Will anyone want to pay a half year wonder that kind of money, though?

No, probably not 5m/yr. But almost certainly more and over a longer period than the Bs would be willing to pay him to backup Hannu Toivenon.

If TT can put up 35 GP and continue at a 2.20 GAA and a .920 sv%, I think he'll be staring at a nice long term deal this summer from one of the Vancouver / Edmonton / Columbus / Detroit / Minnesota contingent. I'm dismissing Boston's interest in re-signing him because of Hannu, but perhaps that's not the case.

It's interesting to note Thomas' numbers this year through 14 GP are oddly almost a duplicate of what he did in 03-04 in Providence through 41 GP:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?i...name=nhl-bruins
Boston: 1.88 GAA .941 SV%
Providence: 1.84 GAA .941 SV%

Boston should be trying to lock Thomas up now.

In other news, Brad Stuart scored a pair of power play goals tonight, giving him 10 on the year, which ties his career high. 8 of them with the Bruins.

Boston's win over hapless Pittsburgh means they need to go 16-8-1 over their final 25 games to reach 90 points and a likely playoff berth.

Eddie, given the way they've played lately (6-2-2 in their last 10, 8-2-3 since Thomas took over duty between the pipes) I think there's a good chance that happens. A lot of conference games left, but the team has beaten Ottawa in 3 straight tries and has a pretty good record vs. Toronto. If they can just beat Montreal a few more times, there's a good chance they get in. A few tough games coming up against Carolina (whom they played pretty well recently) and the Sabres, with important games vs. Atlanta and Tampa Bay too.

The next 3 weeks or so is going to go a long way towards determining whether this team will make the run they need to make. They need to take points in as many games as possible and avoid shootouts as much as they can, given their horrid record in them. We have to hope for a lot of Habs losses too.

The Pens are in full tank mode IMO. They'll be very interesting next season, with (hopefully for them) Evgeny Malkin and maybe Phil Kessel in the lineup w/ Sidney Crosby.

I think the Bs have 26 GR. They play Montreal 4 more times & Buffalo 5 more times. Those intradivisional games will be the make or break for the Bs season.

Home Games:
NJ, TB, ATL, BUF, MON, NYI, OTT, CAR, ATL, BUF, FLA, TOR, NYR, WAS, MON

Road Games:
CAR, BUF, BUF, TOR, NYR, NJ, BUF, MON, MON, OTT, ATL

Right; they need to go 16-9-1 for 90 points. That's doable.

And it may not take 90; although, I do agree it is a good prediction to aim at from this far out.




By the way kessel would be a lousy pick for them. They need to hope they get the #1 and go after the big defenseman, Johnson isn't it. From what I heard he was head and shoulders above the rest of this class at the WJC

Terrible transitional defense there on the power play. On a night where Brodeur looks to be playing like Brodeur and the B's are just missing on the few semi-open looks they get, they can't afford to give up goals like that. Might be game over here. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Primeau scores, 2-2

I have only been partly watching the game. I've probably seen about 15 minutes total. And PJ could (maybe should) have at least 3 goals tonight

What is it about this f'n team that the Bruins cannot beat them? So many near-misses and that dumb, dumb, dumb play that allowed the Devils to take the lead in the 3rd. What was the tying goal would have been the game-winner if not for that stupidity. They also waited too long to change it up in OT. They should have dumped it in on that Tanabe attempt and changed-it-up.

It's a point, but they really could have used 2 here. Go Sabres.

This team is very frustrating to watch. WTF was that nonsense on goal-ahead goal for the Devils all about? Defenseman knocked it in his own net. No reason for him to be floundering around like that.

The Bruins really stink in OT and the shootout. It's getting late; they've got to do better than merely get one point in these games.

EDIT: And Montreal wins in OT, meaning tonight's game caused the Bruins to lose more ground. Fuck me.

As unfortunate as it was for Tanabe to get caught behind the play for the game winner, I can't disagree with it. Tanabe made the decision to jump up into the play on offense and could have just as easily scored the game winner.

If nothing else, the decision to get guys like Stuart, Tanabe, and Leetch into the offense a bit more makes this team a whole lot more exciting to watch.
Sure, there's a lot of risk involved with this and tonight we saw how it can backfire. However, I think it was a good gamble.

Anyone have an update on Zhamnov? Initially, his injury was supposed to keep him out of action for 6 weeks. We must be at the 6 week mark by now, no? Is it safe to assume he'll be back with the club when the season resumes on March 1st vs. Carolina?

I don't think anyone on Team USA at the WJC was head and shoulders above anyone else, honestly. They were considered the favorites, but laid an egg. Kessel had 11 assists (5 in a blowout against Norway) and was considered disappointing. Erik Johnson is in the mix as a #1 pick (6'4 225), but IMO Kessel has skills you can't pass up. (This could also be my bias toward really, really fast guys)



Turns out, you were just a day early with that post. Good call.

He wasn't caught behind the play, though. He was between Gionta and the Bruin net... until he got out of the way.

That's been PJ all season, it's starting to become comical.

In other news, fan favorite Hal Gill makes the olympic taxi squad. What the heck happened to USA hockey, you mean to tell me he's this country's, say with injuries, top 12 defensman.

Don't forget that this is the same country that left the NHL goaltender leading all Americans in GAA off the roster and relegated him to the taxi squad at the last moment.

http://www.nhl.com/nhlstats/stats?service=...teGAALeaderLink

Game time. Old friend John Grahame in the opposing net. The B's need this one pretty badly. Stay out of the box people!

Nice start. I know Fitz scored today but I think my biggest worry with this team is the lack of scorers out side of the killer B's. I also wonder when theyll give Razor another shot to play injury free behind a team that's been playing a lot better since the last time he saw PT.

Tied at 4-4 a slash for Artyukhin and a rough for Boynton and it looks like Boynton wants to rip his head off. Nevermind, Boynton got a double and the B's will be down. Dammit.

Edit: Crosscheck on Jurcina. B's down two men. Not good.

GOAL!!! Shorthanded Bergeron gets the Hat Trick. Holy crap! On another look, might be Lacouture.

After giving up 6 Sully finally pulls Thomas, who was abysmal tonight. Not a great time to throw a stinker Timmy

Less than 4 minutes to play, this would be a pretty devastating loss

Thomas looked gassed. Way more rebounds than I've seen from him up to now. Very tough loss especially given that this team won't score 5 goals in too many games

Not a great night to choke away a 2-goal lead and multiple other leads. This was a must-win game and the B's found every way possibly to lose it despite the Lightning's attempts to not win. I really hope that the loss to the Devils and the hangover effect didn't contribute to this one, but this is the second straight gutshot loss in a row and the last thing the team needs when it's finally begun to show cohesiveness as a unit. Defense around the net was atrocious tonight and Thomas just wasn't himself.

With Atlanta and Montreal playing each other tonight, getting a point here was necessary. Getting nothing might be a real killer.

I am sure MOC feels just a bit better about the Thornton trade after his abysmal performance in the Olympics.

It should be real interesting to see this team's direction at the deadline. Only 2 weeks away.

Well, one Bruin knocked out of the medals (Jurcina). Hopefully Axelsson will follow(Sweden). Don't get me wrong, I wish PJ all the best, but I hate the way that team has played in these games, particularly against the USA. Come home soon PJ!

Like a car wreck sort-of-interesting. I fear for the team's future w/ MOC at the helm, and absolutely desperate to save his job. I think the Bruins will be buyers, and it'll only be by the intervention of the 98-year old Harry Sinden that MOC won't try to sell out the team's prospect bin to improve dramatically for one more run under his helm this season.

There are two things which, to me, make the direction of the Bruins uncertain:

1) The Thornton trade. They picked up a good young defenseman (Stuart), a good forward (Sturm) and a role-playing centerman (Primeau). They sacrificed talent for depth as Thornton is a far better player than any of those three individually. That would suggest that they felt sacrificing the superstar for 3 good players makes them a stronger team, but in what way? Does this mean that the trade was made for this season or beyond? Stuart is beyond, Sturm is possibly beyond but may also be a trade chip at the deadline, Primeau seems to be a "now" move. All in all, confusing.

2) Injuries. Zhamnov's injury is particularly troublesome as if he were to come back and play as he has over the course of his career he would fill a very vital role on this team, if he does not he is a very expensive sub-par player missing extensive time and it creates a huge void at second line center. Toivonen is another problem. As well as Thomas has played he is 30+ and if he were to keep performing at a high level he could very well find a decent contract elsewhere making him probably too expensive as a backup, especially if Raycroft isn't moved. Moving Raycroft is very difficult to justify without a healthy Toivonen.

I agree, their decisions will be interesting, but I hope that the decision they make it to attain up and comers (i.e. Stuart) by trading older, established players (i.e. Murray). I am also not a proponent of trading Samsonov, but if the right deal is there then the Bruins would be stupid not to make it.

The future isn't bleak right now. With players like Jurcina, Boyes, Bergeron, etc. there is plenty to look forward to. Hopefully the FO realizes that and protects it.

How the fuck is that a penalty on Boynton? He's skating wide of the net and Ward's momentum carries him in front of Boynton, who has 0 time to stop. In a crucial spot? That's a bullshit call.

Who knows with the way they call the game this season? I though it was a terrible call myself, but it seems if there is any contact whatsoever with a goaltender, there is a penalty called.

It was a bad call no question. But I figure that makes up for the horrendous noncall on the Bruins offsides when the B's scored their 3rd goal.

No offsides there. The puck needs to cross the blue line completely to be offsides. It looked to me like Primeau stopped it on the blue line.

I have to agree on that one just because I never saw a replay that difinitively showed the puck across the blue line. My understanding is that the blue line is what the end zone line in football would be if you inverted it. It is only off-sides if the puck completely separates from the line. Maybe there are pictures or video that show a gap between the puck and the line, but I didn't see any on the NESN broadcast.

Well I haven't seen the video replay. I was sitting in the second deck right in line with the Blue line and it certainly looked like it crossed to me. I admit that I may be wrong as I didn't watch it in slow-motion.

Huge win, a nice bounceback after the loss to Carolina.

Good job by Razor between the pipes; Thomas has had back-to-back poor performances in-net, which is especially bad considering he had over two weeks between them, though it may have just been rust in the Carolina game because he allowed a couple goals that he normally stops.

However, given how Raycroft played tonight against a good scoring team, it gives the Bruins options depending on how much longer Toivonen is out.

Big win, good job guys.

Talk about a team full of divers. Nice to see Gill get in on the act too

I haven't seen a display of diving like that since the playoffs with Montreal in 2004.

Good to see the Bruins stick with it and get the win. Nice play on the winning goal by Leetch.

The Thrashers flop around more than Real Madrid. A disgrace.

Nice win by the Bruins without PJ around to shadow Kovalchuk. Good to see Raycroft get a win for the first time in a long time.

I'm not sure if it was broadcast on TV, but they recognized PJ on his gold medal just before the start of last night's game. In any case, he walked out on the carpet and got a little ovation. I must say that he was looking very gimpy as he walked out and back, noticeable favoring his good leg.

I'm not sure what it is, but since the olympic break the Bruins can't catch a beak (except for the possibility of the offsides against Carolina, which I still haven't seen). In the third period the Bruins peppered Biron with 20 shots and consistent offensive pressure. There were several times during the last 10 minutes of the game that a penalty could have been called, but the only calls that were made were interference on Dumont (which probably should have given the B's a penalty shot) at the beginning of the third and a hook on Hecht with 9 seconds left in the game (which was intentional, obviously, kind of like when a receiver beats a db so the db trips the receiver going past taking a 5 yard penalty as opposed to giving up a TD). Throw that in with the fact that the Sabres actually got a hooking call against Green with 3:34 left to play (on a very ticky tack call) and the entire period was full of frustration.

The Bruins' inability to sustain their defensive effort for all three periods is also beyond annoying. If you exclude the second period the Bruins held the Sabres to 11 shots in the game! The disparity between the Bruins and Sabres shot totals for the first and third periods combined was a whopping 20 shots! Biron really kept his team in this game, although if the B's had gotten one of those penalty calls maybe things would have been different.

It should probably also be noted that Raycroft has looked much better since the break (admittedly he didn't have many chances in the weeks leading up to the Olympics). The goals he's given up have been on defensive breakdowns and a few rebounds when the defensemen hadn't cleared the crease. I'd be surprised if Thomas doesn't get another shot in the nets soon, but it is nice to know that Razor is playing much better.

All in all though, if the Bruins can continue to play with the defensive responsibility and offensive intensity that they've shown at times in the past three games, they may be able to make a run at the playoffs.

Will they, really? I have my doubts. The Bruins are at 60 points, in 10th place in the conference. 8th place Montreal is at 66 points and has 2 games in hand on the Bruins. While it's certainly possible that the Bruins edge in to the playoffs, I'm at the point where I think it's less than a 50% chance they do it. They do have 4 more games against division rival Buffalo left, which would help in the race, but their backs are against the wall.

Off line, Eddie Jurak calcuated that the Bruins would have to go 16-8 after the Olympic break to get to 90 points and a realistic spot in the playoffs. (EJ, tell me if I screwed that up). They've gone 1-2 so far, which is not helping their chances any.

Right on, unfortunately. 90 points is almost always enough for a playoff spot. They might squeak in with 88 or 89, but it's unlikely.

Realistically, they need to go 15-6 the rest of the way, including at least 3 of the 4 Montreal games. Maybe 14-7 will do it if they sweep Montreal, Atlanta, and Toronto.

Goaltending is killing them. Raycroft wasn't tested all that hard in the past two games, and he still allowed 5 goals on 47 shots, not to mention a slew of posts in each game. And Sullivan's decision to start Raycroft last night speaks volumes about his coaching ability (poor) and his confidence in Tim Thomas (none).

Too bad the trade deadline is approaching so rapidly. If the Bruins lose on Tuesday in Buffalo, I'd say the hell with it and see what I could get for Samsonov, Gill, Leetch, perhaps Murray. Spend the rest of the year looking at kids and trying to sign Axelsson, Boynton, Bergeron, Boyes, etc.

Put that way. These guys are done.

Anyone wanna put a ten spot on them winning more than 10 games?

Thomas was so abysmal his last 2 starts I can't blame Sully for switching to Razor

I am absolutely on the trade everyone bandwagon now. Sammy, Leetch for sure. Razor if you can get decent value. Murray probably worth it even if you don't get much value.

Boynton is another who could go depending on the right deal. Not saying I'd unload him for the sake of unloading him, but if he can really make a huge deal happen, I'd jump on it

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I thought Raycroft was fine the past couple of games. His save % wasn't stellar last night, but I didn't see any soft goals, and he had a couple of big saves.

I agree that the Bs should be sellers. I still don't see how MOC can afford to do that, from a job security standpoint. Any firesales will essentially be MOC falling on his sword. Admirably the right thing to do, but not good for his bank account.

Kill THE Core!

These guys are toast.

At least two shots off the post in each of Raycroft's two games. You wouldn't be praising him if a couple of those had found the back of the net.

Yes, Thomas has struggled, but has he been worse than Raycroft? I think he earned himself more than two games - separated by the Olympics, and one of which was his 16th consecutive start - of latitude.

I'd be OK with the Bruins not selling if they beat Buffalo tomorrow and the Montreals, Torontos, Atlantas all lose. I think MOC would help the team a whole lot more by identifiying some core guys from this year's team - Axelsson, Bergeron, Boyes, Boynton - and locking them up. On the other hand, if the playoff picture gets even more bleak over the next 2-3 days, MOC should salvage what he can.

JJ should tell MOC in no uncertain terms that he keeps his job by using the next 2 months to position the team for next year. Another one-and-done should not save him unless JJ is happy with one-and-dones.

Why did they just play the Canadian anthem at a game between Buffalo and Boston?

I believe the Sabres alwasy play both, because of their border status, they have a heavy Canadian presense at every game

Blow it up.

Back-to-back losses to the same team by the same score in the same manner: Bruins get a 2-1 lead, cough up 2 unanswered goals and can't put anything in the net when it counts.

This team is all done. They gave it a great shot, but they're not going to make the playoffs. O'Connell put together an awful team and skimped on free agency despite all the chances in the world to get some top-notch talent that would really help. He should be fired at the end of the season, but if he has any shred of conscience and loyalty to the fans, he should do his best to get what he can by trading what pieces of value the team has and helping them prepare for a run in a couple seasons.

Build around Bergeron and Boyes. Try to hold onto Marco Sturm and Hannu Toivonen. Any and all of the rest should be for sale. It's a shame what this franchise has come to these days.