Surprisingly good, actually. Slegr's played very well on the offensive side of the puck as well as defensive, Gill has had the game of the season for him thus far, and Alberts has had about 5 solid bodychecks that knocked down a Panthers player. I wouldn't say we're dominating them, but they've had a mighty small amount of legit chances on Toivonen. Jurcina's been more than solid as well, barring one small giveaway inside his blueline.

One real benefit of the injury has been that Alberts is finally getting some decent ice time, and not just on penalty kills. Plus he is finally getting a chance to get on the ice with a quality partner.

Another night, another loss by the B's...wait...they won? How the hell did that happen? Someone's not pulling their weight on this team!

Jurcina, too. They were both very good tonight. Off the puck they played very good positional defense in their zone, instead of the usual B's routine of leaving guys alone in front. I see that as proof that Sullivan's "All-Leetch, All-the-time" approach was killing the B's. There was no reason why Alberts and Jurcina shouldn't have been doing more, and taking some pressure off of Leetch and Boynton (who finally looks back in shape after his holdout).

I think the Leetch injury could be a blessing in disguise for the team - when he comes back they will have a pretty solid group around him, and he won't have to play 27 minutes a night with a lot of PK time.

On the downside, Dallman is hurt now - blocked a shot late in the second and did not return. Maybe we'll see the debut of Jonathan Sigalet...

Now, if Sullivan would just notice that Brad Boyes is one of his better forwards...

Great game last night. Alberts was a one-man wrecking crew out there. I was surprised it took so long for someone to retaliate against him.

What's the deal with those "special seats" in between the two benches? They look like they'd be amazing. Anyone know how much that package is they were talking about?

Two wins in a row for the B's! Too bad the C's gave away 2 in a row, though.

The B's traded Hilbert to the Blackhawks for a 5th round pick.

What a waste by the Bruins. Hilbert could be a pretty decent NHL player, IMO.

My favorite Bruin of all time, Cam Neely, is being inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight.

ESPN Article

"If ever there was a hockey player who had reason to look skyward and ask that unanswerable question -- "Why me?" -- it's Cam Neely.

Why the injuries?

Why not a few more seasons?

Why not a Stanley Cup?

Why a mother taken too early by cancer at age 47?

Why a father taken a few years later at age 56 by the same disease?

Why me?

"I've got to tell you, I've never said that, ever," Neely said in an interview this week. "There's something a buddy says and I'll share a quote from him, 'Why not me?'

"There are things you can't control and you're better off not worrying about them. That's something I learned early on with the situation with my parents."

It's not surprising then, that since his premature retirement in 1996, the 40-year-old Neely has rarely worried himself over whether he would someday find himself in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It is a question that in this case, finally has an answer: yes. Welcome Cam Neely to the Hockey Hall of Fame."

rest of article...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/stor...cott&id=2213535

I hate this team. I hate this team. I hate this team.

Hey, what do you know? The B's choke away another 2-goal lead with seconds left in regulation.

Toivonen, say hello to OTL number 4.

Edit: Nice D, assholes. This team should be shot.

Double edit: I am getting angrier by the second. How many fucking times is this going to happen before Sullivan changes how he handles his shit? Whomever he's throwing out there to handle defense in the final 30 seconds of the game just fucking sucks. He KNEW they were going to pull Esche, because if he didn't, he should be looking for a new job tonight. Get some fast guys out there to make sure no one has an open look. And for Chrissakes, can someone teach Toivonen to block that hole? He's always getting burned there.

This team is just terrified of winning a close game. 3 minutes left, they have been taking it to Philly and playing great the entire game. And they decide to turtle and give up 2 goals. So much for a nice W to take the mind off the Pats game.

Unbefuckinglievable. Toivonen plays out of his mind the entire night, then gets burned by Gagne and Pitkanen in 2 minutes. Granted, Pitkanen's shot was perfect.

Ugh.

edit: Holy fuck, and now we lost in overtime again. Granted, it's better than what I thought Philly would do to us, but being up 3-1 with like 4 minutes to go is no position to lose in overtime. Fucking disgraceful.

And Philly looks like they're on the PP in OT, scoring in a matter of moments. This team craps out points like they're getting paid for it.

That'll be the last Bruins game I watch this season. What a bunch of chokewards...

Shocking...NOT!

But, hey, at least they got a point! FUCK YOU YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECES OF FUCKING SHIT! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU SHOULD GIVE BACK YOUR PAYCHECKS THIS WEEK AND DISAPPEAR! YOU SACKLESS PUSSIES! Synden, get rid of 'em - none of 'em are worth it.

They ain't going anywhere even if they make the playoffs. Pieces of shit, every last motherfucking one of you.

"Hard-fought loss for the Bruins?" MY FUCKING ASS! THIS WAS A GIVE-UP EFFORT IF I'VE EVER SEEN ONE!

"Oh, we have a 2-goal lead with 4 minutes left! We're going to win...oh, shit. Okay, we still have the lead. Hey, why is their goalie leaving the ice? It must be over! Okay guys, let's go home. Hey, why are they still skating...HEY! AGAIN!? Man, this happens to us every time...well, we can still win in OT...nope, they're playing too tough. It's not worth it. Let 'em score and let's go get Slurpees, guys!"

Glad we waited a year and a half to watch this useless bunch of clowns fold game after game.

Remember when the Bruins are good? Yeah, neither do I. Probably because it was before I was born.

So Cam is coming back as an "ambassador" and Ray is coming back as a special coach ... um maybe we should just put them in uniform... any chances of Reggie coming back to play goal?

Fucking Bruins.

get out of work and learn about this shit. what the hell is wrong with this team.

this team is really on the bubble. if they can ever figure out how to hold a lead at the end of a game it will be a good season.

They're selling craploads of tickets (check Tuesday's Globe letters to the editor, some bigwig is there bragging about the 92% season ticket renewal level, and 3 sellouts in the first 4 games), so why the hell do you THINK they'd start trying to put a winning team out there now??

Yeah, yeah, I know the salary cap was supposed to level things off, and it does, money wise. But it didn't spread out the BRAINS, so the guys making decisions are the same ones who have built teams that can't get it done for over 30 years. Same guys. Same guys.

Come on, they have spent basically the whole season playing without 2 of their top 5 or 6 players on the bench (Zhamnov, and first Boynton, and then Leetch when Boynton finally started to get game shape). And now they've started the backup goalie for 6 straight games.

if this team can get healthy they are going to pile up some points. Of course maybe the D won't be good enough for a long playoff run, but they are likely to finish top 4 in the Conference.

But how does that change his basic point: This is the same FO that hasn't won a title in 33 years.

This is the same President who has not (and I guess owner)

But certainly not the same front office. This is not the same Gm, and certainly not the same people running the scouting department

Jacobs took over the team in 1977 or so.

Sinden came back as GM after the Summit Series in 1972. The Bruins have made the Stanley Cup Final 5 times in Sinden's tenure as GM (1974, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990). Sinden really struggled as GM after 1993, but to label him a failure is overreaction. They've had their chances.

It isn't like Raycroft was lighting the world on fire.

I've had two separate people offer me Bruins tickets for tonight's game, which I had to turn down because my stinking wife is flying to California today and I have to watch my damn kids.

You should try to make it work. Ottawa's one of the best teams in the league and the Bruins will have to skate hard to keep up with them. Should be a good game.

Can we please keep Boyes on the ice? Gosh!

Is Dale wearing a flack jacket under the suit coat tonight? Either unbutton the jacket or switch to lo-cal donuts, bud.

Hal Gill strikes again. Ye gods he is awful.

Fucking pathetic. Give up the short-handed bid and then leave the trailer uncovered too. Great power play, pussy boys.

And now all of a sudden it's 4-1 and the game's completely out of control.

There are a lot of one syllable words to discribe this performance.

Good football game on ESPN.

Not saying this would win the game, but it'd help - Brad Boyes has been on the ice about 3:30. Tom Fitzgerald? 5:15. Come on, Sullivan. Boyes is one of the most talented forwards on this team. I say it's time we treat him like one.

Spend enough time short-handed and you're bound to score.

And another penalty on the B's. Why oh why am I watching this?

The best part of this game thus far is watching the 6'7" Gill get beat up by the 5'9" Neil. That's all you need to know about Gill, what a pu$$y.

Too true. This is a guy who got dumped by a standing-still backside of Peter Forsberg, who incidentally had the puck. Good lord he is terrible.

I think the best part is giving up a goal 11 seconds into the 3rd.

I feel like I am watching the exhibition game at MSG in Miracle, you know, when the Russians crush the Americans a couple days before the '80 Games started. Except I know there's no miracle coming in the next BOS-OTT game.

Boyes got exactly 1 shift for 53 seconds in the 3rd period. That's absolutely unacceptable.

2:53 of ice time for Boyes in the first.
1:01 in the second.
:53 in the third.

I've lost all faith in Sullivan. His response to every crisis is to bench the kids. Boyes not seeing the ice for more than 3 minutes in a period: unacceptable. The constant preference for struggling vets like McEachern and Fitzgerald over kids: unacceptable.

At this point Mike O'Connell should be giving serious consideration to trading Samsonov for a defenseman, maybe Derek Morris or someone like that. The offense is pretty good, but this defense is unbelievably bad.

Ugh. I hope not. The offense is slow enough already. I think trading their most dynamic forward would create as many holes as it fills. Let's face facts here--the Bs need to get healthy. That's the only way they compete given their salary cap situation.

Seems like they are pretty much right at 39--38.5 anyway according to the running tally on HF boards. They could make some room by dumping the contracts of Isbister (1M), Slegr (950k), Green (675k), McEachern (1M), and Gill (1.6M) and going w/ the Pat Leahys of the world. The question is: are those guys playing well enough to attract any interest at all in the trade market? McEachern probably isn't. Isbister could be moved and replaced w/ Leahy (save 550k). Gill has some value and would be replaced by the incoming D. Slegr isn't playing any better than Kevin Dallman (save 550k). Green...meh (save 125k). Altogether, that would clear about 1.2M in salary cap space, plus Gill's slot to accomodate another total salary of about 2.7M or so.

If Boston could somehow pull that off and deal picks and prospects for an impact defenseman (best case scenario for a competitive WIN NOW team--a whole other discussion):

Samsonov-Thornton-Murray
Boyes-Zhamnov-Bergeron
PJ-Scatchard-McEachern (undumpable)
Orr-Fitzgerald-Leahy

Leetch-Boynton
Mystery Man-Dallman
Alberts-Jurcina

extra skaters= 450k scrubs: Nickulas, Jay Leach, et al

McEachern signed a 2 year deal and is under contract next season. Not sure how that impacts the cap.

Isbister is middle of the road, i thought he's looked pretty solid so far
Slegr is the highest scoring D on the team right now and an even +/-
Green highest +/- on the team at +7
McEachern lowest +/- on the team at -9 wtf happened to him?
Gil, nothing to be said here, only thing he has going for him is long reach.
i'm not really impressed with Fitzgerald or Moran right now either.

i don't know, i don't think they have a roster problem bigger than any other teams. they just need to keep their heads in the game all the time. i think Pedro and SJH pretty much nailed it with the Boyes TOI thing/Sullivan crisis management thing...

Jack Edwards stuck a fork in him.

I remember that McEachern was -7 through his 1st 7 games, then he was promptly hurt. Since then, he's picked it up a little, scoring 3 points in 6 games with a -2. Still pretty bad, but an improvement. I like his forechecking presence and think he can be an asset for this club.

WTF? I climb out of the basement to get a bowl of ice cream and now it's 4-2? Hell, it was tied when I went upstairs. What happened?

Bad pass into the B's zone from someone (I missed the names) that the intended player couldn't get a handle on. Some speedy little dude on the Islanders got slight control of the puck and just barreled forward, actually falling down as he poked the puck behind Raycroft. He took the net with him, but the puck was over the line first, so it counted. It looked to me like it wasn't on to begin with, but it didn't matter because the Isles scored again (I missed how, that's how fast it happened) less than 2 minutes later.

Interesting to note the differing approaches to the thus far ratty Bruins season in the two major papers today. Stephen Harris in the Herald spends his time talking about how the Bruins management blew it in the offseason by allowing good players (Knuble, Rolston, Nylander, et al) to walk away while simultaneously messing up in the free agent market.



Meanwhile, in another part of town, KPD follows his usual line and puts the blame on Joe Thornton.



And they're both right! It's going to be a long winter, I'm afraid.