Bergeron

BOSTON — Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron was available for comment today at TD Banknorth Garden for the first time since he suffered his second concussion in 14 months Dec. 20.

Bergeron looked fit and able as he spoke.

The key answer he gave for all the Black and Gold backers out there was this one: “I’m very confident I  will play this year. It’s a matter of when. That’s why I don’t want to put a date on it and get disappointed like I was last year during the playoffs.”

Bergeron continues to work out casually and he says he hasn’t had any setbacks.

I’ll have expanded coverage of Bergeron’s comments within the next hour or so.

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins just announced that forwards Martin St. Pierre and Vladimir Sobotka have both been assigned to Providence (AHL).

Theses demotions, combined with the return of emergency-recall winger Martins Karsums, leave the Bruins with just 11 forwards on their current roster.

St. Pierre was impressive in his nine-game stint with Boston, as he totaled one goal and three points from the fourth line. Sobotka has been up and down a couple times this year and last. In 15 games this season, he’s posted 1-1-2 totals.

UPDATE: Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed this morning that two different forwards will be recalled from Providence later today or tomorrow before the club’s matinee with Carolina.

BOSTON — The 2008-09 Boston Bruins are on the ice posing for their team picture at TD Banknorth Garden.

The picture is “closed to the media” but on a quick glance from rinkside there was nothing the Bruins were really hiding. Patrice Bergeron, Marco Sturm and Milan Lucic are all on the ice in uniform flashing their pearly whites (or whatever the equivalent is for a hockey player).

Bergeron will be speaking with us in about 30 minutes. Check back in a bit for complete coverage.

Staal

The Carolina Hurricanes will play the second game of their current three-game road trip at TD Banknorth Garden against the Boston Bruins Saturday. Last night, the ‘Canes had their modest four-game winning streak ended by the Florida Panthers.

Chip Alexander in the News & Observer brings you the game story.

Alexander also tells us that forward Eric Staal will be the ‘Canes’ lone All-Star representative. Staal, who was picked over hot goaltender Cam Ward and leading scorer Ray Whitney, was the MVP of last year’s All-Star Game in Atlanta.

Stuart

BOSTON — Boston Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart missed a couple first-period shifts during the 6-4 win over Ottawa tonight at TD Banknorth Garden after an errant puck hit him in the chin while he was on the bench.

The cut required about four stitches, but he came back and still skated for 15:19  of solid ice time. (more…)

Krejci

BOSTON — The game within the game tonight at TD Banknorth Garden hit its pinnacle in the third period. After David Krejci used some slight of hand — and a little luck — to give the Boston Bruins the lead for good, Marc Savard extended the lead with a pretty move of his own just four minutes later.

Watching this Bruins team, it’s always hard to tell which of their top lines is supposed to be the first — and no place was that more evident than in the club’s 6-4 win over Ottawa.

Hockey players and coaches cringe at the thought of numbering lines — insisting that everyone’s equal and an NHL line is an NHL line. But we all know that’s just their team unity talking and their has to be a hierarchy. There has to be a line the coach goes to when he needs a goal, one he goes to in order to protect a lead,  one he counts on to change the game with some physical play.

Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien has been lucky enough to sometimes have three lines consistenly scoring. But injuries to Patrice Bergeron, Marco Sturm, and now Milan Lucic, have sort of thinned the Bruins’ herd up front and forced the team into having more traditional checking and scoring lines. Determining which line is the top one — among the Krejci and Savard lines — is where things get sticky. (more…)

The Boston Bruins ended their two-game losing streak by downing the struggling Ottawa Senators, 6-4. You can get the story at Yahoo!

Marc Savard enjoyed a three-point night (one goal, two assists) and Manny Fernandez made 26 saves.

Bergeron

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins announced today that center Patrice Bergeron, out since Dec. 20 with his second concussion in 14 months, will address the media for the first time Friday afternoon at TD Banknorth Garden.

I’ll have complete coverage here at thebruinsblog.net.

Karsums

BOSTON — Winger Martins Karsums, who made his NHL debut last month and stayed with the Boston Bruins for just one game, will take the warm-up with the team at TD Banknorth Garden after being recalled on an emergency basis.

The Bruins’ PR staff has informed us that Karsums will play if a member of the Bruins who is ailing can’t go — but that player will go unnamed.

It’ll be tough for the Bruins to be down another forward with Milan Lucic already ruled out for tonight’s game with Ottawa.

UPDATE: The Bruins came onto the ice with Manny Fernandez leading the pack. So he will get the start in net opposite Martin Gerber for Ottawa.

UPDATE II: Karsums is scratched.

Staal

Today the Pittsburgh Penguins inked forward Jordan Staal to a four-year, $16 million contract extension. The 20-year-old was scheduled to be a restricted free agent this upcoming summer.

So now the Boston Bruins know where the starting point is for negotiations with winger Phil Kessel, who’s headed toward RFA status. Although Staal was drafted second overall, three picks ahead of the now 21-year-old Kessel, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Kessel has clearly been a more productive player on — until this season — less successful clubs. (more…)

Thomas

BOSTON — The list of doubters of Tim Thomas goes on longer than War and Peace, so to finally be picked to an NHL All-Star Game as a reserve on the first attempt has to be fulfilling for the Boston Bruins puck-stopper.

“It’s part of trying to prove yourself,” he explained, hours before the Bruins were set to face Ottawa at TD Banknorht Garden, while reacting to his selection to the Eastern Conference squad for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal  Jan. 25. “But it isn’t over. I’ve still got a lot of proving left to do. And I think sometimes maybe keeping that is going to take more work than it was to get that moniker of a good player.” (more…)

Savard

BOSTON — Boston Bruins center Marc Savard had to wait until he was needed as an injury replacement last winter to earn the first All-Star Game selection of his career.

Today he found out that he won’t have to sweat it out that long as he was named as a reserve for the Eastern Conference team that’ll take the ice at the Bell Centre in Montreal  Jan. 25.

“Obviously it’s a special time in Montreal – the 100-year anniversary – it’s going to be fun. And obviously, I’m from up the road in Ottawa so I should have a lot of family and friends on hand,” said Savard just three hours before taking the ice at TD Banknorth Garden for a showdown with Ottawa. (more…)

Thornton

BOSTON — With Ottawa in town to face the Boston Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden tonight, obviously there was a lot of talk around the dressing room of Senators winger Jarkko Ruutu, currently on an NHL-mandated two-day vacation because he bit Buffalo’s Andrew Peters.

Who better to ask about the incident than Boston tough guy Shawn Thornton? But Thornton had not yet seen the video of the bite so he couldn’t specifically comment on it. But then he answered the real question everyone wanted the answer to:

“I’ve never been bit, thank God. Not on the ice.”

There you have it. Hopefully for Thornton, it’ll stay that way.

Hartsburg

BOSTON — Rumors of impending firings and hirings are flying over the Ottawa Senators like prop planes over an enraged King Kong. What’s true and what’s not is always difficult to decipher.

Today after his team’s morning skate in preparation for the Senators’ evening date with the Boston Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden, Ottawa head coach Craig Hartsburg addressed the  distractions. (more…)

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins were shut out by the fan vote for starters for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, but today they more than made up for it.

Goaltender Tim Thomas, center Marc Savard and defenseman Zdeno Chara were among the players named as Eastern Conference reserves by the NHL today. All three represented the Bruins at last year’s game in Atlanta and now will head to Montreal for the game scheduled for Jan. 25.

Thomas and Savard are headed to their second All-Star Game, while Chara will be competing in his fourth. I’ll have each players’  reaction later today and this evening.

The rest of the East squad reserves are goaltenders Henrik Lundqvist (NY Rangers); forwards Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta), Thomas Vanek (Buffalo), Eric Staal (Carolina), Zach Parise (New Jersey), Dany Heatley (Ottawa), Jeff Carter (Philadelphia), Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay) and Alexander Ovechkin (Washington); and defensemen Jay Bouwmeester (Florida), Mark Streit (NY Islanders) and Tomas Kaberle (Toronto).

While there has been no official announcement from the NHL, Bruins head coach Claude Julien will be at the helm for the East.