Nathan Horton

Boston Bruins: What It Was Like to Cover Game 7

A lifeless Bruins team rose from mediocrity to play their hearts out for one another and for themselves. They battled back from a three-goal deficit with 10 minutes to play in the game to force an overtime. The confidence and energy of the players on the ice were as high as any time in the playoffs thus far. The Bruins were winning Game 7. And nobody saw it coming. Not even me.

Boston Bruins: Marching On As Lions or Lambs?

With a record of 20-7-3, the Boston Bruins are currently sitting in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, two points back of the division leading Montreal Canadiens (with a game in hand), and second only to the Pittsburgh Penguins in terms of goal differential (+22.)

With only a scant 18 games left to play in a shortened season, one would think that the Bruins would be a confident bunch heading down the stretch. Below the surface, however, there is cause for concern, and the Bruins have some work to do in the last week of March to avoid going into April looking more like lambs than lions.

What the Bruins Need to Be Successful

The Boston Bruins are having a strange season. Strange in the sense that they’re considered a “struggling” team even with a top-five record in the NHL and strange in the sense that their once-sound defensive game is suddenly filled with cracks.

In conversations, columns and general musings, it has been difficult to classify this team. The Bruins have yet to really dominate a game but in the same breath, they haven’t exactly been bowled over either. They’ve made some pretty incredible comebacks but yet can’t hold a third period lead at times. Some players have looked elite at times while managing to disappear completely during stretches as well. We’ve been waiting for the team to take it to the next gear and finally break through for 30 games now. They haven’t.

It’s bad but it’s also not bad. Strange, right?

With the trade deadline less than two weeks away, it’s imperative that Peter Chiarelli add to the Bruins roster because the current team isn’t going to do much in the playoffs. But what does the team need to be successful? Glad you asked.

Boston Bruins: Does Andrew Ference Deserve a Contract Extension?

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.

Nathan Horton Back to Being Captain Clutch

Nathan Horton knows about being clutch. You’ve heard this narrative before.

Perhaps the most poignant part of any Bruins Stanley Cup montage came when Tim Thomas congratulated Horton after Boston clinched the Eastern Conference Championship.

“You did it again! I can’t believe it,” said Thomas.

Horton did it again on Tuesday night.

In the team’s sixth game of the season against the New Jersey Devils, Horton scored the game-tying goal with less than five minutes remaining in the third period, sending the game to overtime and an eventual 2-1 Bruins win.