatly detrimental to his long-term health.

After an offseason of roster turnover, there are many questions being asked of the Bruins ahead of their opener. Those questions cannot be answered with words, rather, they must be and they will be answered by actions in Wednesday’s game. 

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Peter Chiarelli addresses media on Boychuk trade: GM says trade part of bigger plan for team

October 26th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli spoke to media Saturday regarding the recent trade of Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders. In the conference, the longtime Bruins chess master explained his thinking as he “consummated” the trade while also recognizing the sadness felt by Bruins fans and players alike as Boychuk packed his bags.  

Early Saturday afternoon, Arthur Staple of Newsday reported via Twitter that Boychuk had been traded to the Islanders. It was later revealed that Boston would be getting two guaranteed second round picks in the 2015 and 2016 drafts as well as a third round pick in 2015 is Boychuk is traded to another Eastern Conference team.

“This is a tough trade we all like Johnny,” Chiarelli said in his opening statement. “I talked to him shortly after the trade was consummated and he was upset, I was upset too.”

Boychuk first came to Boston in a steal of a trade orchestrated by Chiarelli back in 2008. Since then, he had won a Stanley Cup and honed his brutal shot nicknamed the “Johnny Rocket” by Bruins play by play announcer Jack Edwards.

On the ice, he was known for herculean hits at the blue line and yet once he took off his skates, he was described by many as a friendly, funny person.

“He’s very well liked, he’s bummed and I’m sure the guys are probably bummed at me for doing this.” Chiarelli conceded.

Throughout the 20 odd minute press conference, Chiarelli did not deny the harsh reality of the trade. The Bruins fan base was an unsettled one Saturday afternoon with accusations of incompetence on Chiarelli’s part coming in bunches. Throughout the conference he apologized overtly for what this trade appeared to do to the hockey team.

“Obviously, this does not makes us better now but when I look at it in a series of steps I think it was the right decision,” he said.

As of now, this trade is all part of a bigger plan that Chiarelli outlined Saturday.

“I look at this globally as part of a few moves I want to make. This is stuff we have to peck away at and unfortunately, this [the Boychuk trade] is the stuff we have to start with.”

This was a deal bourn from financial constraints and made on similar terms. It would have taken too much money for the Bruins to resign him at season’s end.

“I’m not goanna put a number on it, part of my job is projecting the market and I see where Johnny’s market is going and I commend him”

He also insisted that the questions as to why the team did not wait until the deadline at which point they could have fetched a bigger return, are moot.

“You say here is what you would have got from him at the deadline but that is not what would have happened, if we kept him we would have had him play the season out.”

In the end, the deal hurts. Boychuk was a great player for Boston and the Bruins fan base is rather unhappy to see him go. But Peter Chiarelli knew he had to make the deal and though better decisions in the past could have helped avert a situation like this, the Bruins GM was smart in the way he addressed the media Saturday.

“We want to get better as a team and sometimes you just can't do it in one step, that's how I see this,” he said.

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Johnny Boychuck traded to New York Islanders: Peter Charelli dancing with salary cap

Early Saturday afternoon, Johnny Boychuck was traded to the New York Islanders for second round draft picks in the 2015 and 2016 drafts as well as a third round selection next season.

The 6 year Bruins veteran had been a fixture on the Boston blue line through 4 lengthy playoff runs and had long ago become a fan favorite. Though he scored just 19 goals in Boston, his slap shot, labeled the “Johnny Rocket” by NESN announcer Jack Edwards was second only to that of Zdeno Chara. His skills in the neutral zone contributed to a nearly constant 10+ assists per year while his devastating physicality defending his own blue line struck fear into the hearts of any who challenged.

He had a hammer for an arm when games boiled down to fist fighting and a cannon for a stick when they boiled down to track meets of scoring.

But Saturday afternoon, those days melted from Bruins present to Bruins history.

Arthur Staple, a reporter for New York news outlet “Newsday” tweeted out the news that Boychuk had been traded.

Boychuk will become a free agent at the end of the year and will likely fetch well above 4 million dollars on the open market. The Bruins who have been living just below the salary cap for years now had, by virtue of several large deals handed out by Peter Charelli very little option but to trade him. They would not have been able to sign him in free agency.

The Bruins have now lost another core player ahead of a season that many fans are demanding success in.

The team will likely be answering many questions along that thread this afternoon when they conduct their 4:30 press conference ahead of their preseason finale in Detroit. 

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Retaliation dooms Bruins: In violent game against Montreal, Bruins see their 12 game win streak snapped in the shootout

It was the most violent, nasty, old fashioned hockey game the Bruins had played in a long time. With 40 penalty minutes, and 4 either roughing of cross checking penalties assessed the statistics it produced confirmed that. And lastly, the feel in Boston Monday night also reflected the fact that we had just been treated to something special. A world class beat down between bitter rivals as well their thirst to live both in the magic of their history and the promise of their respective futures. Even in loss, Mondays game between the Bruins and Canadians was something that we only rarely see and so, from start to finish, the atmosphere inside the garden was one of excitement and bitter hatred for the guys in red and white.

Things were nasty right from the get-go.

Just 1 minute and 19 seconds into the game, the Canadians version of Brad Marchand - Alexi Emilin - caught 228 pound Bruin monster - Milan Lucic - in his sights. But as Lucic came across the Spoked B at center ice and Emilin went to deliver the hit, instead of going straight up on the man who was bigger than him in every quality, Emilin dropped down and delivered a crushing center ice hip check right to Lucic's lower thigh. The Bruin forwards was literally flipped 360 degrees and after he slid for a few feet, he crashed violently into the boards. The hit was without a doubt clean but nevertheless, it was delivered in a situation where a straight up shoulder check is more commonly delivered. Also, the speed and ferocity at which the hit flipped the big body of Milan Lucic at first glance pointed strongly towards the hit being delivered more to the knee of Lucic than he front of his thigh or even his lower abdomen which would have been a clipping penalty and would have earned Emelin an automatic 5 minute major. The combination of all of these apparent factors led Bruins captain Zdeno Chara to make a bee line for Emilin who he proceeded to mash into the ice with a check, slash with his stick and then punch in the head earning him a 2 minute roughing penalty.

After the game, Lucic was enraged by the cowardliness of Emilin's hit.

"Whether it's fair, legal or whatever you want to call it, if he wasn't scared, he would stand up and hit me and not go after my knees," Lucic said of Emelin. "It just shows how big of a chicken he is that he needs to go down like that to take me down. It shows what kind of player he is, and on my end, you know you've got to keep your guard up at all times."

By the way, that comment did not help to extinguish the feeling of excitement about the game after it ended.

Within minutes of the Emilin incident, Kevin Miller shoved Montreal forward Dale Weis from behind as the two skated in towards the boards. While Weis did have a little time to protect his head from a direct collision with the boards he was visibly injured as he skated off the ice. Seeing this, 31 year old Montreal tough guy - Travis Moen - went after Miller ready to drop the gloves. Miller obliged but gave Moen a little more than he thought he was getting. Miller tagged Moen once on the shoulder and then slammed a huge right hook into Moen's ear. But Miller was not done. He dragged Moen back to his feet and proceeded to wreck Moen's face. He landed 2 more knocks to the head of Moen before his arm was tied up. As the two spun towards the boards however, he finally got his fits loose and slammed the punch of the year into Moen's temple. 

Travis Moen would have to be helped off the ice. 

In just seconds, Montreal had lost two of its best players. But none of that stopped the physicality of this game. During the Miller penalty assessed as a result of the cross check of Weis, Emilin scored a power play goal to give the Canadians the lead. 

But the game was not over and while the Bruins knew they needed to tie the game as soon as possible, they were still caught up in that hatred for the Habs that would only be fulfilled when a player was knocked on his backside every time he touched the puck. 3 minutes into the 2nd period, Brad Marchand and the hated PK Subban got tangled in a fight for the puck that resulted in Marchand's clipping Subban up high with his stick. 

Towards the end of the period, the Bruins were penilised again when Carl Soderberg basically body slammed goaltender, Peter Budaj as Zdeno Chara took a point shot. But even that was not the end of things. 

In the final 2 minutes of the period, with the Bruins already killing a penalty, PK Subban delivered a hip check to Johnny Boychuck along the boards and then shoved him while he was down. Once Boychuck got up, he proceeded to throw two punches at Subban and then violently slam him into the ice. He was penilised for roughing but was lucky he was not kicked out of the game. Finally however, the Bruins got things under control and in the 3rd period it was Montreal who was undisciplined. They took 4 penalties in the period and allowed the Bruins to drag the game back via a Patrice Bergeron tip in of a Zdeno Chara slapshot. 

But for Boston it was too little to late. 

Montreal won the game in the shootout. 

But even though they lost their historic 12 game win streak, the Bruins were positive as they remain a team who has had just 1 game without a point in the month of March. 

"Obviously, you don't want to lose the way that you do in shootouts, especially getting all the chances that we did during the third period, but with 10 games left, now you've got to expect every game to be like that," Bruins forward Milan Lucic said. "Look at our last stretch of eight games in 13 days. We were able to get 15 out of 16 points, so that's pretty good. Unfortunately, the winning streak comes to an end tonight, but we've got to look forward to the next one."

But a win like this for Montreal could be troubling for Bruins fans not because they could knock Boston out of any positioning whatsoever in the regular season but more so because as it stands a playoff meeting between the Bruins and Canadians is not an unlikely possibility and a win like this could give Montreal momentum going into such a meeting. 

"It's a big win for us, for sure," the Canadiens' Brian Gionta said. "By no means was it a perfect game, but it showed a lot of character sticking with it and battling through. That first period, we were just kind of hanging on, but we pushed back in the second, got in some penalty trouble in the third but showed a lot of character on that penalty kill. Unfortunately, they scored on one, but I thought we did a good job with them."

But regardless of that, the Bruins lost a game Monday that they could have won if it were not for their inability to stay out of the penalty box. 

"At times, absolutely," said Julien, when asked if 'undisciplined' is a way he would describe the game. "The Marchand penalty was frustration because he got tripped on the faceoff before — it wasn’t called. Those are things that are going to happen in a game and you can’t retaliate by taking a bad penalty."

"[Johnny] Boychuk’s penalty was a bad one too, so you know, there’s discipline, but they didn’t score on those, so that’s not why we lost. But I think we have to be better disciplined against them."

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These games are always fun: Bruins snag 3-1 win at home in yet another great game with the Chanuks

No one likes the Chanuks and yet, whenever they come to Boston, the ensuing game is wholeheartedly dubbed one of the best games of the year.

When Alex Burrows chomped on Patrice Bergeron's finger like it were a sausage, we hated his team and he. When Aaron Rome most nearly killed Nathan Hornton and effectively wiped out the physical facet of Hornton's game, we hated his team and he. And yet, when we saw that 4-0 Bruins trashing of the Chanuks in Game Seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years. And yet when we saw the infamous 8 on 8 brawl from the 2012 rematch of that game, we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years.

If you did not catch on with that paragraph, I will say this: whenever the Bruins and Chanuks have got together these past 4 years, there has been a story to tell. But nevertheless, Tuesday's game in Boston was different. In the 2011 Stanley Cup the story of that historic series' first few games was the evolution of the dirty play. One year later when we arrived in Boston for the Stanley Cup rematch, the story was the biggest brawl since when 8 Chanuks jumped Shawn Thornton and just started pounding away before the Bruins team managed to get bodies in to help. And even this year, there was the renewed calls of "Brad Marchand is a dirty player" that ran rampant as the Bruin forward raised his hands to the sky in a meme of his hoisting the Stanley Cup above his head.

But now, there was no controversy, no cheap shots, no concussions and no taunting. Just 5 penalties were called from the start to finish of this game and none of them involved anything more haenous than a hooking minor and yet, these players involved in this wonderful game were not playing any sort of laid back style of play.

From the first puck drop on, Johnny Boychuck was a 1 man wrecking crew smashing 3 out of Boston's 27 hits, adding an assist on a miracle pass to Danial Pallie as well as logging 2 shots on goal in upwards of 24 minutes of ice time.

“I was really tired,” Boychuk said. “I’m not going to lie – we were out there battling and I just looked up and Danny was coming off the bench, and I just had to make the pass. It’s not as easy as it looks, especially when you’re at the end of a long, long shift.”

But he was not alone in his brilliance. Much like Boychuck, Jarome Iginla was a man contributing to the win in multiple ways than just in goal scoreing. After grabbing his 600th career assist on Lucic's goal in the 1st period, Iginla kept on his inhuman scoreing pace when he added a bang in goal that eventually would be logged as the game winning goal midway through the second.

Without a doubt it was the sequence that ended with Iginla's 2nd period goal that effectively swung things fully in favor of the Bruins. With the Bruins on the power play and their lead still sitting at just 1-0, Danial Sedin grabbed a Lucic giveaway and skated in alone down towards Tuukka Rask. In any other scenario against most other goalies, that breakaway would have and should have tied the game. But Tuukka Rask was back to his shot stopping ways and simply got down and made the save.

“Thankfully,” said Milan Lucic when asked about the Rask save “Tuukka made the save.”

“Those are usually the momentum-changers and game-changers,” Rask said. “You want to make that save more often than not. Today it was good that I did and we scored right after – that was really huge.”

As Rask and his fans reveled in this game saving stop however, those who love the goals in hockey soon took over as David Krejci grabbed the puck at the face off dot and turned up ice. After Krejci passed to Lucic and Lucic dropped the saucer pass back to Chara who was pinching in towards the goal, an out of place Chanuks penalty killing unit realized that they had left Jarome Iginla with far too much space when you take into account his all-star qualities. But he did not care. In true hall of fame caliber play, Iginla barely moved as he poked the shot past Roberto Luango.

The Bruins have now played 10 games against the Chanuks since 2011 and frankly up until this one the large majority of them have been dirty ones. We have seen finger bites, career changing cheap shots and then humiliating taunting of the Chanuks. But Tuesday in Boston we simply were watching a great hockey game. Tuukka Rask came back to life in this game turning in his best outing on over a month all while Jarome Iginla continued his scoreing dominance and Johnny Boychuck admittedly decided he wanted to personally shred the Chanuks to pieces. The fans were cheering, Roberto Luango was crying and yet the Bruins and Chanuks brains escaped the ice intact. This was a hard hitting, bone splitting game and yet nobody was injured.

This was a hard fought, wonderful hockey game where both teams hate each other with a passion and in this era, even with all the history that stems from Bruins/Canadians, we find ourselves 1 or 2 good games like this away from being forced to recognize Bruins/Chanuks as a new, nasty hockey rivalry .

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UPDATE: Johnny Boychuck cleared to fly home with Bruins team

Following his suffering one of the nastier injuries we will see all season, Johnny Boychuck was cleared to fly home to Boston earlier today breathing a weak sense of relief into the Bruins fan base.

As most Bruins fans witnessed Thursday night, 29 year old star defenseman, Johnny Boychuck was violently thrown into the curved boards of the Bell Centre ice surface. Boychuck soon collapsed to the ice and never returned to his feet as after 10 minutes of gut wrenching medical tending at the side of the fallen combatant he was immobilized and wheeled off the ice via stretcher.

The seen looked grim and when the game concluded, the focus was not on the loss of the game but that of their teammate that was by then just beginning to respond to doctors.

"He was obviously in pain" said Zdeno Chara therefore putting words to a scene in which Boychuck was doubled over the only movements exhibited being those of his lungs gasping for air he seemingly did not have.

However, Bruins fans were blessed with some great words during the 2nd intermission of the game as Bruins GM Peter Charellie released a statement telling the world that Johnny Boychuck was capable of moving all of his extremities and that doctors had ruled out the possibility of a spinal paralysis injury. 

Meere hours later we were once again uplifted this time by the words of Boychuck's coach Claude Jullian. 

"He was cleared to fly back with us," Claude said. "He's still obviously injured. We don't know the severity of it and I don't know all the details, but it was an injury serious enough to bring him to the hospital. Definitely, it's going to be a little while before he's good to go. I don't know exactly how much time, but the good news is he's coming back with us tonight and he'll be reassessed by our doctors back in Boston." 

Miraculously, that same man who seemed well, dead, was back at the arena just 45 minutes after the game concluded ready to travel home with the Bruins.   

All hail that free Canadian Health Care. 

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JOHHNY BOYCHUCK INJURED: Bruin defenceman carted off during 1st period on strecher

Max Paccoretty has reason to dislike the Bruins and yet after he exacted what was dubbed by the cynical in all of us, his revenge, the feeling is now mutual.

With just under 15 minutes to go in the first period of a highly anticipated Thursday night meeting between the Bruins and Canadians, Canadian left wing, Max Paccoretty came up on Johnny Boychuck from behind and forcefully rammed the Bruins star face first into the protruding ledge on the boards.  Boychuck was shown to have cried out simultaneously with the hit and immediately fell to the ice where he remained kneeling for several seconds.

As the situation rapidly progressed, Bruins trainer Don Delnegro came flying off the bench and immediately made his attempts to engage the obviously distressed D-Man. However as the Bell Centre fell silent, Boychuck began gasping as his entire body nearly seemed desperate for oxygen. Upon recognizing his players distress, Delnegro immediately turned towards the opposite end of the rink making a fist with his hand thereby signaling that emergency protocol was now needed to evacuated Boychuck from the rink.

However, it would be almost 10 minutes before Johnny was finally moved from the ice accompanied by the cheers of the Bell Centre and the support of his captain and defensive partner, Zedeno Chara.   

As was later revealed, Boychuck was immediately rushed to a local Montreal hospital where he was reported to be moving all extremities thereby eliminating the possibility of a spinal cord injury.

The game went on and while the Boychuck hit undoubtedly ignited a slight fury within the Bruins bench, they soon surrendered 2 quick goals that put them down 2-1 going into the third period.  

More updates to come....

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Bruins season preview: a collection of scouting reports, story-lines and dates to circle as we look at this upcoming 2013-2014 Bruins season

Well I'm not Waiting for the Regular Season

A look at Preseason Fighting

Prior to a September 23rd it seemed that nobody had told Washington Capitals enforcer: Joel Rechlicz that speeding fits colliding with your skull often inflict pain. But not to worry, by the 15th minute of that night's game against the Bruins, Milan Lucic had enlightened him...sort of.

In a ferocious fight that left Rechlicz bruised and out of sorts, Lucic absolutely wrecked poor Joel landing punch after punch while engaging in a seemingly endless fight that seemed only fit to be drawn out in a Roman gladiator arena. But no matter how brutal it is, fighting is a part of hockey, interwoven with the game and completely necessary among the factoids and memories in the NHL's great history. We all know fighting is bad. It turns brains into mashed potato and leaves knuckles un-recognizable by the end of their careers as enforcers. There is obviously a strong argument already staked on the subject of banning these brutal bouts but at the same time it is guys like Shawn Thornton, Zedeno Chara and Milan Lucic that make you finally realize that those futile arguments are well, futile.

But nevertheless there is one aspect of fighting that can be far more thoroughly questioned. Why do preseason fights even exist? The games do not count, the scores mean nothing. These games are almost invisible, meaningless, and free of any weight or value to their winners. But while that may be true, the injuries sustained in these strangely violent exhibition games are anything but nonexistent.

After Bruins fans were treated to their first preseason fight in over 2 calendar years back on September 16th, the black and gold have managed to successfully accumulate a whopping 9 tussles in just 6 games.

“Obviously there’s a lot of cons in fighting in preseason. You don’t want to break a hand or get a concussion or anything like that from fighting in the preseason,” Lucic said after the Bruins won 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden. “But you know the pros are you’re showing that no matter what the situation is or no matter what the game is, you’re going to stick up for yourself and your teammates no matter what the situation is. And that’s what it basically was. I didn’t really have a choice. So like I said, it was just good to get into one. And it was a long one. I had to catch my breath after that one.” 

The fight Lucic was referencing there was the same one in which the picture above was taken and came after teammate Dane Byers was absolutely cleaned out by a 26 year old Rechlicz who was just 2 seasons removed from a 200+ PIM season in the NHL. Insanely, even after Rechlicz stumbled back to his dressing room following the merciful end to that bout, he returned to the ice and decided to pick a fight with yet another enraged Bruin: Johnny Boychuck. 

Once again countless punches were thrown and this time Rechlicz actually took Boychuck down. That fight in particular obviously made Bruins fans mad. The Boychuck hit that spawned that fight was not even hard enough to take its recipient down. But within seconds Rechlicz had Boychuck pinned against the boards while taking a good 2 or 3 defenseless punches to the ribs. If it is even to exist, preseason fighting should be reserved for big time offences. Hitting the goaltender, boarding, charging, those are the kinds of crimes meriting of a fight. Not a simple center ice collision. 

As was said before, the Bruins have accumulated 9 fights this preseason. That is slightly abnormal as these 9 fights are the highest since the team recorded 15 in 2009-2010. Another far stranger fact though is that that with 9 fights in 6 games the Bruins are averaging 1.5 fights per game. That is almost identical to the 1.5 in this last season and the slightly lesser 1.3 fights per game the year before. 

So why fight like this, why is there no discrepancy between regular and preseason fight tallies when in one set of games, wins and losses are treasured like gold and in the other they are thrown away like Twinkie wrappers. Because for some kids playing in these games, this is as close as they will ever get to the NHL. Fights are a product of high stakes, competing players and upped anxiety surrounding a single game and when you have college kids fighting it out to realize their ultimate hockey goal, the amount of anger and competitive nature is as high if not higher than that of a regular season game when the roster is set and the salaries are confirmed.  

There are arguments for and against fighting in hockey but while regular season battles are nearly set in stone, the stories surrounding these 9 preseason battles are in a way, far more intriguing. 

3rd line's the Charm 

Why the combination of Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg may prove crucial in 2013-2014


Chris Kelly celebrating the biggest personal achievement of his career: his OT winner in game one the 2012 NHL playoffs 

The Boston Bruins as a team have played 5 preseason games and are a cumulative 4-1, their only blemish amidst so much foretelling success being an 8-2 beat down last Thursday at the hands of the Redwings.

Jarome Iginla has made his transition to the spoked be seems like it never happened and Milan Lucic has already made the dentist far to familiar with Looch's opponents. Malcom Subban has been great and seems much closer to being NHL ready than many had previously assumed.

For the first time in over 2 seasons, preseason hockey has returned to the NHL schedule and for the Bruins, a host of off season signings left many questions unanswered. With situations like Jarome Iginla an the chemistry surrounding him and his new line-mates, the preseason has ANSWERED questions. But in the cases of Malcom Subban and the combination of Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg is has only spawned them.

Chris Kelly, a 32 year old versatile Bruins forward has been with the team for 3 seasons now an despite his 6 years in Ottowa has broken into the minds of hockey fans as a Bruin not a Senator. He was traded to Boston in the final months of their 2010-2011 regular season before making a strong impression as the teams 3rd line center in the playoffs. There he scored 5 times and saw his team storm all the way to a cup championship. Kelly got off to a good start in Beantown but sported an even better sophomore campaign in 2011-2012. He scored 20 times that year and did not miss a game. Kelly seemed to be the big name answer to a Bruins 3rd line that had struggled for so many years but as quick as the praise began to come forth, he bottomed out.

Chris scored just 3 times in the lockout shortened 2013 season and was a complete non factor in the ensuing playoffs scoring just two goals, both of which came after Kelly failed to score in the initial 3 rounds of the NHL tournament. The Bruins were back to rock bottom. They shipped Tyler Seguin out of town and seemed to be looking to do the same with Kelly. But as time went on, no moves were made so Bruins fans finally looked to fix the problem at hand not simply throw it away.

Chris Kelly is great but the Bruins need someone for him to feed off of. Fact is, that person was already in the Bruins organisation and had already played briefly with Kelly. That persons name is Carl Soderberg.

After he was drafted by the Blues back in 2004, Malmo Sweeden native: Carl Soderberg returned to his homeland lacking what he so dearly yearned for: an NHL contract. As it stood, the Blues wanted Soderberg but not enough to pay him. Turns out, while the Bruins like the Blues did not want to lock him up for a contract, they were willing to give up some decent assets to simply call dibs on Carl. In July of 2007 they traded backup: Hannu Toivonen for the rights to the Sweed.

But nevertheless, the Bruins sent Soderberg back to Sweeden where he would play 5 more seasons as he would progressively increase his scoring output all before he finally complied 31 goals in this past season leading his team to the playoffs all before he gained the elusive call by the Boston Bruins. Soderberg was comming to Boston.

"You know, Kells and Carl are really good players, they work well together and so I'm just trying to help out when I can and if I can give them a little bit more space, then that's all the better." 3rd line companion Riley Smith said of his teammates.

Soderberg has sported an improved style of play in this preseason accounting for 3 goals and quite a few nice bursts of speed and confert in and around these US rinks that are almost 10 feet thinner than those in Sweeden. As for Chris Kelly, his work in the preseason has accounted for 2 goals of his own as well as an assist on one of Soderberg's 3 preseason goals. The combination of Carl Soderberg seems to be the compliment that Chris Kelly has needed all this time.

My thoughts on Malcom

A brief scouting report on Malcom Subban

Recently, the Worcester Sharks in collaboration with the New England Sports Center and the Providence Bruins organization put on an AHL preseason match-up before a slim crowd of 2,000 people packed into the NESC's small - rink one - arena in Marlborough. 

I was there, clutching a surprisingly helpful lineup-card in hand while I pinned my eyes to the sweater, the name on the back being one I had no clue would be here tonight: Malcom Subban. Seeing that he is the brother of hated Montreal Canadian: PK Subban, Malcom's surname is not one unknown to Bruins fans. What is unknown however is the simple thought of cheering for a man with that surname. 

Malcom is 19 years old and plays for the Bellville Bulls of the OHL (Ontario Hockey League). In his 4 years there however  he has already solicited a whole boatload of cheering from his fans. Many of those cheers were for any one of the 1355 saves he made in a career season in 2012. But those junior hockey stats were soon rendered worthless as the slate was wiped clean earlier this month when Malcom Subban joined the Boston Bruins preseason starting squad. There he started 1 game and appeared in another holding a 29 minute shutout in his Bruins debut back in preseason game number 1. Malcom made 12 saves against his brothers Canadians. 

But before long, trouble struck as after allowing 8 goals in a September 19th demolition at the hands of the Redwings, Malcom was demoted to Providence and his brief tenure as a 2013-2014 Boston Bruin came to a painful close. 

But here in Providence, Bruins fans as well as Subban were treated to a reality check. As it stood, we always knew that there was no way Subban would make the Bruins and in a way his lack of participation in Providence training camp and preseason might have possibly hindered his possible performance as an AHL goalie in 2013. But nevertheless, in the game that I saw him take part in, that lack of participation was not evident. 

Subban made 29 saves in the contest and allowed just 2 goals. His team was handed the loss but there is a strong argument to state that it was not Malcom's fault. As a fan sitting just over 45 feet from the crease, Subban's 2 goals allowed were just 2 tallies among so many shots that without his presence and crucial saves could possibly have multiplied into 4 or 5.  In addition to that, the second goal that Subban allowed came on a delayed penalty where the Sharks were able to pull their goalie for an extra attacker. This advantage was clearly evident as after some good work in the corners, the Sharks were able to work the shot back to a point man who ripped one home from outside the circles to break a then 1-1 tie with just over 3 minutes remaining in the game. 

Yet when you cast aside those two defensive miscues that left poor Malcom out to dry the Toronto native was stellar making stops through traffic and despite an obvious difficulty at handling rebounds off of long range shots, neither of the 2 goals he allowed came off of shots within the hash marks. His comfort in the crease showed from the first warm-ups on as he was almost never sliding around. The edges of his skates were always firmly dug into the ice and he seemed to be fully contempt at staying inside the small confines of the blue shaded goal crease.  This close proximity to the goal and lack of cutting down of the shooting angle was made possible by both a wing span of 79 inches that allowed him to easily cover both posts at the same time and some leg power and reflex skills that were ranked higher than many forwards in the 2012 draft in which Malcom was selected in. 

In my mind, it is true that Malcom Subban is not NHL ready but AHL, that might be a different story.  


Main Notes 

• Strong on shots through traffic, no goals allowed from within hash marks or with screens in front of him.
• Wide wingspan: 79 inches (7 inches wider than the goal itself)
• Comfort in crease: was never sliding around, rarely out of position.
• Slight difficulty at handling glove side pucks and controlling rebound produced from that side. 
• Never lost focus on game even after he was beaten with just 3 minutes to go.  
• Has been with Boston Bruins all preseason, September 27th game was debut with Providence 

Who's 2

A look at the Bruins backup goal-tending situation

Tuukka Rask will likely start upwards of 60 games in 2013. At this point in time, there are no doubts of what this man is capable of. 19 wins last year and a GAA of 2.00. He led his team to the finals, making the saves when the counted and always going 100%. Unlike last year, the situation regarding the number one spot on the Bruins goal tending depth chart is one of fortitude and solidification. Tuukka will, like he was last season, be the face between the pipes for almost two 3rds of 2013-2014 season. The only problem is who plays those last say 20 games.

Last season, the answer and filler of those 20 games would logically have been Anton Khudobin.

He played admirably in his rookie year snagging 9 wins in 14 starts while only allowing a GAA of 2.03. When Tuukka had to take a night off, Anton Khudobin was there to fill the void. The only problem with that scenario was that Khudobin was too good per se. Following Boston's elimination from the finals back in June, Khudobin immediately expressed his wishes to move on from Beantown. He knew that with Rask playing so well in his resurgence as a starter, Tuukka would be here for the rest of the decade meaning that long story short, a long term deal between the Bruins and Khudobin would obviously involve a lot of bench warming.

By July 5th, the Bruins had lost their stellar backup. On that day, Khudobin signed a 1 year 800,000$ contract with the Carolina Hurricanes

But as Anton Khudobin cleaned out his TD Garden locker, 2 other men christened theirs. After Niklas Svedberg signed with the Bruins back in 2012, the 24 year old Swedish native iced once of the best seasons in he history of AHL goaltenders. He ripped home an astronomical 37 wins while allowing a GAA of just 2.17 and won the honor as best league goaltender. Following the conclusion of the AHL season there was no doubt that Svedberg would be the backup in 2013 but in the blink of an eye, Peter Charelli made a questionable move bringing in a man named Chad Johnson. With just 10 NHL games under his belt, Johnson may not be the primary choice for backup. But as it stands, through 3 years split between the Rangers and Coyotes he has not been bad. Until game one of the preseason. Johnson allowed 3 goals in just 29 minutes of play amidst Boston's 6-3 preseason opener win over Montreal and he was not happy. 

“It was a tough one, for sure. You want to get into the flow of things, but I didn’t get off to a good start. The first shot I had on me I mishandled the glove, and that wasn’t good. Then there were penalties, so there was never flow to the game as we scrambled along,” said Johnson. “There was no flow to my game, and it showed. I didn’t play the way that I wanted to, obviously. It was disappointing, but you can’t worry about it now while focusing on putting out your best performance in the next game.”

At this point in time, we really don't know who will back up the Bruins in 2013-2014 but regardless of that, the season will be upon us very soon and as a fan of the Bruins, I cannot wait. 

Dates to circle 

Most anticipated games of the 2013-2014 Bruins season

October 3rd vs Tampa Bay Lighting: The Bruins play their first game of the season kicking off against a lightning team that will be looking to begin their year by knocking off one of the best teams in the east.  

October 12th at Columbus Blue Jackets: After an off-season full of different moves, the Bruins will play against Nathan Hornton for the first time in almost 4 years. 

October 17th at Florida Panthers: After Tim Thomas's competitive spirit was reignited by Boston's run to the cup, he will likely play his first career game against the Bruins during a 7:30 home game for the Panthers.

November 5th vs Dallas Stars: Tyler Seguin will make his return to the Garden as he will likely be one of the top players on a Stars team that is expected not to be playing very well in 2013-2014. 

November 9th vs Maple Leafs: A little over 6 months after the Maple Leafs saw the Bruins erase their 2 goal lead in the final minutes of game seven they will return to the Garden in a game 7 rematch. 

January 19th at Chicago: The Bruins will likely endure chants of "WE GOT THE CUP" when they head to the Windy City for a Stanley Cup rematch.

February 9th - February 25th: The NHL season will be briefly suspended due to the Olympics in Sochi. The Bruins however will likely have several representatives over in Russia as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic have all been intertwined with Canadian team training camp. 

April 13th at NJ Devils: The Bruins will wrap up their regular season with a 3 PM meeting with the Devils. 

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Well I'm not waiting for the regular season: Bruins tough guys throwing down in the preseason

Prior to a September 23rd it seemed that nobody had told Washington Capitals enforcer: Joel Rechlicz that speeding fits colliding with your skull often inflict pain. But not to worry, by the 15th minute of that night's game against the Bruins, Milan Lucic had enlightened him...sort of.

In a ferocious fight that left Rechlicz bruised and out of sorts, Lucic absolutely wrecked poor Joel landing punch after punch while engaging in a seemingly endless fight that seemed only fit to be drawn out in a Roman gladiator arena. But no matter how brutal it is, fighting is a part of hockey, interwoven with the game and completely necessary among the factoids and memories in the NHL's great history. We all know fighting is bad. It turns brains into mashed potato and leaves knuckles un-recognizable by the end of their careers as enforcers. There is obviously a strong argument already staked on the subject of banning these brutal bouts but at the same time it is guys like Shawn Thornton, Zedeno Chara and Milan Lucic that make you finally realize that those futile arguments are well, futile.

But nevertheless there is one aspect of fighting that can be far more thoroughly questioned. Why do preseason fights even exist? The games do not count, the scores mean nothing. These games are almost invisible, meaningless, and free of any weight or value to their winners. But while that may be true, the injuries sustained in these strangely violent exhibition games are anything but nonexistent.

After Bruins fans were treated to their first preseason fight in over 2 calendar years back on September 16th, the black and gold have managed to successfully accumulate a whopping 9 tussles in just 6 games.

“Obviously there’s a lot of cons in fighting in preseason. You don’t want to break a hand or get a concussion or anything like that from fighting in the preseason,” Lucic said after the Bruins won 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden. “But you know the pros are you’re showing that no matter what the situation is or no matter what the game is, you’re going to stick up for yourself and your teammates no matter what the situation is. And that’s what it basically was. I didn’t really have a choice. So like I said, it was just good to get into one. And it was a long one. I had to catch my breath after that one.” 

The fight Lucic was referencing there was the same one in which the picture above was taken and came after teammate Dane Byers was absolutely cleaned out by a 26 year old Rechlicz who was just 2 seasons removed from a 200+ PIM season in the NHL. Insanely, even after Rechlicz stumbled back to his dressing room following the merciful end to that bout, he returned to the ice and decided to pick a fight with yet another enraged Bruin: Johnny Boychuck. 

Once again countless punches were thrown and this time Rechlicz actually took Boychuck down. That fight in particular obviously made Bruins fans mad. The Boychuck hit that spawned that fight was not even hard enough to take its recipient down. But within seconds Rechlicz had Boychuck pinned against the boards while taking a good 2 or 3 defenseless punches to the ribs. If it is even to exist, preseason fighting should be reserved for big time offences. Hitting the goaltender, boarding, charging, those are the kinds of crimes meriting of a fight. Not a simple center ice collision. 

As was said before, the Bruins have accumulated 9 fights this preseason. That is slightly abnormal as these 9 fights are the highest since the team recorded 15 in 2009-2010. Another far stranger fact though is that that with 9 fights in 6 games the Bruins are averaging 1.5 fights per game. That is almost identical to the 1.5 in this last season and the slightly lesser 1.3 fights per game the year before. 

So why fight like this, why is there no discrepancy between regular and preseason fight tallies when in one set of games, wins and losses are treasured like gold and in the other they are thrown away like Twinkie wrappers. Because for some kids playing in these games, this is as close as they will ever get to the NHL. Fights are a product of high stakes, competing players and upped anxiety surrounding a single game and when you have college kids fighting it out to realize their ultimate hockey goal, the amount of anger and competitive nature is as high if not higher than that of a regular season game when the roster is set and the salaries are confirmed.  

There are arguments for and against fighting in hockey but while regular season battles are nearly set in stone, the stories surrounding these 9 preseason battles are in a way, far more intriguing. 

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