The Bruins won't be nearly this rusty.

Here are the five questions that need to be answered in Game 1 of the Boston Bruins-Carolina Hurricanes Eastern Conference semifinal series, which is schedule for tomorrow night at TD Banknorth Garden:

1. What will the rust factor be for the Bruins, who will be playing a game for the first time in nine days?
I’ve already written at length about this, so I’ll keep it short. There’s no way the layoff is going to cost the Bruins this series. And as long as they keep it simple through the first 20 minutes and regain that playoff intensity and focus early enough, it won’t cost them Game 1 of either. The Bruins fought all year to get home-ice advantage, and this is where it’s going to come in handy. With the fans pumping them up, the Bruins shouldn’t take long to hit their stride. And the Hurricanes are bound to have a bit of an intensity letdown after winning a Game 7 in such dramatic fashion.

2. How does Andrew Ference’s return from injury affect the Bruins’ defense corps?
Well, assuming he’s in there for Game 1 — and there’s no reason to believe he won’t be — Ference will plug back in on the second paid alongside Dennis Wideman. That knocks Steve Montador to the third pair or to the press box. When Matt Hunwick was available, Shane Hnidy was the odd man out early in Round 1, while Montador skated with Mark Stuart. If head coach Claude Julien sticks to his pattern, this would hold again. (more…)

If you can’t get enough of TheBruinsBlog.net, you can hear me on the radio a couple times coming up here.

Tonight at around 11:45 p.m., I’ll be on Todd Wright Tonight on Sporting News Radio. Looks like you can listen live by clicking through to this link.

And don’t forget tomorrow morning you can hear me on the Loren & Wally Show on 105.7 WROR FM in Boston at around 8:15 a.m. Something tells me I might talk about more than hockey with those guys. Here’s a link to the home page to list online.

It seems the Carolina Hurricanes are going to continue to keep star forwards Eric Staal and Erik Cole on separate lines.

For now, that is.

According to Chip Alexander at the Canes Now blog, the Hurricanes practiced one last time before heading to Boston for the start of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Bruins. And at RBC Center, Staal continued to center Ray Whitney and Chad LaRose, while Cole and Tuomo Ruutu skated on the sides of Dwight Helminen (who was filling in for Matt Cullen).

But like most coaches, Carolina’s Paul Maurice isn’t writing anything in stone. (more…)

Ward

Boston Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward was teammates with many of the current Carolina Hurricanes during that franchise’s run to the 2006 Stanley Cup.

So does that give him any special insight into what it’s going to take to down the Hurricanes in the Bruins’ Eastern Conference semifinal match-up starting tomorrow night? Probably, but not in the way you might think.

“It’s awful, actually, to tell you the truth, because now I know how good players are,” said Ward today after ending his one-day moratorium on Boston media after practice in Wilmington, Mass. “You know, you play with guys and you see their best. And you joke that when you play with a player and you see him in practice and the great things they can do, and you play with them in games, maybe sometimes you anoint them to be a little better player than they are.

“But I know how good (Eric) Staal is, I know the capabilities of (Erik) Cole and go down that list of players, and I know how good they are. The creativeness of Ray Whitney. So I think I’m coming in a little more cautious knowing what potential they hold.” (more…)

Masterton Trophy

It’s always difficult voting for the Masterton Trophy. How do you sort through 30 players’ stories of dedication and perseverance — and sometimes tales of tragedy or severe injury — and pick three that are more worthy of an award than the others?

However ,what I really don’t get is how enough members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association can weed through the nominees’ stories and add Chris Chelios to their ballot to earn the veteran Detroit defenseman a spot among the three finalists. But they did.

Today the NHL released the identity of those finalists, and Chelios, Nashville’s Steve Sullivan and Florida’s Richard Zednik are all up for the award which honors “the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — During the Boston Bruins’ four-game sweep of their season series with the Carolina Hurricanes during the regular season, two players stood out on offense more than any of the other skaters in black and gold.

Center David Krejci led the team with seven points (three goals) and consistent linemate Blake Wheeler chipped in with five points (three goals) against the Hurricanes. While they probably won’t be on the same line for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series tomorrow night against the Hurricanes, both are hoping to continue their regular-season scoring touch against the conference’s sixth seed.

“It’s just one of those things. In the regular season, I didn’t do well against Montreal. And in the playoffs the same thing. But I don’t know what it is,” said Wheeler today after practice at Ristuccia Arena when asked about his success against Carolina. “It’s just sometimes you find yourself producing against different teams for different reasons. I don’t know why, the puck just seemed to find the net for me and (Krejci) as well.

“Hopefully it continues this round. It’d be great to be able to contribute and we’ll just see what happens. Obviously there’s a lot of ways to contribute in the playoffs so I guess that’s one way.” (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — The waiting and the practicing before the Eastern Conference semifinal series with Carolina continues this morning for the Boston Bruins at Ristuccia Arena.

Now seven days removed from their last game, the Bruins are holding one more practice today. Everyone is on the ice.

For those that don’t remember the lineup from more than a week ago, the lines are the same at practice:

Axelsson-Savard-Kessel
Recchi-Bergeron-Kobasew
Lucic-Krejci-Ryder
Thornton-Yelle-Wheeler
Bitz

Chara-Ward
Montador-Wideman
Stuart-Hnidy
Ference

Thomas and Fernandez.

More later.

Clotheshorse Aaron Ward looked ecstatic in red.

Normally the Boston Bruins’ dressing room headlining act (think Conan O’Brien mixed with a dash of Dan Rather), defenseman Aaron Ward didn’t make himself available for questioning to the Boston media yesterday. But he took the time to discuss his upcoming match-up with his former team from Carolina with Luke Decock of the News & Observer down in Raleigh.

“Are you kidding?” the he told Decock Wednesday. “My phone lit up last night with texts. Some needed help with tickets. Some wondered how excited I am to be playing my old team. Some were doing a little taunting.”

Those Hurricanes fans can taunt all they want. And if Ward was the focal point of this Bruins team’s efforts, Carolina would probably wind up running away with the upcoming Eastern Conference semifinal series. But, as we all know, Ward is just a small part of the puzzle. With the ability to roll four lines and three defense pairs without a care in the world, and the individually great play of Norris Trophy finalist Zdeno Chara and Vezina Trophy finalist Tim Thomas, the Bruins are heavy favorites for this best-of-seven. (more…)

Somewhere the hockey gods are smiling upon commissioner Gary Bettman and his minions. The league received an early Christmas present when the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins not only won their way through to the Eastern Conference semifinals, but then Carolina’s upset of New Jersey matched up the two teams led by the league’s two most electric superstars.

The league couldn’t have asked for anything more than an Alexander Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby match-up, yet it still got more — like the kid who unwraps a bike and then finds out he’s also getting a pony. Yesterday the finalists were announced for the Hart Trophy, and not only was defending winner Ovechkin in the group, so was Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin. So in June, we’ll find out who the MVP of the league (and Russia?) is. But over the next two weeks we’ll find out which standout forward has the will and the supporting cast to lift a team to the conference finals. (more…)

It won’t have the flair of an all-time great ’90s tag team match between The Hart Foundation and The Rockers, but the showdown between the Detroit and Anaheim’s top defense pairs will still be pretty juicy.

In one corner will be Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, while on the opposite side skate Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger — two pair many experts rank as No. 1 and 2 in the NHL. You can’t really go wrong with either duo patrolling your blue line. That’s why one major key to these teams’ Western Conference semifinal series that starts tomorrow might be the play of the second and third pairs, led by players like Brad Stuart for Detroit and Canton, Mich., native James Wisniewski. I like Anaheim’s secondary defensemen better than Detroit’s in a vacuum, but not against the Wings’ depth up front. (more…)

Well, if you were worried there wouldn’t be enough bad blood flowing between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks when their Western Conference semifinal series opens tonight, Canucks defenseman Shane O’Brien delivered faster than FedEx.

“I’ll guarantee you one thing,” said O’Brien in The Province. “They won’t be getting to (goaltender Roberto Luongo) as easily as they got to (Calgary’s Miikka) Kiprusoff, and we’ll take it from there. Actions speak louder than words.”

In this era of the politically correct hockey player, that’s about as close to tough talk as pre-series banter goes. The newly sprouted hatred between the Canucks and the Blackhawks was planted during a March 29 Vancouver win. That night, there were some cheap shots, some tussles, and even a hair-pulling incident with Canucks forward Alex Burrows trying to help himself to a of handful Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith‘s beautiful locks. Maybe Burrows was just trying to find out what conditioner Keith uses. (more…)

Just wanted to give all my readers a heads up.

I will be appearing on the Loren & Wally morning show on 105.7 WROR here in Boston Friday morning at around 8:15 a.m. to discuss the Boston Bruins’ playoff chances, etc. So make sure you’re up early and tuned in.

If you miss it, it looks like they keep an audio vault at this link.

Is this animal abuse?

I’ll begin making my picks for the second round of the playoffs Thursday morning.

For now, you can go to bed knowing that TSN expert Maggie The Macaque picked Carolina to topple the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. However, Maggie was just 2-6 in the first round, so what exactly does this prove?

I’m not above looking back to admit where I went wrong and right in my first-round picks. So here it goes:

East

Boston vs. Montreal
My pick: Boston in five. Actual: Boston in four.
I just gave the Habs too much credit.

Washington vs. New York
My pick: New York in six. Actual: Washington in seven.
Go figure the Caps would pull Jose Theodore after one game and that John Tortorella would go and get himself suspended for Game 6.

New Jersey vs. Carolina
My pick: New Jersey in six. Actual: Carolina in seven.
Maybe that old mantra of never counting the Devils out should be retired. And it didn’t help that Jamie Langenbrunner went down for Jersey.

Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia
My pick: Pittsburgh in seven. Actual: Pittsburgh in six.
If the Flyers didn’t blow a 3-0 lead at home, I might’ve been dead-on. (more…)

Hart Trophy

The NHL today announced the three finalists for this year’s Hart Trophy, which goes to the player voted “most valuable to his team.”

Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin, who won last year’s award, will try to become the first repeat winner of the Hart since Dominik Hasek in 1997 and 1998. His competition, however, will be stiff. Longtime friend and rival Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh and fellow Russian Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit are both looking for their first Hart.

I’m a tad ashamed to say that Datsyuk didn’t even make my top five when I voted. It’s just too difficult to pick one player from the Red Wings who’s “most valuable” and I felt that as far as one player being vital to a team’s fortunes, there was at least five other guys that fell into that category. I picked Ovechkin first and Malkin third with Columbus goaltender Steve Mason second.

As for a Bruins team Hart winner, I’m partial to defenseman Zdeno Chara. I even voted the captain fourth in my overall ballot. But a strong case can be made for goaltender Tim Thomas or center Marc Savard.