we're wining 3-1 with 15 minutes left and we are playing our best hockey of the young season. brad boyes looks like a playmaking force.

edit: 4-1, 10 mins left

4-2 in the end, and the B's very impressively kill off a 5-4 with an open goal, brief 6-4 (30 secs), then 6-5 with the Lightning putting Modin, St. Louis, Boyle, Richards, and Lecavalier on the ice for about a minute. I must say that Andrew Raycroft was the absolute balls tonight - incredible game. He was easily the player of the game tonight.

BY FAR the best game of the year tonight. A great job all around.

The rookies are doing pretty good, too.

Andrew Alberts looked like a different guy last night. Only played a few minutes, but played with a lot more confidence, and it showed.

Pat Leahy has been a real surprise.

Brad Boyes looks like a terrific plamaker and solid all around player.

Most surprisingly, Kevin Dallman has somehow become the Bruins' #2 defenseman. He's in over his head as the #2, but he is holding his own and contributing. That's a surprise for a little guy without balizing speed who was never drafted. He plays with as much poise and confidence as any rookie I've seen.

He did...

Leahy's from Duxbury, by the way.

I believe that this is going to be an incredibly effective powerplay with Zhamnov and Leetch quarterbacking a unit each. This should be an amazing unit when all's said and done.

Oh, and I really am starting to like the Isbister acquisition, but I think he'd be better suited on a Thornton-Murray line than with Boyes and Axelsson. Green's looking like a good move as well.

Globe today says Joe left game w/ 5 minutes left due to back spasms. Will take a few days off and evaluate it later, but I guess its been a bother since the start of camp.

Also, Scatchard should play vs. Florida.

Been told the B's have just signed Boynton. Looking for a link to confirm.

EDIT: D & C just announced it on WEEI. No details on salary yet.

Hopefully Thornton not being a major factor, other than Pitt OT, is because of his back. Get that taken care of ASAP.

That's great news about Boynton, hopefully he has stayed in good shape.

Nick Boynton has agreed to a one year deal worth $1.75 million with the Boston Bruins, TSN has learned.. Details to follow.


TSN.ca

Nick collapsed like a house of cards. I guess he realized it was silly to lose another month of hockey because of 150K.

Now get in shape and get to work, Nick.

Does any one have any updates on Andy Hilbert? Is he in Providence or is he still holding out?

I would rather have him getting ice time over Shawn McEachern, who looks like he might be done after a very nice NHL career.

I just hate giving up on a guy who seems like he can score, especially with the new rule changes.

They're not giving up. Just not giving in to the contract demands of a career AHL'er.

They're not contract demands at all. Hilbert wants a trade because he thinks he won't get a fair shot in Boston. I disagree with his assessment, but that's besides the point. Hilbert isn't demanding a monetary amount, he wants to go to another organization.

Of course, with Zhamnov and Joe out he'd be getting ice time if he had decided to report instead of sulking in a corner, but that's another issue.

Well it's the result of not being offered a one-way. I'd say that's monetary.

From what I've read it was initially because Hilbert thought he'd have too much competition for the center spot on the team.

Hilbert was upset because the Bruins gave out 12 one way deals to forwards. That slated him no higher than 13th on the depth chart, no matter what he did. If I were him, I'd have wanted out, too. Hilbert would be playing now, if he'd signed, but he'd be back in Providence as soon as Scatchard, Thornton & Zhamnov were healthy.

I think he made a huge mistake by not accepting his contract offer, though. His best chance to get into an NHL lineup is via a trade, and his best chance of getting traded would be to sign, show up at camp, and play - even in the AHL.

Bottom line: you need leverage for a holdout to be effective.

glen murray, what a smooth goal. jumped, gloved, dropped, stuffed.

also like to see orr and leahy dropping the gloves tonight.

edit: damn fitzy with a similar goal. luango who?

Our defense suddenly looks very shaky.

Down 3-0, Florida pulls Luango and then scores back-to-back goals. Our pathetic defense rears its ugly head once again.

This makes the announcement of Boynton signing just that much sweeter. He'll mean more to this D that we think.

edit: Hal Gill is a fucking blue line butcher. Why he is taking cap room from the B's and PT from Milan Jurcina is beyond me. If he was big AND could play hockey, like Marek Malik, then fine. But if he's going to play it up the wing by bashing it off the back of the net, get this fucker off the team. I'm tired of him taking little bitch penalties and not using his size, either.

Great win. Raycroft was really good again. Not the best analogy but I find the Bruins HF Boards site calling for Hannu to start sort of like calling for Paxton Crawford to start over Pedro in 2000.

Once we get eveyone in the fold this is going to be a fun team to watch.

I pray that next year the Bruins let him walk away, far away, and use his 1.6 million to lock up some other players already on the team.

Hehe. Blind prospect love is a symptom of being a kid. Some good talk over at HF, but lots of fanboys that have yet to be burned by their first Luc Dufour.

Good thing we don't have any of those problems here. We'll just sit back and enjoy the fact that by 2007 we'll have 3 20 game winners in the rotation all making major league minimum.

Enough of the humor back to hockey. great to see the Bruins turn their game around on this trip. That pitt game was huge a loss there, and you could have seen them keep pressing and easily see them come home 1-6 and be in full panic mode. Now we are 3-2 and everything is great in the world.

Jurcina was sent back to providence, which seems like the right move. It will be interesting to see how the minutes break down as Nicky B comes back. the B's may dress 7 defenseman for a while so they can ease Nick back in (no problem since Moran can play wing as well)

According to someone at HFboards, Nick Boynton will be playing tonight. I think it's a mistake to rush him back in against one of the top teams. Hopefully he doesn't wind up with a groin pull or something.

I'm sure that this whole thing with Boynton is being overplayed. I doubt that he'd just holdout without staying in or very close to playing shape, and I think he'll give our D an immediate boost.

Is Hannu getting the start tonight?

I would expect not, but I don't know.

post deleted

Bruins down 5-1, 1:00 left in the 3rd. Raycroft got pulled after goal #4, but Toivenen let in one goal but was absolutely incredible killing off a 4 minute powerplay, then a minute of 2 man adv. followed by another minute of PP time. I believe there were 12+ shots in that extended powerplay, and he was absolutely rock solid.

The game sucked, though, and Hal Gill is still a fucking butcher.

Wow, Ottawa looks good. The B's were just outclassed against them. They looked sloppy and sluggish against an Ottawa team that did a great job skating and making their way from the neutral zone into the offensive zone.

Is it me or did Edwards abandon the "Stick a fork in it" line? I don't think I caught one tonight.

And, yes, Gill is a fucking butcher. He must feel like a guy just that just jumped into the travel lane of the highway riding a Schwinn

In my estimation, Ottawa's a good 15% better than even the 2nd best NHL team. No shame in having your ass handed to you by those guys.

I hate Gill allways have. The man is just awful. Never used his size in anyway to clear men from the crease. And has no other skills stickwise. Just plain awful.

That isnt just a watching on TV opinion. Ive sat about 5 rows back of the net a few times, and it sticks out bad.

What a waste of size.

Ottawa's a great example of a team that will thrive in the "new" NHL. Remember all the complaints that they wer ea talented but soft team that couldn't get over the hump? With the new enforcement of the rules in place, they're going to be able to play more of their game.

They looked damn impressive the other night.

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins...reviews/?page=2

Link

Nice to see the league was paying attention. Too bad the refs didn't see it in the game and give him a match penalty.

If he had kicked Gill in the arse, some Bruins fans would have applauded.

This is a win-win. Gill gets kicked in the balls, and Havlat misses time.

What next? Is Havlat going to start hitting players with his purse?

So the Bruins are on OLN nationally tonight... is it going to be simulcast on NESN?

It really sucks Adelphia cable doesn't carry the channel here at school.

You're not missing much. OLN must have picked up their cameras from a yard sale because the quality of the picture is terrible. I don't have a high def/plama/whatever but even on a decent Sony WEGA it looks like dog shit. I long for the days of ESPN hockey coverage.

Yeah, OLN's coverage is pretty awful. The cameras they use truly make it look like a game from the early 80's.

I watched a little bit of last night's NYR/FLA game and then suddenly realize they simulcast the games on the high definition channel, INHD. The HD version was very good and was about equal to NESN's HD broadcasts.

OLN seems to love the "sideline reporter" bits. They like to constantly cut to someone down at ice level and have them give updates. I typically like these types of breaks in the action but they just don't do it right.

Broons up 2-0 but you'd never know it by watching the action. Canadiens have had much the better of the play.

So, what satellite does OLN use for its transmissions, Sputnik?

last night the audio was awful, lil better tonight.

hmm..turns out OLN is a premium subscription channel on my cable provider. That sucks.

No hockey for me.

Well, it was just a matter of time. 2-2. Broons caught flat-footed again by Canadiens who have pretty much controlled the action the entire game, and especially this period. Fuck, I hate that team.

Despite a 3-2 lead I think there is almost no way the B's win this game. They have been dominated so far, Raycroft has been standing on his head.

I still can't figure out the officiating. Any time you touch someone, even accidentally, you might get a penalty. Some of these penalties tonight have been truly head-scratching.