Bruins resign Matt Hunwick

Yesterday the Bruins announced that they re-signed defenseman Matt Hunwick to a multi-year deal.

Hunwick registered six goals, 21 assists and a plus/minus rating of +15 in 53 games during his rookie season in 2008-09. His 27 points placed him third amongst Bruins defensemen and he scored his first NHL goal on November 17, 2008 against the Maple Leafs. Hunwick played forward in six games last year and posted 1-1-2 totals while skating up front.
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Good to see Hunwick signed for more than a year. I think he will continue to get better as he surprised me in how well he played last season.

Bruins injury update

Besides the known injuries with Marco Sturm, Andrew Ference, and Matt Hunwick, other Bruins players have had injuries while in the playoffs.

And just revealed today, a problem with Phil Kessel's shoulder, David Krejci's hip and a quick kidney stone surgery for Mark Recchi -- just to name a few – probably didn't help either.

It's becoming clear that Boston was a MASH unit by the second round. Mark Recchi had a rib injury and also had kidney stone surgery before Game 7. Krejci will have hip surgery that will sideline him for 4-6 months.

Phil Kessel revealed that he injured his labrum and rotator cuff in the game in Columbus. He will have shoulder surgery and he said he could be out as long as six months.
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I remember the game in Columbus when Kessel got layed out with a big hit and he landed against the boards awkwardly hitting his shoulder and missed some of the game after that hit.

Milan Lucic suspended for game 3

It was announced that Bruins' Milan Lucic will be suspended for one game and will miss game 3 in Montreal vs the Canadiens, for the cross-check incident on Maxim Lapierre.

"While it is unclear whether Lucic's glove or stick makes contact with Lapierre, what is clear is that he delivered a reckless and forceful blow to the head of his opponent," said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell.
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So let's see, Lucic gets suspended for a high hit on Lapierre which was, using Colin Campbell's words, "unclear" that it was his glove or stick. But we see Mike Cammalleri hitting Martin Havlat in the head and no suspension there. We see Tom Kostopoulos throw an elbow at Matt Hunwick's head, and no suspension. It's "unclear" that Mike Komisarek eye gouged Matt Hunwick or not but no suspension there. Good job NHL, looks like you're really setting a standard here. What a joke.

Byron Bitz will be inserted into the lineup in the fourth line where Blake Wheeler was playing. Wheeler will move up and take Lucic's spot on the second line.

Lucic suspended until disciplinary hearing

Well for now Milan Lucic appears to be suspended for his "supposed" cross-check to Montreal's Maxim Lapierre. But if you watch replays, Lucic's stick doesn't touch Lapierre, but his glove does.

At 15:28 of the third period, Lucic and Montreal defenseman Mathieu Schneider shoved at each other with sticks, earning Schneider a minor for high-sticking and Lucic a minor for cross-checking. Montreal's Maxim Lapierre then became involved, and Lucic hit him in the face with his stick, earning a match penalty under Rule 60.4, which mandates the call when "a player or goaltender attempts to or deliberately injures an opponent while carrying or holding any part of his stick above the shoulders of the opponent."

Under NHL Rule 21.2, Lucic is suspended until a disciplinary hearing is held. The series resumes Monday night in Montreal.
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So hopefully Lucic meets with Colin Campbell or whoever for the hearing and they actually watch the tape and see that Lucic's stick didn't touch Lapierre. I'm in total agreement with what Bruins coach Claude Julien said about the incident (below).

Lucic "might have lost his composure a little bit," Julien said. "You have to remember that he got elbowed in the head and then high-sticked by Schneider and then Lapierre comes in and Lapierre has been an instigator throughout the whole series and even during the regular season -- and what Looch did is react to (Lapierre) coming at him.

"It wasn't premeditated and, in reviewing it, (Lucic) hit him with his glove. He had his stick in his hand but he the glove hit the helmet. Had the stick hit him in the head, I think he would have been down, but Lapierre stayed up and kept coming at Looch. If there is one thing, I know it certainly wasn't premeditated."
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If Lucic does get suspended, well something here is wrong. In game 1 we saw Tom Kostopoulos throw an elbow to the head of Matt Hunwick (luckily he missed). Also there was no looking into of the claimed eye gouge of Hunwick by Mike Komisarek. No suspensions or fines were handed out to either players.

Picture of Maxim Lapierre and Milan Lucic roughing
Image courtesy of Getty

Update @ 2:40 AM
Here is video of the supposed Lucic cross-check to Lapierre's head. You'll see Lucic's glove hit Lapierre and not his stick.

Bruins vs Canadiens game 2 tonight

Tonight @ 8pm EST is game 2 between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens. It should be another good game between these two heated rivals. In case you haven't heard, Matt Hunwick has been taken to the hospital earlier today, not because of the eye gouge, but because of his spleen. So defenseman Shane Hnidy will take his spot in the lineup.

A few changes for Montreal:

According to the Montreal media, Plekanec and D'Agostini are out. S. Kostitsyn and Weber are in for the Habs.
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I will again be blogging during the game keeping you all up-to-date what is going on during the game. Go Bruins!

Komisarek responds to eye gouge claim

After Friday's practice, the media asked Montreal Canadiens' defenseman about the eye gouge he gave Matt Hunwick at the end of game 1. Komisarek of course played dumb, read his quotes below. If you haven't seen the video yet, watch it in the previous post.

"It's playoff hockey. Face-washes happen every other shift so - I don't know if the kid's got gentle skin or whatnot - but it's playoff hockey," Komisarek said. "I've never been a guy that's Moe, Larry and Curly, trying to poke someone's eye out. It's playoff hockey, and we’re battling."

"Sticks are high, gloves are high in that situation. Just battling. I saw his face and didn't know how it happened or when it happened."

"The ref's right there, there's no penalty to call. He knows I'm not that type of guy."

"It's playoff hockey," he said. "You don’t need a reason."
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He'll get his in due time. I'm counting on Milan Lucic sometime to give him another beatdown, maybe not this year, but next year or later.

Looks like no suspensions for late scrum

Reading the page on NHL.com, Colin Campbell remarks from The Situation Room, it seems that there will be no suspensions for the Montreal Canadiens who started scrums in the final minute of game 1 yesterday. First it was Maxim Lapierre who went after Phil Kessel, after Kessel scored an empty net goal to put the game away. Milan Lucic then went after Lapierre to protect Kessel. Then after that scrum, in the final seconds Guillaume Latendresse went after a Bruin player and Steve Montador came in to protect his teammate, which then led to everyone getting involved. Mike Komisarek came in and tried to rough up Matt Hunwick by throwing gloved punches at his head, who ended up with a bloody right eye, which I thought was an eye gouge but I haven't heard anything from other sites reporting this. So not sure how Hunwick got the bloody eye, maybe Komisarek's stick, as I think he still had his gloves on.

On the events at the end of Boston-Montreal Game 1: "People take things out of different incidents last night (and say:) 'Oh boy! Same thing (as Philadelphia-Pittsburgh)! How many games are you going to suspend him?' You've got to let the games unfold. You've got to let hockey be hockey, playoffs be playoffs. You've got to let the energy flow. And then, when they cross that line, you do what you have to do."
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So let's see, Dan Carcillo punches Talbot in the head, gets suspended for a game, who by the way Talbot is not a star in this league, more of a grinder. Phil Kessel, a young star in the league gets roughed up after he scores an empty net goal by Lapierre, and Komisarek repeatedly throws gloved punches at Hunwick's head/face and there are no suspensions? Uuummmm, well looks like the NHL is just going to pick spots to suspend players. I wonder if it was Georges Laraque who was out there throwing punches at a Bruin he would probably get suspended. So with no suspensions from last night, it looks like the NHL is just going to watch the tough players/enforcers on teams to make sure they don't start trouble at the end of a game but a player like Lapierre, Latendresse or Komisarek can do all they want. Wow, way to go NHL.

Don't get me wrong, I love the rough stuff and message sending at the end of playoff games. But the NHL sent out a message to all teams before the playoffs saying if that happened, suspensions and fines would happen. We saw it with Carcillo. And when the Bruins didn't put out Shawn Thornton or Zdeno Chara in the final shift, and you had Montreal trying to rough up the Bruins and send a message, it sounds like it falls into the category the NHL didn't want.

Update @ 2:50 PM
I just found a video on TSN showing more at the end of the game last night. Something I did not see was the Tom Kostopoulos attempt of an elbow to Hunwick's head at the end of the game, and then the eye gouge by Komisarek. You can watch it here on TSN. Kostopoulos should be suspended for that crap, that's just gutless cheap shot shit. I'm not surprised though, that's Montreal's way, cheap stuff by cheap players.

Here's a picture of Matt Hunwick with the bloody eye and Mike Komisarek being escorted off the ice by a lineman.

Image courtesy of AP

Update @ 4:35 PM
Here's a YouTube video of the last scrum with the Komisarek eye gouge on Hunwick.

Bruins vs Canadiens game 1 live update

Game 1 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 both teams for game 1 (source):

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

Scratches: Bitz, Ference, Hnidy


Canadiens lines:
Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev
A. Kostitsyn-Plekanec-D'Agostini
Latendresse-Lapierre-Kostopoulos
Higgins-Metropolit-Laraque
Hamrlik-Komisarek
Schneider-Brisebois
Gorges-Dandenault
Price

Scratches: S. Kostitsyn, Stewart, O'Byrne, Weber


Update @ 7:13 PM
Milan Lucic with a huge hit on Patrice Brisebois.

Update @ 7:15 PM
Power-play for the Bruins coming up. Plekanec received two minutes for hooking.

Update @ 7:22 PM
Milan Lucic and Georges Laraque having some words. Lucic doesn't fall for the trap and just smiles at Laraque.

Update @ 7:30 PM
Another power-play for the Bruins, penalty on Roman Hamrlik.

Update @ 7:33 PM
Phil Kessel scores and it is 1-0 Bruins. Carey Price complains to the ref thinking he had the puck covered. It was not a power-play goal.

Update @ 7:35 PM
P.J. Axelsson and Zdeno Chara with good checks on Laraque. Laraque keeps trying to get Chara to take a penalty. Big Georgie go sit on the bench where you belong.

Update @ 7:38 PM
It's 2-0 Bruins as David Krejci scores on a backhander after some nice forechecking by Milan Lucic. And the crowd starts chanting "Carey!"

Update @ 7:40 PM
Higgins scores for Montreal, and it is 2-1 Bruins now.

Update @ 7:46 PM
The first period is over. Bruins lead 2-1.

Update @ 8:04 PM
The second period just started.

Update @ 8:11 PM
Patrice Bergeron gets a two minute penalty for hooking. Montreal on the power-play.

Update @ 8:17 PM
Bruins kill off the penalty. Lucic with a few big hits.

Update @ 8:26 PM
Plekanec gets two minutes for elbowing. Boston on the power-play.

Update @ 8:30 PM
Bruins don't score on the power-play. The Bruins are now 0 for 3 on the power-play.

Update @ 8:33 PM
Stephane Yelle gets called for a goalie interference penalty. Not sure about that one. Montreal on the power-play.

Update @ 8:38 PM
Alexei Kovalev scores with a wicked shot over Thomas' glove, wow what a shot. It's tied 2-2 now. It was not a power-play goal.

Update @ 8:40 PM
The second period is over and the game is tied 2-2.

Update @ 8:58 PM
The third period just started.

Update @ 9:18 PM
Bruins to go on the power-play as Josh Gorges takes a dumb cross checking penalty.

Update @ 9:21 PM
Zdeno Chara scores on the power-play with a big slap shot. Bruins lead 3-2.

Update @ 9:27 PM
Looked like P.J. Axelsson got injured blocking a shot. Hopefully it is not that serious.

Update @ 9:32 PM
P.J. Axelsson is back on the ice and looks ok.

Update @ 9:37 PM
Montreal pulled the goalie, Lucic stole a pass, went in and passed to Phil Kessel for the empty net goal. Lapierre then went in and tried to rough up Kessel, and then everyone got in it, scrum ensued. It's 4-2 Bruins now. 13.4 seconds left.

Update @ 9:47 PM
The game is over now, Bruins win game 1 with the score 4-2. There was a scrum at the end of the game with everyone getting involved. Steve Montador and Latendresse were first involved with each other. Mike Komisarek goes after Matt Hunwick of all people and tries roughing him up with face washes and gloved punches. The telecast showed Hunwick with a bloody right eye, and it looked like Bruins players were trying to get the attention of the refs after the game maybe for an eye gouge penalty or something.

Before the playoffs, the NHL told all teams they didn't want message sending at the end of games. And I'm guessing what happened tonight in the Bruins game, some players may get in trouble such as Lapierre or Komisarek.

Game 2 is on Saturday at 8pm EST. Should be another good one.

Update @ 2:01 PM on 4/17/09
You can watch highlights of the game and video of the scrums at the end of the game on ESPN.com.

Bruins beat Canadiens, but lose Ference

On Thursday, the Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens soundly, but they lost defenseman Andrew Ference in it. He was injured while blocking a shot and will be out for 6-8 weeks with a broken tibia. So look for young defenseman Matt Hunwick to get to play or the Bruins may even call up defenseman Matt Lashoff.

I will be posting some clips from this game like the Milan Lucic vs Mike Komisarek fight where Lucic handled the Canadiens defenseman well and put him down to the ice. I will also post the goal Milan Lucic scored and some of his hits as well.

Bruins recall Rask and Hunwick

The Bruins recalled goalie Tuukka Rask from the Providence Bruins (AHL) on Thursday. Today the Bruins recalled defenseman Matt Hunwick from the Providence Bruins (AHL). Tonight the Bruins play at the Montreal Canadiens.