First Round Breakdown

(1) Boston Bruins vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens

It’s hard to say that the hockey gods didn’t have their hands on setting up this first round match up with these bitter foes. For the second straight year Montreal will square off against Boston, only this time the Bruins are the top seeded favorites. These Original Six rivals meet for a fourth time in the last seven postseasons. History has shown that the Habs have dominated this rivalry by winning 24 of 31 playoff series. In recent years the Canadiens have won the past three encounters (2002, 2004, 2008). Not to mention a top-seeded Bruins team was stunned by the eighth-seeded Canadiens in 2002 and as the No. 2 seed in 2004.
 

Regular Season Numbers

The regular season match up between the two Northeast division rivals have been one sided in 2008-09. Boston won five out of six and has out scored Montreal 22 to 12. Although Montreal has out shot the Bruins 193 to 177, the B’s kept the scoring chances to a minimal. Through the course of the regular season Boston and Montreal were closely matched up in special teams. The Bruins were better on the power play, but the Habs edge Boston on the penalty kill.

Here is a little take on the deals that went down on trading deadline for the Boston Bruins. The B’s made two trades during the March 4th NHL trade deadline. They first sent F Petteri Nokelainen to Anaheim for D Steve Montador. Then followed that up by trading prospects Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums to Tampa Bay for F Mark Recchi and a 2nd round draft pick. These two deals were to add depth to the Bruins roster. GM Peter Chiarelli wanted to hit upon two areas approaching the dealine; add a left handed shot on the powerplay and bolster the defense. He accomplished both of those with out breaking up the roster or throwing away the furture for one shot at the Cup. Although it is believed that a bigger deal was left on the table, the Bruins came on winners at the trade dealine.

The Bruins Get

Steve Montador
Position- D
Height- 6-0
Weight- 210 lbs.
Shoots- Right
Experience- 6 years
Age- 29

Mark Recchi
Position- Wing
Height- 5-10
Weight- 195 lbs.
Shoots- Left
Experience- 19 years
Age- 41

2nd Round Draft Pick From Tampa Bay

With a 6-4 win over Ottawa last Thursday, the Bruins finished the first half of the 2008-09 NHL season. And what a fist half it has been. Through the first 41 games the B’s sit atop the Eastern Conference, all while bring back remembrance of the big bad Black and Gold of days past. While the Bruins were filling the net with a league leading 154 goals, the fans were filling the seats and getting their money’s worth. Big hits, big goals, and fights galore reminded fans of the Bruins of the past. Whether it’s Milan Lucic doing his best Cam Neely impersonation, or Phil Kessel lighting the lamp in the same fashion Phil Esposito once did, your Boston Bruins are back in the main stay of Boston sports.

At this point last year, not much was said about the Bruins. They were just another professional team in Boston and very ordinary in the NHL. All the story lines were on the Patriots going for a perfect season while in the playoffs, the Celtics Big Three tarring apart the NBA, and Hot Stove reports surrounding the Red Sox.  It wasn’t for another couple of months later when the Bruins gave the city a glimpse of what hockey was going to be like from there on out. The B’s got Causeway St. excited about hockey again with an amazing game 6 win over the Habs in last years Stanley Cap playoffs. Losing game seven was only part of the foundation set by the Bruins, as a number of their young nucleus got to experience the NHL playoffs for the first time.

Boston’s Claude Julien will be your All-Star coach for the Eastern Conference All-Stars. The coaches for the game are determined by the best winning percentage at the midway point of the season. That means Julien gets the nod behind the bench as he has lead the B’s to 66 points at the half way mark. Todd McLellan of the San Jose Sharks will represent the Western Conference All-Stars behind the bench with a league leading 67 points at the mid point.

Julien’s assistant for the game will be none other than Montreal Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau. Carbonneau beat out Washington Capitals’ coach Bruce Boudreau. Carbonneau and the Habs needed to beat Boudreau’s Capitals on Saturday night in order to get him in as coach. Montreal rallied for a 5-4 victory, thus placing their coach in the game.

With Julien coaching and Marc Savard, Tim Thomas, and Zdeno Chara participating, the B’s will be well represented in the game. The Bruins will also be represented well in the Young Stars Game. Milan Lucic will return to the game but as a member of the sophomore team this time. He will be playing against teammate and member of the rookie team, Blake Wheeler. Wheeler has tallied 13 goals and 14 assist in his first 42 games as a pro.

Skating with Wheeler will be Patrik Berglund (Blues), Mikkel Boedker (Coyotes), Drew Doughty (Kings), Michael Frolik (Panthers), James Neal (Stars), Luke Schenn (Maple Leafs), Steven Stamkos (Lightning), Kris Versteeg (Black Hawks), and goaltender Steve Mason (Blue Jackets).

The NHL announced its All- Star team reserves today and the Boston Bruins will be sending the same three players it did last year. Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, and Tim Thomas will all be going for the second year in a row. The January 25th contest showcases a loaded Eastern Conference All-Star team, with four out of the five top scorers in the game playing for the East, Alexander Ovechkin, Jeff Carter, Thomas Vanek, and Zach Parise. Only Boston’s Phil Kessel, who is fourth in the NHL in goals, not picked for the squad. The Western Team fields a defensive corps that coaches dream about.

Along with Kessel, David Krejci could also be classified as an All-Star snub. Krejci and Kessel are 17th and 18th in points (10th and 11th in the Eastern Conference). However, the East is loaded with talent up front and the only player you can argue should be replaced by one of the young Bruins would be Canadiens forward Alex Kovalev (75th in points), who was voted in by the fans. Hard to contest against the fans when the game will be played in Montreal. In fact, Montreal has four out of the six starters, all pick by fan voting. Kovalev will join defensemen Mike Komisarek, Andre Markov and goaltender Carey Price as Eastern All-Star starters. The four Habs players will join Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and golden boy Sidney Crosby in the starting line up. Crosby broke Jaromir Jagr’s record for All-Star fan votes with 1,713,021votes.

Bruins Weekly Recap
 

The Bruins earned 4 out of a possible 8 points. Boston is currently in 8th place in the Eastern Confernece and 3rd in the Northeast Division. Here are the results from this weeks games.

Three Up

Milan Lucic-

Milan Lucic not only found the net, he’s seeing the ice better, too. Lucic, playing his second straight game wearing contacts, earned his first career hat trick  in the win over the Thrashers on Saturday night. “It’s like going from ordinary TV to high-definition TV,” Lucic joked. “It’s good to be out there when your vision’s clear.” Lucic has also taken full advantage of PJ Axelsson’s early injury and has planted himself on the top line with Marc Savard and power play time on the second unit. This week Lucic has post 3 goals, two assist, and a classic hit. Lucic put Toronto’s Mike Van Ryn through the glass 20 seconds into the second period, sending shards of glass flying into the crowd and raining down on the Leafs defenseman’s neck
 

Power play 2-

Alex Tanguay scored the shootout winner to give Montreal a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in the Canadiens’ first home game in their 100th year. This mark the 12^th straight regular season win over Boston for Montreal, outscoring Boston 51-22 during the 12-game winning streak.

“Obviously, the first period, that’s not the start that we wanted,” Patrice Bergeron said. “We never stopped battling and we came back in the game, and I think that’s a big point, but we could have avoided going to overtime by playing well in the first period.”

David Krejci drove a slap shot from the slot off the crossbar and into the net 7:15 into the second period for an unassisted goal that cut the lead to 3-1.

Marc Savard, whose power-play goal 7:12 into the third made it 3-2, scored into a wide open net after Canadiens’ goalie Carey Price was caught behind the goal when Michael Ryder’s dump-in took a strange bounce off the right boards and over the back of the net. Savard scored his second third-period goal with 47.6 seconds left in regulation to tie it at 3.