Bruins continue to tend to their business like no other
Thomas/By S. Bradley
“Mr. Rask, I see your 41-save performance and I raise you a 47-save spectacular.”
If Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask were rivals instead of buddies, that might’ve been how the dialog went in the Bruins’ dressing room in Ottawa tonight.
The Bruins’ two goaltenders continued their friendly old-fashioned game of “anything you can do I can do better” as Thomas got back in between the pipes and made 47 saves in a 5-2 win over the Senators. Twenty-one of those saves came in the third period, while many also came early in the game when the Bruins clearly didn’t have their legs going but were still able to score first.
The Bruins have now won 17 of 20 games, mostly on the strength of their goaltending. Rask had won two in a row, including Tuesday night’s shutout against Los Angeles, before surrendering the crease to Thomas for tonight’s game.
Daniel Paille scored twice, and Patrice Bergeron, Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly also scored for the Bruins. But the story of the game, again, was the goaltending. It was the third time in the last six games the Bruins allowed 40 or more shots on net.
Boston is off until Saturday night in Philadelphia. They might have Zdeno Chara back by then, as the captain skated today for the first time since suffering an injury last Saturday in Columbus. The Bruins could definitely use a Chara return, but as long as their goaltending is the best in the league they can get by.
FYI, no hearing for Adam McQuaid.
Yuckster,
I don’t know if we need to. We have lots of kiddies who should be ready or very close to it next year, plus we have Caron (who is not as good to be sure) and Peverly can play center. We also have Arneil who should be ready soon. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we parted ways with one to three of our bottom 6 this winter (Kelly, Paille, and Pouliot are the ones I think might be elsewhere next season.)
Chris Kelly keeps driving up his salary for next season. Bs have to keep him but he will look for too much money.
I wanted to say this about 2-3 weeks ago – It seems TS has hit a wall of sorts. When I say a wall, I’m thinking that he has to expand his array of offensive moves, and he needs to start learning to take advantage of his speed in a new capacity – as in how he changes speeds. Seems the league is now onto the fact that he’s lightning fast and they are playing him accordingly. Guys like Bure developed their game by baiting D by hiding a gear. It will be interesting to see how TS develops to get over this next hurdle.
Matt – Don’t know how you can say the Bs are 17-3 ‘mostly on the strength of their goaltending’. I see a well rounded club that has been scoring a lot of goals and is carrying a plus/minus ratio 33% better than the next best club. Give the boys in net credit, but they have not had to be exceptional for this team to climb the standings.
If anything – I think it’s the Bs ability to close games in the 3rd that has been the key. They have been absolutely killer in the last frame.
The good news, Foligno seems to be ok and there’s no bad blood.
The bad news…that leg went WAY out there to catch Nick.
Adam’s game is very dependent on the physical aspect, I get that, but sometimes he really over commits to the hit. In this case, Nick had him beat and he pulled a pretty dangerous move to try to make an impact. In the past, McQuaid has given himself a concussion or neck sprain by over-committing to a hit. He just needs to move his feet more and defend using hockey skills instead of his bulk sometimes. He was caught flatfooted which is why this whole thing happened.
Since there’s no injury on the play, I expect him to get Shanabanned for 1 game, max 2 because he has no suspension history.
As for Thomas, what can you say? 47 saves is amazing but is shows that the Bruins were not doing well defensively.
MCK – I usually agree with you except for this case. Im not of the camp that thinks suspension “because of what others will say” should be the way to go but intent or not, Quaider made an incredibly stupid decision that could have turned out badly for Foglino had it hit the knee and not the thigh.
I hope Im wrong and there is no other discipline but I would not be the least bit surprised to see 2 games for it.
I think it is a mistake for the league to make decisions based on what the media will say or players will think. It is a one gamer, at most. I actually think there shouldn’t be a suspension. He was penalized and thrown out of the game. There was no intent to injure. That is the point of the suspensions. They are punishing plays for intent to injure. That is why Chara got 0 games for the Patches play last season. Shanny should apply the letter of the law.
Sorry, that should have read BostonBruins.com not NHL.com.
I was just reading the game review on NHL.com and there are some quotes form Quader and Foligno. Turns out they are buddies. Played junior together. Foligno even says he is fine and that he doesn’t think Adam did it on purpose. Just one of those reaction type things. That being said I wager Shanny gives him 2 games just to keep the “Bruins have the league in their pocket” rumblings to a minimum. And reaction or not I think he has to sit at least a game. He got very lucky that he caught Foligno on the thigh and not the knee or the outcome would have been very different.
McTeagle – The only 2 defensemen I thought looked responsible in the zone last night for the most part were Ference and Seids. Not having Chara in the lineup exposes the teams need for a legit #2 D-man.
They should be without Pronger and Giroux. The Bs should win this game if Chara is back
That was pretty brutal last night. Don’t know if it is reality or my perception, but Corvo especially looked horrible defensively. Good thing the Senators gave them so many breakaways and open looks. I doubt the Flyers will be so charitable.
On the bright side, Hamill and Pouliot continue to look like different players from previous years. And Paille is becoming a finisher! The guy will be deadly if he keeps that up.
The Quaider sentence will be interesting. My guess, at least 2 games. I get the no intent to injure point, but the league can’t let this team “get away” with another bad hit/play w/o repercussion. It’ll just feed the conspiracy theorists & the trolls and in all honesty, I think it deserves suspension. Split second reaction yes and understandable, but it still can’t be accepted.
I think Z will be playing on Sat. He is on the trip after all and has been skating already.
Happy for the 2-points, but I hope they play much better against the Flyers.
I think 1 game tops, if that. It looked like more of an instinctive reaction than an intent to injure, which is what they are really trying to prevent
This team is winning despite playing like crapola. It is nice to have great goalies. They need to raise their game. A lot of passengers these last few games.
I would sit Chara for Saturday. 2 points isnt worth his health going forward. I guess if he is ready, why not, but if there is any doubt, i would sit him
Rickinnh – Id be all for giving Chara another game or two except clearly watching the 1st 2 periods of incredibly sloppy play both in our end and the neutral zone its clear that he is missed back there.
And Im guessing Quaider will be given 2 games by Shanny to think about what he did. Porter from the Avs just got 4 for the same type of hit.
The thing that continues to amaze me is that this team gets points from everyone. You can not say there is a number one line on this team. There are more “talented” players than other on paper but not during the game. How does an opposing team try and figure out who to try and shut down or cover when we send four lines out there that can score, and then try and figure out how to score on our two goalies! This is a great time to be a fan of this team the best in my 32 years of following them for sure. I hope Darth does not get to much time off when he has to meet with Shennagins over the knee incident.
@ Rickinnh I think its more than a safe bet Foligno is OK. He did play on that power play and all.
good to see Milan go up against one of the nhl’s true tough guys, he stood his ground not too bad
somebody tell Adam the game moves at a hundred miles an hour, who can keep that pace. still, hoping 71 is doing OK
rest Chara, no need to push him right now who cares its mid-season.
nice effort by the Kelly line. 52 looked good, might make it to the big league after all.
Danny Paille! the guys got a wicked shot.
Goaltending has been superb. But Julien and the coaching staff deserve a lot of credit as well. The players are executing the system to a ‘T’ and the club seems focused every night. No Chara, no problem.
Good to be able to win a game when you play poorly, and dont get many breaks.
Not to be that guy, but the game on Saturday is actually a 1pm puck drop.