Boston Sports Then and Now

The Boston Bruins led by Shawn Thornton participated in the 6th Annual “Cuts For A Cause” to raise money for the Tufts Floating Hospital for Children. And raise money they did, to the tune of $76k. The previous five events amassed $200k.

Fred Toucher and John Wallach of 98.5 The Sports Hubs emceed the festivities as 18 Bruins players including Zdeno Chara, Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Dougie Hamilton & Brad Marchand got buzz cuts as the winning bidders worked the shears.  The highlight of the day was Bruins defenseman Adam “Darth Quaider” McQuaid getting his hair literally mowed.

No magnificent mullet this year.

There was also a raffle held for cool prizes such as the players autographed smocks and a signed Shawn Thornton jersey. For the Bruins fans that braved the downpours in line, it was a fun-filled day for all.

Because at the end of the day, it’s all about the kids.

To see more picture from the event check out the Big Bad Bruins photo album on Facebook.

It’s hard to believe that another two weeks of Bruins hockey have come and gone and the Black and Gold are set to enter the final month of the abbreviated NHL season. With a record of 21-7-4, it is fairly obvious that they are within striking distance of another Northeast Division crown, but as is the case every two weeks, it is time to take a much, much closer look at the team. Some of these stats are sure to have slipped by you as well as some surprising numbers that include which Bruin has the second-best shooting percentage on the team. This is Boston Bruins: Last Two Weeks By The Numbers. 

Patrice Bergeron has kept up his star play in the last two weeks.

0: Of the six players to have played in less than 10 games this season, none of them have scored a goal.

0: The team has had zero shootouts on the road this season. All six of them (4-2) have come on home ice for the B’s.

0: The Bruins have yet to lose a game in regulation when wearing their all black, alternate uniforms. They are 4-0-1 on the season with their most recent victory coming over the Capitals on March 16.

0: Through one game played, Torey Krug has not registered a shot on goal. He is the only Bruin who has dressed this year to not have registered a shot on net.

0: The team did not win consecutive games at all during the last two weeks.

0: The Bruins have not scored a first-period goal since their March 17 loss to Pittsburgh.

0:56: Adam McQuaid played 56 seconds on March 19 before being knocked out of the game with a shoulder strain.

1: One trade fell apart…

1: Krug now leads the team with one point per game.

1:  Anton Khudobin made the first consecutive starts of his Bruins career on March 21 and 23 against Ottawa and Toronto. He won the first game, but was pulled in the third period of the second.

1: Nathan Horton registered the first Gordie Howe hat trick of his 573-game NHL career on March 16 against the Capitals.

1: The Bruins lost their first, and so far only, regulation game to a Southeast Division opponent on March 19 when they blew a late lead to the Jets. They are 8-1-1 against the worst division in hockey this season.

1: The number of correct predictions Shawn Thornton made before the start of the win over the Capitals on March 16. During the pregame warm-ups, No. 22 stated that Rich Peverley would score in the game. And he did.

1: This was the first time this season that the Bruins did not finish a two-week span over .500. They went 3-3-1 over the last two weeks,

1: A Bruins’ goaltender was pulled for the first time this season in the March 23 loss to the Leafs. Khudobin was removed 1:34 into the third period after allowing his third goal of the night and falling behind, 3-0.

1: Peverley missed his first game of the season on March 21 against Ottawa. He was the healthy scratch in that one as Claude Julien needed to try something to get things figured out. They are undefeated without him in the lineup.

1: Jay Pandolfo is the only Bruin to play in more than 10 games this season and not record a point. Aaron Johnson is currently at nine games without a point.

1:48: Milan Lucic scored just 1:48 after Nikolai Kulemin on March 25 to cut the Maple Leafs’ lead in half.

2: McQuaid will be out for at least two more weeks with the strained shoulder he suffered on March 19 against the Jets.

2: The Bruins are 13-2-1 when scoring first in games this season. They only scored first in two of their seven games in the last two weeks, however, and went 1-1 with a win over the Capitals and a loss to the Jets. They have fallen behind in each of their last four games.

2: Tuukka Rask had allowed two goals or more just five time in the first eight weeks of the season, but gave up three or more twice in four starts in the last two weeks.

2: The team blew two third-period leads over the last two weeks resulting in losses to both Winnipeg and Montreal.

2: The Bruins have currently played two straight overtime games against the Leafs and Canadiens. The only other time they have done that this season was in their second and third games against the Jets and Rangers.

2: Former Bruin, Michael Ryder, has scored 12 goals this season with two of them coming against the Bruins.

2: The Bruins’ two home regulation losses are tied for the fewest in the league with the Senators.

2.02: Rask’s 2.02 goals against average is second in the league.

2.57: The Bruins have scored 2.57 goals per game in the last two weeks, down from their season average of 2.8 per game.

3: McQuaid registered three penalties and nine minutes of penalty time on March 16 against the Caps. His nine penalty minutes tied a season high, which he also registered against the Rangers in the third game of the season.

3: Lucic logged a career-high three assists in the same game.

3: Dennis Seidenberg scored goals in back-to-back games on March 21 and 23 against Ottawa and Toronto. He has now done that three times in the past two seasons after doing it twice last year against Florida and Phoenix and then Tampa Bay and the Rangers.

3: Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron led the team with the most “three stars” awards as each of them had three.

3: As a team, the Bruins hit three posts in their 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on March 23.

3: In three starts over the last two weeks, Khudobin went 2-1 with wins over the Caps and Senators and a loss to the Leafs.

Anton Khudobin had a better start to the last two weeks than finish.

3: The 3-1 loss at Winnipeg on March 19 marked the third consecutive road defeat for the Bruins. That streak is the longest for them so far this year and longest for them since dropping four straight away from TD Garden last season between March 11 and 22 with losses to Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Florida and San Jose.

3: Bergeron became the third Bruin to reach double-digits in goals with his 10th of the year on Wednesday against Montreal.

3: Johnny Boychuk has missed the team’s last three games with a foot injury.

3: The Bruins’ largest win in the last two weeks came in the first game of the stretch when they beat the Capitals by three on March 16, 3-1. Their other two wins were each by one goal.

3: All three match-ups against the Canadiens this season have been decided by one goal.

3: The Bruins have killed 24 or more consecutive penalties three times this season with the most recent stretch ending on March 19 against the Jets. It began on March 3 against the Canadiens.

4: Brad Marchand and David Krejci have each scored four game-winning goals this season.

4: The Bruins ended their most recent two-week stretch with four straight games against Northeast Division opponents. They went 2-1-1 in those games, beating the Leafs and Senators and losing to the Canadiens in a shootout.

4: The Bruins’ four shootout wins are tied for the second-most in the league.

4: Bergeron registered four points on Wednesday against the Habs with a goal and three assists. It was his first four-point game since Nov. 23, 2009 against the Blues, when he had four assists.

5: The B’s tied their season-high with five goals Wednesday against the Canadiens, but were unable to hold on for the win.

6: The Bruins had six chances to score in the shootout against Montreal, but Seguin, Bergeron, Krejci, Marchand, Horton and Peverley all came up empty.

6: The first line of Lucic-Krejci-Horton was plus-6 in the first period of the March 16 game against the Caps. The trio combined for five points in the period as they were on the ice for both goals.

6: The Bruins have won six straight home games against Toronto with their last loss coming on March 31, 2011, 4-3, in a shootout.

6: The Bruins are a perfect 6-0 this season when Daniel Paille scores a goal, including 1-0 in the last two weeks when he scored against the Senators.

6: The B’s are one of just six teams to have won 20 games or more on the season.

7: Boston’s seven regulation losses are tied for the second-fewest in the league.

7: The Bruins are one of seven teams to have won 10 or more games on the road this season.

7: There are seven Bruins left who have yet to miss a game this season: Bergeron, Seguin, Horton, Zdeno Chara, Dougie Hamilton, Andrew Ference and Gregory Campbell.

7: Marchand scored just two goals in the last two weeks and ended a seven-game drought with his second-period goal on March 19.

7:40: The Bruins went 7:40 until they got a shot on net Wednesday against Montreal.

8: Marchand scored his 13^th goal of the season just eight seconds into the second period of the game against Winnipeg on March 19.

Brad Marchand hasn’t been scoring a whole lot lately, but he did score very quickly in one game.

8: Boston’s eight-game win streak against the Maple Leafs ended with their 3-2 loss in Toronto on March 23.

8: Bergeron leads the team with 8 goals at home through 10 weeks of play.

8: Marchand leads the team with eight road goals.

8.2: Montreal’s Andrei Markov scored the game-tying goal with 8.2 seconds left on March 27 with Johnson in the box for a questionable delay-of-game call. The Habs would win the game in a shootout.

9: Two Bruins dropped their gloves in a nine-second span against the Caps on March 16. First, Marchand took on Mike Ribeiro and then Horton squared off with Matt Hendricks. It was the first fight of the year for each. Horton last fought on Jan. 7 of last year against the Canucks and first for Marchand since Dec. 5, 2011 against the Penguins.

9: The first line combined for nine of the team’s 12 points against Washington on March 16. They finished a combined plus-5 in the game.

9: The Maple Leafs had just nine shots on goal through two periods of their win over the B’s on March 23. The Bruins had 20, but lost the game, 3-2.

9: Peverley scored his fourth goal of the season nine seconds into a third-period slashing call on Jack Hillen in the March 16 victory over the Caps.

9: Peverley is also last on the team with a minus-9 rating.

10: Ten members of the team have reached double-figures in points with Seidenberg on the cusp as his total is nine.

10: Hamilton recorded his 10th assist of the season on Wednesday against Montreal. The mark is good for sixth on the team and tops among defensemen.

11: The B’s have won 11 straight games in Ottawa after beating the Sens, 2-1, at  Scotiabank Place on March 21.

11: Matt Bartkowski has now played 11 games in his NHL career.

12: Bergeron leads the team with 12 “three stars” awards on the season.

13: Krejci leads the team with 13 road points.

13: The Bruins allowed a season-low 13 shots on net on March 23 against the Maple Leafs, but lost, 3-2.

12.5: The Bruins power play was successful on just 13.3 percent of its opportunities in the last two weeks (2-of-14).

14: Marchand continues to lead the team with 14 goals, though he scored just two in the last two weeks. This total ranks 15th in the league.

14: Paille is now second on the team behind Marchand with a shooting percentage of 14 percent.

14: The team was 14 games over .500 at the start of the span and are still 14 games over .500 at 21-7-4 two weeks later.

15: Rask’s 15 wins on the year are tied for third in the league.

16: Lucic scored his first goal in 16 games in the 3-2 shootout win over the Leafs in the home half of the home-and-home on March 25. He had not scored a goal since Feb. 24 against the Panthers.

16: The second line combined for 16 points in the last two weeks.

17: Ference became the 17^th Bruin to score a goal this season as he picked up his first of the year in the team’s 26^th game, a 4-1 win over the Capitals on March 16.

17: Seventeen of the 18 Bruins to dress on March 16 registered at least one shot on goal with Peverley, Seguin and Seidenberg leading the way with four apiece. Pandolfo was the only one without a shot as the team fired 38 on the day.

18: The Bruins scored just 18 goals in the last two weeks.

20: The Bruins outshot the Leafs by 20 on March 23, but still lost.

20: Bergeron leads the team with 20 points at home.

21: Bergeron also leads the team with 21 assists and is 20th in the league in that category.

22: Boston’s goal differential of plus-22 is the third-best in the league behind just Pittsburgh and Chicago.

22:40: Ference played a season-high 22:40 of ice time in Boston’s 2-1 regulation win over the Senators on March 21 as McQuaid missed his first game with the shoulder injury. Since the injury to No. 54, Ference has played 22:47 per game, which is over four minutes higher than his season average of 18:44.

23.3: Marchand still leads the team in shooting percentage at 23.3 percent.

23:35: The fourth line of Paille, Campbell and Thornton played 23:35 more than the third line of Pandolfo, Caron and Ryan Spooner on March 21 against Ottawa.

The fourth has not been playing like the fourth line of late.

24: Bergeron leads the team and is third in the league with a rating of plus-24.

24:59: Chara leads the team and is 16th in the league with an average of 24:59 played each night. Seidenberg is second on the team and Bergeron is fourth, but first among forwards.

25: Bartkowski became the 25^th skater to dress for a game this year as he made his season-debut on March 23 against the Maple Leafs.

27: The Bruins tied their longest streak of consecutive penalties killed on the season with 27 straight from March 3 until allowing a goal on March 19 against the Jets.

30: The goal that Ference scored on March 16 was his first in 30 games dating back to March 29, 2012.

31: Bergeron’s 31 points rank 24th in the league.

33: Seidenberg went 33 games since scoring his last goal on April 1, 2012 in a win over the Rangers. It was also the last time he scored in back-to-back games, which he did this season as well.

35: Horton recorded his first three-point game in 35 games with a goal and two assists on March 16 against the Caps. His last came on Jan. 5, 2012 in the 9-0 win over the Flames at The Garden.

45.833: Spooner has a faceoff percentage of 45.833 percent on the road this season in case you were wondering.

46: The Bruins’ 46 points are the fifth-most in the league.

57: The Jets scored two goals 57 seconds apart to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead on their way to beating the B’s, 3-1, on March 19. Blake Wheeler scored at 11:44 of the third and Evander Kane notched the game-winner at 12:41.

57: Lucic leads the team and is 21st in the league with 57 penalty minutes.

68: The second line of Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin is a combined plus-68 on the season. The first line of Lucic-Krejci-Horton is just plus-5 for the year.

71: Jordan Caron has played 71 shifts at home this season in case you were wondering.

72: The Bruins are tied for the fewest goals allowed in the league with just 72 on the season.

75: The first line accounted for 75 percent of the points scored against the Caps on March 16. They had two of the four goals and all but one of the eight assists.

79: This season, 79 percent of Marchand’s goals (11-of-14) have come on just one day of rest.

82.3: The Boston penalty kill was successful on 82.3 percent of its opportunities during the last two weeks (14-of-17).

91.2: Boston still leads the league in penalty kill percentage at 91.2 percent.

100: All 18 of the Bruins’ regulars have now scored on the season (100 percent) as Sedenberg was the last to do so on March 21 against the Sens. That leaves just Caron, Pandolfo, Bartkowski, Johnson, Spooner, Lane MacDermaid and Jamie Tardif who have combined to play just 43 games so far, as the only guys who have not found the back of the net.

105: Seguin leads the team with 105 shots on goal.

170: The B’s allowed 170 shots on net over the last two weeks.

200: Marchand played in his 200^th career game on March 16. He had no points and just one shot on goal, but did fight Ribeiro for the winners. All of his games have come in a Bruins’ uniform.

230: As a team, the Bruins registered 230 shots on goal in the last two weeks.

300: Krejci picked up the 300^th point of his NHL career with an assist on Peverley’s goal in the win against the Caps.

563:02: It took Seidenberg 563:02 of ice time this season before he scored his first goal. It came with 1:04 remaining in his 27^th game of the season.

649: The Bruins and the Leafs met for the 649^th time in their histories on March 25 with the B’s earning their 287^th win against Toronto.

720: The game between the Bruins and the Canadiens on March 27 was the 720th all-time meeting between the franchises. Boston fell to 270-340-103-7 against the hated Habs.

.923: Rask’s .923 save percentage is good for sixth in the league.

933: Chara leads the team with 933 shifts this season. The next highest Bruin is Seidenberg, who has played 819. Bergeron leads all forwards with 817 and Ference, surprisingly, is fourth on the team with 793 shifts.

It’s no surprise that Zdeno Chara is leading the team in shifts as well as ice time.

Everyone was aware of all of those, though, I’m sure. Now that you are aware, keep an extra eye out for the more subtle, but definitely more interesting statistics our beloved Boston Bruins provide us with and look out two weeks from today for the second-to-last edition of the regular season. Go B’s.

Follow me on Twitter @RealAndyLarmand.

Boston Bruins forward #20 Daniel Paille deserves to win NESN’s 7th Player Award

The Boston Bruins seventh player award is awarded to a player who exceeds all expectations in a season. Previous winners of the award include Tim Thomas, Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, and Milan Lucic. Many high-profile Bruins have won the award and gone on to have excellent careers with the black and gold. Last season the award was given to Tyler Seguin for his breakout performance of 29 goals, 38 assists, and a +34 in 81 games.

While the Bruins’ prized young player certainly played well, I think we all expected him to play at the level he did. The award should have really gone to the now injured Chris Kelly. Kelly blew everyone away with a career high in goals with 20, 19 assists, and a career high +33 in 82 games.

I bring up this award in particular because I feel as if the award is unfairly awarded to players who are fan favorites. Yes, it is a fan vote, and in reality it is a relatively meaningless reward. This season it will likely go to Brad Marchand and his 13 goals so far this season, when in reality, the award belongs to Dan Paille. Paille has been outstanding this season and has exceeded every expectation I had for him going into the season. Exceeding expectations is what this award is all about, not a top six winger scoring a few more goals than last year.

The Bruins’ fourth line is considered one of the league’s best, and has been since it was assembled three seasons ago. Gregory Campbell has been just what the Bruins needed in the fourth line center role after various attempts at finding a player that worked. Shawn Thornton provides his usual brand of pugilism, leadership, and the occasional nifty deke to score a goal. Dan Paille has the speed that some high-end players in the NHL wish they had, great positioning, and a willingness to do the little things that help the team win. There are few lines in the NHL who have the chemistry the “Merlot” line does, and while Campbell and Thornton have played well this season, it is Paille who has played at a higher level.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tyler Seguin reacts to the game-winning goal from Dennis Seidenberg with just 1:04 remaining in the game.

Big win. Bigger goals. The Senators outplayed the Bruins for much of the game, but it was a gift goal to tie it and a seeing-eye shot from the point that led to a 2-1, come-from-behind win for the B’s. Both goals came in the final minute of the second and third periods, respectively and Boston extended its winning streak in the capital of Canada to 11 games.

With 21-year-old, Robin Lehner, playing well and the top-two lines for Boston unable to capitalize on chances, it was Daniel Paille and Dennis Seidenberg who found the back of the net and helped the Bruins pick up the much-needed two points and snap their three-game road losing streak. The Bruins are now 3-0 against the Senators this season and have won four straight against them overall as they found a way to come away with the 2-1 win on a night that they weren’t at their best due, in large part, to some very timely saves from Anton Khudobin.

With just over a minute remaining in the game and the score tied at one, Patrice Bergeron won one of his 19 faceoffs on the night and Zdeno Chara raced to control the puck at the blue line. He then slid a short pass to Seidenberg, who was backing up toward the wall not leaving much room between him and Chara. He one-timed the pass and it took a clear path to the back of the net to put the Bruins on top, 2-1, with 1:04 remaining in the game. The goal was Seidenberg’s first since April 1 and improved the team to 20-6-3 on the year. The team had had opportunities all night long, but took advantage of an offensive zone faceoff from one of the best centers in the league when they needed it most.

“The only thing I guess we can take out of this is the two points,” said Seidenberg, who was not overly impressed with his team’s effort on the night. “It was one minute to go, so Zee just laid it over. My only option was to get it on net and it was the game-winner. We tried hard and it’s two points. That’s all that counts,” he would add.

Khudobin made 27 saves on the night, including a handful of tough and timely ones as the Senators applied pressure all game long. With Ottawa making pushes at the end of both the first and second periods, Khudobin held strong and turned away shots from Jakob Silfverberg among others to keep Boston in the game.

“I don’t think we’re playing our best hockey right now, but what I liked about tonight is we fought through it,” said Claude Julien. “We found a way to win and that’s important.” He added that they got another strong effort from Khudobin in the backup role.

The game began with a couple of scoring chances between the two teams with a Milan Lucic shot saved by Lehner and Khudobin flashing the leg to make a save on Colin Greening within the first two minutes of play. The netminders were strong throughout the remainder of the first, making the saves they should have and weren’t really tested too much for the rest of the penalty-free stanza. It was most exciting in the final 30 seconds as Ottawa applied the most pressure of the period and provided the greatest excitement of the first with a flurry in the Boston end. Khudobin made three or four saves, however, and got the Bruins to the room with a scoreless tie after trailing the Sens, 10-9, in shots.

Ottawa got the scoring started five minutes into the second period as they capitalized on a poorly timed Bruins’ line change. Just after an icing, the tired Bruins skaters dumped the puck in and headed to the bench, but Ottawa re-entered the zone quickly and Kaspars Daugavins beat Khudobin high to his glove side for his first of the season. Mika Zibanejad went right through the tired Tyler Seguin in the neutral zone and fed it to Daugavins on the wall. His wrist shot found twine just inside the left post to give the Senators the 1-0 lead.

Zibanejad and Sergei Gonchar got the assists on the goal and Gonchar extended his franchise-record point streak to nine games. Khudobin couldn’t get the glove up quickly enough and was not happy with the goal. Gonchar’s streak is the longest active in the league.

Ottawa would keep the pressure on following the goal, but Khudobin made some more saves and the Sens were not able to extend their lead. With just under two minutes remaining in the second, the Bruins evened things up as Paille picked the short corner for his sixth of the year. Looking up to find himself on a two-on-one with Seguin, Paille faked the pass and got Lehner off his line just enough to be able to sneak it under his arm.

Daniel Paille’s goal gave the Bruins life heading into the second intermission.

It was a huge goal at that point of the game as it gave the Bruins some life heading into the second intermission. Johnny Boychuk got the play started as he won the puck at the defensive blue line (luckily, he controlled it after trying to kick it for some reason) and led Paille into the offensive zone with a near-perfect pass instead of dumping it in and having Paille chase. Gregory Campbell picked up the secondary assist on the big goal for his fifth of the year.

“We had a good [play] there by Soup and Johnny had a good heads up [to] notice me,” said Paille. “I thouhgt about passing, but we hadn’t had too many shots that period,” so he buried it to tie the game.

That would be all on the scoring until the Seidenberg game-winner as both goalies did their best to keep the game knotted at one. The desperation came to a boil in the back half of the third as Lucic and Shawn Thornton were each unhappy with some of the boys in red. Nothing really materialized, but the B’s appeared to come out of that stretch with the momentum.

After being unable to get hardly anything going on a third-period power play, the top line began pouring on some pressure late in the period, forcing Lehner to make some more big saves. Lucic had some chances and Lehner denied David Krejci, who decided he could go just before the game, but was still hobbling around, to keep the game tied for the moment.

Finally taking advantage of an opportunity, Seidenberg buried the go-ahead goal off of a perfect setup from Bergeron and Chara. The bodies in front of Lehner made it nearly impossible for him to see and he fell to 1-2-2 in his career against the Bruins. Though the Senators had nearly twice as many chances, the Bruins found a way to win and a lot of it had to do with the Merlot line.

Campbell, Paille and Thornton were used a lot more than the makeshift third line of Jay Pandolfo, Ryan Spooner and Jordan Caron as Rich Peverley sat out as a healthy scratch. “They deserve it. They did a great job.” said Julien of their play. “They get it. They know what their line is all about…really happy with all their performances.” The fourth line actually played 23:35 more than the third did on the night.

Their were only two power plays in the game – both for the Bruins – as the top two penalty killing teams in the league were disciplined and the officials called a loose game.

It was just the second home loss of the season for the Senators as they fell to 10-2-3 at Scotiabank Place. They had won three straight coming in and were 9-1-2 when scoring first in a game this season before the loss Thursday night.

Khudobin improved to 6-2 on the year and Boston improved to 12-1 in their last 13 games against the Sens. The B’s also improved to 6-0 this season when Paille scores a goal.

The three stars of the game were Bergeron, Khudobin and Lehner.

Dennis Seidenberg sporting the rooster shirt in the locker room following the game.

The Bruins (20-6-3) are back in action Saturday night in Toronto (16-12-3) to finish up their four-game road trip while the Senators (16-9-6) host the Lightning on Saturday afternoon.

 

Follow me on Twitter @RealAndyLarmand.

Evander Kane and Nik Antropov celebrate what turned out to be the game-winning goal as Tuukka Rask lays on the ice.

With a chance to sweep the season series from the Jets, the Bruins looked as if they were going to do just that before another third-period collapse resulted in two Winnipeg goals only 57 seconds apart and their 1-0 lead turned into a 2-1 hole. Timely saves by Ondrej Pavelec and even timelier goals for the home team led to the Bruins’ third consecutive road loss after opening the season 9-1-2 away from TD Garden.

The B’s dropped their second straight game overall after falling to the Penguins by the same 2-1 score on Sunday and missed a chance to tie the Canadiens for the Northeast Division lead as Montreal fell in overtime to the Sabres. Boston is now winless in five chances in the third of three games in four nights this season and have blown a third-period lead in five of their six regulation losses on the season. The final in this one was 2-1.

The game-winner was scored by Evander Kane and came just 57 seconds after the game-tyer. Tuuka Rask got most of the initial shot by Grant Clitsome from the point, but the puck scooted through his five-hole and in an effort to keep it out of the net, he kicked it right to the stick of Kane, who buried his 12th of the year to give the resilient Jets the 2-1 lead with 7:19 left to play.

“Somehow, it was going through me and I moved just an inch and there was a guy waiting on the back door and it’s a goal,” said Rask postgame.” Somehow it just found a hole.”

Read the rest of this entry →

Nathan Horton celebrates his first-period goal with Dennis Seidenberg – one of Horty’s three points on the day.

Whether it was the extremely poor performance Thursday against Florida, the blown lead the last time these two teams met or the fact that the seventh-seeded Capitals knocked the Bruins out of the first round of the playoffs with an overtime win in Game 7 at The Garden last season, something got the attention of the entire Bruins team as they came out firing in a Saturday matinee on Causeway St. to kick off St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Led by the top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton, the B’s returned to their style of play, dominating the lowly Capitals with gritty toughness and timely goals. As Jack Edwards would say, there was a whole lot of good nasty in this one and the Bruins used it to their advantage, coming out with the 4-1 win.

Three minutes after their first goal, the first line struck again, this time with the game-winner from Krejci. Lucic’s physicality on the forecheck won him the puck behind the goal line and a quick centering pass found Krejci for the one-timed goal. Lucic won the puck easily and Krejci flicked a one-timer past Michal Neuvrith on the glove side to make it 2-0 with less than three minutes remaining in the first. Assists went to Lucic and Horton on Krejci’s seventh of the year.

“We were able to establish a good forecheck,” said Lucic of the team’s effort on the day. “Playing with that spirited emotion is a big part of our line’s game.”

That was all Anton Khudobin would need as he made 32 saves on the day on the way to his fifth win of the year.

Horton scored his eighth of the year at 14:12 of the period to put the B’s on top, 1-0. He dumped the puck into the opposite corner and Lucic just took it away from Brower behind the net, surveyed his options and found the wide-open Horton in the slot for the one-timer. Horton now has seven points in six career games against the Caps since joining the Bruins.

“They showed a lot more emotion today in their game. They were a big difference in our team today,” said Bruins coach, Claude Julien, on the play of his first line. When asked about the 60-minute effort of his team, he responded, “it was much better tonight. Hopefully we bring that to Pittsburgh tomorrow.”

For the 15th time in 25 games, the Bruins scored first thanks to the simple play in the offensive zone by the first line. Zdeno Chara got the second assist, but it was a big save by Khudobin on Alex Ovechkin 200 feet away that allowed for the goal-scoring play to begin.

The first line finished a combined plus-6 in the period and was a combined plus-5 on the afternoon with nine total points.

An unfortunate start to the second saw an own-goal as a Krejci pass across the crease deflected in off the skate of Johnny Boychuk to make it 2-1 less than two minutes in, but the Bruins didn’t panic and came back to get the all-important next goal as things really started to heat up. Marcus Johnansson got credit for the goal – his second of the year.

Khudobin made a few big saves in the first, the biggest coming just seconds into an Adam McQuaid roughing penalty, when he extended his left arm to rob Nicklas Backstrom, who couldn’t elevate the puck on the doorstep.

As the physical play continued, Andrew Ference extended the Bruins’ lead to 3-1 with a speeding wrister past Neuvrith. Krejci brought the puck in and delayed on the right wing before making a quick pass to Horton. Horton touched a quick back-handed pass to Ference, the trailer, and he wristed it in for his first of the year.

Read the rest of this entry →