BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins pride themselves on being a near-perfect balance of skill and physicality. In their past two games, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara have found ways to flaunt those two attributes.
Lucic scored twice to help Boston defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 at TD Garden on Saturday night. He scored a first-period power-play goal, then fought Blue Jackets defenseman Dalton Prout in the second period.
Lucic capped his big night with a goal at 2:15 of the third period to put the Bruins (18-7-2) ahead 3-0.
Chara recorded a Gordie Howe Hat Trick on Friday in a win against the New York Rangers. At first glance, Lucic appeared to get the assist he needed for his own Gordie Howe Hat Trick when Jarome Iginla took a swing at Lucic's shot early in the third period, but Iginla didn't touch the puck and Lucic was credited with his second goal of the night.
"It would've been nice to get the Gordie, especially after [Chara] got it yesterday," said Lucic, who leads the Bruins with 11 goals. "But you're not going to complain with a goal over an assist. Like I said, it was just one of those nights where kind of both goals I had the puck luck on my side and they ended up being big goals."
The Bruins are 6-1-1 in their past eight games. One game after limiting the Rangers to 19 shots on goal, the Bruins surrendered 14 to Columbus.
"Every time we limit shots, it's about having good gaps, interrupting their flow, pressuring them early so they can't really enter the zone with possession," Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. "And for the most part, we've done that the last few games. And it's all about being more consistent and getting better."
Ryan Johansen scored a power-play goal for Columbus (10-14-3) at 6:16 of the third period to spoil Chad Johnson's shutout bid and cut the lead to 3-1.
Johnson stopped 13 of 14 shots. Columbus goalie Curtis McElhinney finished with 33 saves on 36 shots.
"No, not enough [shots] and not enough quality ones either," Columbus forward RJ Umberger said. "We've got to find a way to generate more. Probably the two things we talked about the most (was) more shots, get 10 a period, and stay disciplined, no penalties, and it didn't seem like we executed either one."
The Blue Jackets were shorthanded six times and allowed one Boston power-play goal.
Patrice Bergeron carried over his hot hand from the Bruins' win Friday against the Rangers, when he snapped an eight-game goalless drought, by scoring the first goal against the Blue Jackets. The center's wrist shot from the right wall eluded McElhinney, who was screened by Loui Eriksson, and settled inside the far post at 9:02.
Twenty-two seconds into the Bruins' first power play, they doubled their lead. Lucic tipped a Torey Krug slap shot past McElhinney at 14:58 of the first period.
After they limited the Rangers to 11 shots during the second and third periods Friday, the Bruins' stinginess continued against Columbus on Saturday, when they carried a 9-2 shots advantage after the first period.
The Bruins outshot the Blue Jackets 16-7 in the second period. But neither team found the back of the net and Boston still led 2-0 heading to the third period.
"We were two steps behind. They were bigger, they were stronger, they were faster," Columbus coach Todd Richards said. "I think every aspect of the game, if you look at it, they were better than us. We couldn't get the puck stopped in our own zone, and it was too easy in the offensive zone -- the ability to just wash us out of the play and get the puck, and then get it back into our zone."
It was a strange week for the Bruins, as they emerged 3-1-0 despite losing 6-1 on the road against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. In addition to their wins against the Blue Jackets and Rangers, the Atlantic Division-leading Bruins also beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
"We talked about after the Detroit game, about turning this into a positive week," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "When you take a bad loss, you turn it into a positive thing. And a positive thing is we won three out of four games this week, and that's good. I like the way we've played our last two games, and we've got a bit of a break here, so it's a good time to have that kind of a performance from your team in the last two days. And I liked the way we played tonight again."
The Bruins are off until they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. Columbus will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
The Bruins have won their past six meetings with the Blue Jackets, including all three games this season. Boston and Columbus are done with their season series.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS COURTESY NESN/NHL
LUCIC DESTROYS PROUT
HILARITY WITH
THE HOCKEY SHOW
MIKE MILBURY TELLS IT LIKE IT IS ABOUT PREDATOR JOHN SCOTT
OLD FRIEND PHIL KESSEL FEARS FOR HIS LIFE AS JOHN SCOTT BLATANTLY BREAKS THE CODE
Bs say "Thank you
to the Greatest Fans on Earth
CAMPBELL STRONG
RIP STOMPIN’ TOM
Canadian country-folk legend Stompin' Tom Connors, who was responsible for "The Hockey Song," also known as "The Good Old Hockey Game," died yesterday. He was 77.
Connors passed away from what a spokesman described as natural causes.
Dubbed Stompin' Tom for his propensity to pound the floor with his left foot during performances, Connors garnered a devoted following through straight-ahead country-folk tunes that drew inspiration from his extensive travels and focused on the everyman.
He was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, on Feb. 9, 1936 to an unwed teenage mother. According to his autobiography, "Before the Fame," he often lived hand-to-mouth as a youngster, hitchhiking with his mother from the age of 3, begging on the street by the age of 4. At 8, he was placed in the care of Children's Aid and adopted a year later by a family in Skinner's Pond, Prince Edward Island. He ran away four years later to hitchhike across the country.
Connors bought his first guitar at age 14 and picked up odd jobs as he wandered from town to town, at times working on fishing boats, as a grave digger, tobacco picker and fry cook.
Legend has it that Connors began his musical career when he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins, Ontario, in 1964 at age 28.
Connors' accomplishments included an appointment to the Order of Canada in 1996, and his own postage stamp.
Connors is survived by his wife Lena, two sons, two daughters and several grandchildren.
ONLY IN GOLF
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.,
Rory McIlroy walked off the course in the second round of the Honda Classic citing a SORE TOOTH. In an out-of-the-ordinary day on the PGA Tour, first-round leader Camilo Villegas failed to qualify for the weekend action and the normally difficult PGA National course continued to yield low scores. The center of attention, however, turned out to be McIlroy, the event's defending champion and the top-ranked player in the world. He had already endured a struggling start to the season, having missed the cut in his first tournament of the year before losing in the opening round of the World Match Play Championship last week.
Things, however, got worse on Friday. After shooting an even-par 70 in the opening round, McIlroy played his first eight holes in 7-over on Friday. After hitting his second shot into the water at the par-5 18th, his ninth hole of the day, he shook hands with playing partners Ernie Els and Mark Wilson and walked off the course. McIlroy told a group of reporters who caught up with him in the parking lot that he was "in a bad place right now." An hour later a statement was released from McIlroy through the PGA Tour saying his withdrawal was brought on by a painful wisdom tooth that is "due to come out in the near future." "It was very painful again this morning, and I was simply unable to concentrate," the statement said. "It was really bothering me and had begun to affect my playing partners. "I came here with every intention of defending my Honda Classic title. Even though my results haven't revealed it, I really felt like I was rounding a corner." While that was going on, Guthrie was in the process of firing a tournament-low, 7-under 63 that put him at 9-under 131 for 36 holes and one shot in front of Michael Thompson.
McIlroy is scheduled to play next week at the World Golf Championship event that will be played at the Doral Country Club in Miami.
We ask you this…WOULD DEREK SANDERSON HAVE QUIT A GAME EVEN AFTER SPITTING OUT HIS OWN CHICLETS? NO! WOULD STAN JONATHAN HAVE QUIT IN THE MIDDLE OF A GAME WITH A SORE TOOTH? NO! WOULD MILAN LUCIC TELL CLAUDE JULIEN HE CAN’T FINISH A GAME BECAUSE OF A SORE MOLAR? NO!
BOSS JACOB$ HOSTS THE BRUINS AT HIS $TATELY
FLORIDA MAN$ION
After Friday’s off-day, the B’s got in a tough practice in Sunrise on Saturday. The team then took a school bus to the Jacobs’ home in Florida, where the family hosted the entire team and staff for dinner and time relaxing before facing off against the Panthers on Sunday.
Does this send a particularly good message to the rank and file that the very man who termed all of the players "rich" and blamed their union for the lock-out was now hosting them on his lavish property that includes stocked ponds and horse-riding venues?
Some of the activities included a polo scrimmage, (Shawn Thornton dropped the mitts with an opposing horse) an equestrian competition, and a fishing derby in which the boys were catching caviar and pearls in the stocked pond. (Mr. Jacobs has a pool, and a pond. The pond might be good for Marchand.)
Dinner was prepared by Wolfgang Puck. (Mrs. Jacobs thought the players might think it's 'cute' to have a chef with the same last name as that 'little thingy they move around the ice.') Post-dinner entertainment was the music of Katie Perry (Mr. Jacobs thought the players might think she's cute.)
The festive atmosphere was somewhat tempered when Mr. Jacobs told the team he had a little something for each player, and upon opening the envelopes that Charlie Jacobs distributed, each player was given a bill for $125 for the meal and entertainment.
Aerial photos of the Jacobs property in FL
Marchand fishes for his dinner.
BURKIE SPEAKS OUT
MISS CONGENIALITY
PLEADS GUILTY TO RIOTING
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Police had an easy time identifying one suspect in Vancouver's Stanley Cup riots: a former Miss Congeniality beauty pageant winner.
Sophie Laboissonniere, who was 20 during the June 2011 riots over the Canucks' loss in the National Hockey League finals, has pleaded guilty for rioting. She was not in court when her lawyer entered the plea Monday on her behalf.
She was among the first suspects charged after reports identified her as a Miss Congeniality winner at a Vancouver beauty pageant.
Laboissonniere was charged with participating in a riot and breaking and entering. David Baker, her lawyer, says she pleaded guilty to the riot charge, while the break-and-enter charge will be dropped. Details of her actions during the riot will come out at a sentencing hearing later this year.
Miss Congeniality? How about Misdemeanor.
AND ON THE 113th DAY, GOD SAID "LET THERE BE HOCKEY," AND THE LOCKOUT ENDED.
After 113 days of the lockout that included a marathon 16-hour negotiation session on Saturday, a tentative deal on a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement has been reached between the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association.
"Don Fehr and I are here to tell you that we have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement, the details of which need to be put to paper," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed to reporters early Sunday morning. "We have to dot a lot of I's and cross a lot of T's. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the basic framework has been agreed upon."
The next stage is documentation and ratification of the deal with the start date and number of games in the 2012-13 season still to be announced depending on how long the final process takes.
"Hopefully within a very few days the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us," said NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr.
According to TSN Hockey Analyst Aaron Ward and TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun, the agreement features the following elements:
- The league coming off their demand for a $60 million cap in Year 2, meeting the NHLPA's request to have it at $64.3 million - which was the upper limit from last year's cap. The salary floor in Year 2 will be $44 million.
- The upper limit on the salary cap in the first year is $60 million, but teams can spend up to $70.2 million. The cap floor will be $44 million.
- The 10-year deal also has an opt-out clause that kicks in after eight years.
- The salary variance on contracts from year to year cannot vary more than 35 per cent and the final year cannot vary more than 50 per cent of the highest year.
- A player contract term limit will be seven years and eight years for a team signing its own player.
- The draft lottery selection process will change with all 14 teams fully eligible for the first overall pick. The weighting system for each team may remain, but four-spot move restriction will be eliminated.
- Supplemental discipline for players in on-ice incidents will go through NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan first, followed by an appeal process that would go through Bettman. For suspensions of six or more games, a neutral third party will decide if necessary.
- Revenue sharing among teams will spread to $200 million. Additionally, an NHLPA-initiated growth fund of $60 million is included.
- The NHL had hoped to change opening of free agency to July 10, but the players stood firm and it remains July 1 in the new agreement. But with a later ending to the season, free agency for this summer will start at a later date.
Also, a decision on NHL participation at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be made outside of the new CBA. While it is likely that the league will participate, the IIHF and IOC will have discussions with the NHL and Players' Association.
"I'm really happy a deal has been reached," Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Sunday morning. "It's exciting to know we will be back playing hockey."
Both sides met face-to-face along with federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh for 16 straight hours from Saturday afternoon through the early hours of Sunday morning to get the deal done. The two sides spent Friday in separate rooms while Beckenbaugh went back and forth to each group searching for middle ground on the unresolved issues between the two sides.
Depending on when a new CBA is reached, the league - according to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun - has 50-game and 48-game schedules drawn up. A 50-game season would start on Jan. 15 and a 48-game season would start on Jan. 19. The existing 2012-13 NHL schedule was already canceled through Jan. 14.
"Everyone is obviously relieved that it's over and done with, for all intents and purposes, and we're able to kind of move on to what we kind of enjoy doing a lot more than this," said Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who was involved in the negotiations.
The NHL and NHLPA had been without a CBA since the previous one expired just before midnight on Sept. 15. The lockout cost the league 510 regular-season games, including the New Year's Day Winter Classic and the All-Star Game in Columbus.
RIP WREN BLAIR
DISCOVERED BOBBY ORR IN MARCH OF 1960 IN GANANOQUE, ONTARIO, WHEN BOBBY WAS JUST 12 YEARS OLD
Wren Blair, who helped the Bruins land Bobby Orr and later served as the first coach and general manager of the Minnesota North Stars, died Wednesday in Whitby, Ontario. He was 87.
Blair, a scout for the Bruins, headed the revival of the Oshawa Generals -- and signed Orr, then a 14-year-old phenom, to the Bruins-sponsored team in the fall of 1962. With Orr scoring 94 points in 47 games, the Generals won the Ontario Hockey Association (now the Ontario Hockey League) championship in 1966.
The expansion Minnesota North Stars named Blair their first coach and general manager in 1967. He also coached parts of the 1968-69 and 1969-70 seasons before stepping down to concentrate on his role as general manager, a job he held through the 1973-74 season. He later served as president and chief operating officer of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1975-76 and 1976-77. He also spent six years as player personnel director for the Los Angeles Kings.
Before coming to the NHL, Blair led the Whitby Dunlops to a pair of Allan Cup titles in Canada as well as the 1958 World Championship in Oslo, Norway.
Blair also founded the Saginaw Gears of the International Hockey League in the 1970s and was instrumental in bringing the North Bay Centennials of the Ontario Hockey League to Saginaw in 2002. The franchise was renamed the Saginaw Spirit, and Blair stayed on as a consultant for the team.
THE IMAGES OF A LOCKOUT
GREAT LOCK-OUT SONG!
THE POLICE BLOTTER FROM A PREVIOUS SHOW. ONCE AGAIN, EVERYBODY BUT HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE GETTING INTO TROUBLE.
HAVING A BAD DAY? FEEL DOWN? DON'T HAVE ANY ANTI-DEPRESSANTS NEARBY? WELL, WATCH THIS AND YOU'LL FEEL BETTER!!
WHAT TIME IS IT?
TIME FOR EAGLESON TO GO SIT DOWN WITH OPRAH AND ADMIT HE'S A SCUMBAG.
This is the site of The Hockey Show, a wildly popular cable TV show airing in Massachusetts hosted by Paul Altmeyer and Horace Greeley that has aired for ten years, entertaining a handful of people in that span.
Both men spend the majority of their free time counting down the minutes until their beloved Boston Bruins drop the puck again, and until the Frozen Four begins, which will be in Florida next year.
Paul and Horace can also tell you, almost to the hour, how long it was since the Stanley Cup has been in Boston, and nobody was happier than them on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 when Lord Stanley made his return to Boston.
Both men also idolize Bobby Orr, and why wouldn't they?
