“Another MASSIVE collapse by the Bruins.”

Those were just a couple of the tweets I made with about six minutes left in the third period of Monday night’s Game 7 between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. And of course, they were your thoughts as well! Down three goals after 5:29 of the third period when Nazem Kadri deposited a Phil Kessel rebound past Tuukka Rask, it was time to turn out the lights, melt the ice, and figure out which players would be on the 2013-14 roster and if the coach would be retained. The loss would sure mean major changes to the hockey club as we know it.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Boston Collapse. The wide-eyed playoff freshmen from Toronto had a meltdown of their own.

It started with a Nathan Horton goal with 11:42 left. Nice, but at the time, I called it ‘window dressing’ to try and make the score respectable. For the next nine minutes, the Bruins were pressing as they hadn’t all game and for much of the past three games, and they were still two goals short of tying the game. Meanwhile, as they put pressure on, it was the Leafs who seemed to keep getting breakaways and 2-on-1′s, which thankfully Rask shut down with regularity.

With two minutes left, Rask headed to the bench as the Bruins dumped and chased. The puck comes back to the Captain and Zdeno Chara blasts on net.

Reimer saved and poked the rebound to Milan Lucic – who in that last10 minutes was the Lucic that we’ve been looking for all year – and he promptly lifted a hard wrister over the prone goalie. Now with 1:22 left, the Bruins were a goal away from tying it. Still improbable!

This will not happen. They are going to lose Game 7 by one goal because of their “Jekyll and Hyde” personality coach Claude Julien said they have. They are still teasing us by clawing back in it and really do not have much time to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Toronto is going to stiffen its backbone and say,  ”Screw you, Bruins.You are not gonna take this away from us. Not now. Not this close.”

But the Leafs’ spine was weakening even more as the puck came back to Patrice Bergeron at the blue line, and with the six-foot-nine-inch Chara screening, Bergy’s shot beat Reimer on the blocker side with50.2 seconds left and … and … we are tied?!?!?!

Remarkable! Three goals down in period three of Game 7 and the Bruins tied and the Toronto collapse is almost complete. Rich Peverley had a chance to win the game in regulation on his shot from all alone in the slot but, ahhh, it’s Rich Peverley.

On to overtime, after what should have been a funeral for the Boston Bruins.Adrenaline was pumping in the players and the fans are rocking the TD Garden.

A few innocuous scoring plays for both teams before Bergeron brought the puck into the attacking zone. Toronto players allowed him to bring it around behind the net to Tyler Seguin who immediately put a shot on net.

One rebound, a shot by Bergeron, another rebound and sticks from both teams poke the puck right back to Bergeron who one-times it home and this surreal adventure has left the Bruins and their fans in euphoria.

Toronto players were in shock, utter disbelief. Nazem Kadri was having good thoughts, for a while.

“Obviously there were thoughts creeping into your mind, that we might be advancing to the second round,” said Kadri, “but at the end of the day we couldn’t handle the pressure that was given.”

Joffrey Lupul tweeted, “That hockey game will haunt me till the day I die.”

After many seven-game disappointments, I still don’t believe what I witnessed last night. The Bruins were dead in the water. Yet they managed to bring their will, their fortitude, their talent, but most of all their experience in these games to that final 10 minutes of regulation and show the young, playoff neophytes what these Stanley Cup Playoffs are really all about!

Wow! Just Wow!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.

They roll to a 3-1 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs, and we all know it’s “ova!”

We should be much smarter than that.

Friday night at the TD Garden, there was an air of invincibility going into the building; Bruins fans had that smug “we know the Leafs are done” attitude and, for the most part, sat there and waited for the Bruins to dispatch Toronto so  they could go home and get ready for the next victim over the weekend.

If only it were that easy. Instead, the Leafs came out with a phenomenal first period and put 19 shots on Tuukka Rask. They left Boston with a hard-fought 2-1 win and at least one more game in their season.

Sunday, back at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and thriving off their fans, the Leafs jumped out to another two-goal lead before Boston finally found the back of the net — with 26 seconds left in the game.

Read: Julien Flustered By ‘Jekyll And Hyde’ Bruins

It was too little, too late for the Bruins, and now they have one more game that decides it all. Whether that’s just one more game against Toronto or one more game before they head home for the summer is entirely up to them.

For the eighth time in their last eleven playoff series, the Bruins are facing a winner-take-all seventh game. No one is sure why the team seems to always find their way into this situation, but we are here again, and it’s just not fun anymore.

Well, maybe it is fun, but it’s not funny.

History, especially recent history, will show that Game 7′s have not been good for the Boston hockey club. Yes, they played three Game 7′s during that marvelous year of 2011, winning them all. All three were one-goal games and one even needed overtime for the Bruins to come out on top. But take away those three dramatic victories, and all we have left are crushing defeats. There was last season’s loss to the Capitals, a Game 7 loss in the Conference Semis to Carolina in 2009, Montreal in 2008, and that fabulous meltdown to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010. Even after leading Philly 3-0 in the first period of that Game 7 (and 3-0 in the series, in case you forgot), the Bruins couldn’t get that last win for a trip to the Conference Finals.

With all of that history, and their play in the present, there are a lot questions hanging over the Bruins’ heads ahead of Monday night’s Game 7. Will they be able to score? Who will score (it seems that only the Krejci-Lucic-Horton line has done what little damage the team has done this series)? Will Claude Julien mix up the lines before the game? Will he do it if Boston comes out as stagnant as they’ve been, or will he leave them be — as he tends to do?

Goucher On Toucher & Rich: Will Julien Change The Lines?

The only question that has really been answered — and that answer stays the same no matter how tonight’s game plays out — is that of how Tuukka Rask would handle the playoffs. The netminder has done everything asked of him this series, but how many times can a team ask their goaltender to pitch a shutout because they can’t light the lamp? If it weren’t for Rask, this series wouldn’t have gone seven games and the Bruins would already be packing for the off-season.

This final question is my own, and my answer is a simple “no” — as in I have no confidence that the Boston Bruins will come to play and take control early and often in Game 7.  They have shown this season that they do not play back-to-back games with the intensity that is needed to win — especially now in the playoffs. They have shown that they will not crash the net to make the goaltender’s life more miserable, instead showing a propensity to not shoot when the opportunity is there. They try cutesy passes instead of firing the puck, which have led to odd-man rushes for the Leafs and headaches for Tuukka.

Read: Bruins-Leafs Game 7 Preview

So, will the Bruins make things easy for us (and themselves) tonight, or will we have to go through the madness of a lucky bounce here or there, one way or another, deciding the outcome?

I hope I’m wrong, and I don’t usually predict, but I don’t think this is going to end the way Bruins fans want it to tonight.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.

With the Boston Bruins leading their opening round series with the Toronto Maple Leafs three games to one, and after the two outstanding performances they had north of the border, you expected a step on the throat, rip the heart out and put in a bag and give it back to them type of effort from the home team – all the anticipation of moving on to the next round of the war of attrition known as the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Instead it was the Maple Leafs that were doing the swarming and handing the Bruins their head and keeping their hopes alive of advancing. Pouncing on every move a Bruin would make and making life tough with 19 shots on Tuukka Rask in the first period. Had it not been for some spectacular saves by the goalie, Boston would’ve been in a huge hole.

Meanwhile the Bruins mustered eight on James Reimer who handed out a bunch of rebounds but were just out of reach for Boston to capitalized. And it remain that way for most of the night as Toronto’s Tyler Bozak would score a shorthanded goal, in the second period and Clarke MacArthur would score the eventual game winner in the third before Zdeno Chara’s shots from the high slot would create some late drama but would be the only tally the Bruins would score on Leaf goaltender James Reimer who looked beatable at times but stopped 43 Bruins shots!

Both Maple Leafs goals came off turnovers by Bruins defensemen: Andrew Ference on the power play mishandled the puck at the blue line, which sent Bozak in on a breakaway as Ference tried but could not catch him. Rask got a piece of the shot but not enough. Then in the third, Johnny Boychuk attempting a pass to Nathan Horton at center ice never got it there and MacArthur gathered the puck in, went around Boychuk, cut in front of Rask and a 2-0 Toronto lead and it was the Leafs who had the killer instinct as they sent this series to a game six at the Air Canada Center Sunday night.

For most of the season we’ve wondered where the Bruins killer instinct was. When they left Toronto after winning games three & four, we were hoping that coming back home with a chance to clinch the series and send the playoff-young Maple Leafs packing with a nice-thanks for coming-salutation. Instead Boston’s performance was uneven for most of the game and as we’ve seen a lot lately, the defense had problems getting the puck out of their zone.

The last 10 minutes of the game was the only time a killer extinct was exhibited by the Bruins. On their only score, they had Toronto on their heals as an icing call had the face-off in the Leafs end. Boston had possession of the puck for 1:25 ending with Chara’s goal. They did keep pressuring the Leafs but could not dent Reimer who play well enough for the win and his defense cleared away the voluminous rebounds he left.
No longer having a stranglehold on this series, the Bruins must now try to close it out Sunday in Toronto where the Leafs have not lost three in a row all season and that raukus crowd will be in full throat.

Toronto has been given life and killer instinct or not, the Boston Bruins had better find a way to win game 6 because if they let them up for air a second time, it may be their heart, and ours, that gets ripped out.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Actually, it was my mom that used to say that to me. All the time.

But that brings me back to the NHL trade deadline this past season, when a lot of so-called experts (fans and media alike) were throwing out the name of one David Krejci to be traded. Krejci was not the player that everyone thought he would be after the Bruins had signed him to a new contract during the 2011-2012 season, and some wanted him packaged and sent on his way for another team’s mystery player(s).

Well, in the words of The Heavy, “How you like me know?”

David Krejci is and always has been the premiere playoff performer for the Boston Bruins. In the 2009 playoffs, after his first full season with the Bruins, Krejci had two goals and six assists in 11 games before the team was eliminated in the second round by the Canadiens in seven games.

In 2010, the Bruins were rolling along in the playoffs as Krejci potted four goals and four helpers in nine games until Game three of the second round, when he took a viscous — but legal — hit from Philadelphia Flyers Mike Richards,  dislocating his wrist. He had surgery that night following a Bruins victory that put them up 3-0 in the series, but we all know what happened next without their top-line center.

In 2011, the Stanley Cup Championship year, Krejci was Boston’s leading playoff scorer with 12 goals and 23 points in 25 games, and had it not been for Vezina winning goaltender Tim Thomas, he may well have won the Conn Smythe trophy for outstanding playoff performer.

Which brings us to Wednesday night’s magical performance in Game 4 in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.

The game itself was one of the best playoff games since the Cup run of 2011. Toronto scored early and late in the first period and went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead as the Torontonians were happy, loud, boisterous and confident. But they also had to kill a penalty called late in the period that carried over to the second, which they didn’t, and Patrice Bergeron quickly scored just 32 seconds into put the Bs back into the game.

That’s when Krejci took over. First, he went hard into the crease to deflect a Brad Marchand shot by Leaf’s netminder James Reimer to tie the game, followed shortly by Nathan Horton slidding a pass across the slot for a one-timer to give Boston a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, they were a bit sloppy in their own zone and 44 seconds later Toronto’s Clarke MacArthur  would tie it at three.

But Krejci made sure the Bruins, who had not won back-to-back games in a month, would not walk out of the Air Canada Cetnre without a 3-1 series lead. His hat trick goal and game winner in overtime once again propels him to that “Premiere Playoff Performer” status.

Now, the Bruins are in position to clinch the series back home at the TD Garden on Friday night.

So be careful what you wish for. Although sports teams should never fall in love with their players, never take for granted the talents of what is right in front of your eyes.

Things may not have been going well on April 2nd, but right now, I’m sure Bruins fans like David Krejci quite a bit.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Remember at the start of the year when the Bruins opened with the New York Rangers, and everyone was screaming that New York and Boston would be the two teams from the Eastern Conference fighting for the right to play for the Stanley Cup? Two months later, that isn’t quite how it’s played out. New York is clinging to eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, and it’s clearly apparent that all is just not right with the hometown black and gold.

The Bruins have lost their scoring touch, and if you aren’t scoring you can’t win. On their just-completed road trip, Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic had zero goals and zero assists for the Bruins. The team only lit the lamp six times, with the only forwards to record a goal being Tyler Seguin, Dan Paille, and Brad Marchand.

Kalman: Better Effort Needed For More Offense

When you can’t score, it just puts more added pressure on your goaltending.  Say what you want about the Boston goaltenders — and my goodness, a lot of people have — but Anton Khudobin and Tuukka Rask have given up four goals only twice during the month of March. Yes, some of those goals have looked ugly, and the timing of them can be hurtful, but with the skaters in front not burying their chances, the Bruins’ netminders have had to basically pitch shutouts every night — and we all know that’s not humanly possible.

This little slump is nothing new for the Bruins, as it tends to happen every year around mid-season. However, this year there is no middle-of-the-year, and here we are rapidly approaching April. This is the time to hit a stride before the stretch run for the playoffs and lock down ones playoff positioning. It’s not the time to be trying to figure out what’s wrong, which is exactly what the Boston Bruins were left doing over the weekend.

So, what is a coach to do? It seems as though there will be line changes for Monday night’s game back home against the Toronto Maple Leafs, as Claude Julien moved Milan Lucic down to a line with Rich Perverley and Jordan Caron at practice on Sunday. That saw Nathan Horton skating with Marchand and David Krejci, and Daniel Paille matched up with Seguin and Patrice Bergeron. This team needs a spark, and Julien hopes the change will jump start the offensive malaise the forwards have been in.

When asked why he made these changes, Julien’s response was perfect: “Because I can. Because I’m the coach. And every once in a while, you’ve got to do those things. Simple as that. Well, we’ve scored six goals in the last four games,  so I think it’s time for a shake-up.”

The Bear Essentials: Potential Line Change And Other Quick Hits

Losers of three out of the last four, this week brings three division opponents in the next four games — including the division-leading Montreal Canadiens to Boston on Wednesday night. Boston currently trails Montreal by two points in the standings — a deficit they could have cancelled out with a win in Toronto on Saturday night. But instead, it was just another lost opportunity to catch the Habs for the Bruins.

Monday night’s game against the Leafs is the final game-in-hand Boston has over Montreal. It’s a game they need to use to regain their confidence, compete level and, more than anything, their scoring touch.

Read: Leafs @ Bruins Preview

It might take more than one game to re-find all of that, but those are the three things the Bruins will need the rest of the way if they plan on being the team out of the East.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

We know that despite the panic that sets into the fandom when a two game losing streak hits, all it takes are a couple of solid wins to get everything back to normal in Boston Hockey land.

The Bruins have settled the bridge jumpers as of late by not allowing the third period breakdowns that have lead to all three of their regulation losses. Add to that some solid goaltending from both Anton Khudobin and Tuukka Rask along with the number two line being upgraded to the number one line — with Patrice Bergeron centering Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand — and producing a mountain of points (38) in their last ten games, and all is right once again.

Even Seguin is picking things up after a season-beginning slump, scoring six goals and 13 points in his last 11 games.

As head coach Claude Julien says, putting together a full 60 minute effort consistently is what is most important for his hockey club.  In Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, the Bruins did exactly that in all phases of the game. Rask was stout in goal on the limited number of chances Boston’s defense allowed, Seguin continued his torrid pace with another power play goal, and even better was the contributions from the third and fourth lines. Chris Kelley and Daniel Paille each potted a goal in that win, and the Bruins are 26-0-0  since the start of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Kelly finds the back of the net.

Kelly admits he needs to score more in order for the Bruins to continue their winning ways, and without those contributions from lines three and four, the opposition will put their best checkers out against the B’s top lines. If the likes of Bergeron, Marchand and Seguin can’t fight through those checks, the Bruins are in trouble.

But, so far, the team has been able to avoid a losing streak of any significance. Julien remains steady in his coaching philosophy of rolling out four lines, and more importantly, preaching the play in their own end is as important as any other place on the ice. As frustrating as that can be for fans and media alike — and it takes a lot not to question him at times — I respect Claude for not allowing outside sources to influence his decisions of how his brand of hockey should be played. After all, we do have June 15, 2011.

Bostonians have become somewhat spoiled in how they view their team’s success, so even a two-game hiccup is known to cause some mass hysteria. The Bruins will be just fine as long as everyone does what is asked of them and they continue to get contributions from all four lines that Julien roles out.

Nearly halfway through this shortened season, there is no reason for panic with the Boston Bruins.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Their 14-3-2 record is their best start in the lifetime of anyone who’s reading this, and it has them second in their division in the thick of the top spot in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been a consistent lot since the beginning of the year and have been able to sustain the pressure of close games and come out with the victory.

That wasn’t the case Sunday night, when you had just your average run-of-the-mill, regular-season game against the Montreal Canadiens. Yeah, right! The furor is still raging from all the so-called “embellishment” — did he or did he not cross-check? Is there jealousy of not being in first place after 19 games?

Lets face it, as cliche as it is (and I really do hate cliches), the Bruins hate the Canadiens, the Canadiens hate the Bruins, the fans hate each other and see nothing but Black & Gold or Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge. That is never going to change and I would rather it not!

In all my years of watching hockey, I’ve never liked the Canadiens. I’m not supposed to. I was born in Boston and remember when “Jesus Saves but Espo Scores on the Rebound.” I remember the first half of my life when the Bruins couldn’t beat the Habs in the playoffs no matter what. So the sniping will continue. It’s an ongoing saga that will continue for the next 75 years, when most of us will no longer be here.

What will be interesting is to see if the Bruins stand pat with the cast of characters that currently make up their roster. Teamwise, the consistency has been there, however, production from key components has been lacking. The likes of David Krejci, Nathan Horton, along with the third and fourth lines have not been contributing, leaving it up to Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Boston’s leading goal scorer, Brad Marchand.

The trading deadline is four weeks away and with some players in contract years are not playing like they are (Andrew Ference, Horton), it would suprise me to see some of the 17 players that remain on the roster from the Cup winning year to be jettisoned somewhere else as this shortened season nears its halfway mark on the 12th of March.

By the time All Fools’ Day arrives, we should know a lot more about what kind of team the Boston Bruins will be heading into the home stretch and preparing for the playoffs. In the meantime, let the sniping continue between the B’s, Habs, and  the fans, because even though they’ll play 44 other games, it’s the four in which they see each other that matter. March 27 at the TD Garden and April 6 at the Bell Centre April 6 can’t come fast enough and we wouldn’t want it any other way!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

The Bruins broke out with a 2-goal lead on a goal by Milan Lucic. David Krejci with a blast from the top of the right circle. Henrik Lundqvist, who always plays well against the Bruins, kicked the rebound out to the slot where Lucic promptly wristed it into the open net. Boston’s second goal game came off a Ranger turnover in front of the Boston net.  Daniel Paille picked up the puck, curled and carried it to center, sending a pass to Gregory Campbell on the right wing. Campbell’s wrist shot was deftly tipped by Paille passed Lunqvist and the 17,565 faithful were a happy bunch again. The Bruins outworked and outshot the Rangers in the first period, peppering the Rangers netminder 15 times, many of them with gusto. They also survived a short five on three Ranger’s power play in which most of it consisted of Brad Richards shooting from the left point. Those shots were either blocked in front or went wide and careened out of the zone.

New York cut the deficit in the second on a Richard’s long shot through a screen that beat Tuukka Rask high stick side top corner. It was in and out of the net so fast, most fans didn’t think it was a goal.

As custom with most Bruins-Rangers games, they are hard fought and, yes, included a couple fights. Two battles back to back as a matter of fact. Shawn Thornton took on Mike Rupp, taking the decision as Rupp was a bit bloodied.  On the ensuing puck drop, Gregory Campbell got more than he bargained for by tangling with Stu Bickel. But the Bruins headed into the third period with a one-goal  lead.

You know, when the leaves start turning color. Summer has left us and we have jackets, hats, gloves, and, perish the thought, snow shovels at the ready. The Patriots have just begun their season and Bruins training camp is in full swing with the season opener just days away.

Huh, what….??? We’ve already had our first snow? Christmas and New Year’s have been celebrated?? That can’t be right. My Boston Bruins schedule says the first game is Saturday night against the New York Rangers! Have I been in some kind of time warp?

What the heck has happened since Joel Ward scored in overtime of Game 7 in the opening round of the playoffs, sending the Bruins home for the summer?

Slap!

Oh yeah, I put myself into a self-imposed blackout of all things hockey when the morons that supposedly run our sport decided that playing hockey was not all that important, but their greed was.

Since more than a week has passed and the NHL has less than a week to try to get into midseason form, it’s time for the media and fans to get into shape, not to mention the NHL PR machine. And it appears that has happened.

The Bruins offered free tickets to a Black & Gold Scrimmage for Tuesday night, and those ducats were gone faster than a Tyler Seguin breakaway. In their quest to say they’re sorry to the fans, the Bruins and the NHL have discounted merchandise and concessions for the month of January. The NHL Center Ice television package and Game Center price has been reduced by 40 percent for the entire “season” to try to appease all for their transgressions of the past three-plus months.

But now it’s time to drop the puck, and sprint to the finish line in 48 games. And you know what? We puckheads really don’t care. We care about the fact that owners and players used us as pawns, while knowing all along that they would resolve this when the league wouldn’t lose money. We care about the fact that on Saturday nights when all was quiet with the family, whether it be the Bruins or Hockey Night in Canada on the NHL Network, we had no hockey to watch.

So, Saturday night, 7 p.m. at the TD Garden, our long international nightmare is over. We forgive and forget that punch in the gut that Gary Bettman et al gave us the last quarter of 2012. We grab our foam bear claws, our ’72 Esposito Jersey, last year’s Black Friday T-shirts and go back to cheering on the Boston Bruins.

Why? Because NHL Hockey is simply the greatest sport on the planet and really, I can’t wait!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

After 39 long years, the Boston Bruins had captured the Stanley Cup. Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and we all thought nothing could take that great feeling of pride and glory away from what that Bruins TEAM had accomplished.

Fast forward to Jan. 23, 2012, the annual invite of the Cup-winning team to the White House, and EVERY Bruins player made the trip to Washington except the MVP goaltender. The snub left us all wondering why a supposed TEAM player would not accompany his mates to what was to be a mostly obligatory, but honored tradition.

Thomas posted on his Facebook page back then (who knew he had one before this?), “I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People….”

Well, after several more posts, questions from the media, his “Peace out,” see ya later attitude, and a first-round exit from the playoffs, there is no question it is “all about Tim” and to hell with the TEAM.  Thomas has decided to put a noose around his team’s neck (again via Facebook) with his decision to sit out next season.

The 38-year-old says it’s time “to reconnect with the three F’s. Friends, Family, and Faith.”

On the surface, that statement says it all and is to be commended. After all, as my good friend Gil Santos always says, sports is the toy department of life. But since sports is also big business now, does he think he doesn’t owe something to the people who pay his salary? Or to the fans that supported him, and still support him no matter what the reason, as long as there is a reasonable explanation?

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

“Sitting out” the season is not retiring. Does he plan on playing in the 2013-2014 season? Should the Bruins put all their forward thinking into waiting for him to make a definitive decision?  The bottom line is no matter what we as fans think, what we have known since January, and really not before, is that Tim Thomas is an individual and doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules but his own.

And that’s fine. I really don’t care what athletes do in their private lives. I’ve never been starstruck like that. I marvel at their talents and what they provide for the teams I root for.

For two months at the end of the 2010-11 regular season, Tim Thomas took us on a spectacular roller-coaster ride through the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was all about the TEAM that had so many key moments by key players — Michael Ryder’s save in Game 5 and OT goal of the Habs series. Zdeno Chara’s skate block in the same series, all of Nathan Horton’s game-winning goals, the pairing of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, the list goes on. But it was the sliding pad save in overtime against Brian Gionta, the reach back stick save on Steve Downie “that would not go,” and the shutout to seal the Cup that I will never forget. All of those were provided by Tim Thomas.

Read: Tim Thomas Always An Individual, For Better Or Worse

I wish this had all come to a better end, instead of some fans thinking Tim Thomas is a lunatic while others applaud what he is doing. I do hope someday that Thomas will return to the TD Garden when the Bruins will make it HIS night — in which all of his famous accomplishments will be acknowledged. Tim Thomas will forever live in the hearts of many fans for what he accomplished and how he accomplished it during his pro career. I  can’t speak for his life personally — as no one but he and his family know about that — and that is fine with me.

Just know that for me, as a lifetime Bruins fan, I will never forget Wednesday night, June 15, 2011.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.

Tom Cuddy acquired it for me as I had just began to work for him, and told me when I get into the Garden to go upstairs and ask for the Bruins PR man, the Great Nate Greenberg. As a rookie, he would tell me what I needed to know and what to do.

But he also told me to ask for Carl Beane, who also did work for Tom. Carl would help me down in the locker room after the game, because it can be intimidating the first time.

Carl took me up to the ridiculously small press box and we watched the game together. Not only was I happy about being in press row watching the team that I had worshiped since 1970, but I got to laugh. If you knew anything about “Beanie”, which is what I called him, he could make anyone laugh. He loved to make me laugh because I was an easy target for him. Whenever I saw Carl, he would always greet me with that loud booming voice with “REE-CARDO” (my name is Ricardo) and I would light up.

Read: Fenway Park PA Announcer Carl Beane Killed In Car Crash

Back in the late 80′s, when the Red Sox were sorta good and the Toronto Blue Jays were also pretty good, I had the pleasure/chore of covering those games for CBC Radio. But sitting next to me up in the third row of the press box would be Beanie, and of course he would do things to make me laugh (and if you know me, I laughed out loud… long  before the acronym LOL was even thought of). The “unmade beds”  – as he called the knights of the keyboards down front — would turn around and look at us as if we were crazy. We were, but we didn’t care. It was a baseball game not a church service. “Have a little fun,” Beanie would always say.

When Carl won the job as the “Voice of Fenway Park,” he and everyone that knew him knew he would be perfect. He was at the ballpark every day covering the team, now he would be a part of the Red Sox.

And he loved it. It would never pay the bills but he loved it. After the World Series victory in 2004, it not only paid off for the team, but it paid off for Carl. He got to do all the speaking engagements with the World Series Trophy where he shared stories of the team and, of course, from the booth. He was more than happy to talk about the team — and job — he was proud to represent.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

One thing that Carl and I always had a rift about was he was a tried and true Montreal Canadiens fan. He knew how much I hated them and we always had fun with each other when the two teams played.

I last saw Beanie on March 10, up on the ninth floor of the Garden. He was the same jovial, dirty old man he always was, and I loved it.

Beanie was an unforgettable character who I will miss.

Goodbye my friend. Sleep well!

~REE-CARDO

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.

Los Angeles struggled just to make the playoff because just about no one could put the puck in the net during the last month of the season. But Quick literally put them on his back, and since the playoffs began, the Kings have scored with proficiency while still getting the goaltending that most Conn Smythe Trophy winners provide. (See: Tim Thomas, 2012.)

In the meantime, what happened to the Blues? They’ve had major defensive lapses, they are now the ones that can’t ruffle the twine and with Jaroslav Halak hurt and out for the series, Brian Elliott has not provided the quality goaltending that both gave the Blues during the regular season.

There’s no surprise that the Kings finished off the Blues on Sunday afternoon. For L.A., the key is to change nothing,  and with the leaders being leaders, i.e. Mike Richards and Dustin Penner, Darryl Sutter’s group should have some time off after earning a bid in the Western Conference finals.

There is a somewhat stunning development in the other series out West. After winning the first two games in Phoenix, the Coyotes went to Nashville and snagged one from the Predators, sending them reeling back to the desert in what could be their swan song. Timing and goaltending have been the keys to this series. Mike Smith has been sensational when he stays in his net and doesn’t go for afternoon stroll. Pekka Rinne also has been good, but not good enough. A little shaky in the first two games, Rinne has been outstanding but still suffered a 1-0 loss in Game 4on a goal deflected in by his own player.

After dismissing Detroit in pretty convincing fashion, this is not what the Predators or their fans expected. Look for Barry Trotz to re-insert his malcontents, Alex Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn, for Game 5 and hope for the best, which may not be enough as Phoenix looks to advance to the third round for the first time in franchise history.

In New Jersey, happy birthday, Martin Brodeur. Forty trips around the sun and you still know how stop the puck in the biggest games of the year on the biggest stage. You just may take your team past that space-shot who plays the same position 200 feet away. The Devils took a stranglehold on the series with the Philadelphia Flyers with a win Sunday night in New Jersey. The enigma/space-shot Ilya Bryzgalov has been inconsistent  in the Flyers’ net, making a great save, then giving up an easy goal. That won’t win you a playoff series, let alone a championship. That’s especially true when Brodeur turns back the clock and thinks he is playing in 1995, 2000 or 2003. Philly needs the good Bryzgalov and not the bad Bryz-GOAL-ov to get back into this series as it heads back to the City of Brotherly Love. They may not be so loving with the Flyers down 3-1.

Wrapping this up and continuing on with the netminding theme, we come to the New York Ranger and the Washington Capitals. We know about the King, Vezina nominee Henrik Lundqvist, and how solid he has been throughout the season and now in the playoffs, but who knew 22-year-old Braden Holtby would continue the sensational play in the second round that he exhibited in dispatching the Boston Bruins in a tightly fought seven-game series in the first round?

Holtby has matched Lundqvist in goal in what has become a fascinating series with each team blocking shots and both teams’ top players coming up with big goals when needed. When the Bruins were eliminated, I wanted to root for the Rangers. I like their work ethic. Being a goalie, I love Lundqvist, and what could be better than Boston College alumni Brian Boyle and recent BC national champion Chris Kreider winning the Stanley Cup after witnessing what we all witnessed June 15, 2011?.

What I really don’t like about the Rangers is the pompous ass of a coach, also from Boston, John Tortorella. Confrontation is his No. 1 agenda. I’m not sure the National Hockey League always wants to see one of their coaches of a high profile team constantly acting like a detestable child at virtually every press conference after each game. Tortorella needs to grow up and suck it up and quit acting like he is hiding state secrets if the media asks something he doesn’t like.

I believe this Rangers-Capitals series will go the distance, and right now I have no clue which team will blink. But because there is nothing like playoff hockey, it’ll be so much fun to watch!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Another nail-biter. Another horrible ending to a game that would end the season too soon because no one wants hockey to end after one round. Not after what we experienced last season!

But here we are, left to wonder why the Bruins could only score 15 goals in this seven-game season, why none of the big boys stepped up to the table, got their noses dirty enough to put rebounds past the young but solid goaltender for the Washington Capitals.  There were a lot of bystanders in this series, and that’s so unlike what this Bruins team has been all about. Where was that snarl?  Where was that nastiness that they needed in order to break down the defensive wall that the Capitals had put up and relentlessly did not give in?

It wasn’t about Washington’s offensive prowess because the Bruins’ defense pretty effectively shut down the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich and Nicklas Backstrom. It came to the likes of Milan Lucic, and Patrice Bergeron, although limited, not scoring a goal in the series. Third line center Rich Peverley had the most goals on the team with three. David Krejci was virtually missing in action, and as cliche as it may be, the Bruins’ best players were not their best players by a long shot.

The big thing for Boston was the fact that in consecutive playoff years, the power play was non-existent. They scored just two goals with the man advantage in 23 opportunities, none larger that with just over two minutes left in the third period of Game 7 on what was really a questionable holding call. This power play was abysmal for two seasons now and obviously has not been addressed. The coach spoke about the fact that they had no one like Marc Savard on it. Well, it’s been a known fact that Savard ain’t walking through that locker room door for the past two seasons, yet what we’ve seen is what we have gotten and it did not change from playoff year to playoff year.

Shot selection, too, was weak for the most part. Most of the time the Bruins settled for the point shot and more often failed to get it through to the net. Often, shots were into the netminder’s pads or glove. Note to Bruins shooters: Get good, hard, low shots above the 11 inches of padding goalies wear!

The Bruins were tired, weary, passive and injured, lacking the will and want of last year.

Whatever the reason, this was a different Boston Bruins team than its winning predecessor. Maybe we were looking through Black and Gold colored glasses thinking that everything would be all right and come together last night. Tim Thomas would again be the brick wall he was last year, Brad Marchand would be the “Little Ball of Hate”, Bergy would be Bergy, and we would all get no sleep again until mid-June.

That was not to be. Now, the speculation on changes and trades and free agents begin. Somehow, I’m just not quite ready for that. First-round eliminations are just too hard to take. It ended quick and painful and way too soon.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

What we do know from past experiences is that the Bruins had three seven-games series last year on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. In each of those series, Game 5 seemed pivotal. They won two of the three, only losing Game 5 in the Finals.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

Winners of the fifth game of a series after being tied at two a piece have gone on to win the series 80 percent of the time, which means it really doesn’t look good for the Boston Bruins after dropping Game 5 at home Saturday afternoon.

What this game came down to was Washington taking advantage of the breaks Boston gave them (while the Bruins couldn’t do the same). Zdeno Chara rang a shot off the goalpost in the first period with Boston on the power play and Daniel Paille on a shorthanded breakaway clanged one off the post. If those shots go in, it’s an entirely different hockey game.

The Capitals, meanwhile, made the most of what Boston gave them with a scramble in front and Jay Beagle putting a puck under Tim Thomas and a weak goal that went in off Thomas’s glove and Washington led 2-0 in the second period.

The Bruins finally got to young Braden Holtby as desperation was setting in. Dennis Seidenberg & Brad Marchand scored 27 seconds apart late in the second and the building had come alive and new hope that things in the Bruins world of hockey would be alright.

Ah, but old friend Mike Knuble would pick up a dandy rebound in the slot low left circle for a wide open shot and a 3-2 lead. Give Boston credit as the finally scored on the power play as Marchand backhanded a pass to Seidenberg who quickly laid it over to the left point for a Johnny Boychuk one-timer and the game was tied.

With just over two minutes left in the third, Benoit Pouliot was called for slashing and the Capitals converted on a wrister from Troy Brouwer from the top of the right circle that Thomas certainly should’ve had and with that, Washington can eliminate the defending Stanley Cup Champions from playoff contention at the Verizon Center Sunday Afternoon.

So, can the Bruins break that 80-percent fact and send this series to a Game 7 back in Boston, or will they have a “melting the ice” party at the TD Garden?

They’ve been down this road before. Last year, the Champs were 4-0 in elimination games. They need the kind of effort they had last year in those games to keep their season alive.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

When Lemieux was a player, despite his offensive talents, he constantly complained about the clutching and grabbing that went on in his era. He threatened to quit playing because of it. Since he has been in charge of the Pittsburgh franchise, he has hinted about not being an owner in the National Hockey League more than once.

Well Mario, you are a fraud. You are a hypocrite and from where I sit, you have been your entire professional career. Yes, the league appreciates all you have done to promote hockey. Yes, the league appreciates the fact that when no one else would, you stepped in and saved that Penguins franchise and kept professional hockey in Pittsburgh. But it’s your two-face that grinds my gears now and has for a while.

For many years you played alongside one of the National Hockey League’s blatant cheapshot artists and gutless players in Ulf Samuelsson. For three seasons you played with another gutless cheapshot artist in Darius Kasparaitis. And if my memory serves me, you never had one complaint about the fact they were injuring opponents many times.

After you purchased the team, you then and still have in your employ a new century thug in Matt Cooke, who has a few suspensions and fines for his gutless and cheap acts on his hockey brethren, including one of the worst head shots ever seen in the NHL to the Boston Bruins’ Marc Savard in 2010. That hit has effectively ended Savard’s career.

You then have the audacity to send a letter to the National Hockey League after another donnybrook with the New York Islanders late in the 2010-11 season in which 65 penalties were assessed, including 15 fighting majors and 21 game misconducts, resulting in a total of 346 penalty minutes. Oh by the way — New York won the game 9-3, which seems to be some sort of pattern with the Penguins.  When they are out of the game, it tends to deteriorates into a brawl.

Your statement to the NHL after that game: “Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be. But what happened Friday night on Long Island wasn’t hockey. It was a travesty. It was painful to watch the game I love turn into a sideshow like that.

“The NHL had a chance to send a clear and strong message that those kinds of actions are unacceptable and embarrassing to the sport. It failed.

“We, as a league, must do a better job of protecting the integrity of the game and the safety of our players.  We must make it clear that those kinds of actions will not be tolerated and will be met with meaningful disciplinary action.

“If the events relating to Friday night reflect the state of the league, I need to re-think whether I want to be a part of it.”

Well just tell me what is your statement about what happened at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon. Most of it initiated by the thugs in white with the skating Penguin crest.

Are you going to condemn your team because it was all on them? I’m no Philadelphia fan. I’m a hockey fan. I enjoy a good hockey fight, and I grew up in the bench clearing brawl era, so I’m not immune to any of this.  I actually was laughing at the first period. But as the game (and fights0 progressed, as your team could not keep the Flyers off the scoreboard, as your team continued to get frustrated and take cheap shots, it really brought it all back to you!

Until you clean up your own house in Pittsburgh, you should not think that others should clean it up for you. Or maybe you should not be in a league that allows the people you employ to act like fools!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

But, all is not right with the Boston Bruins as they head into Washington for Game 3 of this series with the Capitals.

Both teams have scored but two goals, and if you are looking for a bright spot, it has been the stellar play of Tim Thomas, whose Stanley Cup Playoff shutout streak ended at 161 minutes, 41 seconds.

However, the Capitals first goal is one I’m sure he’d like to have back.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

But what of the Bruins offense? Where is the traffic in front of the net? Where are the second and third chances on the young inexperienced goaltender? Right now, they are nowhere to be found.

It seems that one (shot) and done is the nature of this series for the B’s. The one second chance they had was a loose puck squirting out in the slot with Benoit Pouliot beating Braden Holtby to the puck to tie Saturday’s Game 2.

The Capitals have played the way they wanted perfectly. They’re blocking tons of shots and when Bruins shots made their way to the net, they were an easy save for young Mr. Holtby because he had clear sight of the puck. Capital defensemen are making sure of that.

I have not questioned Claude Julien’s in-game decisions and said I would not since June 15, 2011, but being what happens over time, you knew that would change.

Julien has put together a couple of curious line combinations for the Bruins. At one point, he double-shifted Tyler Seguin, putting him on the David Krejci line with Rich Peverly and again on his usual line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. OK, he’s young and can take the cardio and who knows, you might just strike goal.

Bruins DieHard: A Look Around The NHL Playoffs

But, the more curious decision is the defensive combo of Greg Zanon and Joe Corvo. That duo had many issues in the first overtime and when they were out there with the fourth line of Greg Campbell, Shawn Thornton & Daniel Paille, well let’s just say things were very scary.

I know the coach and he is not gong to change his formula for success, we know that. But he should not have those five on the ice at the same time.

Also, revisiting one key element in last year’s playoffs is Johnny Boychuk being on the ice at the wrong time. He was the only player on the ice for both Washington goals and had a bad hand in them, especially the whiff on the clearing attempt that led to the Johansson pass to Niklas Backstrom, whose snap-wrister ended the suspense and sent this series to Washington tied one game apiece.

It’s time for the upperclassmen of the Bruins to get going. Patrice Bergeron and Krejci were not good in face-offs and Washington out-hit the Bruins and were patient enough to get goals on plays that Boston could have prevented, instead of boo-boos that have cost them a series lead.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

But really, if you are a sports fan, there really is nothing better than watching playoff hockey and seeing the upsets and the upsets in the making.

And now with social media, you can witness all kinds of entertainment from fans of the cities involved with Facebook and Twitter.

CANUCKS-KINGS

First, we take a look at the Presidents Trophy winners, the Vancouver Canucks, who now find themselves down two games to none to the eighth seeded Los Angeles Kings and heading south for the next two. Last year’s runner-ups are in dire straits and as usual, there is talk of possibly a goalie change for Game 3. That would give Corey Schneider his first ever playoff start.

But of course, coach Alain Vigneault has refused to name his starter for Game 3. As a result, the Vancouver natives are very restless and should they get down three games, oh what fun it will be in British Columbia.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

FLYERS-PENGUINS

The Philadelphia Flyers have a habit of getting behind by two or three goals lately, but that has not prevented them from coming back and winning the first two games of their series against the favored Pittsburgh Penguins in dramatic fashion.

In Game 1, the Penguins shot out to a 3-0 lead only to have the Flyers, led by Claude Giroux, come back to tie and then win the game in overtime.

In Game 2, the same thing happened. Sidney Crosby scored 15 seconds into the game. They then forged into a 3-1 lead only to have the Flyers tie it, go ahead, go behind and finally blow away the Pens by an 8-5 score.

This one is far from over, but Pittsburgh MUST win Game 3.

RANGERS-SENATORS

Who knew that the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators would show so much hatred for one another?

The Rangers blew out the Sens in the first game 4-1 and it wasn’t really that close.

Game 2 began with game misconducts to New York’s Brandon Dubinsky and Ottawa’s Terry Carkner, as he checked Brian Boyle and then began to pummel Boyle into the ground. Dubinsky came to Boyle’s rescue and got the game for third man in.

New York took liberties with Ottawa in Game 1 and Sens coach Paul MacLean decided to put in a little grit to stem the tide. Hockey nastiness ensued but in overtime, another tough guy scored the winner and now that series is tied heading up to Canada’s Capital!

RED WINGS-PREDATORS

Detroit & Nashville head to the Joe Louis Arena for Game 3 tied at one game a piece, and although the Red Wings came back to tie that series at one, make no mistake about it, the Predators will give them a fight in the theatre where the Winged Wheel won an NHL Record 23 straight during the year.

Todd Bertuzzi, probably the pugilistic guy on the Wings, sent a message to Shea Weber and the rest of the Predators that bashing his teammates heads into the glass or any other shenanigans will not be tolerated.

PANTHERS-DEVILS

What should we make of the Florida Panthers? I’m not sure, as they played their first playoff game in a dozen years and yet there wasn’t anyone there to see it. There were lots of people disguised as empty seats in Game 1.

The team didn’t show up in the first period either, as the New Jersey Devils quickly stormed to a 3-0 lead and relied on their future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur to hold onto a 3-2 win and Brodeur’s 100th NHL Playoff victory.

BLUES-SHARKS

The St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks is another series knotted up at one game a piece and heading to the Northern California. These are two pretty evenly matched teams who have played two pretty spirited games.

Goaltending, though, is still the key in this series. Jaroslav Halak was knocked out of Game 2 by his own man. Of course, it’s the dreaded upper body injury and from the way it looked, Halak probably got concussed.

There’s still no nastiness yet, but that should change as it rolls along!

BLACKHAWKS-COYOTES

Here’s yet another series that has been pretty exciting and tied at one. Chicago rallied in the third period of both games to tie the games and send them into overtime. Phoenix won Game 1 & Chicago won Game 2 after sending it to OT with 5 seconds left in the third.

Games Three & Four head to the United Center in Chicago. I still think Mike Smith will out-duel Corey Crawford and take this series. Stay tuned.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Western Conference

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (8) Los Angeles Kings

I’ve watched a lot of hockey this year, including the West, and yes, Vancouver has equaled last season with another Presidents Trophy as best regular season team in the NHL.

The Kings on the other hand had their ups and downs. They have a new manager, and had a hard time scoring goals. Their one constant was goaltender Jonathan Quick, and he will have to be even better to hold off the Canucks (especially their power play).

I would love to see an upset here, but I just don’t see it happening. Vancouver in 5 games.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

(2) St. Louis Blues vs. (7) San Joe Sharks

Since Ken Hitchcock took over the Blues, they have been nothing short of sensational. After underachieving at the beginning of the season, they were in the top spot in the league for a while. Jaro Halak and Brian Elliott share the number-one spot in goal, and lead the league in goals allowed with a measly 165.

I’m no longer a Sharks fan because no matter what, they don’t seem to have the killer instinct to go to the next level. I love Joe Thornton and hope he someday gets his name on the Cup. But I don’t think it’s this year.

St. Louis sweeps…

(3) Phoenix Coyotes vs. (6) Chicago Blackhawks

I’ll start by saying good for the Coyotes. They solidified their position on the final day of the year. Once they knew they were not going to give Ilya Bryzgalov the gazillion dollars he wanted in the offseason, they aimed for free agent Mike Smith from Tampa Bay. He has been beyond what they could have dreamed of. Ray Whitney is playing like he is 29, not 39, and the supporting cast has made Glendale, AZ popular in the NHL.

Who knew?

As for the Blackhawks, they are just not what they were two years ago when they brought Chicago their first Cup since 1961. Despite the talents of Messers Sharpe, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, I have no confidence in goaltenders Corey Crawford or Ray Emery.

The dogs have their day. Coyotes in 5.

(4) Nashville Predators vs. (5) Detroit Red Wings

This is an intriguing series in that Nashville has played the Wings tough all season long and have beaten them at in Motown.

But never count the Red Wings out of any game. I have respect for the team and the organization.

However, I have major disdain for their fans. They have become like Canadians’ fans in that they think they deserve to win all the time. Anything less and they’ve been robbed by officials, bad ice, 7-legged octopi, or any other unforeseen reason. For that reason, I hope they get chopped by the Predators!

Nashville in 7.

Kalman: 3 Keys To Victory For The Bruins

Eastern Conference

(1) New York Rangers vs. (8) Ottawa Senators

No one thought that Paul Maclean would be able to coach to a playoff spot. Surprise! Ottawa was actually the number three seed late in the year pushing the Bruins down to number seven, albeit for one day.

I’m not big on Craig Anderson in goal for Ottawa,which is not the case for the Rangers. They are backed in goal by Henrik Lundqvist, who should win the Vezina this year, but still has not been able to put the Rangers over the hump.

This should be a tough series, but Rangers in 6.

(3) Florida Panthers vs. (6) New Jersey Devils

Rookie coach Kevin Dineen has his Panthers in the playoffs for the first time in a decade, but alas I don’t think they will be going very far. Pete DeBoer has the Devils playing like the Devils of old. And speaking of old, Martin Brodeur could be up to his old playoff tricks again which should get him and New Jersey through to the second round!
New Jersey in 4.

(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (5) Philadelphia Flyers

Wow! What’s good about this series is that it doesn’t conflict with the Bruins-Caps, and should be a delight to watch. Talk about “Old Tyme Hockey” and hatred, nothing could be closer to that than this series is expected to be.

The question is, which team will outlast the other as they beat each other to a pulp?

Philly goalie Ilya Bryzgalov had better be “Gigantic” like never before because the fire power of Evgeny Malkin, James Neal, and the all around wizardry of Sidney Crosby could have his weird world come crashing down on him. The Flyers need the continued offensive power of Claude Giroux, Daniel Brierre and Scott Hartnell to counter the Pens.

Marc-Andrey Fleury, solid and seasoned, should be able to handle Philadelphia, although it wont be easy.

Pittsburgh in 7.

And last, but certainly not least….

The Bear Essentials: Breaking Down The 1st Round Of Playoffs

(2) Boston Bruins vs. (7) Washington Capitals

In the coaching department, it’s Dale Hunter against Claude Julien. You have to go with experience here. It took me a while to come around to Claude’s way of thinking, but he will keep rolling all four lines over the boards regardless of what the Caps do. And until proven otherwise, it will do the Bruins just fine.

Everything else is intangible, including the young starting goaltender for Washington. But I just can’t see the Caps beating the Bruins in a seven game series.

Bruins in 6.

Its’ the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoffs and there just isn’t a better time of the year! Go Bruins!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

The Red Sox will open their home portion of the season Friday. The Celtics are capping their regular season. Thousands will line up in Hopkinton on Monday to do some ungodly long run. But the most important event happens Thursday night at the TD Garden, as the Boston Bruins will put their fans on, hopefully, another two-month emotional roller coaster ride.

The Bruins will be looking to become the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the Detroit Red Wings did it 14 years ago in 1998 by sweeping the Washington Capitals.

Wouldn’t you know, the Bruins kick off the Cup defense against those Washington Capitals, with Game 1 of the best-of-seven series Thursday night in Boston? Some see Washington as the team that could upset the Bruins in the first round. I’m not so sure about that, although the Caps did win the regular season series 3-1.

The Bruins are back to playing their game in which they hit, force turnovers and challenge their opponents. And with Tim Thomas giving them the kind of goaltending they need — like he did last year — anything is possible.

They also need to restrain the offensive punch of Washington.

Alexander Ovechkin, by many accounts, had an off-year and “only” scored 38 goals and led the Caps in scoring, but he also has a pretty good supporting cast in Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, who has missed more than half the season but is back on the blue line.

Injuries always come into play, and both teams are missing a few key players. Tuukka Rask practiced with the team this week and seems to be coming along, but right now it wouldn’t surprise me if he was sitting on the bench backing up Thomas come Thursday night. Adam McQuaid is out with an upper body injury (possibly a concussion) and it looks like he will not start the playoffs. Johnny Boychuk is day-to-day with his knee but has been skating and could return Thursday evening.

On the other side, the Caps are missing both of the goaltenders they leaned on all season. Tomas Vokoun is out with a groin injury, deadly for a true butterfly goalie, and Michal Neuvirth is nursing a lower body injury. Braden Holtby will be the Game 1 starter Thursday, backed up by journeyman/lifetime AHL-er — and one time Providence Bruin – Dany Sabourin. They don’t necessarily have Vezina material, but the Caps are hoping for the rookie to come up big as they go for the upset.

There is not a lot of difference between this season’s team and last year, minus the fact that the B’s have had mood swings all year.

October was a big laugh. In November and December, the Bruins were unbeatable. From January until mid-March, they were a .500 team that seemed to wander around not knowing what they were doing. Focus had been the issue, until hey finished the year with a solid 7-2-1 run and began to resemble the team they — and we all — think they are.

The Bruins have to be physical with the highly skilled players on the Caps, and Zdeno Chara has always played well against Ovechkin. If Claude Julien employs the pairing of Chara with Dennis Seidenberg, which was a huge factor in last year’s Cup run, it should fare well for Boston.

Offensively, I see no changes in line for Boston, as leading scorer Tyler Seguin (who had more points than “The Great 8″) will continue with Patrice Bergeron (my MVP of the team) at center and Brad Marchand on the other side. The depth of this team is what will make the difference, as all four lines will have to continue to give solid contributions.

I generally do not make predictions of Bruins playoff series, because for 39 years it was all too crushing when you let your heart get in the way of your head. I’m a little more pragmatic as I am older. However, my editor asked for the predictions from all of us CBSBostonsports.com bloggers.

So, with goaltending always being magnified this time of year, Mr. Holtby may come up with some sparkling saves on occasion, but really, I see no reason why the Bruins offense will be stymied. Tim Thomas, until proven otherwise, should be his old playoff self.

Bruins win in six games!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Because at this rate, not only could the Bruins fall to seventh or eighth place in the Eastern Conference, they could be struggling for their playoff life.

Friday night, the Ottawa Senators host the Montreal Canadiens, a game Ottawa should win. And should that happen, the Sens would be in first place in the Northeast Division and own the No. 2 seed in the East, pushing your Bruins all the way down to the bottom of the playoff picture. Holy crap! Did anyone see that coming? It would be the first time Ottawa is atop the division since March of 2011.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

Thursday night’s embarrassing loss to the Florida Panthers (recurring nightmare theme here) gave the Bruins their first four-game losing streak of the year. More importantly, though it was the way they have lost these games — showing no signs of the pride in which the “Spoked B” is supposed to represent.

Claude Julien said it best: “A whole team collapse.” Of course he was speaking of Thursday night’s game, but that could be said for the entire month of March, as the B’s have lost six of the nine games and have been outscored 27-13 in those six losses (12-3 in Florida). They’ve allowed three or more goals in four straight games and eight of their last nine.

This Boston team resembles nothing like its November/December counterpart. Right now they are a tired, hurt, confused troupe with what seems like no bottom to the pit they have gotten themselves in.

But they also do not have time to feel sorry for themselves.  We all remember when they had all those home games and multiple days off at the beginning of the year. Now they don’t. They have played every other day and back-to-back games on the weekend since Feb. 28.

Gresh & Zo: This Team Has No Chance!

What has happened you ask? Well it seems to have all started way back on Jan. 7, the “Rematch” of the Stanley Cup Final (silly, of course, to call it a rematch because it really isn’t, but … ). In that game, the Bruins began taking ill-advised penalties and the Vancouver Canucks made them pay, scoring all four goals on the power play in their 4-3 win. Oh, by the way, it was an afternoon game, in which they are a disgraceful 4-7-2. Brad Marchand received a five-game suspension for his clipping penalty on Sami Salo that game as well.

Then came the Stanley Cup championship White House celebration! After all that hoopla, the Bruins began to lose to teams that were not in the playoff picture — teams that they are supposed to beat, such as the Carolina Hurricanes, who will not make the playoffs. However, the Bruins managed to lose the season series to the ‘Canes/Whalers for the first time in that franchises’ history.

And how about these numbers? In 35 games from October through December, the Bruins allowed 67 goals. In the 35 games that have since followed, the B’s have allowed 107 goals, a 63 percent increase.

What’s to blame for the 40-goal jump? Shabby goaltending, shoddy defense and way too many god-awful turnovers.

Of course, injuries play a part in this collapse, but even with injuries there is no reason to just go out for an evening skate or go through the motions. That’s unacceptable.

Who would have thought that a game between the Habs and Canada’s capital city team would have some Bruins fans (definitely not me) rooting for the Canadiens on Friday?

It’s St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, with the Broad Street Bullies coming to Boston. The game is once again in the afternoon, and to paraphrase Tom Brady, the crowd needs to get lubed up early.

Let’s just hope this early wake up call brings the Irish out of these Bruins. Otherwise, this long season down to 12 games could get very short, very quickly!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Game number 69 was just a gross exhibition of hockey from the start. Newly acquired Marty Turco (never been a fan) got his first NHL start in more than a year, and boy did it show. Turco was gone before the game was five minutes old, surrendering three goals to the Lightning and his teammates in front of him putting a mere two shots on the young goaltender for Tampa Bay who previously had only 167 minutes of NHL action.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

After winning back-to-back games for the first time since early January, the Bruins have now lost back-to-back-to-back games, and have lost them in embarrassing fashion. They’ve been bad starts in which they’ve allowed two or more goals in the first period and have not had the scoring needed to get back in the game. The goaltending has been less than stellar, and the team is taking really dumb penalties at bad times and allowing goals on the resulting power play. The Bruins has looked lost since the new year and no one seems to know what it’s about or how to put a stop to it.

Read: .500 Hockey Is Enough For B’s Right Now

You can point to the plethora of injuries to key people who has haunted the team the last few months. It’s been a lost season for Nathan Horton and Rich Peverly is still a month away from returning to the ice. Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, and Patrice Bergeron are among others who have been dinged up in one way or another, which definitely contributes to the inconsistent play.

But the team has been coming out flat and listless to start their recent games, and that’s what’s so baffling. How could this team come out and play so  bad? Sure, they are first in the Northeast Division and the second seed in the Eastern Conference, but the Ottawa Senators are hot on their heals just two points behind (luckily the Bruins have two game in hand). However, when you are losing those games, your position get more precarious. Dropping out of first can seed you much lower (anywhere from fifth seventh most likely) and put you in a fight for home ice in the first round.

Read: Bruins-Panthers Preview

Boston has a baker’s dozen of games left in the season, with the Florida Panthers closing out this three game road trip Thursday night. They have three weeks to see exactly what this team is made of and what they can expect as the playoffs loom. Because right now, this team is in trouble and it seems the coach nor the players can seem to get them out of this three-month funk.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

About a year ago, I had a groin/abdominal strain which kept me off the ice for 8 weeks, and even while back on the ice, was not right for another several weeks.

Saturday afternoon, Tuukka answered questions for the media on his injury that he suffered in midway through the second period of the loss to the Islanders.

Rask said walking is okay and there’s not much more to talk about. “When it happened I heard a snap in my ab[dominal] and was obviously in a lot of pain. (I’m) happy that I hopefully don’t have to go through surgery.”

Four-to-six weeks is what’s predicted for his recovery, but don’t be surprised if it’s a bit longer.

He’s a butterfly goalie, and when getting back to his feet from the butterfly, he uses just about every muscle in the groin/abdomen area. So, the doctors and Rask will probably want to be sure that everything heals before he returns to the ice and NHL play.

Listen: Tuukka Rask Interview

Right now, Rask is just looking to “stay positive and feed back the energy for the guys and hopefully get them on a roll.”

Amen to that!

First of all, there was not a lot of quality players in Providence that they could dangle and get quality back. Also, if they were going to go after some big ranking player, what player or players on the varsity roster would they be willing to give up? Simply not much.

The Bruins did acquire forward Brian Rolston and defenseman Mike Mottau from the New York Islanders for minor leaguers Marc Cantin and Yannick Riendeau. Who? See what I mean. Mottau, from Quincy, Mass., and Boston College is a 33-year-old journeyman defenseman who has only played 20 games after suffering a concussion in December. Rolston is 39 and will begin his second stint with the Bruins and brings experience and another stabilizing figure in the locker room.

Kalman: Bruins Covered If Injury Bug Bites

Boston is pretty happy with its nucleus and doesn’t feel they have to disturb much from the team that won the Cup back in June. With that said, last year’s team marched through the playoffs with many of their players uninjured. It’s a totally different scenario right now as Nathan Horton remains on the sidelines, Rich Peverley is not due back likely until the playoffs, and Ottawa’s Chris Neil put defenseman Johnny Boychuk in a “fog”. This is not the way you want to head to the home stretch of the season in a tough battle to remain comfortably in the No. 2 position in the East with Tuesday’s opponent, the Senators, hot on their trail.

One last transaction by the Bruins was the acquisition of so-called shot blocker extraordinaire Greg Zanon from the Minnesota Wild for defenseman Steven Kampfer. Kampfer has been up and down for the past two seasons and really never looked to pan out to much more than a spare part. The 31-year-old Zanon looks to be a solid stay-at-home D-man that is pretty durable, averaging 79 games the last five years, three with Nashville.

Felger & Mazz: Bruins Deadline Winners or Losers?

The next 22 games will show us a lot and what Boston fans are looking for is consistency heading into the playoffs. Coming off a 3-2-1 record on the just concluded road trip, the Bruins haven’t won back-to-back games in more than a month and a half but look to correct that with their end of the home and home with Ottawa on Tuesday, the start of a three-game home stand.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

There were a couple of Tim Thomas columns; one of which I was bashed about the head and shoulders for my thoughts on which I still stand by.

The team has been playing less than .500 hockey and looking badly while doing it.

The wins and streaks of November and December are distant memories. Since January 23rd’s Stanley Cup Celebration Day at The White House, Boston had lost seven of eleven matches and in that stretch have been shutout four times! In all of those losses the Bruins have not scored more that three goals and only did that once.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

Wednesday night’s win over the Blues should make us feel a little better, as they not only scored four goals, but beat a team that hadn’t lost at home in nearly three months.

But still, there have been plenty of blues for the Bruins in February.

Nathan Horton hasn’t seen the ice since the afternoon before The White House, suffering concussion-like symptoms against the Philadelphia Flyers, and his return to the Boston lineup is nowhere in sight.

David Krejci has been on every milk carton in New England as he has just not been producing in any way shape or form. Rich Peverly is on IR with a sprained knee.

Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg and the rest of the backliners have made critical mistakes at key times contributing to the malaise.

The goaltending has been spotty at best for both Tuukka Rask & Tim Thomas and those otherworldly like numbers that both had in late 2011, no one remembers.

Kalman: Krejci Getting Back To Electrifying Self?

So, with the trade deadline looming, it seems that the Bruins would like to add a winger and maybe another defenseman. But who would you have to let go to get what you are looking for and please, there will be no Rick Nash in the Spoked B.

Let’s not be crazy. Afterall, this is still the Bruins and do you really think they are gonna swallow the rest of that contract which has 6 years and $7.8 million per left on it? Yeah right!

This happened last year about this time.  The Bruins were mired in the third seed in the East and just rolling along and a .500 pace. Claude Julien was being fired and Tim Thomas was being traded.

So we’ll just let it all play out as it always does and let the ice chips fly.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Your “TEAM” was at the White House and you were not with your “TEAM.” You always said it was about “TEAM, TEAM, TEAM, but really you said it all Monday when it was about TIM, TIM, TIM.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

And with such a lame excuse! Sorry, I’m not buying it. It wasn’t about dissing the President, it was all about you and your politics!

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, your Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins were invited to the White House on Monday. The entire team showed up except for the Georges Vezina Trophy Winner Tim Thomas, who decided to boycott the annual visit of Champions to the White House. Thomas said he wasn’t being political however, in his statement made on Facebook, it seems very political.

“I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.

This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT”

With this statement, Thomas has created a firestorm all on his own. Obviously, he did not think of the ramifications of his actions.

Does he remember when Curt Schilling chose to go on television to support then-President George Bush in his reelection bid? It did not matter that Schilling helped bring the Boston Red Sox their first World Series title in 86 years, all people heard was politics being injected into their sports.

With Thomas’s boycott of the White House and his choice to bring politics into the equation, for some, he has ruined his reputation.

And as the media entered the clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, he was nowhere to be found. Did he think he could just do this, make the statement and with today’s media it would all go away? Does he know the media in this town? Does he know the sports fans that idolize(d) him in town?

Some would like an answer as to why he chose this particular time to NOT be a part of HIS team that gave so many a lot to cheer about last June?

It makes you wonder who he really cares about. His country, his team, himself? These are all great things to take care of, but simple priorities would have made this such a non issue!

This shouldn’t not have been a political issue. However, it was.

It should have been just a nice photo-op event and you go on about the season and hope to win a championship a second time. But, you left your team standing at the podium all alone and YOU, Tim Thomas, helped to spread the political divide in this country even further apart!

Shame on you!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

It all began when the 2011-2012 regular season schedule was released. Everyone from Boston to Vancouver had January 7, circled on their must-see TV calendar. Some said it would just another game on the 82-game schedule, but you knew it wouldn’t.

From June 1 – 15, 2011, a lot of history was written between the Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks and Saturday, they met again. No, it wasn’t a Stanley Cup Final rematch or Game 8 of the Final. It was Game 38 on the schedule, but everyone knew it wouldn’t be just that.

Read: More From Bruins DieHard

The Canucks left the TD Garden with a battle-tested 4-3 victory on the strength of four power play goals helped by the undisciplined Bruins. The carnage began just about four minutes into the game as Alexandre Burrows and Shawn Thornton exchanged slashes just in front of the Vancouver bench and a melee broke out as Thornton was gang-tackled by six Canucks before his Bruin teammates came to his rescue.

At the referees’ first glance, it seemed that Milan Lucic came off the bench to join the fracas, which earned him a game misconduct and could have resulted in a 10-game suspension and more discipline for the coach and the team. The NHL reviewed the incident and reversed the penalties after video showed Lucic came over the boards on a normal line change.

A solid battle, although a bit worrisome, took place between Nathan Horton and Canucks tough guy Dale Weise with Horton holding his own. Hopefully no head games for Horton after that battle! Boston was left with trying to kill a 5-on-3 Vancouver power play. They almost survived it until a long rebound came out to Ryan Kesler and he had the entire left side of the goal to give the Canucks the lead.

Boston later tied the game on a wonderfully skilled move by Brad Marchand and took the lead on a what should’ve been an icing call, but was waved off and Rich Peverly picked up the puck off the boards and wristed a 15-footer by the blocker side of goaltender Corey Schneider and the B’s had a 2-1 lead.

Tyler Seguin in the penalty box for tripping put the Canucks back on the power play and they cashed in again on an Alexandre Burrows tip-in standing on Thomas’ doorstep tying the game.

The turning point was at just under two minutes left in the second period. Marchand was on the right wing boards going after the puck. Sammy Salo was about to paste him on the boards and Marchand bent low and undercut him for a rarely called clipping penalty, which also carries a game misconduct and review from league officials (re: Brendan Shanahan). I think we can expect a fine and suspension, especially with slewfoot fine earlier this season. Definitely not one of his most proud moments, but there are a lot of NHL players who have those moments.

One minute into the Marchand major penalty, Henrik Sedin tipped home an Alexander Edler blast from the point to put Vancouver ahead 3-2, and 1:09 into the final period, the Bruins were still trying to survive the major when rookie Cody Hodgson flying down the right side blasted a rocket over the shoulder of Thomas and to get a 2-goal lead.

All four goals were scored on the power play. Oh, did I mention the Canucks have the league’s number one power play and they made sure everyone in Boston knew that.

For their part, the Bruins did not go away, getting a nice goal by David Krejci on his own rebound. He did hard work in front of the net to close the gap to 4-3. But it was Marblehead native Schneider making sure that would be as close as Boston would get with a couple of nifty saves on Patrice Bergeron late in the game.

It was a loss for the Bruins, but what an entertaining afternoon. Cheap shots notwithstanding, it reminded me of those afternoon games at the old Boston Garden which were always a delight, for some reason better than an evening game.

So, what to make of this 38th game of the season, its a great game for Bruin haters to come out with all the vitriol they have had since June 15, 2011 and boy, if you check twitter and the blogosphere, it’s there. It’s what happens when you are good and the champs.

As a really good friend from Montreal said to me after the 9-0 whitewashing of the Calgary Flames, “This nightmare wont end….Are the Bruins really that good?” I happen to think they are. Sure, the Bruins are a physical team. It has been their trademark for as long as I’ve been alive. It’s in their DNA. I certainly hope it will never change. I think they probably will need to make sure they hold their composure when it counts because as you know, retaliation is what the referees see and against a team like Vancouver, penalties will kill you.

It would’ve been nice to see Roberto Luongo in net Saturday but you know what, good for Corey Schneider. Playing in his hometown where he grew up and played his college hockey, with a bunch of family and friends watching and the pressure of this “regular season game” against the Stanley Cup Champs, he was pretty solid in net considering the pressure!

Time to move on to Game 39 and continue playing the brand of hockey that put them second in the Eastern Conference. Still satisfied that they are playing that way and 5-on-5, the Bruins are still the best in the league because of their work ethic and the physicality they bring just about every night.

Two more teams from Canada continue this home stand as the Bruins will look to avenge a recent 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, and then what could be another one of “those” games on Thursday with the Montreal Canadiens.

Go Bruins!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

In what was a big bust in October as the B’s sauntered their way to a 3-7 record and trade rumors were all around, with the media was suggesting Bruins Brass break up the band, they page flipped out of Halloween and into a record warmth November. And I’m not just talking about the weather!

Boston opened the month with a solid 5-3 thumping of the Ottawa Senators. What most fans wanted was some consistency from the team with hopes they would continue to play like that win. Well, the Bruins answered with a resounding YES! They won their next 10 games while outscoring their opponents by a whopping 30 goals.  They have only lost one point in 11 games with a shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings.  They could finish the month without a regulation loss if they defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday in a battle for first place in the Northeast Division.

Read: Bruins-Leafs Preview

This current run is led by sophomore sensation Tyler Seguin, who has the team scoring lead with 12 goals and 23 points and is a plus-19 , tops in the NHL.  One of the most amazing stats about Seguin is that in 22 games, he is even or plus; he does not have a minus game.  That is really hard to do no matter what the team is doing. It goes to show just how much confidence he has gained since the end of the regular season last year and how invaluable the experience of playing four rounds of Stanley Cup Playoffs is.

We thought at the beginning of the year Tim Thomas was going to get more rest, play fewer games and Tuukka Rask would begin to take the reigns of being the number one goalie. Not so fast says the veteran Conn Smythe & two-time Georges Vezina Trophy winner. Thomas has played one less game than he did last year after 22 games, and it doesn’t look like the 37-year old netminder is ready to allow Rask to supplant him just yet. He has 11 wins in 15 starts, which is fourth in the league, and Thomas is second in goals against and save percentage. Wednesday, he will be looking for a personal best ninth win in a row.

Chris Kelly is incredibly second in goals for the B’s with nine and 16 points, yet still has his all around game. Here is a fun stat from fellow Tweeper Ty Anderson: Kelly has more goals than Ovechkin, Zetterberg, Patrick Kane, Taylor Hall, and Rick Nash. Those are names you don’t usually find Kelly near.

Conversely, the Bruins top line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton has run stagnant. Since Nathan Horton scored in the 6-0 blowout of the New York Islanders on November 19, the have not been able to find the back of the net. Also, in that blowout, Krejci played almost 19 minutes and didn’t record a point and a 0 +/-, which signifies that he was your basic no-show. He has three goals and ten points and is a -4 and has been much fodder from the media for rumor/suggestion of a trade. For the Bruins to continue their winning ways, these three must begin to contribute on a regular basis.

Listen:Chiarelli Hopeful Krejci Line Can Get It Going

Counting on the third and fourth liners to keep their hard work paying off is not the route to success.

Game 13 in November and Game one in December are part of a home-and-home showdown with the Toronto Maple Leafs; a team that has played very well so far this young season minus the two embarrassing losses to the Bruins (6-2 in Boston and a 7-0 whitewashing at the Air Canada Center). In those two loses, and everyone gets tired of it but, Phil Kessel was nowhere to be found with zero points and a -1 in both contests.  It seems that the NHL’s Superman/leading scorer has his own version of Kryptonite but it’s not green, it’s the Black and Gold of the Boston Bruins.

Since the Kessel was sent to Toronto for their number-one draft pick trade (Mr. Seguin, of course), number-81 has been the invisible man against his former team!  The Bruins are somehow stuck in his head, and he can’t get them out.

The Bruins have made the leap from the cellar in October to at worst, second place once December arrives. And from looking at the Accu-Weather forecast for the weekend, lets just see if the Bruins stay as warm as the December weather is supposed to be!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

The B’s have won five in a row, have not lost in November and in those five victories, have outsocred their opponents, 3 to 1. Led by super sophomore Tyler Seguin, Boston has scored 30 goals with the 19 year old having a fantastic start to November with seven goals, and a +/- 7. Seguin and the team have turned the page on Summer and October and nowhere was it proven as it was in Saturday’s win over Divisision rival Buffalo Sabres when the horse was let out of the barn.

Milan Lucic on a breakaway down the left side lost the puck ahead of him. Buffalo’s All-Star goaltender, Ryan Miller came out to the top of the circle and batted the puck to the left boards just in time to be barrelled into by that horse Lucic. Miller was sent flying as was his mask and his mates met Lucic at the end boards as they are supposed to do, but nothing was doing to avenge the incident.

I was not at the game but was in the car listening to the second and third periods on 98.5 The Sports Hub but kept hearing the incredulity in Bruins analyst, Bob Beers referring to the hit and the lack of ANY of Miller’s teammates seeking accountability on Lucic for the transgression!

Would it happen to Tim Thomas? Possibly. Would the Bruins, in particular, Shawn Thornton or Zdeno Chara allow the culprit to skate two and a half periods without so much as a stiff body check? Not on your life! There would be hell to pay all night long! It’s the Bruins Tradition – except for one unfortunate incident in Pittsburgh two years ago.

The National Hockey League’s Disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan, no shrinking violet when he played, has deemed the event not suspendable nor worthy of a fine, which if Buffalo fans are anything like the Canadiens fans, the 911 phone lines are still clogged.

Ryan Miller certainly doesn’t see it that way. Despite being concussed and not playing the third period, he stuck around so he could talk to the media and call Lucic “gutless” and “a piece of sh*t”, for his actions.

But its this kind of togetherness and camaraderie and hard work that has brought the team from last place to within two points from a playoff spot, unlike the lack of toughness from the Sabres.

They still have a long way to go, but at least we are seeing some consistency, and scoring from a lot of different sources and play we are used to instead of the heads in the clouds month of October.

Sure they were seeded third in the Eastern Conference, but when the playoffs started, no one was sure they were going to get by the Canadiens, and it did take seven games (and overtime) to finish Montreal off! With Philly, it was motivation for revenge and it took them two more seven game series to claim the Prize on June 15, 2011.

So what can this be attributed to?  Did all the drinking and partying with the Cup really make them complacent?  Have they lost that drive to win it again or for that matter, even compete?  For all that we thought they were, it seems that right now, imposters are wearing the Spoked B.  

Since that date, what has happened to the personnel of the Bruins?  Michael Ryder: gone. Mark Recchi: retired. Tomas Kaberle: gone (and forgotten quickly may I add).

Read: More From Bruins DieHard 

Other than that, basically this season’s team is the same as the 2010-2011 team.  So since it’s really the same team, we should not really be surprised at the results so far. Tim Thomas has played the majority of the games and when Tuukka Rask has been in net, such as Saturday, the Bruins cannot score, getting only two tallies in three games. 

With two power play goals and untimely penalties, Boston cannot get out of their own way.  Since the first period in Boston, the Canadiens have taken the play to the Bruins and outplayed them significantly.  The Coach has juggled the lines once and has returned them to what they were at the beginning of the year.  Nothing has worked and Boston has become the unthinkable. The worse team in the Eastern Conference and second worse in the league! 

Yes everyone, these are your 2011-12 Boston Bruins. 

Although the names are much the same, their play resembles nothing like we witnessed in the aforementioned months. But, in the month of November last year the Bruins won only 5 of 13 games and had two streaks of losing four of five games.  So far, they are unbeaten this month, but then again they’ve only play the Ottawa Senators.

Ottawa is a team they should beat, but the manner in which they beat them is the encouraging part. They skated well, they broke out of their own end with authority and they shot the puck more instead of trying to be too cute and pass. It was an all around sound effort for the Black & Gold.

Saturday night will be a bigger test for them facing the red-hot and league leading…yes the league leading… Maple Leafs in Toronto. The Bruins beat the leafs in Boston two weeks ago, and promptly lost the next three. The Leafs also have the leagues leading goal scorer in Phil Kessel and back at home he will not have to hear the constant heckling and booing he endured when in Boston.

Read: Bruins-Leafs Preview

After Toronto, the B’s return home for the next five games and once again a chance to carve out just who there are this season.  Will they begin to show us who they are they capable of doing the same things they did last February, March and thought the playoffs? Or will they force the hands of the management to make some changes in which the media has already been speculating about.

The next two weeks will tell a lot about your currently last place Boston Bruins. 

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

After all, in each of the three seasons since, he has had great starts with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and this season has been no different…so far. Kessel leads the league in goal scoring with seven and has/had a four game goals scoring streak and was the NHL’s First star of the Week last week.

Read: Bruins Get The Message

But, a funny thing happened on the way to the TD Garden. Once again Kessel was held off the score sheet against his former team and he was your basic non-entity except for the fact the fans continued their booing of him every time he touches the puck. They even cheered loudly when he fell on his own, losing the puck in the process.

So much for forgetting past transgressions.

So instead, it was the Boston Bruins that had a breakout game. After scoring 11 goals in their first six games, the B’s exploded for six tallies with five players having multiple point games. They brought the jump that was missing and the breakouts from their own zone into the offensive zone was much more crisp and efficient than anything we’ve witnessed this year.

Your number one pick a year ago (yes the pick from Toronto in exchange for PJK) Tyler Seguin had a great game with a goal and two assists, and was on the ice for all of the Bruin goals.

The Bear Essentials: Thornton, Line Changes Wake Up Bruins

In 13 games against his former team, Kessel has 2 goals and is a minus-8 while so far in his very young career, Seguin leads Boston in scoring and trails Kessel’s NHL lead by only four points.

But it really was all about ALL of the Bruins giving a maximum effort in all phases of the game. Forwards, defense and goaltending did what was expected of them despite all the line changing that coach Claude Julien did from their miserable outing on Tuesday. Shawn Thornton took on Toronto tough guy Colton Orr and had a pretty darn good battle right at the start of the game. There was no sitting back and letting the Leafs take it to them after going down by a goal early in the game. Instead, lead by Seguin and the power play, Boston scored the next six goals, two with the man advantage, and never looked like they were in trouble.

Kalman: Thornton Throws Down, Sparks B’s

And when they did let their guard down – a Grabovsky breakaway from the penalty box – Tim Thomas was his old reliable self.

This is what we’ve come to expect from the Bruins. Not the “take a spin around the ice and not play physical” team we’ve seen most of the seven games played. The question is can they put together these kind of performances back-to-back?

Saturday night brings a new challenge as another former Bruin Joe Thornton with the same kind of history as Kessel brings the Sharks into the TD Garden. Thornton and his teammates will come into Boston after playing in New Jersey on Friday night, just like Toronto played the night before. The Bruins have to take full advantage of this.

Stats: Bruins-Leafs Box Score

Thorton sidenotes; Joe Thornton comes into Boston and will play his 1001st National Hockey League game. This coming a week after another former Bruin Hal Gill played his 1000th. Congrats to both! Thorton also is one of only five NHLers in history to have 2 or more 90 assist seasons. The others….Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and former B’s, Adam Oates, and Mr. Robert Gordon Orr!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Will they still have this so-called hangover, or will they at least get back some of the fire that led them to said hangover.

From Diehard’s eyes, there doesn’t seem to be the cohesiveness that should signify what they had at the end of last season, even before the playoffs.

The Bruins put what looked to be a solid effort on Saturday against the Blackhawks in Chicago. Coming back from a 2-1 deficit on Nathan Horton’s first of the year and sophomore Tyler Seguin scoring in the shootout for Boston’s second win of the year.

In that win, Coach Claude Julien registered his 300th win as coach with 181 of those victories behind the Bruins bench. Julien is one of
13 active coaches to have that many wins and 42nd all time. You would think it would be a sound foundation in which to build upon.

Read: Bruins DieHard Blog

Then Tuesday night happened! WOW. Pure implosion and frustration as they lost the game and their composure against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins could not sustain any pressure after the first half of the first period and when they did put quality shots on Cam Ward, he was solid as he was last week when he helped his team beat Boston down in Raleigh.

Ward had been taking all opportunities when the Bruins weren’t finding ways to screw up the one given to them. then in the second period, they tried to do what they have done many times before. They tried to fight their way out of it, literally. Hoping to get themselves and the crowd into what had become a slow and boring contest.

Kalman: Teams Trying To Frustrate Bruins

With Captain Zdeno Chara garnering 17 minutes in penalties for instigating a dust-up with Hurricanes Jay Harrison the Bruins were two-man short and already trailing 2-0. But they survived and gave themselves a chance and with nine minutes left in the third period, they final solved Cam Ward with of all things, a power play goal.The crowd, what was left of them, was back in it and the B’s had every right to think they could get this game tied.

But alas, the implosion happened. Horton, Brad Marchand & Milan Lucic were all hit with 10-minute misconduct penalties. Chris Kelly had a fight with Brett Sutter, several other Bruins minor penalties and last but certainly not the least, the Coach was dismissed from further action for abuse of officials. this was not the best way to pull yourself from the Bermuda Triangle.

Listen: Bergeron On Gresh & Zo: Emotion Got the Best of Us

They have one win at home against three losses with the next three at the TD Garden against the surprising Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday, the San Jose Sharks Saturday night leading up to a home and home series with the Montreal Canadiens on the 27th, & 29th, Halloween weekend mind you!

For those of that follow hockey closely, this is eerily like the “Hangover” start that the aforementioned Blackhawks had last season. A season in which they did not clinch a playoff spot until the last week.

The Bear Essentials: A New Julien?

It seems that there will be some line adjustments when the puck is dropped Thursday, with Kelly skating with the first line and Horton bumped to the second. What will come out of it is anyone’s guess.

Let’s just hope the Bruins find a good remedy for what ails them. And fast!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

The so-called Stanley Cup Hangover is tough to deny. When you are playing legitimate hockey on June 15, followed by a mass amount lot of celebrating, October 6 comes quickly. Most times the Champs have a hard time getting through the playoffs, and some don’t even make it in the next season. It would take a dramatic drop off in coaching and on-ice performance in order for Boston to stumble along and not be one of the 16 teams to make the playoffs.

The good thing for the Bruins is that they are in the friendly confines of the TD Garden for seven of their first 10 games. That may come back to haunt them later in the year when they are on the road more than home in both February & March, but lets deal with the present!

First and foremost is the Crowning of the Champs!  Thursday, October 6, will be the moment we Diehard Bruins fans have been dreaming about for 39 years.  To see that shining piece of silver sitting on the ice and that brand spanking new eight-spoked “B” banner being lifted to the Garden rafters, making it official. That’s when you get that tingly feeling all over again.

Read: Bruins DieHard Blog

The season questions will be significant. The number one query will be can (or will) Tim Thomas be All-World the entire year as he was in leading the team to the Championship? At age 37, he might as well be the second-coming of Martin Brodeur, going into his 40’s playing at a high level. And if Tuukka Rask can spell him for more games than last year with quality goal tending, this would make for a good tandem!

Marc Savard will not play this season and in my opinion, is most likely a former NHL player. This is a bad thing for the Bruins, but a REALLY good thing for Savard and his family. Hopefully, not playing will let him get back to being a normal and productive husband and father for a long time! The Bruins will miss his innovative-ness with the puck, especially on the power play. Right now they do not have anyone with the creativeness that Savard had especially with the man advantage. They will miss that greatly.

Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci will be the two top centers (as they were all through the playoffs) and with the newly signed Brad Marchand and return to health and form of Nathan Horton, most of the team is still intact.

The only difference is Mark Recchi has retired, Michael Ryder is now a Dallas Star, and Tomas Kaberle signed for big bucks in Raleigh.

In their place, the Bruins signed Defenseman Joe Corvo from Carolina. He should be better on the blue than Kaberle was. He certainly has a better shot and will probably accompany Zdeno Chara on the power play. General Manager Peter Chiarelli also went after another Montreal Canadien player, signing free agent Benoit Pouliot. The fourth pick overall in 2005 under-achieved mightily in Montreal, saying that Canadien Coach Jacques Martin never had enough patience with him in his development. Considering Bruins Coach Claude Julien is sort of cut from the same mold, it’ll be interesting to see how this works out – although, we know that Julien is loyal to his hard workers and will most definitely give Pouliot a solid chance to prove himself.

Listen:  The 7 DA’s Of The Bruins With Jack Edwards

No longer a rookie, Tyler Seguin should not be treated with kid gloves any longer. He should be allowed to play with a bit of abandon and allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.  The kid obviously has the ability to put the puck in the net and since it looks like he will be playing a lot more of the center position, this will make for a better all around player as Boston looks for more scoring depth.

There should not be much change in the way the Captain plays, but with the addition of Corvo and if Dennis Seidenberg continues to be the solid backliner he was last season and all through the playoffs, Chara’s minutes could be reduced a bit, saving some wear and tear on the big galoot. Andrew Ference, Johnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid will also be back on the blue line. Not yet sure which of last year’s Providence Bruins will be staying north but my thinking is that Jordan Caron, who had a few games with the Bruins, may start the year in Boston.

The Bruins are one of the best teams in the East and should remain that way. And if there is a Stanley Cup Hangover, I think it will be Friday Morning, October 7,

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

 Yep, Nathan Horton still scored in overtime.

The high and euphoria has not worn off and why the hell would it? Generally over the years I have not purchased any of the Bruins merchandise simply because I never wanted to put any more money into the Jacobs bank account. But all that has changed and the day following what truly is a date I will never forget, I was on NHL.com ordering whatever they wanted to sell me that said “2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins,” including the upcoming DVD of their run to the Cup!

 Well, Monday night I got to be one of the lucky few that got to view that DVD and relive the moments that were so tense and yet exhilarating in their conclusion… all without the nervousness and angst that goes along with the playoffs and elimination games, of which the Bruins faced four.

Listen/Read: Marchand “Hoping Something Gets Done” Soon

Getting to watch this and take more notice, there were several key peaks and valleys over the long season. Most of the focus was on the Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final. There was absolutely no mention of the drama about the Zdeno Chara-Max Pacioretty incident in Montreal, and really, does anyone watching this DVD care?

The Bruins opening road trip to Europe cannot be discounted for this squad becoming a team. The fact that from day one, Tim Thomas was your number one goaltender meant Tuukka Rask would’ve had to have been Tiny Thompson-esque (kids, go look it up) to unseat the eventual Vezina winner, and he was not even close!

There was the February win streak that pretty much locked the B’s into that three-seed and provided the home ice advantage in which two of the three Games 7s were in Boston. The Tampa Bay Game 7 was probably the best game they played in the Playoffs, period!

Schedule: Bruins DVD Tour

Several of the Bruins were mic’d up, Andrew Ference, Gregory Campbell, Chris Kelly to name a few, all of which is great for Bruins fans. But for me, and what the producers of this video did a good job with, is the Final!

Chris Kelly is heard actually giving praise about Roberto Luongo saying he is a “great goalie” (I guess Sweet Lou wanted to hear it from Thomas). Ference telling former Canadien Maxime Lapierre “you’re not that tough” (of course, we all knew that).

Then there was the stunned silence after the hit on Nathan Horton, followed by the referee telling Vancouver Captain Thelma…er… Henrik Sedin that Aaron Rome’s hit was late and he would be out of the game. Bobby Orr rocking Horton’s #18 flag before Game 4, with Luongo being pulled early that contest. The Game 5 sound with a shutout for Luongo and his testifying that he would’ve had the one goal that Thomas allowed in and TIREPUMP-GATE!

Game 6 was more Brad Marchand picking on the Sedin’s and Luongo with two flat tires. The DVD closed out with Marchand and Bergeron putting the finishing touches on a fun playoff season with two goals each in the finale on “Boston ice,” as Nathan Horton, during practice, poured a bottle of melted Garden ice onto the Rogers Arena.

What most fans will definitely enjoy is the locker room celebrations and the few extras that the NHL provided with the “History will be made” commercials. There could have been more about the regular season, but really, the 16 wins are what it’s all about.

I’ve been a Boston sports fan all my life. I’ve been a Boston Bruin fan even longer. <smirk> This Championship really captured what I’ve been waiting for all of my adult life.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past four months or so, June 15 was the last game of the National Hockey League season. And I’m sure the aforementioned Quebecois’ hated the result of what happened on the ice that night in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Little did we know that as the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins - sounds nice doesn’t it – were celebrating, the gendarmes were plotting a way to get Bruins Captain Zdeno Chara into a Montreal courtroom to have an interview about the now infamous- Max Pacioretty into the stanchion-incident!

Montreal police say charges against Chara have still not been ruled out as they prepare to speak to him in the coming weeks. They were in no rush to talk with Chara when the Bruins played the Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs and I’m sure, had the Canadiens won that series, nothing more would probably be said.

Read: Montreal Police To Speak With Chara

But a funny thing happened on the way to winning the Stanley Cup. Sacre Bleu! The investigation continues now some three-plus months later!

Really?!? Is there no murder, larcenies, muggings, drug dealings or any other crime that may have more importance than ANYTHING that happens in a hockey game?

Listen: Felger & Mazz Simulcast With CJAD About Chara Hit

Incredible and beyond comprehension. This is grand standing at its best. Also, I’m no lawyer, but if Pacioretty is not pressing charges for “assault”, isn’t this a non-issue.

Well, my thinking is that if, and I hope that’s a big if, Zdeno Chara decides to interrupt his summer with his family to placate the morons, oh sorry, the prosecutors in Montreal, he should lobby for an extra day with Lord Stanley’s Cup and carry it around the Canadian City all the way to Police Headquarters and tell them to take their investigation and stick it!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Mr. Julien, you have done what the likes of Don Cherry, Fred Creighton, Bep Guidolin, Gerry Cheevers, Terry O’Reilly, Mike Milbury, Steve Kasper, Brian Sutter, Rick Bowness, Pat Burns, Mike Keenan, could not do. Dave Lewis & Robbie Ftorek were clueless about what you have accomplished.

Mr. Julien, you have brought the City of Boston a Stanley Cup Championship and you did it your way, critics like me, be damn! You NEVER wavered in what your plan, whatever it was, would be. You didn’t change your mind on who would dress and who would sit. As you have said numerous times, all that matters is what those men in the locker room believe in. And they believed in what you said, planned, drew up, and they went out and did it all and captured the most beautiful Chalice in the world.

It’s has been such a long time since the Boston Bruins owned this City and our hearts because of all the things that have happened along this 39 year Cup hiatus. So many times I would watch the Final and say to myself or friends I was watching it with, “when the hell are WE gonna win this thing?” Well, after Wednesday nights thorough domination of the Canucks in Game 7, as Tim Thomas said, “You want it, You got it!”

Read/Watch: Julien Enjoying Cup Through Players

From Thomas’ outstanding goaltending to the work of Brad  “The Rat” or “Li’l Ball of Hate” Marchand, to the great defensive corp, the Bruins never gave the Canucks a chance to get into this game and threaten the Championship. It was the line of Patrice Bergeron, Marchand and immediate retiree Mark Recchi that led the way. Marchand & Bergeron with two goals each and it was Marchand’s first goal that was insurance and really took all the steam out of Vancouver. They knew it wasn’t gonna happen for them on this night!

Historical things happened in this years playoff. It may be a long time before a goaltender has the microscopic goals against and save percentage that Thomas finished up the Stanley Cup Final. He and the Bruins played AND won three game sevens, two of them by shutout!

Tim Thomas assuredly was the Conn Smythe award winner and if anyone had threatened him for it, Marchand would have been the one, scoring 11 goals in this years playoff as a rookie.

But it was the foresight and stay the course, no in-game adjustments of Coach Julien that ultimately led the this Boston Bruins team through every loss with resiliency and how they would bounce back and take the next game. Especially after falling behind 0-2 in the opening round and the final round. Mr Julien, you continued to overlook all the media who wanted you to change your whole being on how to coach. As you said last night after the game, “you’re going to be subject to criticism, but the most important thing is what’s going on inside that dressing room.  There wasn’t a guy that didn’t believe in what we were doing. Today you’re rewarded for it. Had I worried about that other stuff, I probably wouldn’t be standing here today.”

So true.

Read/Watch:Young and Old, Bruins Celebrate Cup In Vancouver

And with that, let the Duck Boats roll on Saturday with Mr. Julien at the Head of the Class.

The Boston Bruins have surprised and entertained us for 63 days from the end of the regular season through the end of the playoffs culminating in winning the, their, our, final National Hockey League game.

2011 Stanley Cup Champions, Boston Bruins!

One wish, lets not make it another 39 years!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

That’s just what the Boston Bruins got last night as they had the backing of their Honorary Captain, former player, coach and General Manager Milt Schmidt waving the Bruin Rally Towel to get the TD Garden crowd roaring. Rene Rancourt only had to mouth the words, although I am sure he was singing, to the Star Spangled Banner as the audience provided the loud voice which if it didn’t bring chills to your bone, then nothing would.

The fireworks would begin five and half minutes into the game and wouldn’t stop for the next four minutes as the Bruins lit up Roberto Luongo with three blasts and Cory Schneider with one to blitzkrieg the Vancouver Canucks and send the crowd into another frenzy and take away just about all the nervous energy that had been building all day!

Steve Burton With Milan Lucic After Game 6

Brad Marchand had opened the scoring at 5:31 sending a scorching wrist shot, short side over the glove of Luongo. Milan Lucic sent a slapper that pooped through Luongo’s legs.

Canucks Coach Alain Vigneault would pull Luongo at the 8:35 minute mark of the first after Andrew Ference scored the third goal, a power play tally.Three goals in 3:35 and the crowd serenading the goaltender with LOO-ON-GO chants to obviously “pump up his tires” because at that point, he seriously needed something.

When scoring first in these playoffs, Boston is 11-1 which shows you where their head is at when they get the lead. The Bruins would keep attacking, something that was lacking in all three games in Vancouver. The Penalty kill was oh-so-effective as it has been all playoff year-long.

Read/Watch: Bruins Now Have To Win In Vancouver

Tim Thomas (Conn Smythe Winner regardless) was again a brick wall stopping everything thrown his way and teammates clearing rebounds he couldn’t stifle. Thomas made 36 saves tying him with former Canucks goaltender Kirk McLean for saves in one playoff year with 761, a record he will own with his first stop Wednesday in Game 7.

Thomas’ goaltending is about as good, no make that better than any goaltending that I’ve ever seen in a Stanley Cup Final and trust me, I’ve seen a lot of great goaltending! This was the game the Bruins needed last Friday and they will need again on Wednesday in British Columbia.

The National Hockey League season comes to a close Wednesday night in Vancouver as the Stanley Cup Finals come to its finale with a seventh game. In Bruins Stanley Cup Final history, they have never played a seventh game. Well, now they are about to play their third in the last month and a half! Historically, home teams have the edge in Cup Final game seven’s posting a 12-3 record and one of those losses is the Canucks losing to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in 1994.

Listen: Dave Goucher Talks B’s Forcing Game 7 on Toucher & Rich

Boston hasn’t played bad in Vancouver, but they have not played like they have at home. It’ll be time to lay it all out on the ice because as cliché-ish as it is, there really are no tomorrows and you are this close to what it’s all about!

One more time… Go Bruins!!!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

What the hell was I thinking!!

I should know by now that what Ringo Starr said so long ago, was oh so correct when he sang “it don’t come easy”.

These Stanley Cup Playoffs have not been easy for the Boston Bruins or for us, the fans. Seven games against the Canadiens, a tidy four game sweep of the Flyers, a tense seven game standoff with the Tampa Bay Lighting, which now brings the Stanley Cup to Boston as the Bruins are on the brink of elimination.

After lighting up the Vancouver Canucks and Roberto Luongo for 12 goals in the two games in Boston, you would have expected more of the same in Game 5, but a funny thing happened on the way to Canadian soil. The B’s lost their scoring touch and Luongo managed to take lessons from Tim Thomas on how to play goal. Despite the Bruins putting 31 shots on the Canucks goalie, many were not of the quality variety. In three games to Vancouver, the visitors have scored a mere two goals. That definitely is not good enough to get you where everyone would like to be.

Roche: Home Ice Key For Bruins In Final Home Game

We’ve had the weekend of the Red Sox pummeling of a different Canadian sports franchise in the Toronto Blue Jays as a distraction and now we wait with anticipation. It may be Game 6, but really, it’s Game 7 and should the Bruins win, it’ll be Game 7-A back in British Columbia. The building will be rocking but every Bruins fan will have that nervous energy hoping that the home team will continue to deliver that knockout blow that has been this series.

Read: Bruins Focused On Forcing Game 7

I’ve reeled in that imagination of mine because what I was envisioning cannot happen now, at least now in Boston. I’ll go back to being a jaded but hopeful fan that will be doing my regular job all day, trying not to think of what lies ahead tonight. That’s not going to be very easy. I’ve witnessed this before and things didn’t turn out so rosy.  The hope here is that it turns out a lot better!

Go Bruins!!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/06/13/roche-home-ice-key-for-bruins-in-final-game-at-garden/

Backed by the stellar goaltending of Tim Thomas, the Boston Bruins have come back to Boston and held serve and beat, no, destroyed Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 4of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Series is now tied at two and headed back to Vancouver where a fan-packed Rogers Stadium erupted with cheers when Canuck’s Coach Alain Vigneault waved the white flag for Luongo, removing him from the game after Rich Peverley scored the final goal of the evening, his second.

The Canucks tried to take their cue from their coach by trying to get in the “blue paint” and disrupt the aggressiveness of Tim Thomas. They had no chance. Thomas was his feisty self and his teammates would have none of it.

The Canucks had two power plays in the first period which the Bruins killed off with more spectacular goaltending from Thomas while the Bruins had a good advantage in puck possession, but only seven shots. But one of those shots was on a breakaway by Peverley, marking the beginning of the end for Luongo and the fight-less hockey team from the Great Northwest.

It has been Bruins hockey since their return to Boston as they have fought and clawed and broken down the Canucks, outscoring them 12-1 in the games at the Garden.

Read/Watch: Fans Give Bruins Grand Send-Off At Garden

Synchronicity or coincidence, I’m not sure, but Monday, Cam Neely was the Honorary Captain, last night it was the Great Robert Gordon Orr. Monday the Bruins scored eight goals, last night they scored four. You tell me!

These games in Boston have been about the Bruins playing their game. Not letting Vancouver get their speed going and being extremely physical, finishing checks, Tim Thomas not letting a BB get behind him, going to the net and putting quality scoring opportunities on Luongo, who is in one those spells where he couldn’t stop a beach ball thrown his way. The Canucks problems were mostly defense, but a lot of them had to do with being outworked, and out-smarted, by the Bruins who had a lot more going for them than just goaltending.

Look at the first two games. The Bruins weren’t outworked, they just seemed tired halfway through the games. Since they were coming off a hard-fought, seven game Eastern Conference Final series.

Read: Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

Coach Claude Julien was asked what kind of carry over can be brought out West? Julien says stay the course: I think we got to bring our game with us. Simple as that. We have to bring our game. That has to continue in Vancouver. It doesn’t matter where you are, you got to play the same way whether you’re at home or on the road.

The last time a Bruins goaltender had a shut out was Stanley Cup Final since May 18, 1978, when Gerry Cheevers made 16 saves to blank Montreal 4-0 in Game 3 at Boston Garden.

Thomas has three shutouts this playoff year!

Now the Bruins need to show that they can continue this type of hockey away from the friendly confines of the TD Garden and their fans.

We are now promised a Game 6 and it will be an elimination game and the Stanley Cup WILL be in Boston. I will stop right there because I still haven’t been able to let myself go there. But just imagine!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Two days ago, Bruins fans and media were telling Tim Thomas how to play goal. Hours before puck drop Wednesday, it’s the Vancouver Canucks coach who is asking the NHL to tell the Vezina Trophy winning Boston goaltender how to stop pucks.

Canuck Coach Alain Vigneault is concerned with Thomas’ aggressive nature of tending goal and being outside the blue paint as well as complaining about the check Thomas put on Henrik Sedin.

Vigneault was asked about talking to the League big wigs about it.

“Part of Thomas’ way of playing is playing out of the blue paint, initiating contact, roaming out there,” he said. “He seems to think that once he’s out, set, makes the save, that he can go directly back in his net without having anybody behind him. Well, that’s wrong. He’s got the wrong rule on that. If we’re behind him, that’s our ice and we’re allowed to stay there. We’ve talked to the NHL about him initiating contact like did on Hank. They’re aware of it. Hopefully they’re going to handle it.”

Read: Canucks Upset With Thomas’ Style In Net

WOW! I thought the Bruins had dispatched the whiny/crying hockey team from the Quebec Province. Or does it just seem like the Canadian team from the far West is just like the Candian team from the East?

Whatever the case, it all comes down to stopping the puck and playing solid hockey in front of the goalie. Game 3, the Bruins goalie stopped most of the shots, the Vancouver goalie let in eight!

In the first two games in Vancouver, the Canucks were maybe a bit more physical than Boston while in Game 3, Boston took it to them a bit more.

Read: Canucks Say Garden Ice Too Soft And Slushy

Claude Julien talked about his team being more physical in Boston than they were in Vancouver.

Says Julien, “I think there’s been some pretty exciting hockey, when you look at the physicality of the game, the goals that have been scored, how both teams are just putting everything on the line. I think we need to focus more on that than the other stuff that’s been making headlines there. I don’t think we need that in our sport.”

Of course he was refering to the finger biting, the taunting of finger biting and the horrifying hit on Nathan Horton by Aaron Rome which has left both players out for the rest of the Finals.

The Canucks also had some things to say about the finger pointing.

Bieksa On Bruins Toughness, Finger Pointing

“The finger pointing and all that stuff is getting really old really quick,” said Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa. “When you’re the sixth guy to do it I don’t think it’s that funny anymore.”

Lost in all of the head games is the fact that Boston scored eight goals by seven different players, two power play goals and two shorthanded goals. The Bruins hit and got hit but they were buzzing around Roberto Luongo and made him look very vulnerable, much like he did in the first round of the playoffs against Chicago.

The Bruins need to come back in game four with that same persistence and drive and head back to the Great Northwest with the series tied at 2!

Go Bruins!

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.

Horton lay on the ice for several minutes motionless and dazed and eventually was taken off on a stretcher. Before the period was over, Bruins PR had alerted the media that Horton had been taken to Mass General Hospital and all extremities were in working order.

However, reports after the game had Horton thinking he was still in Vancouver. Rome was ejected from the game and was suspended for the rest of the Finals Tuesday afternoon. The Bruins announced Tuesday morning that Horton has a severe concussion and will not play for the remainder of the Stanley Cup Finals.

After that hit, the Bruins play looked a bit like they were in shock mode and who could blame them. Mark Recchi would later say no one likes to see a teammate leave the ice like that. After the game, the now infamous ratty 80’s style Bruins Jacket was hanging in Horton’s locker. Boston’s subsequent five-minute power play produced six shots, but yet again bore no fruit.

Read: Horton Out For Finals With Severe Concussion

But when they came out to begin the second period, it was a team with renewed purpose. Andrew Ference fired a shot from the blue line which made its way through a few bodies and behind goaltender Roberto Luongo and the rout was on. The Bruins would finally score on the power play when Recchi was centering a pass to Rich Peverley that never got to him, instead deflecting off the stick of Ryan Kessler and between the legs of Luongo. The highlight goal of the night came with Boston killing a Milan Lucic slashing penalty. Andrew Ference poked the puck away from a Canuck and Brad Marchand skated down the right side, played the puck off the boards past a defender to himself to swoop in on Luongo, faked him down and out then lifted the puck over the prone goalie and a 3-0 Bruin lead and the Garden crowd was rocking!

The Bruins would score four more in the third including another power play and shorthanded goal and surprisingly, Vancouver never changed goaltenders. Canuck’s coach Alain Vigneault said Luongo wanted to remain in the game for all eight. There was a lot of nastiness in this game as Boston, in particular, Recchi and Lucic who taunted the Canuck players with fingers for them to bite.

But what this game was about was the Bruins taking it to Vancouver. The Sedin twins were basically invisible as Daniel had two shots on goal and Henrik none, who was never a threat. Ryan Kessler, who hasn’t been the same since Lucic’s heavy check on him in Game 2 was totally ineffective and was a minus-three. His frustration led to picking a fight with Dennis Seidenberg in the third period when things were getting feisty.

Read/Watch: Bruins On Rome Suspension: “Doesn’t Bring Nathan Back”

Unlike Games 1& 2, Boston never let down and kept the pressure on the Canucks, keeping the speedy Vancouver players from getting it going. The Canucks did get some solid scoring opportunities but Tim Thomas was again spectacular, stopping 40 of 41 shots, which means he really does know how to play goal in the style in which he is accustomed to. Home ice and feeding off the energy from the crowd at the TD garden certainly seemed to make a difference.

The Bruins have now cut the Vancouver lead to 2-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Recchi said that it’s time to move on and capture Game 4 on Wednesday. Tim Thomas added that they are back in the series just a bit more than they were before Monday night’s game, but it’s just baby steps.

It was a giant step for trying to get this Final series back on an even keel and will take the same type of effort on Wednesday. Hey, the Bruins have been in the series and say for a couple of breaks the other way in the first two games, they could be ahead. But there is more work to be done and they need to go back to British Columbia with this series tied and all the pressure on the Canucks.

98.5 The Sports Hub is the only local station to listen to every game of the Stanley Cup Finals. Coverage begins an hour before each game with the Bruins Pregame show hosted by Dave Goucher & Bob Beers.