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

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).

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.

The Bruins started the season with a 5-4 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on a David Krejci game winner. Tim Thomas got the start in goal and turned away 35 of Colorado’s 39 shots. This marked the first game for rookie Blake Wheeler and he would not disappoint. He netted he first career goal. Also playing in his first game as a Bruin was Michael Ryder who played on the top line with Marc Savard and PJ Axelsson. Ryder reached a milestone by scoring his 100th career goal. A good sign for Boston was seeing Patrice Bergeron having no ill effects from the concussion he suffer about a year ago. Bergeron finish the night with two assist.
 

Phil Kessel opened the Bruin’s season and the game’s scoring with a wrister that beat Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj low glove. Bergeron and Andrew Ference got credited with the assist.
 

Colorado capitalized on a Zdeno Chara penalty when Milan Hejduk banged home a nice feed from Paul Stastny to beat Thomas on the power play.
 

Less than a minute later Boston’s rookie Wheeler scored his first NHL goal at 10:51. Wheeler finished off a nice rush with Krejci and Chuck Kobasew, who both collected assist on the goal, and beat Budaj to put the B’s ahead 2-1.  This line of Kobosew, Krejci, and Wheeler played really well and generated scoring chances. This will most likely remain as Boston’s third line for the near future.

The Boston Bruins start the season in Colorado tonight. Not making the finla roster was Vladimir Sobotka. He was sent down earlier today to Providence. He will start the year down but don’t expect him to stay long. Sobotka had an impressive pre-season and will most likely be the first call up to the Bruins. Making the team is rookie Blake Wheeler, who turned a lot of heads in camp and continued to impress throughout the pre-season.

Here is the final roster

Northeast Division

Last Season Standings

x- made playoffs

The Breakdown

At the start of last season this division looked like the weak link of the NHL, with only the Sabres and Senators expected to be competitive. At the end of the year this division was much better than thought as the Bruins and Canadiens re-emerged as playoff teams. The Senators looked like the best team in NHL history out of the gates only to look like the worst after the all-star break. The Canadiens re-established themselves back in the hearts of Canada and as a dominating franchise. They finished the regular season as the best team in the Eastern Conference. Bruins came out of nowhere to earn the Northeast Division another playoff team. Despite a ration of injury to key players, the B’s snuck into the post season as the 8th and final seed.