WILMINGTON — Ten minutes earlier than expected, the Boston Bruins — sans the club’s three All-Star representatives — have taken the Ristuccia Arena ice for practice after four days off.

Tuukka Rask is up on emergency recall from Providence (AHL), and the other  goaltender is goaltending coach Bob Essensa, who is going to try to fool the shooters with his old-school stand-up style. Manny Fernandez is not among the group on the ice.

There are 10 forwards, including the recovering Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic. But no Michael Ryder.

On defense, the Bruins have seven men skating, including Andrew Ference.

Word has also come down that winger Phil Kessel, out with mononucleosis, might take a twirl before the day is through.

Check back later for more.

Ovechkin

Talk about a manufactured soap opera that really has no impact on the actual game of hockey.

All the banter in Montreal this weekend that didn’t involve Vincent Lecavalier or the suspensions players were going to receive for skipping the 2009 NHL All-Star Game involved how Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin and Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin — both Russians and former Olympic roomates — would get along together on the Eastern Conference squad. Since the Turin games, the two had reportedly been on the outs.

As Corey Masisak in the Washington Times reports, Ovechkin, who’ll be on Causeway Street for a grudge match with the Boston Bruins Tuesday night, kissed and made up with Malkin over the weekend.

Of course, Ovechkin now has a tie to the Bruins, as he played on Boston center Marc Savard’s wing throughout the game Sunday night. Now the linemates can go back to being rivals. In the Washington Post, Tarik El-Bashir has all the details of Ovechkin’s game-winning shootout goal and his attempts to capture the All-Star Game MVP.

Thomas

A win in last year’s NHL All-Star game and a seven-game playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens silenced some of the critics.

But coming into this season, doubting Tim Thomas (especially in Canada) was a national pastime few wanted to give up. Well now the Boston Bruins goaltender might be heading in the other direction — toward icon status at the highest level of hockey.

Thomas won two shootouts (one for the Bruins, one for the Eastern Conference), lost one and stopped 77 of 87 shots in regulation and overtime over the course of three games. And for his efforts, he is my Bruin of the Week. (more…)

Savard

MONTREAL — Montreal winger Alexei Kovalev was the game MVP and Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas was the shootout defensive star of the 2009 NHL All-Star Game tonight at Bell Centre,  but Boston’s other two representatives had their hand in the 12-11 victory as well.

Center Marc Savard dished out three assists during his 15:14 of ice time. He fired just one shot on net and was a minus-1, but he did all he could to make sure his high-powered pair of wingers — Washington megastar Alexander Ovechkin and Ottawa sniper Dany Heatly — had plenty of chances to flaunt their stuff.

“It was Claude. Claude put it together. Maybe he’s rewarding me a bit here. So that was nice of him,” said Savard. (more…)

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…)