Bruins pound Canadiens in preseason game

Last night was the Bruin's first preseason game vs another team and it went very well as they pounded the Montreal Canadiens 8-3. Vladimir Sobotka and Marco Sturm both had 2 goals, while the big story of the night was Patrice Bergeron with a goal and 3 assists. Bergeron's first real game back from the serious cheapshot he took last season and what a game he had. Looks like he may be back to his old self, but time will tell.

The game also included some rough stuff as usual between these two teamsm as there were a couple of fights with the score being so lopsided. The first fight was the Bruins Byron Bitz vs the Canadiens Alex Henry (a known tough guy who has fought in the NHL with the Capitals, Wild, and Predators). From what I read it sounded like it was mostly Henry and he also got the takedown. The second fight was Bruins Jeremy Reich vs Canadiens Ryan Flinn, which if anyone has seen Flinn knows that is a mismatch as Flinn is like 6'6" while Reich isn't even 6' tall. I didn't really hear how that one went but it seems Flinn probably instigated that one (even though no additional penalties were handed out). At the next faceoff Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with Steve Begin which was a really good fight with Thornton getting the decision. Watch video of the fight below (created by nowhockey.com). The last fight was between Andrew Ference and one of the Kostitsyn sisters, oh I mean brothers. Apparently Andrei Kostitsyn hit a Bruin with a not-so-clean hit and Ference came to the rescue and put a beating on Kostitsyn. This season's games should be interesting with these two teams. Remember the Canadiens signed enforcer Georges Laraque in the off-season so Shawn Thornton will have his hands full with him, but he has got a decision over Laraque in the past. We also remember those two wrestling matches that Bruins captain Zdeno Chara had with Laraque last season.

Shawn Thornton vs Steve Begin

The Bruins next preseason game is tonight vs the New York Islanders.

Bruins youngsters bring it vs Toronto

Tonight the Bruins won a big game against the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2. With Marc Savard and Andrew Ference already out for this one, Chuck Kobasew got hurt in the first period after taking a puck off one of his feet. But the Bruins youngsters and character players stepped up and helped the Bruins offense score six goals.

David Krejci had a goal and an assist. Matt Lashoff had two assists. Phil Kessel scored the fifth goal of the game which came at a good time. Milan Lucic had two assists, one which was a nice pass to Shawn Thornton where Thornton deked around Vesa Toskala to score his 4th goal of the season. Jeremy Reich scored an empty net goal to end the game, his 2nd of the season. Glen Murray and Marco Sturm added the other two goals in the game for the Bruins. I will try and post the Shawn Thornton goal and the Jeremy Reich goal.

Chatting with Shawn Thornton

On March 19th BostonBruins.com had a chat session for fans who could ask questions to Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton. You can read the whole chat log on BostonBruins.com. Below I quoted some interesting and fun comments from Shawn.

BsGal127: Hi Shawn. What's the most difficult part of being a fighter in the NHL today?
Shawn Thornton: Well besides getting punched in the face, just getting mentally prepared for guys that are a lot bigger than me.

GahhhdenGuy: Hey Shawn, who do you consider the hardest puncher you've faced in the NHL, past or present?
Shawn Thornton: Tough one to answer...A guy I played with, Louie DeBrusk.

savvy_91: Hey Shawn, I've noticed that sometimes on the road the team seems to need an early game fight to get energized. How do you and the other fighters gauge this energy and how do you sort out who fights?
Shawn Thornton: There's fights for three reasons as far as I'm concerned...
To stick up for a teammate.
To stick up for yourself.
Or to create energy or momentum.

GahhhdenGuy: What was the story behind you and Lucic in the opening 2 fights against the Capitals? Was it pre-meditated?
Shawn Thornton: It wasn't premeditated for me. I think it might have been for Luch.

Bosbruins9875: Hey Shawn Have u ever fought with P.J. Stock.
Shawn Thornton: Yeah we have fought twice, he's a tough character.

Stockfan42: What was your favorite moment from all of this year's games?
Shawn Thornton: Luch getting the Gordie Howe hat trick in LA

Chara and Thornton vs Brashear

Here are the fights from the Bruins awful game on March 3rd when they got blown out by the Washington Capitals. Zdeno Chara first took on Donald Brashear and then later in the game Shawn Thornton fought Brashear. Thornton's fight was more interesting and one of the best of the season. Watch them both below.

Chara vs Brashear


Thornton vs Brashear

Goals from Bruins tough guys

I enjoy seeing the tough guys score goals and I've been trying to post the goals scored by Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton, and Jeremy Reich this season. Well below are videos of two more goals, one from Lucic and the other from Thornton.

On February 23rd against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Milan Lucic scored his 7th goal of the season. Watch it below.

On February 26th against the Ottawa Senators, Shawn Thornton scored his 3rd goal of the season. Watch it below.

Shawn Thornton's 2 goals vs Hurricanes

Here's a video clip of the two goals that Shawn Thornton scored against the Carolina Hurricanes on February 12th.

Milan Lucic highlights vs Canadiens

I didn't get a chance to post the Milan Lucic highlights vs the Montreal Canadiens from January 10th so I will now. Lucic had some big hits on Mike Komisarek and he also received a few. Also Lucic scored his fourth goal of the season. Watch the YouTube video below.

Also in that game Shawn Thornton roughed up Roman Hamrlik which I liked seeing. Watch it below.

You can download video clips of these videos here.

Fernandez and Thornton go on injured reserve

The Bruins have placed goalie Manny Fernandez and forward Shawn Thornton on the injured reserve list. Fernandez is out with a left knee strain and Thornton is out for 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his left foot. So Tuukka Rask will be up with the club most likely with Fernandez out. Also Jeremy Reich will be filling in for Thornton while he is out and provide the Bruins with his energy and toughness, although I can't see Reich taking on heavyweights as Thornton would.

Thornton vs Cote and Lucic vs Eager

Ok I said I would post the two fights from the Bruins-Flyers game on Saturday so here they are. The Shawn Thornton vs Riley Cote fight was awesome. This is fight of the year so far I would say. Both guys kept throwing punch after punch with no one going down. I would give a slight edge to Thornton in this fight. After Thornton vs Cote, Milan Lucic dropped the gloves with Flyers' Ben Eager and they had an ok fight. Lucic looked to land some punches on Eager, but after the fight it was Lucic with a cut on his cheek under his left eye. I would give this fight a draw. Watch both fights below. You can download video clips of these two fights here.

Shawn Thornton vs Riley Cote


Milan Lucic vs Ben Eager

Bruins lose to Flyers and lose Bergeron

The Bruins lost 2-1 against the Flyers yesterday but that wasn't the big or important news as far as I'm concerned. Patrice Bergeron was hit from behind by Flyers' defenseman Randy Jones and Bergeron went headfirst into the boards. Bergeron layed on the ice motionless and injured. It appears that Bergeron only has a concussion and a broken nose from the cheap hit. The Bruins released a statement regarding Bergeron, saying:

"After initially losing consciousness on the ice, Patrice has regained consciousness and has been taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he is undergoing a series of tests.

Patrice has sustained a concussion and a broken nose. The initial x-rays and CT scan have not shown any other serious injury to his head or neck, and he has full feeling and motion in all of his extremities.

We will continue to monitor Patrice and await the final results of his medical studies."

The game was getting physical before the cheapshot on Bergeron. Shawn Thornton had a great fight with Flyers' Riley Cote. It reminded me of the P.J. Stock vs Stephen Peat slugfest. They went toe to toe and after the fight it looked like Thornton had a black and blue right eye. I didn't see a close-up shot of Cote to see if he got tagged good. After that fight, rookie Milan Lucic and Flyers' Ben Eager dropped the gloves and had an ok fight, with Eager going down to the ice. After the fight you could see Lucic had a cut under his left eye I think. I will post these fights on this blog when I can.

Let's all send our best wishes and prayers to Patrice Bergeron and his family. We all hope he fully recovers and is able to play hockey again.

Bruins give a show in home opener

Before yesterday's game, the Bruins were 19-2-6-0 all-time against the Lightning on home ice. They improved that record to 20 wins with yesterday's 4-1 win over the Lightning. The game started out with a lot of energy and we saw some physical play. The home crowd got to see Bruins' rookie Milan Lucic for the first time and he didn't disappoint as he dropped the gloves with Lightning tough guy Nick Tarnasky and pounded away on Tarnasky's face with rights. Watch the video below. Bruins' Marco Sturm scored two goals, including the game winner, while Tim Thomas made 35 saves to get the win. Thomas is now 3-1 with a 1.26 GAA and 96.2% save percentage. He looks like he should be the starter over Fernandez right now in the season.

Nick Tarnasky vs Milan Lucic

You can download video clips of this fight and the Andre Roy vs Shawn Thornton fight here.

A little more on Milan Lucic. The below quotes were found on this BostonBruins.com page.

"I've had to talk about this guy every day, so he is obviously doing something right," said Julien on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, when asked if Milan will be sticking with the Bruins Julien said that no decision has been made as of yet.

"I can't declare anything because I am not the guy who has the last say on that," said Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien. "So it will be a matter of Peter (Chiarelli) and everyone else involved, (making) the decision.

"But I can stand here as a coach and tell you I like what I see," he said.

What's not to like?

The kid has asserted himself, and the rumor around the room yesterday amongst his teammates was that Milan was the quickest ever to have notched the coveted "Gordie Howe Hat trick" (a goal, an assist and a fight) on Friday, October 12th against the Kings.

I'm hoping Lucic stays with the Bruins but I know they have a similar player in Jeremy Reich, who hasn't played yet and yesterday found out he is injured. Also the Bruins don't like carrying around players that don't play, as like last season. So we'll see what happens.

The Bruins will play the New York Rangers tomorrow at 4pm. Should be a good physical game. I'm thinking Shawn Thornton and ex-Bruin Colton Orr will meet up at some time during the game.

Bruins re-sign Jeremy Reich

The Bruins re-signed tough guy Jeremy Reich to a one-way two-year deal. This is great news for Bruins fans that want the Bruins to be more physical and play with grit which Reich will bring. I'm hoping for Reich and Shawn Thornton to play on the same line and make other teams keep their heads up.

Reich and Thornton have met in the past in the AHL. From BostonHerald.com:

Reich and Thornton are well-acquainted from their days in the AHL, and Reich is happy to finally be playing with him instead of against him.

"I played against Shawn in the minors enough," said Reich. "He plays hard every shift and he can handle himself if something breaks out. It'll be great having him on the team as well."

When asked if any of their past clashes led to gloves being dropped, Reich laughed.

"We've run into each other a few times," said Reich. "We play the same style, and when you play as often as you do down there (in the AHL), it's kind of inevitable."

So who holds the bragging rights?

"I don't know, you'll have to ask Shawn," said Reich. "I'm just glad we're on the same team now."

I get a sense that Thornton had the edge on Reich when they fought. If I find any of their fights I'll be sure to post them here on this blog.

Also the Bruins signed Matt Hendricks to a two-way two-year contract. Last season he played for the Hershey Bears in the AHL. In 68 games he had 18 goals, 26 assists for 44 points with 105 PIMs.

Two Shawn Thornton fights

I'm very excited about the Bruins signing tough guy Shawn Thornton, can you tell? If you have never seen any of his fights well below are two of them that I found on YouTube. The first one is Thornton vs the NHL heavyweight champ Georges Laraque back in 2004. Thornton got the edge in that one, which not many people can say against Laraque. The second fight is of Thornton last year in a punchfest against Sharks' Mark Bell.

Bruins sign tough guy Shawn Thornton

TSN.ca is reporting that the Boston Bruins today signed tough guy right wing Shawn Thornton to a multi-year contract. Thornton will be 30 years old in July. This past season he won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks. He played in 48 games during the season, scoring 2 goals and had 9 points with 88 PIMs.

Thornton is one of the players I was hoping that the Bruins would try and sign, and I'm glad they got him. Thornton is a middleweight and is known for his rough play, sticking up for teammates and dropping the gloves. He is a player that the Bruins have needed the past few seasons since they let Colton Orr get away. I would like to see the Bruins re-sign Jeremy Reich and have an energy/crash line but look for the Bruins to let Reich go elsewhere. Since they signed Thornton to a multi-year contract, look for Thornton to be on the roster all season long and not be sent down to the minors unless he plays really bad. Good signing by the Bruins.