Freefalling Bruins spanked by Flyers 5-2

The Boston Bruins throttled the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden in downtown Boston.  Yawn.

Not that it was boring, quite the contrary in fact.  But the Bruins are supposed to do that, beat teams like the Panthers - and like tonight's opponent, the Broad Street Bullies.  But for the second half of this abbreviated season, that hasn't always been the way things have worked out.

Every team has "Those" games - the ones where it just isn't there, can't get in sync, the flow of the game never coming, and Boston has had a few, but the majority of their moments have been due to a protracted case of sleepwalking resulting in sloppy passing and loss of focus...

...and tonight was one of those nights.  The Bruins skated into Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center with a razor thin lead in the Northeast Division over the hated Montreal Canadiens, but after the Flyers opened up a 5-2 can of buttwhoopin' on them, Boston limped out the way they came in, with yet another loss and a rash of fresh teeth marks.

Look, the Boston Bruins are one of the most talented teams in the National Hockey League. There is no subjectivity, no ambiguity. They know it, their fans know it and their opponents know it - and the only thing that could possibly bring the big, bad Bruins down is if they did it to themselves.

And they do it to themselves a lot - enough in fact that it's mind-boggling that their 3-0 win over the Panthers on Sunday gave them sole possession of first place in the Northeast Division and, subsequently, the second seed in the Eastern Conference over the team that started this whole sleepwalking through games thing for the Bruins in the first place...

...Boston Bruins fans can look back at their team's 4-3 loss to the Canadiens way back at the beginning of March and know that the words that spouted out of Claude Julien's mouth about the Canadiens cheating were the impetus to to their pedestrian second half.

On the night of March 3rd, the Bruins were locked in a superb battle the Canadiens, stomping on them like a rival should, when the wheels fell off five and a half minutes into the final frame and Montreal rallied from down 3-2 to take the contest, helped in large part by 17 minutes worth of Sin Bin for Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara...

...who had some choice words - and fists - for the Habs on the ice, but left it there.  Julien had no outlet.  It's not as if he could go pull a Happy Gilmore and beat the snot out of their coaching staff to soothe the savage loss, so he accused the Canadiens of "Embellishment" - a playground tactic of tattling on the bully that just took your milk money. 

A move that was met by laughter and jeers from the fans all the way up to the commissioner's office, and one that caused the Bruins to lose focus on the prize and put it squarely on their next meeting with Montreal...which they lost in a similar fashion, and so on and so on.

So with both Boston and Montreal in tailspins, both lost on Tuesday evening - The Habs getting taken to the mat by the Devils and the Bruins spanked by the Flyers for their sixth loss in the last seven games, and the Bruins inconceivable and tenuous grip on the division lead remains, but by the thinnest of margins.

Scott Hartnell scored on Anton Khudobin just 1:40 into the game, but Boston came back 3 minutes later to tie the game on Wade Redden's third goal of the season - and it remained that way until 11:24 of the 2nd frame, when Matt Read netted the tie breaker, then Oliver Lauridsen scored the game winner just seven seconds later.

Needless to say, Khudobin didn't have his best game in net, stopping just 14 of 17 shots he faced before being lifted for Rask after allowing the two goals in seven seconds.  Flyers' netminder Steve Mason was solid in the crease, stopping 39 of 41 Bruins opportunities.

The race for the Northeast Division title and the second overall seed is going to come down to the last week of the season, and one thing is for sure: either the Canadiens or Bruins is going to win it, whether they want to or not.

NHL Officials postpone Bruins game in response to bombing

The National Hockey League has postponed tonight's game between the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators, scheduled for tonight at TD Garden in downtown Boston.

The postponement is in response to today fatal bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Two people are confirmed dead and many dozens of other were wounded, some critically as two separate bombs were detonated seconds apart at and near the finish line of the annual race.

The NHL released the following announcement:

The game between the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins scheduled for tonight at TD Garden has been postponed, the National Hockey League announced today.

The game will be rescheduled. The date and time will be announced at a later date.

The National Hockey League wishes to express its sympathy to all affected by the tragic events that took place in Boston earlier this afternoon.

No make up date has been announced.

How many times can the Boston Bruins defense leave their goaltenders out on an island before it come back to bit them in their hind parts?

With Tuukka Rask in net on Saturday night, the answer was four times - but it very well could have been twice as many, but the Finnish born net minder stopped

Boston Sportsnight: Celtics' slide, Sox' closer, Bruins' passion all in question

Tough night for Boston sports fans.  Really tough.

The Celtics lost again as they slump towards the playoff and an eventual 1st round exit, the Sox are in full-cringe when closer Joel Hanrahan takes the mound and the Patriots' Alfonzo Dennard was perhaps spending his last night as a free man - but the most worrisome development on the Boston Sports' scene is what happened with 4:50 left in the second period of the Bruins 5-4 win over the host New Jersey Devils...

...Brad Marchand is not innocent on the ice by any means - after all, he wasn't referred to as the "Little ball of hate" by President Barrack Obama for nothing.

He is as intense a player as you will see, but his game is far more than raw emotion - as witnessed by his status as goal and points leader for a Boston Bruins team that now lead the Northeast Diviison of the NHL's Eastern Conference, so he is more than an agitator, for which he takes his share of both hits and criticism. 

But when New Jersey Devils' defenseman Anton Volchenkov leveled Marchand with an elbow to the head Wednesday night, the most alarming thing about it wasn't the hit itself, and it wasn't the fact that Volchenkov appeared to directly target Marchand's head that was disturbing - it was Marchand's teammate's response to the hit - or lack thereof - that is drawing question.

Hey, it's hockey.  Some guys are goons and set out to hurt people.  Most are good, tough players who give their all to help their teams win, and almost all will come to the aid of a fallen teammate - but the only one who came to Marchand's aid was newly acquired linemate Jaromir Jagr, who appeared more shocked by the Bruins' lack of response than he was by the hit itself.

Hell, even Volchenkov tried to keep Marchand from hitting the ice face first after hitting him and then even after Jagr shoved him into the boards from behind.

What does this tell Jagr about his new team?  What does it tell Bruins' fans about the chemistry of their unit?  Most of all, what does it tell Marchand about his teammates?  That they're not going to have his back?

The Bruins may have held on to win last night's game, but in the process may have lost some respect.

And in hockey, respect is everything.  So be prepared, Bruins, you just opened yourselves up for a little roughhousing from every goon and enforcer out there - they are going to test your will and determination and go after your scorers, and will continue to do so until you prove that you are passionate enough about your employ to come to the defense of one of your own.

And that's a bad way to skate into the playoffs, no matter your seed...

Update: In response to the elbow to the head on Brad Marchand, the NHL has suspended New Jersey Devils' Anton Volchenkov for four games, suspension to commence immediately.

Marchand gets new linemates, scores twice as Bruins throttle 'Canes 6-2

If there was a woodshed handy in the TD Garden on Monday night, the Bruins would have dragged the Carolina Hurricanes behind it for a more private beating...

...but there wasn't, so the Bruins settled for stomping them in front of 17, 565 that was more like a public flogging.

Whether the result of coach Claude Julien shuffling the lines or just coming out with more of a socrer's mentality,  Boston set a season high water mark with six goals and Tukkaa Rask stopped 40 of 43 shots as the Bruins punished the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2.

"The one thing we wanted was more offense and I think we got that tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Now the matter combining both, I didn't think we were at our best in defensive play."

The 42 shots allowed by the Boston defense continues a trend of exposing their goal tenders to a barrage, 40 or more shots in three of the last four games, but it is a work in progress as the Bruins attempt to effectively clear the defensive zone.  Opponents have taken to be aggressive against the Bruins in their zone, essentially promoting full ice pressure to disrupt the timing of the offense...

...the side effect of which is that their opponents are able to intercept clearing passes and get wide open snipes at Rask and his backup Anton Khudobin.

But at least for one night, the Bruins' passing was crisp, the defensemen hitting the forwards on their tape as they skirt the boards then work back towards the puck instead of waiting for it to come to them, and the result was a relentless pelting of two Carolina goalies.

Brad Marchand scored two goals in the first period as the new second line of Jaromir Jagr, Gregory Campbell and Marchand were the main instigators, the line providing constant pressure on net all evening.  Rich Peverley, Andrew Ference, Jordan Caron and Nathan Horton all scored goals - Caron his first of the year and Marchand his team-leading 15th and 16th of the season.

As has been the trend, the Bruins sleepwalked at the outset, exposing Rask to point blank shots which the net minder was able to deflect away, but the slow starts continue to haunt the Black and Gold - but once they woke up and got moving, Boston scored three goals on nine 1st period shots, chasing Hurricane starting goalie Justin Peters.

Peters' backup didn't fare much better, as Dan Ellis allowed four more goals throughout the match.

The encouraging thing for the Bruins is that despite their struggles, they are just one point out of the Northeast Division lead behind the Montreal Canadiens and somehow only four points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference's top seed...

...and their schedule favors a successful stretch run.  Boston plays 6 of their last 10 games at TD Center, including a mid-April, week-long four game home stand that could serve as the impetus to superiority in the conference - but first, a trip to New Jersey to face the Devils on Wednesday leading to a quick turnaround with the Islanders at the Garden on Thursday and a Saturday rematch with these Hurricanes in North Carolina.

This is it, the stretch run of an abbreviated season, and if the Bruins can use the final three weeks to build upon last night's puck movement out of their defensive zone to set up their attacking offense on the other end, they have as good a chance as anyone to claim the Cup...but first, the Devils on Wednesday night...

Sluggish Bruins fall in Montreal 2-1

The monkey on the Bruins' backs has turned into a gorilla.

For the third time in four tries, the Montreal Canadiens have beaten the Boston Bruins by one goal, and in doing so have taken the season series from the Bruins and now surge ahead in the Northeast Division standings.

But just as importantly, The Canadiens have not allowed the Bruins to exact revenge for the now infamous Embellishment game - a 4-3 loss to the Canadiens back on March 3rd in which Montreal came back from a 3-2 deficit in the 3rd period, thanks to what Bruin's head coach Claude Julien implied was the Habs' practice of embellishment, or trying to sell penalties to the referees by flopping to the ice on contact - a game which determined a course for each team this season. 

For Montreal, they took Julien's accusations of the Canadiens "Flopping" to gain a competitive advantage as a compliment to their skill and their ability to frustrate the Bruins and, apparently, their coach...

...while the Bruins have resorted to calendar watching, focusing on each approaching game with the Habs while seemingly overlooking their other opponents and sleepwalking through the rest of their schedule, particularly early in games.

The Canadiens are in the Bruins' heads, and Boston missed their last opportunity to fore check them out from in front of their consciousness...and it had nothing to do with flopping this time, but had everything to do with Boston's seeming inability to clear the defensive zone cleanly.

Both of Montreal's goals came courtesy of sluggish efforts to clear the defensive zone, which repeatedly left goal tender Tukkaa Rask exposed to point blank opportunities for the Habs, but the only two that got through were Alex Galchenyuk's tip in off Boston defenseman Steve Bartkowski and Michael Ryder's power play blast deflected off Dennis Seidenberg as the Canadiens again beat Boston by a score of 2-1.

Daniel Paille scored Boston's lone goal, a nifty tip in of a Johnny Boychuck rocket, but what opportunities the offense did create for itself resulted in poor fortune, missing open nets or, in the case of Boston's sole power play, failed to register a shot on goal.

Tuukka Rask made 27 saves for the Bruins, who fell to 24-9-4, and Carey Price made 26 for Montreal, their record standing at a 25-8-5 mark, good enough for the lead in the Northeast Division by three points over Boston.

"Every time we play this team it's the most important game," Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges said. "We played a full 60 minutes, and that's what was impressive. They had some good push. That's a good hockey team over there, but we held our ground and played hard."

The Canadiens' grip on the division is tenuous, however, as Boston has the clear advantage in their remaining schedule.

While Montreal has 6 of their remaining 10 games on the road, including a 3 game roadie to end the season at New Jersey, Winnipeg and Toronto, the Bruins have 7 of their final 11 games at TD Center in Boston, the highlight of which is a four game homestand against the Senators, Sabres, Penguins and Panthers, a stretch which will ultimately determine the Bruins' playoff destiny.

But none of that is going to matter if the Bruins can't figure out a way to offset their difficulties in their defensive zone.

Boston Bruins Gamenight: Rask, Jagr cast out Devils 1-0

Jaromir Jagr wasted no time stepping in to lend a hand to the Boston Bruins.

Or should we say, lend a skate?

Clearly the Bruins needed the help, particularly offensively as Boston's anemic attack has scored just 20 goals in the past nine games - five of those in their shootout loss to Montreal last week - and has one of the worst power plays in the league...

...but the 12 time All Star and former Hart Trophy winner thinks the Bruins' scoring woes are being blown out of proportion:

"I don't think this team really needs it." Jagr said at this morning's game-day skate, meaning his offense "They won the Cup two years ago and when you look at the top guys, they're still here. So they know they can do it. And for me, personally, I wish I can somehow help the team to produce better."

"The game has changed, so I changed."

Right. 

So 1:20 into the second period of his first game as a Bruin, Jagr lit the lamp, a tip in off linemate Brad Marchand's feed right on his skate - yes, let the record show that Jagr's first goal for the Boston Bruins was a clanker off his left skate...

...and Goalie Tukkaa Rask made it hold up, stopping 40 shots in a sensational effort in net as the Bruins took a rousing 1-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night at TD Center in downtown Boston.

And that's it.

And other than the assorted memorabilia and mullet wigs worn by Jagr fans in the crowd, and that he scored the only goal of the game, you'd hardly even know he was in town.

But once the euphoria of a third straight win and Jagr's clanker wears off, the Bruins still have the same problems that they came into Thursday night's contest with: Scoring and clearing the puck out of the defensive zone.

Coach Claude Julien was looking for a more consistent defensive effort from his charges than he got in Boston's horrid display on Tuesday night in a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in which the defense allowed an astounding 47 shots on goal...

...and he got it, but not by much and not even close to being up to his standards.

The offensive issues are stemming more from their inability to clear the defensive zone, the halting nature of which doesn't allow the offense to move with any momentum and leads to choppy play in the attacking zone.  Once the defense figures out it's issues, the offense will come - especially now with Jagr adding a serious threat to net one every time he shoots.

With team captain Patrice Bergeron sidelined with a "mild" concussion, Jagr teamed on the second line with Marchand on the right wing and Tyler Seguin filling in at center - the smooth skating of Seguin and the intensity of Marchand a nice compliment to Jagr's improvisational skills.

The win raises Boston's record to 24-8-4 and their 52 points are one shy of Northeast Division leading Montreal Canadiens, whom the Bruins get on Saturday night with a chance to get a big monkey off their backs and take over the second seed in the Eastern Conference at the same time by beating the Habs in Montreal.

Boston has blown late leads in their past two contests with Montreal, losing both in gut-wrenching fashion, but a win in Montreal would go a long ways to exorcising those demons.

The Bruins point total also trails the Pittsburgh Penguins by 4 points for the top spot in the conference, and the Bruins have a huge scheduling advantage in that they play only 5 of their final 13 games on the road, a stretch that includes a four game mid-April homestand, including a visit from those same Penguins on the 19th.

So the Jagr era in Boston begins with an "excuse me" goal off of his skate.  Perhaps Boston just scored the help they needed to put them over the top in the Eastern Conference - no matter what Jaromir Jagr says...

Hamilton, Chara get physical, lay out Senators in 3-2 win

There reaches a point in every game when one play turns the momentum to one side.

It happens for every game, and it happens for every season and usually it's nothing more than a good fundamental play that turns the tide, most times barely making a ripple in the sea of humanity gathered around the ice sheet...

...but on Tuesday night at TD Garden in downtown Boston, Bruins' defenseman Dougie Hamilton had a moment just like that, and when it happened, the fans erupted in unison - even if the young defenseman paid the price.

With the score tied at 2-2, and both teams involved in a track meet, Hamilton delivered a huge hit on Ottawa winger Erik Condra just inside the Senator's attacking zone, laying Condra out and leaving Hamilton sprawled face down on the ice.

The collision allowed the Bruins to break the other direction, seconds later Milan Lucic launching a wrister from the high point, hitting Senator's goalie Robin Lehner in the pads hard enough that he couldn't control the rebound which went right to Nathan Horton who slammed the puck in for the game winner.

David Krejci and Tyler Seguin also scored for the Bruins during a five minute scoring spree to open the contest.  Colin Greening opened the scoring with a backhander just 2:48 into the game to give Ottawa the lead, Krejci tying it just 40 seconds later and Sequin giving the Bruins the lead a mere minute after that.

After a scoreless second frame, Senators' left winger Andre Benoit knotted the score at 2-2 winding up and firing from the top of the left circle that Khudobin at first appeared to stop, but replays showed the puck floated just across the red line and Benoit was awarded the goal.  Horton then put the Bruins up for good with his wrister off the Lucic rebound.

The 3-2 win improved the Bruins' record to 23-8-4, and the accompanying 50 points just one shy of rivals Montreal Canadiens for the lead in the Northeast Division, but six behind the conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins.

Condra got up slowly from the Hamilton hit, but the young defenseman remained prone for a few seconds before arising, seemingly stunned from the violent collision, and went immediately to the locker room, emerging no worse for wear a few moments later.

The same can not be said for top line center Patrice Bergeron, who skated into an inadvertent Colin Greening elbow at the midway point of the 2nd period and hit the ice, remaining on his hands and knees for several seconds before skating off and into the locker room.

Unlike Hamilton, Bergeron - who has a history of severe concussions - did not return, and no information on the severity of his injury was offered, thought the mood in the Bruins locker room after the game was rather subdued for such an exciting game.

"He's a player that plays a big role on our team," Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said. "He's obviously one of our best players every night, so he was missed since he left the game."

Chara had a huge defensive hit himself, perhaps a game saver.

With 34 seconds left in the contest and the Bruins nursing the one goal lead, Defenseman Johnny Boychuck was called for interference, giving the Senators the man advantage that they quickly tunred into a 6 on 4 by pulling their goalie. 

Bruins net minder Anton Khudobin being pelted by the Ottawa onslaught and after a big save on a windup and snipe by Sergie Gonchar, the puck bounded of to the right corner where Senator's winger Chris Neil got there just before Chara, who laid Neil out with a vicious fore check into the boards, Chara taking possession of the puck and firing it back into the Senator's zone as the game clock expired.

This is how the Bruins win.  They play their best when they feed off of big hits and solid defense, though coach Claude Julien would argue the solid defense part.

"It was good to see our team offensively create some chances because that's an area where we struggled," Julien said, but "I thought that we were very soft defensively."

Perhaps he should ask Condra and Neil how soft the Bruins defense was.

In truth, both goal tenders would probably agree with Julien, as both faced career high shots on goal, Khudobin stopping 45 of 47 while Lehner managed to stone 47 of 50 Bruins' opportunities...but in the end it was the fierce hitting by the Bruins' defensemen that ultimately won the game.

Boston Bruins acquire Jaromir Jagr for stretch run

"I ask them to send me Marines, instead they send me relics."

In the film Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood portrays an aging Marine, transferred at his request to a recon battalion for a final duty station before calling it a career - and his new commanding officer, Major Powers, doesn't care for it...

...but in the end, it turns out well enough for Gunny Highway and his troops - as he taught them to stand and fight, that conditioning is key and to win you must "Improvise, adapt and overcome".

Given all of the hardships and injuries the Boston Bruins have suffered through in this abbreviated season that started with such promise, can bringing in an aging veteran help them regain their winning attitude and intensity? 

Guess it can't hurt.

That's why when Bruins center David Kracji heard news that the Dallas Stars had consummated a deal to send Jaromir Jagr to Boston, he sounded very excited.

"He was the best for a long time, and he's still one of the best right now," said Krejci, who was respectfully overindulging the 41 year old who was once considered the best hockey player in the world. "It's good to see him still do well at his age. I had posters of him when I was a kid. He was obviously my hockey idol."

The Stars reportedly asked for a conditional second round pick and two prospects Lane MacDermid and Cody Payne, and in exchange, the Bruins get a wealth of experience and old school toughness in a winger who can still bring the tape.

And in Boston, Jagr won't have to be "The Guy" - he will be surrounded by a cast of talented scorers who have had troubles scoring on the power play this season nevertheless, and the move for Jagr is probably directly tied to addressing that deficiency.

Not a bad way to Improvise.  Now the players need to adapt to each others' games in order to overcome the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eatern Conference seeding.