Trent Whitfield

Looking Ahead: Five Must-See Home Games for the Providence Bruins

The second week of October usually signals the beginning of the NHL season but instead, it’s the American Hockey League that has the spotlight. The NHL lockout has forced numerous players to find a new rink to skate in overseas while others have migrated down to the AHL.

While the Providence Bruins may not play stacked, lockout-saturated teams such as the Oklahoma City Barons or Toronto Marlies, there are plenty of key games where fans will get to witness NHL-talent on the AHL-level. Plus, it’s professional hockey, automatically giving the AHL an advantage over the NHL…for now. Here are some key P-Bruins home games for the 2012-13 season.

With six games remaining, some important decisions looming for Claude Julien and the Boston Bruins

It might be safe to say that out of the six Eastern Conference teams still in the hunt for the playoffs, the Boston Bruins have the most difficult schedule of remaining regular season games. The Bruins will first host the 9th seed Washington Capitals, just two points out of playoff contention before heading to New York for back-to-back games against the all-but-eliminated Islanders and a Rangers team which they’re winless against this season. After that, the Bruins will come back home to play the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins, travel to Ottawa to face the team closest to catching them for the Northeast Division lead and close out the season back in Boston against the Buffalo Sabres who are 7-1-2 in their last ten games.

A bit daunting when you think about how inconsistent the Bruins have been at times during the season, eh?

The good news is that the Bruins could potentially clinch a playoff spot in their next game with a win or overtime loss against Washington on Thursday. The bad news is that the division, along with their potential first round opponent, is far from being decided. Pair that with some tough decisions that Boston coach Claude Julien will face regarding starting goaltending and resting key players and you have to think: this will not be an easy two weeks for the Boston Bruins.

History Won’t Be Made: Bruins’ 3-0 series lead is different this year

By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent

As I type this, the Boston Bruins are about to take a 3-0 series lead against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Again.

For the next two days leading up to game 4 in Boston, I’ll ignore pretty much all sports radio, television programs and fair-weathered friends who’ll no doubt text me something that includes the words “just like last season” based on the reasoning that really, this is not last season.

The Bruins have now officially beaten the Flyers 5-1 in game 3, displaying what could almost be determined as a damn near-perfect game, all topped off with a power-play goal, their first in 30 attempts this postseason. Thomas was brilliant, yet again, as all four lines played effectively, developing chances in the offensive zone and dominating the puck through center ice. Boston was remarkable on the face-off dot winning 43 of 55 draws and landing 24 hits in what seemed like one of their most physical games of the postseason.

This is not last season.

The Bruins Running Diary: Volume II, the Montreal Canadiens

I’m 1-0 on running diaries for the season when the Bruins are playing an opponent from last season’s playoffs. Or at least I was before Thursday night’s shootout loss against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Bruins celebrated their first goal in 192 minutes and 6 seconds, a baffling amount of time between tallies if you think about it. In that stretch, the Bruins only allowed four regulation goals, a sign that their defensive abilities have strengthened. But the overall game play of the team? Not the best, especially when injuries are becoming more popular with each passing day now that Byron Bitz and David Krejci have been added to that list