I'm baaaaaack.

Wow.  When John and I started The Jumbotron way back in the eighth month of 2008 A.D. (Anal Domination) I did not think we would ever make it past three posts.  After all, it took us about two and a half years to actually start the blog once we came up with the idea.  Then, when the season started, great folks like Hub Hockey, Cornelius Hardenbergh (and his Hockey Blog Adventure!), and that delicious Stanley Cup of Chowder started linking to us and we were getting tens of hits a day.  At that point, I never thought we’d make it 12 hours without posting.  Lo, and behold, here we are at the Thanksgiving point of the season, and not only has the blog not been updated in a fortnight (two weeks!) but I, Gabe, the “talent”, haven’t posted in almost a month.

A month!  I must admit, I didn’t think that working six nights a week would affect the blog that much, but, Jesus!  I haven’t sat down and watched a Bruins game since the Bruins lost to the Buffalo Sabres in a 2-2 shootout back in October!  Does this make me a bad fan?  A bad blogger?  No to the first, and hell yes to the second.  I’ve been running around like crazy, earning disposable income, that the blog just never came to the forefront all too often.  Then, when it did, I experienced the ultimate in computer malfunctions.   Something spilled all over my laptop.  No computer means no blogging.  No blogging means nonstop Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 and convincing my non-Australian friends to watch Summer Heights High on HBO.

But now, everything’s fixed.  I’ve got the rest of the week off from work to spend in Connecticut and relax with the blog.  Despite my work schedule not changing when I return, The Jumbotron will be back to its proud self.  Many thanks to John and Alexandra for keeping things going during my absence, your services are still needed, but no longer required.  The reins, they are in my hands for now.  Regular Jumbotron posting resumes tomorrow.

-Gabe

Hello my little seamonkeys, Alexandra Cabot here and tonight the Bruins take on the Habs. Wheeeee. Can you handle it? Sorry.

Both teams are getting ready to hit the ice for warm ups and the ‘You’re Ghey’ chants have already started. One of these nights I’m going to have to explore.  But I will be here too keep you up to date on everything on the ice. Comment – chat it up and cheer on the B’s!

The press box is packed to the gills tonight. I usually end sitting next to the usual suspects, but tonight we’re surronded by every other news organization under the sun. Who doesn’t love a great rivalry?

Bruins starting six are:

L Milan Lucic

D Zdeno Chara, D Aaron Ward

C Phil Kessel, C Marc Savard

Goal Manny Fernandez

7:10Game on…myself and another member of the media are trying to decide what the over /under of fights will be tonight….

7:11 GOAL!!!!!!  Shawn Thornton scores first for the night. Oddly enough, the USA chants start. That was Thornton’s first goal of the season.

7:14 Kessel made a great shot, that was blocked by Price.  Price is coming off his first shut out of the season – but the game prior, he gave up six goals. Here’s to hoping tonight’s a cake walk for the B’s!

7:16 Cary Price just plamed a shot by Marco Sturm.

7:17 Ok, so mentioned previously, we were trying to figure out the over/under of fights tonight. He said 2 1/2 -I said 5.  P.S. Why was no hooking call made??

7:22 That shot that Ryder just took was pathetic! Great save by Fernandez and Wideman!

7:24 Kobasew just got quite an ovation for slamming into the boards.  Who dresses up like a bear and comes to the game? And by bear, I mean a cute bear…not a blood hungry beast.

7:27 After Alex Kovalev ate some ice thanks c/o Milan Lucic, Christopher Higgins try to start something with Lucic. Montreal gets it’s first power play opportunity of the night. Axellson is in the bin for two minutes on a holding call.

7:30 Yelle gave up his stick to Chara who broke his and did a great job distracting the Habs.

7:36 I thought Ryder just lost his helmet and I had to control my urge to laugh. PLease refer to the ‘Hat Removal’ video on YouTube.

7:37 GOAL!!! Bruins now lead, 2-0

7:38 That was the second goal this season for Stephane Yelle, assisted by Thornton & Kobasew.

7:39 I’ll buy beer to whoever wants to guess who’s sitting next to me.

7:41 First power play opportunity for the Bruins….Montreal’s Markov just got called for interference!!!!

7:42 GOAL!!! Sturm on a Kessel assist. 3-0 BOston!

First Period is over Bruins are currently leading 3-0!

8:00 Second period is ready to start! They’re on the ice and let’s go Bruins!!

8:02 Boullion just got 2 mins for holding, power play opportunity for the B’s!

8:05 And i’m still willing to buy booze to whoever can figure out who I’m sitting next to.

8:06 GOAL!!!!!! 2nd power play goal of tbe night thanks to Marco Sturm. His second of the night.

8:11 Bruins are leading 4-0.

8:17 After bitching and moaning about the call, Montreal’s Francis Bouillon is in the box for 2 mins for a delay of game call.

8:20 Cheap shot by Sergei Kostityn on Dennis Wideman.

8:24 It was bound to happen, you didn’t think MAnny would have gotten a shut out, did ya? The dirty Candadiens just scored their first goal of the night.

8:27 What is it with people and cameras that make them want to act like complete douche nozzles in front of 15,000 people??

8:28 Can Michael Ryder do anything right?

8:32 Marc Savard is in the bin for two minutes for slashing. And the B’s are playing sloppy.

8:34 Ference just went down and almost a puck to the face.

8:35 Second period is over, Boston still leads 4-1.

8:51 And the bear goes grrrr…..Now that wasn’t akward at all…..

8:52 Third period is starting and the garden is wicked loud. Ughhh.

8:54 Lucic is throwing some muscle around.

8:55 Nice save by Fernandez, Mark Stuart(45!!!!) had to smack some Habs around….

8:57 Seriously, Ryder?

8:59 The goal is wide open, not once- but twice and the B’s still miss it.

9:00 THANK YOU! Fifth goal of the night c/o  Milan Lucic! Bruins lead 5-1 over Montreal.

9:04 Lucic is a beast!

9:08 GOAL!!! SECOND GOAL OF THE NIGHT FOR STEPHANE YELLE!!!! 6-1 BRUINS!!!

9:11 Second game Price has give up six goals, shall we go for seven?

9:12 Just saw the Pat’s score…..atleast one team from New England is winning tonight!

9:16 Why is it, whenever there’s some sort of a bonehead move – Ryder is on the ice?

9:18 Instead of getting knocked down again, Wideman decided to try to take someone down himself. But headbutting them in the crotch.

9:20 Tonight’s fan of the night, as voted upon by the fans here was the douche nozzle in the Bear suit. Grrr

9:21 Everyone is starting to pack up with 4:30 left in the final period. Lindsay Lohan’s New Jersey cousin(not really, but I imagine that’s what she would look like) is strutting around the press box. It’s kinda amusing watching the heads turn.

9:25 We’re going to start packing it in and head down to the locker room! One minute to go!!!!

Hey everyone! Alexandra Cabot here in the press box and we’re getting ready for another night of Bruins hockey. Tonight the Bruins take on the first place, Buffalo Sabres. It’s Military Appreciation Night at the Garden, so I’m going to try to get in as many Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Stripes references as possible and hopefully I can drop the term ‘tailhook’ inthere too. Extra points to those of you who can make a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ reference.  FYI, Aaron Ward donated $15,000  300 military people and their familes could come to tonight’s game. Class act.

The whiphers about the Bruins signing veternan free agent, Brendan Shanahan are getting louder. We’ll keep you posted if we hear anything during the game. Also, Blake Wheeler and Phil Kessel will be premiering their new looks thanks to the staff at Barbershop Lounge. Saucy!! More when the game start, see ya then!

Shane Hnidy is out for his second straight game and Tim Thomas is back in the goal…..

7:01 Correction! thanks to Tbred, Manny Fernandez is in fact in goal tonight. Shocker. Everything I’ve gotten so far has said it’s Thomas. Fire them, please!7:05 Starting line up: Lucic, Savard, Kessel, Wideman, Ference  and in goal, Manny Ferenandez.

7:09 We’re sitting above the entire Sabres fan base….fyi, expect to see graham cracker bones Kobasew on the ice tonight.

7:16 Great save by Manny, Bergy made two great attempts on goal that were stopped. For the record, they moved us and we’re not happy with our seat. We need to invest in a smaller laptop.

7:22 Thornton just fell on his ass and with 10:00 mins left in the first period, the Sabres just scored their first goal of the night. It’s just as loud as it is win the B’s score, which is pathetic and why isn’t the Tank in there?

7:29 Adolfo Gonzalez from WBCN’s Toucher and Rich show is here and proceeded to show the patrons of the Garden his tits. Mine are still bigger, thank God.

7:32 There’s a reason why Buffalo is in first place. I think it has something to do with the fact they can stand on their skartes. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the B’s, but they’re playing really sloppy tonight.

7:36 Internetz is sucking tonight. Chuck Kobasew got into a shoving match with Maxim A on their way back to the bench. Miller is doing a great job for Buffalo tonight.

7:38 WIDEMAN GOAL!!!!!!!! With 2:24 left in the first period, Dennis Wideman just scored the first goal of the night for the Bruins.

7:40 That was the fourth goal this season for Wideman – Yelle & Kobasew on the assist.

8:03 We’re back for the second period and we’re tied 1-1.

8:04 WELCOME BACK, KOBASEW!!! GOAL!!!

8:05 After missing the last nine games with a fractured leg, Chuck Kobasew just scored his first goal of the seaon on an assist by Shawn Thornton. Who’s oddly enough, shy in the locker room when there’s a camera. Chara open handed smacked Patrick Kaleta. Milan Lucic is in the sin bin for 2 mins thanks to an interference call. First power play for Buffalo tonight….

8:13 GOAL!!!! MARC SAVARD!!!!!

8:14 Phil Kessel’s shot was blocked, but Kessel’s loss was Savard’s gain. Kessel is being credited with the assist and the Bruins lead 3-1.

8:15 The poet laureate of Causway Street, Mark Stuart has left his broken stick on the ice and they say artists are flighty…..

8:24 Great catch save by Fernandez. It’s not as bad as last Saturday’s game against the Stars, but they’re definitely playing rough tonight.

8:30 Ryder made a great attempt to score his third goal of the season and to no one’s surprise, failed.

8:34 The Bruins and Manny Fernandez are doing a great job defending their goal. Bruins are currently leading 3-1. It’s now time for Tom Carron to rethink his career at Nesn.

8:53 Game on! Third period, Bruins lead the Sabres, 3-1!

8:55 Buffalo just got a two minute hooking call, first power play opportunity for the Bruins…and can the security guard not stand behind me. Ass is creeping me out!

8:59 It’s really awkward being the only person in the press box that’s into the game and shows emotion. Lucic is roughing up everyone. With 11:41 and a 3-1 lead, maybe a fight? Maybe yes? Maybe nevah?

9:05 Aww it’s Shane Hnidy’s birthday. Stuart’s in the box for 2 mins thanks to a hooking  call, 2nd power play opportunity for the Sabres.

9:09 Fernandez has been doing a great job tonight, oddly enough. Playing like a great back up goalie should….here comes Stuart out of the box, Buffalo is 0-2 when it comes to power play sitatuions. Chara is now joining in on the roughing up of Buffalo.

9:17 3:30 left in the third period, Bruins lead 3-1. Buffalo had gone 5-0-1 when they’ve scored first.

9:21 one mintue left! Going to the locker room for interviews!!!! Bruins win!!!

Hi everyone! Once again we’ll be live from the Garden giving you the complete scoop on what’s going on during tonight’s game and a little insight on the game and the world we live in. Stellar, I know – try to compose yourself. On a side note, they’re pumping in the audio from the Sam Adam’s event and we’re right under the speaker listening to a awful rendition of ‘Dancing With Myself’.

- Alexandra

6:32 pm The Bruins and Toronto are on the ice and doing some drills. For those of you looking for another hard hitting informative blog, may I recommend Mark Stuart’s? He hits on such hard hitting topics such as where exactly is the North End. Matt Hunwick is playing tonight and Thomas will be in the goal….6:47 pm No drunken zamboni drivers on the ice tonight and I kinda wish there was.

6:58 pm OK, we get it….they want it.  <douche chills>

7:08 pm Starting for the Bruins tonight: Milan Lucic, Zdeno Chara, Aaron Ward’of the Rings’, Phil Kessel , Marc Savard & Tim ‘No Respect’ Thomas. Shane Hnidy is a scratch for tonight’s game – hence why Hunwick is in and Wheeler is now wearing #26.

7:11 pm Tonight is Chara’s 700th NHL game – maybe he’ll score. I know crazy, right? Let’s not get our hopes up.

7:13 pm Ference served up a shot and Nik Antropov got in the way – first power play of the night for the Bruins, thanks to an interference call c/o of Toronto’s Alexei Ponikarovsky.

7:15 pm Bruins aren’t passing the puck all that well tonight – hopefully…..spoke to soon! GOAL! Wideman just socred the first goal of the night during the power play. Goal was assisted by Ference & Krejci. That was Ference’s 100th career assist.

7:22 pm Goal #2 of the night thanks to Blake Wheeler(4th goal of the season) on assist by Dennis Wideman, second power play goal for the night. FYI

7:24 pm Toronto’s Jason Blake decided to jumpship, join another team and landed on the Bruin’s bench thanks to a slam by Mark Stuart.

7:26 pm I know this is cruel – but the look of the dude in the wheel chair when he saw the ice girls was priceless.

7:30 pm Dominic Moore took a hard hit on the ice due to a Nokelaninen interference.

7:33 pm B’s made it thru the power play with out giving up a goal(shocker) and Thomas made a great save. Lucic’s glass shattering incident is already a trivia question. Congrats to Van Ryan for your new spot in Bruin’s history.

7:39 pm With 1:00 min left in the first period – power play time for the Bruins. Toronto’s Ponikarovsky for high sticking….Bruins are 2-2 during the power play tonight.

7:41 pm First period is over and the Bruins lead the Maple Leafs 2-0.

8:03 pm And we’re back…..slight technical issue….

8:06 pm GOAL!!!!!

8:07 pm  David Krejci just got his second assist for the night. Blake Wheeler got his second goal of the night(fifth this season) thanks to assists by Marco Sturm and Krejci.

8:12 pm That was a cheap shot on Thornton.

8:15 pm Another great save by Thomas. Can I recommend a dance off between the Mustache guy, Dancin’ Guy and Gino?

8:20 pm OK, ummm seriously….do we really need a ‘Yankee’s Suck’ chant?

8:28 pm It’s been quiet this period, besided the goal in the first part of the period. 1:35 left in the second period.

8:30 pm Chara just checked Jamal Mayers and knocked his stick out of his hands. Mayers had to do the obligatory cartoon shake it off head motion to get back into the game.

8:31 pm And that’s your second period. It was quiet, but the B’s scored another goal and lead the Maple Leafs, 3-0. On a side note, I wonder if Tom Carron is hammered when he does pee wee hockey color commentary?

8:49 pm Game on! Let’s finish them off!!!

8:52 pm I didn’t want to see a shut out tonight. Nah, why would I want to see that. Alex Steen scored his second goal of the season and got one past the tank. Bruins still lead, 3-1.

8:55 pm Injury update, Antropov who took the brunt of a shot and brought to his knees thanks to Ference in the first period won’t be returning for the final period.  He injurned his tootsies.

9:05 pm The refs aren’t making many calls and the third period is flying by, much to the fans chagrin(sp?). There’s been a few cheap shots on the Bruins, but no call on Toronto. But Marc Savard has just been sent to the  bin for 2 mins for slashing. Power Play opportunity of Toronto.

9:09 pm Chara is joining Savard in the box for slashing.

9:11 pm The Bruins and Tim Thomas are doing a great job protecting the goal….20 seconds left of the power play!

9:15 pm 3:15 left in the 3rd period!

9:16 pm GOAL!!!! ZDENO CHARA!!!!!!

9:17 pm So evidently he was waiting for his 700th game to score his first goal this season.

9:18 pm And by the sound of the USA chants, Toronto scored again. 4-2, Boston.

9:19 pm HOLY FUCKIKNG HAT TRICK!!! WHEELER!!!! BRUINS WIN!!!! 5-2!!! We’re going to the locker room folks!!!! SEE YA!!!

"OOOOOOOOOO I hope no one notices...."

Life has been busy lately, so my apologies on the kind of thin posts. Halloween, a new documentary to edit, and a few days off for the Bruins make John lazy something something, but those pesky Canadians come back to the Garden tonight, no not those Canadians, the other team from Canada, the Maple Leafs.

I attempted to do a fill in the blank, mad libs styled preview. It was so painfully unfunny, I almost posted it to see if people would laugh at me, instead of with me.  Then I thought, I do this socialist thing and just redistribute the wealth and just plagiarize all the other fine Bruins blogs out there.  As you can tell that didn’t happen either.  Some random conjectures:

Really Glen Murray?  You’re a cement truck, get over it.

Shane Hnidy has a bad case of the California blues, ints undisclosed though, mostly in his lower body.

How much does Marco Sturm look like at the end of the Bruins commercials on NESN. He loves to roar when he scores!

God bless Phil Kessel for that “Survivor” piece he did at MGH and was up on NHL.com. For once, that was serious, back to the sarcasm, Kessel was so bewildered that he had a jersey and good god, it had numbers on it, and they were his! But what’s he going to wear tonight at the game?! I bet he had a slight panic attack.

For as good as the Bruins have been this year, we are only slightly better than the Maple Leafs. What a depressing sentence.

Alex Auld down in Ottawa, how about it? I always liked Auld, one day I’ll put up his masks, they are all awesome.

Speaking of masks, Thomas wears a “Mage”. Mask + Cage = “Mage”

Duty calls. live blog will go down tonight

john

VOTE OR DIE! The clams didn't vote and look what happened to them!

Stanley Cup of Chowder returns to the Iron Ref competition and well, we kinda like the Chowder round these parts. We’ve been drinking the Chowder and it tastes oh so refreshing. Yesterday was an off day for me, so I’m a day behind on the voting, so pile them in today. Check out more at Stanley Cup of Chowder or just go vote directly.

-John

mmmmrooooooarrrr, I'm a bear!

Out of all the positions, a goalie is probably the most important. He stops goals, and if he’s Ron Hextall he can also score goals. Along with being the most important, it also seems like goalies are the hardest quality commodity to come by. Great goalies can easily be come mediocre goalies from season to season: Ray Emery, although whether or not he was great is debatable, and Cam Ward come to mind, and of course the ever present $4.5 million dollar a year enigma that is Manny Fernandez, here in Boston. Injury can easily derail a great netminder, and god forbid the word “wonky” enters into your net minders lexicon, as Rick Dipetrio and well, look at that, Manny Fernandez, again! You may be surprised, but that is about all the Manny bashing I’ve got for today, the rest is the smooth sounds of Tim Thomas praise.

Now I’ve made more than my fair share of Tim Thomas jokes, but I’d say most of them are the type of jokes you make about a sibling you like. Sure they are a total mess and have no idea what the definition of “technique” or “sound form” is, but you still love them. I wasn’t surprised at the start of the season that the number one goalie spot was up for grabs between Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez, but I didn’t agree with it. Granted, I’ve never coached, or even played a formal game of ice hockey, so let’s give Claude Julien a little credit, but I felt Thomas really earned the starting job after last years performance. The Bruins allowed more goals then they scored, now you can point to Thomas for letting them up, but he’s not getting too much offensive support on a given night. In 57 appearances he went 28-19 posting a save percentage of .921 and a GAA of 2.44, finishing 17th statistically out of 44 goalies who played 27 games or more. He also stone walled his way to six shut-outs. Not too shabby if you consider other goalies who played a similar amount of games. Jose Theodore, while still in Colorado, went 28-21 in 59 appearances with a .910 save percentage and 2.44 GAA, while Nicklas Backstrom went 33-13 in 58 appearances in Minnesota with a .920 save percentage and a 2.31 GAA. Theodore and Backstrom make a whole hell of a lot more money than Thomas. Backstrom also had the benefit of playing in the air tight defensive system in Minnesota, which looks to be taking a strong hold in Boston for Thomas.

As a general manager if you drop $9 million for two years on a goalie who is returning from injury and who has had his mental toughness questioned, you have to at least pretend like he has a chance to perform. Last year, the goalie battle was set up for the beginning of the season, then as we all should have seen coming, Manny goes down and Tim Thomas gets the spot by default. Manny has to get a chance at the number one job or it looks like a compete waste of $9 million.

For me Thomas has shed “The Journeyman” label, and maybe now I can embrace the idea of him being Tim “The Tank” Thomas (holy alliteration!). Most likely he will forever be in my heart as The Journeyman. It took a while, but Thomas grew on me, and he did it by winning games. I actively booed Hannu Tovioven and pleasantly waived good-bye as he moved to St. Louis. Andrew Raycroft had a tough shake, but I’ll take Tuukka Rask over him any day (as an aside: I had a smidge of booze one night a few weeks ago, and may have said something along the lines of “If Rask gets called up this year and wins the Cup for Boston, I am getting ‘Raycroft for Rask’ tattooed on me”). I thought Alex Auld was a serviceable back up, but he would have cost too much money to keep and waive Manny. So now Boston has a $4.5 million back up goalie while, Auld competes for the number one spot in Ottawa. Not sure if that’s praise for Auld or the serious meltdown of Martin “The Gerbatross” Gerber, but since I’m Auld fan, I’m going with praise for Auld. I was a huge fan of his Bruins mask with the “AA” on one side and the “BB” on the other. Wonder where that is right now, I’d buy it.

There’s a part of me who doesn’t actually buy the up in the air number one goal tender jibberish. I think Claude Julien knows how to get his players motivated, and as quiet as Thomas is, I think his is as fiercely competitive as they come. He has to believe that number one job is and I bet he gets mad as hell that Manny even gets to pretend to lay claim to it, so he is going to work even harder to make sure he owns the net. I could easily be wrong about this, as I could be about everything, but some part of the early “goalie rotation” was to get a fire under Thomas’ ass, and it appears to have worked.

Despite that, I don’t think Thomas needs a fire under his ass to succeed. His style may not be fundamental, and his play can be streaky, but he gives the Bruins a chance to win the game and instills confidence in the players in front of him. He’s made some unbelievable saves and stolen more than a few games for the Bruins. To me, Tim Thomas is a number one goalie. Before you know it, the Tuukka Rask era will be here, so enjoy Tim Thomas’ wild play and breath taking saves while he’s still around Boston.

-John

"That's right Marty you look away! Do I embrass you? DO I?!"

A triumphant return on a Monday morning for me here. Although, I did not make it into the drunk tank in Salem over the weekend I did manage to get myself drunk enough to the point where a keyboard looked like a bottle of wine, so hence no posting from me. Cameron did a swell job of holding down the fort and we all learned a little something about some fashion designer I’ve never heard of or cared about. I did manage to catch the last two periods of the slugfest that was the Dallas Stars game on Saturday night, and being two days behind, I’m not going to give you all the press clippings about how Marty Turco knows his teams sucks, but he sure doesn’t. They are everywhere in the Bruins blogsphere and maybe I’ll toss some links your way later. Instead, I am going to try and understand why Steve Ott got iced for nearly 15:00 minutes on Saturday night.

To start, I think there is a big difference between guys like Sean Avery and Steve Ott. I’m not the biggest Avery fan in the world, but I come close to respecting the man. I wouldn’t be thrilled if he was playing in Boston (apparently according the the AP he already has: “Dallas winger Sean Avery, a former Bruin“. Correct me and Hockey-Reference if we’re wrong, but Avery has never been a Bruin). To me, Avery is a hockey player, not just a goon. He can take an opposing team off their game with his agitation skills, but also put up some points, 15 goals and 33 points last year for the NYR’s, and some of those were crucial game changing goals. The biggest thing to me is that most of the time Avery knows when to back off of being a pain in the ass if its not working for his team, or if its going to put them in a terrible position to win the game.

Jack Edwards described Steve Ott as a “knee-seeking missile” and wondered how many hits it would take before he ended someone’s career. While that may be a little bit of an overreaction from Edwards, (god bless his soul, did anyone catch the Calgary game where in a span of five minutes he talked about how Tim Thomas “fungled” the puck and then referenced getting hit by “500 lbs of beef”? Classic would be an understatement). If Ott is going to play the way he does, he has to be ready to answer the bell. The Bruins responded well to the shitty play of Ott by picking their spots and not losing their composure. Patience was rewarded, as Andrew Ference was given the gift of Ott being a mediocre player lallygagging in the neutral zone, and lit him up. Ference promptly backed up his hit by dropping the gloves with a much more experienced fighter in Avery, and held his own. Let’s recall the last time Ference got in a fight: a loss to Hockey Jesus. Now this isn’t a column about the code, although it easily could be, as Ott ducked fighting Milan Lucic and everyone else on the team and let Krys Barch fight Shawn Thornton to settle the score.

The interesting thing to me was how the coach of the Dallas Stars, Dave Tippet, continued to let Steve Ott run amok, when he is negatively impacting his own team. The Bruins responded well to the agitation and questionable hits from Ott, by continuing to play a tight defensive game and create offense in transition. Boston was outhit by Dallas 17-26, but if you watched the game, Boston was in physical control of the play and tempo, despite being outhit. Steve Ott contributed five of those hits in 14:38 of ice time and also contributed a whopping one shot on goal, one take away, and one give away. If Ott’s job is to take the other team out of their game, and by midway through the second he is clearly being ineffective in his role, why continue to ice him so heavily?

With Ott’s antics penalty minutes are normally involved, as his job is to draw penalties or take a player from the other team far superior to him out of the game for a period of time. Steve Ott and Milan Lucic both go to the box, clearly a victory for Dallas as they don’t have to put up with the likes of Lucic for the next two to five minutes. On Saturday night, Ott’s penalties came with matching Boston penalties, so the short handed situations for Dallas weren’t directly his fault. The Bruins wound up going one for five on the power play. I think this is telling as to how effective Ott was on Saturday night. You are clearly not taking a team out of their game when they burn you for four even strength goals. The only power play goal they net is the fifth and your are already in the locker room preserving your precious plus / minus.

I know the Stars are riddled with injury and agitation may be necessary for them to win a few games, but Steve Ott for almost 15:00 minutes a night is the way to accomplish that? To me, Ott was off-setting the Dallas Stars far more than helping. Talk about cockblocking a groove for your team, every shift you take your causing stoppages in play or taking penalty minutes? When even your team thinks the game was a joke, you need to reconsider your game plan.

Maybe the whole agitator thing doesn’t make much sense to me, because we don’t have one here in Boston. Milan Lucic and Shawn Thornton definitely can get under people’s skin, but both have plenty of hockey skills. Thornton has been quite impressive this year in fact, and we haven’t seen a questionable play from either of these guys in their Boston tenure. The Dallas Stars seemed like they knew they were over matched coming into the Garden Saturday night, as their game plan was to try and force the Bruins to loose the game. The Bruins proved how good they can be by beating the Stars playing their own game. If the Bruins continue their dedication to their teammates and system,  they can beat anyone in the league, regardless of the style of play tossed at them.

-John

Instead of offering certain members of the Bruins my services as the team’s slump pump, I’m going to be live at the Bruins game tonight keeping you up to date on all of the action. Why? Because I can and it keeps me off the streets….

- Cameron

Live blog is behind the cut tag!!

6:09 pm I’m at the games and to be terribly honest, I’m friggin freezing. No matter what I wear or do, I’m never going to be warm in here. The fans are starting to come in and the kids who will be skating during intermission and the loudest little bastards I’ve ever heard. If you ever need some free birth control, call me and you can listen to them screech and you’ll be all good.

Some pre-game notes, Coach Claude Juiled isn’t happy with Marco Sturm and basically said hopeboy is a hotmess and needs to work on EVERYTHING. That’s probably why he moved him tonight. We’ll see if that works. Chuck Kobasew is expect to play on Thursday, hopefully he can keep his graham cracker brittle bones together thru the rest of the season and thru the play-offs. He stressed the importance of scoring during the pk(duh?) and talked about their struggles…

With that said – I’m going to get some tea and popcorn and I’ll back back with more updates…it’s like being at the game without the sweaty man beasts, the ice, ice girls, expensive beer and drunken kids from East Boston fighting with kids from Fall River.

6:46 pm The line up looks like this tonight…Thanks Fluto….he was working hard while I was eating my 5 dollar press dinner. Yum raw pizza.

7:01 pm I know the “Want It”, but I get the worst case of the douche chills when the show that opening.

7:05 pm Why are you cheering for Ryder and Chara when they’ve done nothing…..

7:08 pm Game is about to start…Let’s go!

7:10 pm Great block by Thomas…

7:11 pm GOAL! Bruins 1-0\

7:12 pm Well, look who deceided to join the party? Goal scored by Marco Sturm….assister by Wheeler & Krejchi….

7:17 pm A member of the ice crew just took a massive digger…way to make impression.

7:20 pm It’s kids night tonight….God help us.

7:22 pm Sean Avery just scored the first goal for the Dallas Stars….his name was just announced and I’m going to say that the fans here don’t have the same feelings for him as I do.

7:24 pm Ward just got 2 mins for holding for PP first of the night.

7:25 pm Chara just tried to crush Avery…..

7:28 pm First power play situation for the Bruins

7:34 pm Harry and Lloyd from Dumb & Dumber in their amazing suits are here tonight.

7:39 pm Avery was sent to the bin, 2nd power play for the Bruins.

7:45 pm End of the first period, Marc Stuart had to be seperated from Steve Ott and Aaron Ward had some words for former teammate, Sean Avery. We’re tied 1-1.

7:57 pm Both teams made 10 attempts

8:00 pm Bruins are coming back on the ice…..hopefully they’re recharged and ready.

8:02 pm Shawn Thornton and Steve Ott just got pulled apart for fighting and the captains are being briefed….

8:06 pm Thornton is in the box for 4 mins for fighting. Steve Ott is now in there for hooking…2 mins.

8:07 pm GOAL!!!!!! Unassisted goal by Patrice Bergeron, 2-1 Bruins

8:11 pm Chara just knocked Ott on his ass…

8:12 pm I’ll buy dinner to whoever takes a pictures of themselves having sex while wearing their Goalie Give-Away Mask you can get tonight….

8:13 pm It’s fight night in the Garden, nothing major just yet – but something is brewing. Steve Ott & Avery are in the 2 mins, while Shane Hnidy and Lucic are in for 2 – they’re all in for unsportsman like conduct.

8: 17 pm Mark Stuart is showing some muscle and now there’s three members of Dallas in the bin. More in a min….Blake Wheeler just went into the penalty box….

8:19 pm Blake Wheeler just got 2 mins for hooking, James Neil from Dallas for goal tender interference…..So now there’s 6 of thme in box .

8: 21 pm They just cleared them out and now Ryder is in there for roughing…atleast he’s doing something.

8:27 pm I don’t think I’m going out on a limb for saying this, but – Steve Ott is a douche. David Krejchi just knocked Mark Fistric on his ass…

8:31 pm He’s not scoring, but atleast Chara is slapping the shit out of people tonight….fans are having a shouting match with Avery & Ott.

8:37 pm Andy Ference just got tagged with a delay of game penalty – the Stars are so far 0-4 during power plays and Dennis Wideman is joining him for slashing….t.o. Dallas.

8:45 pm Bruins lead 2-1, second period DUNZO! potty time! BRB

9:02 pm Third period is starting!Let’s go, Bruins!!

9:07 pm 14, 576 people showed up to tonight’s game….

910 pm Kessel just scored the Bruins 3rd goal for the night, Bruins lead 3-1! 7th goal this season for Kessel

9:12 pm Ference and Avery just went at it, after Ference nailed Ott -Andy gave the fans what they wanted. 5 min penalty for both for fighting. Steve Ott joins Avery for 2 mins for holding

9:17 pm Stuart’s got a fire under his ass tonight, he tossed the gloves off and tried to get into it with Ott.

9:20 pm Marty Turco  & Steve Ott for 2 mins for interference & roughing, Lucic 2 mins for roughing during that skirmish

9:23 pm As your mom’s favorite gay once said, ‘Saturday night’s alright for fighting’. Shawn Thornton just went after Krystofer Barch – they’re both in the bin for 5 a piece for fighting!

9:25 pm GOAL!!!! 4 -1 Bruins….OMG MARK STUART SCORED A GOAL?????

9:31 pm Elton’s playing and Lucic & Hnidy were just tossed for fighting

9:35 pm Correction everyone is getting 10 min misconduct penalties – so with 8:16 left in the game it’s pointless….Avery is out too…. The locker room is going to fun tonight.

9:39 pm Dallas has lost : Ott, Avery & Niskanen…Boston has lost: Lucic, Savard & Hindy….Morrow just got 2 mins for hooking, Bruins are o-5 during the power play….GOAL!!!!!!!!!!

9:41 pm Marco Sturm scored his second goal for the night- maybe seperating him and Bergy wasn’t a bad thing?

9:48 pm We’re packing up now so we can get on the first elevator down. See You in the locker room!

For whom this may concern, our fearless leader John, decided to spend his Halloween in a degenerate drunk state. So while he’s sobering up in his local police department drunk tank and crying over whether  his newly acquired police record is going to affect whatever employment offers he receives in the near future – you’re stuck with the new gal again. Now given that I’m suppose to give the ‘female perspective’ (whatever the hell that is), I felt this would be the perfect time to talk about one of my favorite people in hockey right now. Sean Avery. And by that I don’t plan on posting half naked pictures of him or using sentences like, “OMG! MY SEANY IS LYKE SOOOOOO HAWT!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!! “(Please you know you wouldn’t kick him out of bed, ladies!) Plus the timing is perfect considering the Dallas Stars are in town to play the Bruins tonight. Sean Avery, how do I love thee….let me count the ways.

First and for most, I’m jealous that homeboy got to intern at Vogue. As someone who worships the deity that is Anna Wintour and her apostle, Andrea Leon Talley, I can’t not help but love that he embraces fashion. I love his outspoken demeanor and honesty (in layman terms: he’s an asshole) and it’s even more proof that all girls secretly want a bad boy.

With that said, we’ve seen this routine before.  I know I have, but with a different athelete who played an entirely different sport. Now, unless there’s another stupid Canadian that wants to correct my calculations, about 15 years ago Dennis Rodman was doing the same thing. Granted, he got to bone Madonna – but Avery got Jack Bauer’s daughter and let’s face it, neither Madonna nor Elisha Cuthbert are vestal virgins or anything to turn your nose up at(although Madge has been looking pretty rough as of late).  But like Rodman, Avery was a decent player who changed his persona or character and got more attention. Rodman with the tattoos, piercings and cotton candy hair colors and Avery became the  bastard metrosexual fashionista who admitted to playing with dolls when he was a lad. The book cover might be different, but the story is the same.  Change equals fame.

Now, I don’t see any women falling from the ceiling incidents or him showing up in a wedding gown to a book signing (although, wouldn’t he look great in a skirt like Marc Jacobs?? *dies*) with Avery in the near future – but I’d to think whatever marketing team the NHL is working with would love take a meeting with him. His ideas aren’t that wild and they could make hockey better.

The Stars currently 4-5-2 and the fans have expressed their unhappiness with the slow start to the season and I don’t think you need to think for too long to figure out who they’re blaming the losing season on already. Dallas has given up five or more goals in six out of the 11 games they’ve played so far. You could see Marty Turco(3-4-2) in between the pipes tonight, giving Tobias Stephan, who had 27 saves last night in their 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks, a night off. As of right now, the Stars have their first losing record since 1993. So you know they’re coming in with something to prove.  They’re also coming in bruised and broken, two of their players are day to day and Sergei Zubov, Jere Lehtinen and Joel Lunddqvst are all out due to various injuries.

So in times like this, the Bruins have to be bastards and kick a man when he’s down. Sometimes you have to step on the little guy to get to the top. According to Fluto Shinwaza at the Globe, P.J. Axellson(who hasn’t scored in the last eight games) will be Patrice Bergeron’s left wing and Marco Sturm (who hasn’t scored in seven games and according Coach Claude Julie nothing is going right with Sturm)could be moved to the third line.  What is going to make the produce more goals and bring up production is fine by me. If it doesn’t work- change it up, but don’t sit on for too long if that’s the case. The Bruins are in no position to lose another game.  Tonight is the only time the two teams meet this season and so why not send them back to Dallas 4-6? Since we’re up to 666 words, I figured it was fitting to make some predictions.  I think the chances of Mark Stuart getting a point tonight are as good as him writing an interesting blog(I will however predict his first post will be his last one posted all season.). So basically, I’m he’s not going to do anything. The man is Boresville. Speaking of lack of production and personality, let’s talk about Zdeno Chara. Chara is 0-3-3 so far this season. Seriously? Are you even trying? I have a good feeling he’s going to score A goal in the next 5 days. If he doesn’t, I say the villagers get their pitchforks and fire and storm the castle, because that’s just ridiculous. And I’d rethink that whole ‘C’ thing, you should be leading by example and I don’t see a whole lotta leadership as of right now by Chara. Tim Thomas is back in the goal tonight and not counting the loss in Calgary, Thomas has been playing great.  

No previews this sides of the Mason Dixon just yet…..

There’s less Dallas Star blogs than pictures of Bigfoot. But the one I did find wanted to share thoughts on tonight’s game.

  – Cameron