The Boston Bruins did not get any help today in their efforts to at least learn their second-round opponent’s identity, let alone figure out when they’ll be playing a game again.

The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the New Jersey Devils and the Washington Capitals downed the New York Rangers in Game 6 to force a Game 7 in their respective series. Both deciding games will be played Tuesday. If the Rangers win, they automatically play Boston. If Washington wins, the Bruins would play either Carolina or Pittsburgh. I’ll have more on the two Game 6 results tomorrow.

Boston hasn’t played since it finished off Montreal in a four-game sweep last Wednesday. The team was off today and is scheduled to return to practice tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.

The Bruins' special teams have been as successful as "Hold on Loosely."

It’s almost too much to ask that the Boston Bruins’ special teams keep up the torrid pace the club established in the four-game sweep of Montreal in the second round of the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs and beyond.

While the penalty kill was a perfect 8-for-8, the power play clicked at a 25-percent clip (4-for-16) — bested only be Detroit to this point of the postseason. History has proven that teams that thrive on special teams enjoy playoff success. But it’s more than just the players executing, there’s also a coaching chess match that a team has to win.

“Every team is going to adjust differently,” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien after Saturday’s practice. “You saw us last year adjust against Montreal. And I thought we did a great job, where all season long they really took it to us on their power play. You get a chance to adjust and then next game you watch the clips and make some other adjustments and you hope to improve.

“And on the other hand, when you’re the power-play team, like us, we know they’re going to take away some of those options. It’s important to keep different options open. Even on the bench, through the course of the game, you can see they’re taking away something. So we ask our guys to exploit another area of our power play that we can use.” (more…)

All season long, observers sung the praises of first-year San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan for the way he was able to get both of his superstar forwards — Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau — to change their games and play more of a two-way, determined style that could succeed in both the regular season and playoffs.

McLellan’s prodding paid off with a Sharks Presidents’ Trophy win, but through four games of his club’s Western Conference quarterfinal series with Anaheim, McLellan’s message obviously had been lost on his two marquee players. Finally, however, Thornton and Marleau decided to again play the way they did during the 82-game schedule and led the Sharks to a 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 last night.

Marleau scored the game-winner, but Thornton really set the tone. He scored the first goal and assisted on the next two. He played with force throughout the contest and his line (with Marleau and Devin Setoguchi) finally outplayed the Ducks’ top line of Bobby Ryan, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. (more…)

The Boston Bruins are off from practice today. They are scheduled to return to practice at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, Mass., tomorrow at 11 a.m.

I’ll still be blogging throughout the day. And, of course, there are two huge Game 6′s being played that could determine the Bruins’ second-round opponent. So enjoy a relaxing Sunday.

There'll be no cheesesteaks in the second round for the Bruins.

There will be no more chances this season for the Boston Bruins’ ardent fans to boo Randy Jones. The Bruins won’t get to take advantage of their former bluliner Andrew Alberts’ panicky play with the puck in his own end. And, of course, no one will get the opportunity to laugh at that bird’s nest Scott Hartnell calls his hair.

The Flyers, who were a potential second-round opponent for the top-seeded Bruins, blew a 3-0 lead en route to a 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between the in-state rivals. The Pens won the series, 4-2.

Philadelphia might now consider tweaking its roster, but Phil Sheridan of The Inquirer says it’s going to take more than that to get the Flyers over the hump and make them strong enough to take down Pittsburgh in the future. And he’s right.

The biggest question mark heading into the summer for the Flyers is the identity of the goaltender they want to go forward with. Both playoff No. 1 Martin Biron and regular-season co-No. 1 Antero Niittymaki are unrestricted free agents come July 1. Unlike the Boston Bruins, who locked up potential UFA Tim Thomas well in advance of the start of their postseason run, the Flyers opted to play out the string with their netminders as lameducks. Now there’s no telling what direction they’ll go. (more…)

So now the NHL head coach who most looks like one of the all-time cool American icons gets time to cool off as a result of trying to physically cool a fan off.

New York Rangers bench boss John Tortorella was handed a one-game suspension last night for his actions during Game 5 of his club’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at Washington. Video evidence shows Tortorella squirting and then throwing a water bottle into the Verizon Center crowd during the Capitals’ 4-0 win. Tortorella will not be behind the Rangers bench for today’s Game 6 with his team leading the series, 3-2. Gosh, I can’t wait until the Rangers win this series and I get to cover as many as games with this guy. What a 180-degree turn it’ll be from the cordiality of Claude Julien and Bob Gainey.

And for those who need more evidence of the whole Tortorella-Fonzie thing, here you go:

Tortorella

Fonzie

The Worcester Sharks’ 5-3 win over the top-seeded Hartford Wolf Pack in Game 6 of their Atlantic Division semifinal series tonight earned the Sharks a series win and a division final date with the Providence Bruins.

And how’s this for a schedule? Game 1 of the best-of-seven series is slated for Tuesday night at Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Game 2, however, won’t be played until Wednesday, May 6 in Worcester. The site of each game will rotate all the way through, with Game 7, if necessary, scheduled for May 14 at Providence.

The P-Bruins were the No. 2 seed in the division and eliminated third-seeded Portland in five games. The Sharks were the fourth seed to start the postseason.

The Bruins' late show would make Letterman jealous.

Eight times in their four-game Eastern Conference quarterfinal sweep of Montreal the Boston Bruins used late-period goals to zap any confidence or momentum the Canadiens had flowing through their veins.

When you factor in the game-sealing empty-netters, Boston owned the final seven minutes of the series’ 12 periods, 10-2. A number of players had varying explanations for Boston’s success when the intermissions and the final horn were drawing near.

“I don’t know, that’s been our focus all year — good starts in a period, you’ve got to be good at the end of a period, be good in the third period,” said winger Chuck Kobasew. “That’s something that we’ve tried to figure out here.”

“I just think we were real patient with Montreal, especially in Montreal, they came out hard both games (at Bell Centre),” noted winger Michael Ryder. “We were just ready and we didn’t panic too much. We just wanted to make sure we stayed patient and we took advantage of their mistakes.” (more…)

Ference

WILMINGTON, Mass. — With the Boston Bruins winning their first-round playoff series over Montreal in just four games, defenseman Andrew Ference has plenty of time to not only heal up his undisclosed injury but also shake off the rust that comes with having not played since April 4.

“Getting passes and receiving passes, especially for defense, we need that sharpness as far as giving the puck up and stuff,” said Ference today after he joined the team for practice for the first time at Ristuccia Arena. “So it’s great that they did the job in four. It helps me out a lot.” (more…)

Chara

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara had time to reflect a little on his second straight Norris Trophy nomination, was announced earlier this week.

And today after his club practiced at Ristuccia Arena, he admitted he’s curious to see how the vote went because of the diversity among him and his competition — Washington’s Mike Green and Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom.

“Both of them are great players and I think it’s going to be very interesting because you have three players from a different-style game (nominated), so we’ll see what the voters decided to go for,” said Chara. (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — The Boston Bruins are back on the Ristuccia Arena ice for the second of what might be as many as six or seven practice sessions leading up to their second-round playoff series.

With Washington’s Game 5 victory over the New York Rangers last night, we now won’t know the Bruins’ second-round opponent at least until Sunday evening. And we know the next series won’t begin until the middle of next week.

Marc Savard and Dennis Wideman are both back after taking a “maintenance day” yesterday, while Patrice Bergeron and Tim Thomas are taking a second straight day off. Defenseman Andrew Ference, who up to now had been skating on his own for about a week, has joined the team for the full session. Adam Courchaine is serving as the second goaltender again.

UPDATE: Thomas is still battling the flu, and Bergeron is hoping rest will heal his injured foot (suffered April 9 when he blocked Yannick Weber’s shot) close to 100 percent, according to head coach Claude Julien.

Thornton

If the San Jose Sharks fall to Anaheim tonight in Game 5 of the Western Conference quarterfinal series between the two Pacific Divisions rivals, they will set an all-time record for disappointment by a Presidents’ Trophy-winning club.

Four previous Presidents’ Trophy winners lost in the first round, but none did it in five games or less. Should San Jose, it will feel more than disappointment — it should feel the winds of change. Either Patrick Marleau or Joe Thornton could find themselves on the trade market, as general manager Doug Wilson would have to shake up the core of the team. Isn’t it amazing how Thornton’s playing for a different franchise but the story in the postseason is still the same? That Thornton trade the Boston Bruins made will still go down as one of the worst in league history, but it might’ve been the best thing to happen to Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli because he was able to swoop in and get his first NHL GM job, and then make the best of the ugly situation in the Hub in building the team that was the best in the Eastern Conference this season.

Thornton’s not the captain in San Jose like he was in Boston, but as the team’s best player he’s still looked at for leadership (and he wears an alternate’s ‘A’). Here’s what he had to say about the Game 4 defeat.

“It stung, but this morning you wake up and we still have games to play,” Thornton was quoted in the Mercury News. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We realize as a team we can do this.” (more…)

Is "Torts" more like Fonzie ...

I wonder if John Tortorella, known for his brash demeanor and press conferences littered with four-letter words, knows how ironic it is that last night he scratched forward Sean Avery for Game 5 of the New York Rangers’ Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at Washington for the player’s poor discipline at the end of Game 4 and then the coach proceeded to throw a water bottle into the stands and try to get into the crowd with a stick in his hand.

Ah, that “Torts.” He looks like Fonzie but has the personality of Louie De Palma. More important, he now has a team that’s going into a must-win Game 6 back home because the odds of triumphing at the wild Verizon Center in a Game 7 are probably as slim as Tortorella winning a Mr. Congeniality award.

The Rangers still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2, after their 4-0 defeat in D.C. The unlikely offensive hero was Matt Bradley, who during the regular season had four more fights than goals. But in Game 5, Bradley scored twice and rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov, who’s as hard to pronounce as he is to score on, made 20 saves to keep the Caps alive.

... or Louie De Palma?

Despite the Caps’ dominating performance, the story line heading toward Sunday will now be dominated by Avery (will he play or sit?) and Tortorella (will he be suspended or have to fight a fan in a steel cage?). Whatever happens, it’s great theatre and a perfect way to fill the time until the Boston Bruins get back into action. Even the Bruins can probably get a kick out of it. And their fans can get in a few workouts before squaring off with Tortorella. (more…)

It's hard to take your eyes off Marcil.

I know, I’m supposed to be done worrying about Montreal now that the Boston Bruins ended the Canadiens’ season with a four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. But I can’t help myself. Trying to move on from the Habs’ soap opera even after their demise is like trying to pull your eyes away from the last few seasons of the original 90210 once Vanessa Marcil was added to the cast.

And on a more serious note, I think it’s important for the Boston Bruins to watch the fallout closely and remember that just one spring ago the Habs were where the Bruins are now. After earning the top record in the Eastern Conference, Montreal dispatched Boston in seven games and advanced to the second round, where they ran into a red-hot Philadelphia Flyers team.

In the best example of the fragility of success in the NHL, the 2008-09 Canadiens’ season started with Stanley Cup aspirations. It ended with a No. 8 seed and a four-game loss to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. (more…)

Schaefer

The Providence Bruins followed the lead of their parent club Boston Bruins by finishing off their first-round opponent in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs tonight at Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence.

Providence took down Portland, 2-1, in Game 5 of its Atlantic Division semifinal series with the Pirates.

Veteran winger Peter Schaefer, a playoff hero for Boston last spring, scored the game-winning goal with 45 seconds remaining in the second period. The P-Bruins, who trailed 1-0 earlier in the middle stanza, had tied the score on a Jordan Knackstedt goal.

Tuukka Rask stopped 29 of 30 shots on net. Providence will face either Hartford or Worcester in the Atlantic Division final starting at a time to be determined.