Earlier this month, THW's Mike Coll…
Pittsburgh PenguinsFor the fourth year in a row, the closest that the Calgary Flames and their fans will get to the playoffs are televised games. As the Flames continue to plan for the future and the fans watch other teams mount a quest for the glorious Stanley Cup, there are some aspects of the playoffs that ...
The Boston Bruins can’t play like they did in Game 5 because if they do, there’s going to be a Game 7 and if there’s a Game 7–well, that’s not good.
The team has this problem with complacency. They start out strong, get ahead of their opponents, and then they stop. Everything stops, actually. They stop skating, stop hitting, and stop any type of effort that helps them to maintain a lead. It has been apparent in games this season and now the Bruins are doing it in the playoffs.
So here we go again.
By Mike Miccoli In Game 2 on Saturday night, the story wasn’t that the Bruins couldn’t keep up the momentum, it was that the Maple Leafs played on a higher level, looking like a different team than Game 1. As for the Bruins? Well, they just weren’t good enough. Make no mistake about it though, ...
By Wayne Whittaker, Boston Bruins Correspondent When Boston Bruins players entered TD Garden at roughly 2 PM on Monday afternoon, the only thing on their minds was getting two points out a clash with a divisional rival. By the end of the hour, that would change. The senseless bombings of Copley Square during the Boston ...
This isn’t Matt Cooke on Marc Savard. When Brad Marchand slowly guided himself to the ice, clutching the side of his helmet after an illegal elbow from New Jersey defenseman Anton Volchenkov, it didn’t appear that anyone aside from Marchand, Volchenkov, and referee Frederick L’Ecuyer had any clear idea of what happened.
This all seems too familiar.
It will be three years next month when I originally wrote a column on what a mistake it was extending Andrew Ference. And at the time, it sort of was. Ference finished the 2009-10 season playing in only 51 games, recording eight assists and no goals. He was even worse in the postseason after his contract extension. He never played in a game in which he could be considered a “plus” player and finished those 13 games with a -9.
The stats weren’t pretty, but Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli must have saw something in the oft-injured defenseman that warranted an $850,000 raise that bumped Ference’s annual salary to $2.25 million. Turns out Chiarelli was right all along.
“Well if there’s one area (where) I would say that our depth is extremely good, it’s on defense.” This is a quote from Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien from Monday afternoon. Reports indicate he wasn’t smirking or showing any signs of sarcasm at the time. In game #2 of the Bruins season, their second-best defenseman ...
The Boston Bruins approach the lockout-shortened 2013 NHL season as a favorite in the Eastern Conference. With talent and experience throughout the lineup – and a few dynamic youngsters including top scorer Tyler Seguin and rookie Dougie Hamilton – the B’s should contend for a second Stanley Cup in three seasons. In this, ...
After a very active offseason in free agency, Minnesota’s top two offensive lines look as deadly as any in the NHL. With the top six looking set, the Wild has a plethora of character forwards to create a lethal bottom six from. Kyle Brodziak and Zenon Konopka will be the third and fourth line pivots, ...
On Thursday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman explained that the league and its owners would be prepared to lockout its players if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement wasn’t settled upon by September 15. Considering just how far apart the two sides are currently, it seems likely that a lockout—yes, another one—is looming. While it may not have the same implications or length as the last NHL lockout during the 2004-05 season, the effects could still be devastating…at least for the most part.
It’s not farfetched to believe that teams will suffer if there is a shortened NHL season, but could there be some teams that would benefit from one? Possibly—and the Boston Bruins might be one of those teams.
