Mark Stuart to miss four weeks

Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart had successful surgery on Monday on his broken pinky finger on his right hand. He injured it in the fight he had against Los Angeles Kings forward Wayne Simmonds on Saturday. Stuart is expected to miss four weeks.

The Bruins next game is tomorrow against the high scoring Washington Capitals. The game is on VS at 7pm EST.

Bruins sign Miroslav Satan

Today it was announced that the Bruins have signed forward Miroslav Satan to a one-year contract.

The 35-year old Satan is a veteran of 1012 NHL games and has potted 354 goals with 367 assists in his NHL career. Satan won the Stanley Cup last year as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and registered 1-5=6 totals in 17 postseason games to go along with 17-19=36 totals in 65 regular season games for the Pens. In his 13 NHL seasons, Satan has hit for 20-plus goals 10 times, including a career high 40 in 1998-99. His best season statistically came in 2002-03 when he tallied 75 points on 26 goals and a career best 49 assists.
Source

I personally think this could be a good or bad signing, of course depending on how Satan plays. Satan has been known for taking shifts off and not working as hard as he can, but hopefully he learned something when he won the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. You can check out Satan's career stats on his NHL.com profile. I have a feeling that Satan will get a chance to play on Marc Savard's line and move Steve Begin back to the fourth line when Satan is ready. Then when Milan Lucic is ready to return, Marco Sturm can move to Patrice Bergeron's line where they always seem to have success together.



Bruins coach Claude Julien on Satan:

Of his new forward Miroslav Satan, Julien said, "He's in pretty good shape actually. I think we've seen that through testing and he's really taken care of himself for a guy who hasn't played yet. That's one thing. The other thing is getting up to NHL speed," he said.

Both Satan and B's GM Peter Chiarelli put the timetable at about 7-10 days.

"We'll go from there," said Julien. "He needs some time to practice at this pace and we've got a healthy team right now and I don't think we need to throw him in and rush him. Well he's a skill player," said Julien. "I think everybody knows that. He's had success at scoring goals and making plays. Around the net he's got a real good stick, as far as finding those seams, and he's good in tight. He's more of an offensively skilled player, which everybody seems to know we could use," he said.
Source

John Bishop on his blog on BostonBruins.com says that we probably won't see Satan in a game for at least 7-10 days. Lucic is day-to-day and is practicing with light to no contact. Mark Stuart has been skating but is not close to practicing yet.

Bruins injury update

The latest Bruin to get injured is defenseman Mark Stuart. Stuart suffered a broken sternum earlier this week and is expected to be out more than a month. That's not good news for the Bruins defense, hence why they recalled defensemen Adam McQuaid and Andy Wozniewski. Stuart's iron man streak will end at 196 consecutive regular season games (214 straight including playoffs) and has not missed a game since breaking into the NHL on a full-time basis in 2007-08.

Milan Lucic is expected to miss at least another week with the high ankle sprain. It looks like he may be back for the Winter Classic game at Fenway Park.

Dennis Wideman is expected to miss tonight's game vs the Chicago Blackhawks for undisclosed reasons, while Derek Morris is still listed as day-to-day.

Bruins beat Toronto again, hold Kessel to zeroes again

Last night the Bruins beat Toronto again, this time the final score was 5-2. It was 3-0 at the start of the third period but Toronto made it interesting by scoring twice making it 3-2. But then Jason Blake took a dumb high sticking penalty and the Bruins capitalized on the power-play and then later got an empty net goal, Mark Recchi scoring those two last goals.

Toronto's Phil Kessel was held to two shots and no points and an even plus/minus. Bruins' Mark Stuart almost had a Gordie Howe hat trick, but didn't get an assist to get it, as he scored the first Bruins goal of the game, his second of the season. Then in the second period, Stuart at Jamal Mayers did what they did the last time these two met, they dropped the gloves and had a short fight where Mayers lost his balance and they only got two minute roughing penalties again like last game. So after those two minutes were up, they came out of the penalty boxes and dropped the gloves and had a fight that was 5-minute worthy finally. Tuukka Rask again played solid in net and is hot. I'm curious to see if he plays on Saturday instead of Tim Thomas. If you missed the game make sure to check out the highlights of the game.

I saw a blog post on According To Cameron Frye, where Shawn Thornton says that he doesn't like Phil Kessel. Check out his comments below:

"...I don't like him."

"I don't know if we're better off without him, but I know he wasn't the best fit."

"I hope he didn't come here thinking he was going to get cheered whenever touched the puck."
Source

Even during the game Jack Edwards said that a few unnamed Bruins didn't like what Phil Kessel, signing with Toronto for a little more money instead of re-signing with the Bruins. Apparently also Marc Savard and Kessel had some words in the third period after Savard hit him. And we all know Kessel doesn't like the physical play.

The next time the Bruins and Maple Leafs meet will be on Saturday, December 19th. I wonder if Milan Lucic will be back in time for that one? :) He probably won't be as I'm assuming he may come back just in time of the Winter Classic game at Fenway Park.

The Bruins next game is on Saturday against the New York Islanders.

Bruins start slow this season

The Bruins haven't looked good this year, minus the second game vs the Carolina Hurricanes where they looked like last year's team. To me they seem not into games with the slow starts. The hitting has really not been there in the first two periods in most of the games. The Bruins have their first road trip this season starting on Friday where they take on the Dallas Stars. It's only a 2-game road trip though. They'll take on the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday. Hopefully things turn around on this road trip for the Bruins.

The Bruins are currently 2-3-0 through five games with four points and tied for third place with the Montreal Canadiens in the Northeast division. They have a total of sixteen goals scored and nineteen goals scored against them.

A few interesting stats: defenseman Derek Morris is a -4; David Krejci and Milan Lucic have 0 goals. Mark Stuart is playing well with a +4 rating (leading the Bruins in that stat).

Tim Thomas is 1-2-0 with a 4.00 GAA and a 86.8% save percentage. Tuukka Rask is 1-1-0 with a 3.39 GAA and a 88.3% save percentage.

Bruins vs Hurricanes game 5 summary

The Bruins finally looked like them old-selves in game 5 Sunday night playing a great game Bruins style. The Bruins won game 5 by the score of 4-0. The series is now 3-2 Hurricanes and game 6 will be on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm EST. The scoring summary for game 5 is below.

In the first period, at 14:48, Mark Recchi scored (2) a power-play goal assisted by Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman making it 1-0 Bruins. Just before the power-play Milan Lucic layed out Dennis Seidenberg with a huge hit which ignited the fans and the Bruins. Seidenberg then took a slashing penalty which was the power-play the Bruins scored on. At 18:36, Phil Kessel scored (5) assisted by Marc Savard and Milan Lucic, making it a 2-0 Bruins lead.

In the second period, at 4:40, Phil Kessel scored (6) assisted by Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara, making it 3-0 Bruins.

In the third period, at 12:21, Milan Lucic scored (2) assisted by Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron, making it 4-0 Bruins.

Tim Thomas made 19 saves on 19 shots against him, earning his first career playoff shutout. Cam Ward made 36 saves on 40 shots against him.

With the score being so lopsided, the third period got nasty. Shawn Thornton and Tim Conboy dropped the gloves and it was a one-sided fight with Thornton getting the decision. Later there was Mark Stuart dropping the gloves with Tim Conboy and Stuart getting the upper hand in that fight. Conboy went 0 for 2 in this game. Then next we had some cheapshot shit. Aaron Ward roughed up a Hurricanes player, I think it was Matt Cullen, with his famous push/shove with one arm. Scott Walker didn't like that, came over, dropped his gloves and sucker punched Aaron Ward who went down to the ice and looked hurt (scroll down to watch the video). Milan Lucic tried going after Walker but everyone including the linesmen got in there so nothing came of that. Walker got lots of penalties and was done for the night. Near the end of the game, Wallin and Chuck Kobasew had a cross checking match where both players got minors. At the end of the game, apparently Chad LaRose came out of the penalty box and went over to Lucic trying to start something but linesmen broke them up and Lucic got a 10-minute misconduct.

Aaron Ward is a huge part of the Bruins defense and if he is out for the next game or more, it's going to be tough for the Bruins. This is a big loss for the Bruins. From AP after the game on Aaron Ward:

BOSTON (AP) - Boston Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward left Sunday night's playoff game with what team doctors fear is a broken orbital bone after he was punched by Carolina's Scott Walker.

Bruins coach Claude Julien asked the NHL to look into the play, and complained about Jussi Jokinen's slash that sent Zdeno Chara to the locker room with less than a minute left in the second period.

"The slash on Zdeno is a cheap shot; we all know that. The Walker incident is not something they should be proud of," Julien said after Boston beat Carolina 4-0 in Game 5 to avoid elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals. "Something like that is not what you want to see, your player put in that position. Hopefully the people in charge will see that play and decide what they want to do about it."

Ward left the game with 2:47 remaining after Walker punched him in the face. Walker was given a misconduct, a fighting major and an instigator penalty.

Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice laughed off the possible repercussions.

"Scott probably has sore knuckles," he said.

Asked whether there will be a fine, he added: "I may have to sell my truck."
Source

It seems Paul Maurice thinks it's a joke what happened. Will he still be laughing if Walker is suspended for game 6? Anyways who knows if Walker will be suspended for game 6 or longer. If you watched the other games in the playoffs, with Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom elbowing Ducks' James Wisniewski in the head and Capitals' Alex Ovechkin's knee-on-knee hit on Penguins' Sergei Gonchar, both players were not suspended, so I wouldn't guarantee Walker will be suspended. But Walker has been known for losing his cool at times and doing stupid stuff like this and he has been suspended before, so who knows. And I look back at Lucic getting suspended for what he did to Montreal's Maxim Lapierre but I see these other incidents which are far worser and have caused injuries and no suspensions. The NHL can be a joke at times.

Scott Walker sucker punches Aaron Ward

Response to TSN's Pierre Maguire saying Aaron Ward should be ready (on the TSN telecast), well you know hockey so you should know that Aaron Ward is not a fighter and is not going to drop the gloves. And why drop the gloves? It's 4-0 and the game is over. It's just a gutless cheapshot sucker punch by Scott Walker. I forgot to mention the cheap slash by waiver pick-up Jossi Jokinen on Zdeno Chara near the end of the second period. Chara looked to be in a lot of pain and Jokinen got no penalty for that cheap shot. Chara did come back a few minutes into the third period. I don't expect any suspension from this incident since Chara came back and the way the NHL is doing their discipline actions during the playoffs.

Update @ 2:10 AM
I just remembered, with the new rules about instigating, that any instigating penalties in the final 5 minutes of a game gets a player automatically suspended for a game, so Scott Walker will be suspended for the next game.

Bruins vs Canadiens game 3 summary

The Boston Bruins won 4-2 in game 3 against the Montreal Canadiens. Game 4 will be on Wednesday. I will be doing a live game post update as well for that game. The stats for game 3 are below.

In the first period, at 11:52, Christopher Higgins scored. At 18:35, Phil Kessel scored (3) to tie the game 1-1, assisted by Dennis Wideman.

In the second period, at 3:36, Shawn Thornton scored his first goal in the playoffs, assisted by Byron Bitz and Stephane Yelle. At 5:16, Yannick Weber scored to tie the game 2-2. At 17:21, Michael Ryder scored (2) assisted by Dennis Wideman and Mark Stuart.

In the third period, at 19:23, Chuck Kobasew scored (2) an empty net goal, assisted by David Krejci and Zdeno Chara.

Game 4 is tomorrow night. Get ready Bruins fans!

Montreal's GM and coach Bob Gainey tells Montreal fans to not boo the American National Anthem.

"I feel like there's a confusion there with our fans," Gainey said Tuesday. They feel like booing the anthem is supporting our team, in that the anthem represents the Boston team."

"And I think if they could separate those two things, then we could respect the anthem of the United States of America and they could still participate loudly in whatever way they want to disrupt the Bruins."
Source

I thought this was only the second time that this has happened recently but I was wrong.

When told of Gainey’s statement, Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas said "that sounds like a very classy thing he did." Thomas, of Flint, Mich., was not put off by the booing.

"The same thing happened last year and it happened just about every time I've played here," he said. "I was prepared for it. I knew what was going to happen and I just ignored it."
Source

Bruins vs Canadiens game 3 live update

Game 3 between the Bruins and Canadiens will be starting soon. Stay tuned to this post as I'll be updating it as the game goes along. Here are the lineups for game 3:

Bruins lines:
Axelsson-Savard-Kessel
Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder
Recchi-Bergeron-Kobasew
Bitz-Yelle-Thornton
Chara-Ward
Montrador-Wideman
Stuart-Hnidy
Thomas

Scratches: Ference, Hunwick, Lucic


Canadiens lines:
Kostitsyn-Koivu-Kovalev
Stewart-Plekanec-D'Agostini
Latendresse-Lapierre-Kostopoulos
Higgins-Metropolit-Laraque
Hamrlik-Komisarek
Gorges-Dandenault
O'Byrne-Weber
Price

Scratches: Schneider, Tanguay

Classless Montreal fans boo and chant "Go Habs Go" during the American National Anthem. What a suprise, eh?

1st period
[11:52] Higgins scores and Montreal gets their first lead of the series. 1-0 Montreal

[18:35] Phil Kessel scores assisted by Dennis Wideman. Game is tied 1-1.

2nd period
[3:36] Shawn Thornton scores on a nice wrist shot. Nice pass by Byron Bitz. Bruins lead 2-1. That is Thornton's first NHL playoff goal.

[5:16] Weber scores and it is tied 2-2.

[8:57] Laraque, Stewart, Bergeron, Stuart all get 2 minutes each for a big scrum.

[13:20] Montreal to go on the power-play with Bitz getting two minutes for tripping.

[17:21] Michael Ryder scores and it is 3-2 Bruins.

[18:28] Mark Recchi gets two minutes for holding.

3rd period

[19:23] Chuck Kobasew scores an empty net goal to make it 4-2 Bruins.

The Bruins win game 3 with the score 4-2 and now lead the series 3-0. Game 4 is on Wednesday.

Bruins vs Canadiens game 2 live update

Game 2 between the Bruins and Canadiens will be starting soon. Stay tuned to this post as I'll be updating it as the game goes along. Here is the lineup for the Bruins for game 2 (source):

Bruins lines:
Axelsson-Savard-Kessel
Lucic-Krejci-Ryder
Recchi-Bergeron-Kobasew
Wheeler-Yelle-Thornton
Chara-Ward
Montador-Wideman
Stuart-Hnidy
Thomas

Scratches: Bitz, Ference, Hunwick


Update @ 8:16 PM
Lots of back and forth action. Some good hits as well.

Update @ 8:24 PM
Bruins to go on the power-play. Kostitsyn for hooking.

Update @ 8:26 PM
Bruins score on the power-play. Marc Savard with the goal. Bruins lead 1-0.

Update @ 8:34 PM
Bruins with a few more good scoring chances.

Update @ 8:37 PM
Bruins score and it's 2-0. Chuck Kobasew scored.

Update @ 8:39 PM
Bruins to go on the power-play. Higgins for high sticking.

Update @ 8:41 PM
Wow Carey Price just robbed Chuck Kobasew on a great scoring chance. Bruins did not score on the power-play.

Update @ 8:45 PM
Big scrum with everyone involved. Phil Kessel and Tom Kostopoulos were roughing and so were Zdeno Chara and Maxim Lapierre.

Update @ 8:49 PM
The first period is over as the Bruins lead 2-0.

Update @ 9:07 PM
The second period just started.

Update @ 9:09 PM
Kovalev scores and it is 2-1 Bruins.

Update @ 9:16 PM
Montreal has come out strong getting some good scoring chances. Montreal's Francis Bouillon will not return. Bruins score and it is now 3-1 Bruins. Shane Hnidy with the goal.

Update @ 9:20 PM
Bruins to go on the power-play. Metropolit with the penalty.

Update @ 9:22 PM
Bruins score on the power-play. Marc Savard with the goal and it's 4-1 Bruins.

Update @ 9:32 PM
Bruins to go on the power-play. Tanguay for hooking.

Update @ 9:39 PM
Bruins did not score on the power-play but they are going on another power-play. Kovalev for hooking.

Update @ 9:41 PM
Michael Ryder with a power-play goal to make it 5-1 Bruins.

Update @ 9:43 PM
The second period is over. Bruins lead 5-1. Kostopoulos with a classless late shot that missed the net at the end of the period. Good for the Bruins to keep their cool and not let Montreal get under their skin. Montreal put back their Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev line in that period as they finally realized Georges Laraque can't play for shit.

Update @ 10:01 PM
The third period has just started. Montreal has put in Halak for Carey in net.

Update @ 10:10 PM
Kostopoulos tries to hit Chara and he goes down instead. How many times has that happened to Kostopoulos including last season. I remember seeing it quite a few times. Mark Stuart with a big hit on Koivu. Stuart is having such a good game tonight.

Update @ 10:16 PM
Seems like the Versus channel is not showing the scrums much and after the whistle stuff much. I get a feeling like Montreal might try and do a stupid cheapshot. Just as I'm posting this, Patrice Bergeron sends Josh Gorges down to the ice with a big punch. Wow. That is Bergeron's first ever fight I believe. Remember Gorges was the guy who cross-checked Bergeron in the back after he scored in the last regular season game between these two teams.

Update @ 10:30 PM
Big scrum with Milan Lucic and Maxim Lapierre with Komisarek coming in to double team Lucic. Everyone comes in, big scrum.

Update @ 10:33 PM
Lucic got a 5-minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct.

Update @ 10:37 PM
The game ends and the Bruins win 5-1 and the Bruins now have a 2-0 series lead. Game 3 at Montreal is on Monday at 7pm EST. We will have to wait and see if Lucic gets suspended for the 5-minute cross-checking major. He shouldn't but hey who knows with the NHL, as a player gets eye gouged and no suspension for that, so Lucic shouldn't be suspended.

Bruins sign Mark Stuart to contract extension

On Tuesday the Bruins signed defenseman Mark Stuart to a multi-year contract extension.

Stuart's 2007-2008 season with the Bruins was marked by a number of career highs, including games played (82), goals (4), assists (4), and points (8). Stuart was one of three Bruins to play in all 82 regular season games, joining Phil Kessel and Glen Metropolit, and played in all seven postseason contests. He also represented Team USA at the 2008 IIHF World Championship this past May.

Source

Bruins news this past week

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was named as a finalist for the Norris Trophy which is awarded "to the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position." Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom and Flames' Dion Phaneuf were also named as finalists.

On Wednesday, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli signed goaltender Kevin Regan and center Levi Nelson to entry-level contracts.

Regan, "23-year old assistant captain and South Boston native finished the 2007-08 season as UNH's career leader with 70 wins, 3,235 saves and a .928 save percentage in 112 collegiate games. He is the only goaltender in UNH history to capture back-to-back 20-win campaigns." (Source)

Nelson "has played the last four seasons with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League, appearing in 198 games with 65 goals, 87 assists and 340 penalty minutes. During the 2007-08 regular season with Swift Current, Nelson notched 25 goals, 31 assists, a +23 plus/minus and 152 penalty minutes in 67 games. He has recently added seven goals and eight assists in 12 postseason games." (Source)

Phil Kessel, Tim Thomas, and Mark Stuart have been added to the roster of the U.S. Men's National Team that will compete at the 2008 IIHF World Championship.

On Thursday, Chiarelli announced that forwards Vladimir Sobotka and Petteri Nokelainen have been assigned to the Providence Bruins (AHL).

Game 1 tonight, get ready to rumble

Later tonight the Bruins and Canadiens will faceoff against each other in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Marc Savard practiced yesterday and is expected to return to the Bruins lineup. Earlier this week, Patrice Bergeron was cleared by doctors for physical contact but he won't be playing in game 1, and I wouldn't expect him to play in this series at all. Defenseman Andrew Ference is ready to return so look for him, Mark Stuart, or Shane Hnidy to be a healthy scratch tonight.

For the Montreal Canadiens, captain Saku Koivu is going to miss game 1 because he broke a small bone in his left foot while blocking a shot during a game March 28 in Buffalo. The Canadiens are the favorite for this series and they have all the pressure, and the Bruins are the underdog.

Action from 2/21 game vs Panthers

I'm late again posting some clips from Bruins games this season, but below are two video clips from the Bruins vs Panthers game on February 21st. I hope you enjoy the clips. First one is Jeremy Reich in a good fight against Steve Montador. Give the decision to Reich in that one. The second clip is Mark Stuart vs Gregory Campbell. Campbell didn't like a hit that Stuart gave him earlier in the period so they dropped the gloves, but it wasn't much of a fight.

Jeremy Reich vs Steve Montador


Mark Stuart vs Gregory Campbell