Boston Sports Then and Now

Thomas falling well below expectations for Team USA

Last night’s  Sabres-Bruins tilt told you all you need to know about Team USA’s goalie situation.
Tim Thomas started the season with a great shot to be the starting goaltender for Team USA and through mid-November was neck and neck with Ryan Miller. But Thomas, like most of his Bruins teammates, stumbled through the season as Ryan Miller lit up the league over in Buffalo and Ron Wilson’s decision quickly went from cloudy to slap you in the face obvious. Thomas, once again in his career, was getting snubbed. But for the first time he failed to respond.

Enter Tuukka Rask, the Bruins rookie netminder. Rask was completely snubbed from Team Finland. He’s not even third string. But unlike Thomas, Rask is playing like he has something to prove. He is playing like he should be Boston’s #1 and playing like he wants to start in the Olympics.

In a crucial match-up Tuesday night against the Sabres coach Claude Julien turned to Rask, not Thomas, to go up against Ryan Miller. Rask responded with a career high 43 saves, out dueling Team USA’s goalie and sending Boston to their second win in a row as Thomas watched from the bench. At a critical point in the season, when Boston desperately needed to reverse their fortunes, Tuukka Rask was between the pipes.

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Chara and the Bruins won their second straight game.

As I entered HSBC Arena on Tuesday night, I was hoping the Sabres would break out of their losing streak. Besides, when I attend their games this year, the Sabres are 11-1-1.

Both Boston and Buffalo have been slumping as of late, and they were both in the need of points. The Sabres came in 2-7-1 in their last ten, but the Bruins were even worse at 1-6-3. With a loss, the Sabres could have potentially fallen to fifth in the Conference. So, the importance of this game increased due to the one point division lead the Sabres had over Ottawa.

As I sat in section 300, I witnessed a horrible first period, as the Bruins took a 2-0 lead. Not only that, but it was former Sabre Daniel Paille who scored both goals (with Miroslav Satan assisting on one). The atmosphere inside the arena grew quieter, and as the team left the ice, they were booed by their own fans.

“Here we go again” was the exact thought I, and probably many other fans, had after falling behind early. We had one fan in our section wearing the hat with an actual bear on top of it. He was one of the few fans that was enjoying the game so far.

Buffalo recorded 17 shots in the first period, but still trailed by two. During the intermission, Lindy Ruff made some interesting comments in the locker room. After the game he told reporters that he was only going to play the players that were playing well for the last two periods. He didn’t care if he only had two lines to play. Read the rest of this entry →

Ryan Miller stifled the Bruins and stole a game for the Sabres.

“We were better, but unfortunately we’re looking at the end results, and it wasn’t there.” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “If we’re going to start winning hockey games, we can’t dig ourselves a hole every night and try to get out of it. But our whole game was much better than it has been.”

For the first time in a long time the Boston Bruins showed up but unfortunately the result was the same in a 2-1 loss to Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabres.

Henrik Tallinder opened the scoring early when he threw a wrister on net through heavy traffic that Tuukka Rask saw just a second too late to put Buffalo up 1-0. Late in the first Thomas Vanek would add another on the power play when he beat Rask on a second chance opportunity right in the crease to put Buffalo up 2-0.

Early deficits on the Bruins recent skid often meant fans were “treated” to their team playing like empty shells, just going through the motions to get to the end of the game. But not on this night.

If you didn’t look at the scoreboard you would think this was 2008-2009. Vladamir Sobotka, Shawn Thornton, Milan Lucic and even Patrice Bergeron were getting into scrums and trying to send a message to the Sabres. Boston chased down every back, hit back every time they were hit and played with more ferocity than at any other point this season. If not for another spectacular Ryan Miller performance the Bruins may have had this one.

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Marc Savard celebrates his goal against the Flyers

The Boston Bruins signed Marc Savard to a seven year extension worth just over 28 million. There are many reasons why this is an amazing deal for Boston.

First off, Savard is 32. They signed him through the 2016-2017 season, when Savard will then be 39 years old. The contract is front-loaded, meaning that Savard will 25.5 million over the first four years. The amount will then decrease for the remainder of the extension.

However, the cap hit will remain the same througout the contract. Even though it is front-loaded, the cap hit will be around 4.2 million each year.

Savard is a 80-90 point center, and the Bruins signed him for about 4 million. That is a steal, and a huge signing for Boston. Now they can continue to build around him over the next few years.

Savard is a very classy guy for this signing. He likes Boston. He wants to play there. He agreed to make the team better by not signing for the money.

Very nice deal.

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The Bruins celebrate their game winning goal in OT.

Daniel Paille made his return to Buffalo in Friday night’s game. He was not a factor, but his team was able to defeat the Sabres in overtime.

Paul Gaustad scored in the first period on the powerplay to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead.

It was not until the 2nd when Milan Lucic would score his first of the season, tying the game at one. Lucic scored on a two on one break, receiving a perfect pass from Byron Bitz. Goaltender Tuuka Rask received an assist on the play as well.

Patrice Bergeron scored in overtime on a deflection to beat Ryan Miller and win the game for the Bruins.

It was a nice win for the Bruins, considering they played the night before while Buffalo had the night off. Boston has beat the Sabres twice this season already.

Buffalo has now gone two consecutive games when they have lost after scoring first. With the loss, Buffalo matches their longest losing streak of the season at two games.

For Boston, it is only the second time this season they have produced a winning streak of at least two games.

Buffalo has allowed 45 goals on the season, the best in the league. However, they are 27th in goals scored, with 51. Even though their goal differential is only +6, the Sabres find themselves 3rd in the Eastern Conference.

Drew Stafford, who leads the team with six goals, left the game with a bone bruise. Stafford said that he would miss Saturday’s game against Ottawa. Tyler Ennis will get recalled from Portland to play in his second career NHL game.

Patrick Lalime will get the nod tonight against Ottawa. He is back from injury and will give Miller a break until Wednesday.

Buffalo’s lead in the Northeast Division is beginning to decrease. The Sabres will take on the 3rd place Ottawa Senators tonight. Ottawa is only three points behind Buffalo for the division lead. The Bruins only trail Buffalo by two points, but the Sabres have games in hand over each team.

Buffalo vs. Ottawa. Tonight at 7:00.

For any more Sabres news and information, visit Kevin at http://www.sabreshockeycentral.com

Tuukka Rask and Patrice Bergeron celebrate after defeating Buffalo on Saturday night.

After a somewhat easy schedule in October, Buffalo had a chance this past weekend to prove how good they really are. Buffalo was off to a nice start, but ran into trouble when they faced Philadelphia and Boston.

Despite losing on back to back nights, the Sabres still hold third in the Eastern Conference with 19 points.

After losing to Philadelphia Friday night, what else could a Sabres fan expect the next night?
Buffalo had to travel to Boston for their second game in as many nights. Boston had Friday off, so they were well rested. Jhonas Enroth was scheduled to make his first NHL start. When Ryan Miller is not in net for the Sabres, the team does not play the same way. They lose trust in the goaltender to bail them out in situations.

So, from my view, this was the only thing that gave the Sabres a chance to win Saturday night:

Boston came into the game with five goals in their last five games. They also began the game dead last in powerplay percentage (10%).

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