Julien

MONTREAL — In truth, had his shootout line-up been different in any way, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien, who coached the Eastern Conference team in tonight’s 2009 NHL All-Star Game at Bell Centre, might not have been allowed to leave the building alive.

Even more than the 21,273 announced in attendance already had the batting order — Tampa Bay superstar and Montreal native Vinny Lecavalier, Canadiens sniper Alexei Kovalev, reigning league MVP Alexander Ovechkin — already written out.  Julien had that same order worked out too, but he joked that the result depended on whether he would take the credit.

“We talked before the game and I told (assistant) Guy (Carbonneau), if we win, I put the lines together,” Julien said of his chat with the Montreal head coach. “If we lose, it was your job. And it was the same thing with the shootout. I picked them, and not Guy, but if we would have lost, it would have been Guy’s picks.” (more…)

Thomas

MONTREAL  — Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas is now a perfect 2-0 in All-Star games, as he earned the victory with two shootout saves in a 12-11 victory by the Eastern  Conference over the Western Conference at the 2009 NHL All-Star Game tonight at Bell Centre.

Thomas had to shutdown Phoenix’s Shane Doan (who won the elimination shootout Saturday night) and Columbus’ Rick Nash to make sure goals by Montreal’s Alexei Kovalev and Alexander Ovechkin would be enough to win the shootout, 2-0.

“It’s an All-Star Game, you want to have fun but you don’t want to really put yourself in positions where you can hurt yourself,”  said Thomas after the victory. “But at that point in a tie game, 19,500 fans, you’ve got to do it.” (more…)

Lecavalier

MONTREAL — Yesterday during the player introductions prior to the Honda/NHL Super Skills at Bell Centre, the longest ovation came for Tampa Bay center Vincent Lecavalier, a Montreal native and a player rumored to be someday soon on his way to the hometown Canadiens via trade.

The PA announcer even paused before going on to the next player in order to let Lecavalier feel all the love.

Well, just minutes ago the NHL continued the Lecavalier love-in by naming him as an All-Star starter for the Eastern Conference in place of injured Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby for tonight’s NHL All-Star Game. This means that defending league MVP and leading goal-scorer Alexander Ovechkin, who didn’t win a fan vote to originally earn the starting spot, has been snubbed again. (more…)

Thomas

MONTREAL — The NHL has put out the official numerical rosters for tonight’s game.

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas will wear his familiar uniform No. 30 for the Eastern Conference — forcing the less-experienced Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers to don No. 35.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara will wear No. 33 and center Marc Savard will carry No.  91 — their usual uniform digits.

On the Western Conference side, San Jose’s Joe Thornton is going to wear No. 97 and allow Chicago youngster Jonathan Toews to wear No. 19.

MONTREAL — So the Honda/NHL SuperSkills are history, as they say.

The Boston Bruins’  contingent of players had a banner night, with Zdeno Chara setting a record to win the hardest shot competition, Marc Savard just losing in the end of the elimination shootout and Blake Wheeler leading the rookie team with three goals in a win over the sophomores.

Tonight, Chara, Savard and Tim Thomas will compete in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game at Bell Centre. I’ll have complete coverage leading up to and after the game. And during the game you can follow along with my live blog for NESN.com.

Thomas

MONTREAL — Zdeno Chara won the hardest shot competition and Blake Wheeler was the star of the YoungStars game, but they weren’t the only Boston Bruins competitors who got all they could out of the experience of the Honda/NHL SuperSkills tonight at Bell Centre.

Center Marc Savard, who went 3-for-8 in the first round and didn’t reach the second round of the McDonald’s NHL Shooting Accuracy competition, enjoyed a lengthy ride to the final two of the Gatorade Elimination Shootout. Savard, who finished 4-for-7, lost to Phoenix’s Shane Doan despite a pretty goal he snuck past Bruins teammate Tim Thomas.

“He had me fooled. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” said Thomas.

“He’s sticking to that story, yeah,” added Savard. “He was kind of giving it to me and I was able to sneak it by.” (more…)

Chara

MONTREAL — For a few seconds there it  looked like Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara was going to lose his own challenge.

Earlier this week Chara got his fellow competitors in the Cisco NHL Hardest Shot competition to ante up $1,000 a piece. By the time it was all said and done, the players, their clubs, the NHLPA and the NHL had  put up $24,000 for donation to the favorite charity of the event’s winner.

When he first teed it up tonight at Bell Centre, Chara knew he needed to beat Nashville defenseman Shea Weber’s 103.4 miles per hour. Chara’s first attempt came 0.1 short. So the Bruins captain regrouped at the blue line, took  a deep breath and unloaded an NHL-record-setting 105.4 shot to earn Right to Play the right to the rich money pot.

“To shoot even harder than the first one – simple as that,” said Chara about what he was thinking before he shattered Al Iafrate’s previous record of 105.2 mph. “I knew that I would have to put another really hard shot. And basically I gave it all I had, and I’m just glad it worked out.” (more…)

Wheeler

MONTREAL — When Blake Wheeler arrived in Montreal Thursday afternoon, his sticks didn’t.

Then an attempt to get his extra sticks to Montreal via teammate Marc Savard failed.

So when the rookie arrived at Bell Centre today for the All-Star practice in preparation for the YoungStars Game presented by Upper Deck, he assumed he’d have to borrow some sticks. Lo and behold, his sticks were at the rink waiting for him.

“I didn’t expect them here this morning. Magically, they showed up,” Wheeler explained after he scored three goals and added one assist in a 9-5 win by his squad of rookies over a team of sophomores. “I guess somebody from the airline made a special stop at the rink. But it was a good thing to have your own sticks.” (more…)

Lucic

While it would’ve been great for Boston Bruins winger Milan Lucic to come to Montreal and participate in the YoungStars Game against his rookie teammate Blake Wheeler, the second-year standout did something even better Friday night.

For the first time since leading the Vancouver Giants of the WHL to the Memorial Cup, Lucic returned to the Giants’ home rink, Pacific Coliseum. Not only did he surprise those in attendance, he even surprised his family, who thought he was going to the Bahamas for the All-Star break. Steve Bosch of the Vancouver Sun wrote all the details.

MK: That’s great that Lucic, out for a few weeks with injury, was able to take a negative like missing the YoungStars and turn it into a positive. This will probably give him a mental lift for the second half once he’s back in game action.

MONTREAL — Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas’ stop of  an Alexander Ovechkin penalty shot wasn’t the only memorable moment from the Eastern Conference All-Stars’ practice at Bell Centre today.

Here are a few tidbits:

•During the practice, some of the players were interviewed near the benches and the live feed was shown on the Jumbotron. The biggest cheers were obviously for Montreal Canadiens Alexei Kovalev and Carey Price, as well as Montreal native Vinny Lecavalier of Tampa Bay.

When it was time to chat with Bruins head coach Claude Julien, who’s filling the same role for the Eastern Conference All-Stars, boos rained down. However, by the time the bilingual interview was complete, Julien had turned most of  the boos to cheers with just a smattering of negative reaction from a near packed house at Bell Centre. (more…)

Thomas

MONTREAL — It was just practice, but Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas warmed up for his Saturday night Gatorade Elimination Shootout match-up with Washington superstar Alexander Ovechkin by denying the sniper during the penalty-shot portion of the Eastern Conference All-Stars’ practice today at Bell Centre.

After he failed to score,  Ovechkin crashed into the end wall and acted like he was playing dead. Thomas asked him if he was OK, and according to the goaltender Ovechkin replied: “Russian machine never break.”

The quick chat with Ovechkin wasn’t the only memorable exchange of words for Thomas. Prior to  the practice, he got to meet Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Johnny Bower. Bower’s career story (he didn’t reach the NHL until his 31 years old) had a profound effect on Thomas a few years ago. (more…)

Julien

MONTREAL — Never one to be too sentimental — in public at least — Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien this morning admitted he was reflecting on his past when he returned to  the Montreal Canadiens’ Bell Centre dressing room, which is doubling as the Eastern Conference All-Stars’ locker room during All-Star weekend.

“It’s the first time I’ve walked back in this room since I left Montreal,” said Julien, the Eastern Conference All-Star head coach, after he and assistant Guy Carbonneau of the hometown Canadiens addressed the media. “Obviously, it hasn’t changed that much. When you haven’t been here for four or five years and you start looking around, it brings back memories – there’s no doubt about that. You certainly turn the page, but that doesn’t mean that when you come back you don’t look back at things that happen here.”

A lot has been made of the rivalry that’s been reborn between the Bruins and the Habs, and in particular a rivalry within the rivarly between the two bench bosses. As expected, both men extinguished the notion that there’s any tension despite  some incidents with shouting between the benches and verbal digs taken through the media. (more…)

Tkachuk

MONTREAL — It happened four days ago, but Keith Tkachuk still can’t believe how his St. Louis Blues rallied from two goals down in the final 90 seconds to tie the Boston Bruins and then win a shootout last Monday at TD Banknorth Garden.

When asked yesterday during the Western Conference All-Stars’ media availability if he had to calm down some of his younger teammates after the win, Tkachuk explained: “I think I was the most emotional out of all of them. You’ve got to keep your composure, but I can’t believe we tied it up with one second left.”

Actually, the Blues tied it with 0.8 left on the clock. The win over the top team in the Eastern Conference could prove to be a turning point for the Blues, who followed up with a 2-0 win over Chicago Wednesday. (more…)

Thornton

MONTREAL — Brace yourselves Boston Bruins fans.

Joe Thornton will be wearing a captain’s ‘C’ again.

Only this time, he’ll be doing it for the Western Conference All-Stars Sunday in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game at Bell Centre, not for his current team the San Jose Sharks. And, of course, we won’t even broach the subject of whether he should’ve had a ‘C’ on his sweater in Boston.

“It’s fun. I got the news from (general manager) Doug Wilson. He phoned me the other night and he said I was going to be the captain. It’s huge honor,” Thornton said today during the Western Conference All-Stars’ media availability. “It’s a big thrill, and I was always watching Wayne or Mario, they’d always have the ‘C.’ So it’s a big thrill for me.”

It’s a thrill also for Thornton to look at the NHL standings and see that the Sharks are atop the West and Boston is atop the East. (more…)

Souray

MONTREAL — Sheldon Souray is attending the NHL All-Star Game for the third time in his NHL career.

The Edmonton Oilers blueliner is back in Montreal, where he first came to prominence over the course of six seasons after a trade from New Jersey, for the 2009 edition of the game scheduled for Sunday. During part of his time with the Habs, current Boston Bruins and Eastern Conference All-Star head coach Claude Julien was the Montreal bench boss. And he left his mark on Souray.

“Claude was awesome. I liked him a lot,” Souray said today during the Western Conference All-Stars’ media availability. “He was a fair guy. One thing I can say about him, there was no gray area – it was black and white and he made things simple. (more…)