Da Beez

Thomas was great last year, not so much this year. At the salary he earns he will be very difficult to move.

100% true. Some guys have been content to coast through games and lots of nights the compete level just wasn't there. It didn't help that Thomas hasn't played as well as he did last year. I am really liking Rask; that kid hates to be scored on. His reaction after the goal was priceless, so was Lucic's reaction. The Bruins have a tough schedule to finish the year, they will have to be at their best to get into the playoffs.

duplicate

Sobotka and Wheeler? That's a pair that should never be dropping the mitts, even Cooke would fight one of them ;) I think Cooke will duck Lucic/Chara/Thornton. I definitely wouldn't want to see Bergeron do any fighting, the last thing the Bruins need is for him to be concussed again. I think if Cooke had his way he would fight Hunwick or Marchand and hope to avoid all the big boys for the rest of the night.

Nah, that wouldn't be right. Lucic shouldn't fight Crosby any more than he should have fought Georges Laraque. Cooke should have to fight Lucic, but my guess is he won't step up to fight. The gutless POS didn't fight Steve Downie after that guy attempted to injure Crosby so I can't imagine he will fight anyone on the Bruins who can actually fight.

That's been the pattern this year

Agreed. Julien can't shot the puck for the players, they have to finish their opportunities. They are not giving up very many goals so they have to make the best of their opportunities. I don't think a shake up is needed, and Julien didn't get stupid over night. Hopefully they can get some wins in the next four games before the Olympic break. Montreal, Buffalo, Tampa and Florida are all teams they should be able to compete with and hopefully beat. The teams are all so close that the Bruins really need to win or else they are going to drop out of contention.

I agree with this. I hear a lot of fans use the "we outshot them" defence when they lose (nothing against you Jason). If you get 47 shots you need to get more than 2 goals. I find shots on goal to be a useless stat, Morris and Wideman each got 4 SOG and Chara and Boychuk accounted for 5 SOG between them - without good traffic in front and forwards who are deflecting the puck, shots from the point are not too difficult for a good goalie. It is of much more concern to see Satan and Lucic get no shots. I expected the Bruins to take a fall from last year but I never expected to see them stuck in 12th and so consistently crappy this year.

Tonight is a must win game.

Did Komisarek play this year?

They are certainly underwhelming compared to last year. They are in tough against the Caps and the Canucks, any points from those games will be a bonus. It would bring great joy to my heart if they manage to pummel the Habs a couple of times in the next 2 weeks :D This is probably true unless they start playing much better. The top 4 teams in the East and maybe Ottawa have all been consistently better than the 8 teams behind them.

The graphics and finish of the new Grafs look nice. The retro stick has a "Hanson" paint job and the WWll stick has two models of curve. The WWll sticks also have "Sally" or "Betty" on the shaft. My LHS is a big graf dealer and they have had the sticks in for a while. I didn't bother to buy a Graf because graphics don't really matter to me and I have a perfectly good U+ CL that I am currently using.

Let these guys sit with Cam Neely for a night and hopefully something good will rub off.

True, there is always a new crop of young enthusiastic guys who want a shot at the title. I wish Kypreos would lose his taste for being on TV, I think that guy sustained some brain damage ;)

"when a crusher becomes a rusher, he soon becomes an usher" I like big Georges and I think he is still among the top heavyweights but I feel he somehow felt he was "above" the enforcer role. Injuries limited his role somewhat but he just didn't seem to feel the need to fight anymore.

Bruin fans everywhere are pulling for the Leafs...to finish in the bottom five :D

You know it's a bad day when Jonathan Cheechoo scores on you.

Good that they got a point this afternoon, not so good that the Bruins blew a two goal lead after two periods :( I watched the Senators beat the Habs tonight and the Bruins need to come out with a good effort to take two points from the Sens in their next game. Hopefully Thomas can keep his streak going...

Chara's shootout goal was sweet - I'm pretty sure no goalie wants to get hit with his slapshot from that range. The Bruins are going to have to keep up this type of effort, the Eastern conference is very tight from 5th to 10th place.

And it isn't going to get any better against the Kings and Sharks :(

Hopefully the Bruins will put in a good effort against the Rangers, they had their bad game now it's time for their good game ;) I wasn't expecting much against the Hawks but the Bruins need to win against the teams that are below them in the standings. The upcoming Western road trip will be a good test, the Sharks and Kings are both good teams.

Schenn made Carcillo look like Mario lemieux on his goal...what was he thinking?

Good effort against the Sens, nice to see some of the secondary scoring show up.

i am all out of ideas lol kovalchuk in the playoffs would scare me though...for some reason he disappears when there are bigger games. however with some decent talent around him maybe he has less pressure and performs... however maybe kovi is going to detroit...kessel kessel kessel...he better start skating like the wind and learn something other than the toe drag Kessel's initial excitement and performance is starting to diminish. He is a good player but he doesn't get much help in Leafland. The big problem with the Leafs is that Brian Burke thinks he is a genius. Mr. "proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence" hasn't done anything except hang Kessel out to flap in the wind and stockpile a bunch of 3rd line defencemen.

Julien didn't seem very happy last night, I think he will crack the whip on the team's ass. The Bruins have been lackluster, they have been getting some wins but they need to be better. It won't get any better against the Sens tonight, they will have to play much better to get the 2 points against a hungry team.