Bruins and Devils tomorrow at Garden

The Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils will face-off tomorrow in a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. The Devils come in having won eight of their last ten, while the Bruins have only won three out of their last ten games.

The Bruins prepped with a tough practice today. Today's practice emphasized battle drills and races for pucks.

Mark Recchi got a little bit of veteran privelege yesterday as he was given a maintenance day. Today, Recchi was back at practice and particapted in full.


Here is an updated look at the standings,


1) Boston: 100 points (10 games remaining)
2) New Jersey: 97 points (11 games remaining)
3) Washington: 96 points (9 games remaining)

Bruins pick up 100th point in OT heart breaker

The Boston Bruins picked up point number 100 tonight against the Los Angeles Kings tonight. However, they blew a golden opportunity to also pick up point number 101.

With the competition charging, the Bruins needed to take two points against a Los Angeles team who sits 13th in the Western Conference standings. But the Bruins blew a two goal, third period lead and two points turned into one.

Dustin Brown was the player to drive the stake through Bruins fans hearts, with just 34 seconds remaining in overtime. Brown's 24th was netted off of a rebound. Again, like with the Kings tying goal, the Bruins were unable to control the front of the net.

Controlling the front of the net and not scoring on the power play are what did the Bruins in tonight and is something that will need to be corrected by Sunday. All three of Los Angeles' goals came on second chances and the Bruins power play was a ghost yet again, going scoreless (0/3).

The Washington Capitals defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, 5-2 and are now second place in the Eastern Conference, four points behind Boston.

Here are the updated standings for the top three teams.

1 Boston: 100 points (10 games remaining)
2 Washington: 96 points (9 games remaining)
3 New Jersey: 95 points (12 games remaining)

We know these teams will be the top three, but in what order will they finish?


The Bruins goal scorers:
Mark Recchi (17)
Matt Hunwick (6)

Fernandez in the dog house, may ride bench rest of way

*Stephane Yelle is considered day-to-day and is questionable for tomorrow's match-up with the Los Angeles Kings. Yelle has not dressed for the last five games.

The Bruins were worked hard again today, and worked a lot on the PP.

The units were as follows.

PP1: Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Marc Savard, Michael Ryder, Mark Recchi.

PP2: Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference, David Krejci, Chuck Kobasew, Phil Kessel.

As you noticed, by him being on the PP unit, Phil Kessel was back at practice today.

And now onto something that I am reading into here. Now if you want to speculate further on this, be my guest. Manny Fernandez hasn't seen action since a 4-3 loss to the Rangers on March 8. Now, with the teams willingness to put Fernandez in the net all season long, people are expecting Manny to start Thursday night. However, not so fast according to head coach, Claude Julien.

"There's no issues there," Claude Julien said of Fernandez. "What people see on the outside and what's happening on the inside are two different things. We talk. He knows exactly what's going on. There are things that not everybody needs to know about. We'll leave it at that."

And what exactly is going on coach? To me it has to be that Julien, and the Bruins players have lost confidence in him and they are going to ride Tim Thomas the rest of the way. With 11 games remaining, and only a four point lead over the Devils in the standing, the Bruins can not afford to toy around with Fernandez. Look for Thomas to start nine of the remaining 11 games, with Fernandez getting looks in the back-to-back contests.

And then come playoff time, forget about it.

Brodeur collects win #552, now all-time wins leader

Associated Press--


NEWARK, N.J. -- Martin Brodeur stands alone among NHL goaltenders.
Marty's Milestones

Brodeur posted his 552nd win and passed childhood idol and Hall of Famer Patrick Roy for the most career victories in league history. He made 30 saves in the New Jersey Devils' 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.

The victory came in Brodeur's 987th game in a 15-year career played entirely with the Devils.

During that tenure, the likable Brodeur has led the Devils to three Stanley Cups and won four Vezina Trophies as the league's top goaltender.
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More importantly for Bruins fans, the New Jersey win pulls the Devils within four points of the Bruins in the Eastern Conference.


The updated standings:

1) Boston - 99 points (11 games remaining)
2) New Jersey - 95 points (13 games remaining)
3) Washington - 94 points (10 games remaining)

Bruins News and Notes: 3/17

*With the boys taking Monday off it was not unexpected to see Claude Julien put the Bruins through one of their most competitive practices of the season today.

Patrice Bergeron thought that the hard practice was beneficial to the Bruins, saying, "That's what we need." "Claude wanted us to really make sure on putting the emphasis on being sharp and focused. We did that."

*Phil Kessel was given a maintenance day today. He was the only Bruin not to practice today.

Here were the lines at practice today.

P.J. Axelsson - Marc Savard - Blake Wheeler

Mark Recchi - Patrice Bergeron - Chuck Kobasew

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Michael Ryder

Shawn Thornton - Stephane Yelle - Byron Bitz

Zdeno Chara - Dennis Wideman

Andrew Ference - Steve Montador

Mark Stuart - Aaron Ward

Tim Thomas

Manny Fernandez

Shane Hnidy and Matt Hunwick were the two spare defensemen.

*On Friday, March 20 Bruins great Derek Sanderson will join fans for a "Rinkside Chat" online at BostonBruins.com from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
The Original Six: History of the Boston Bruins DVD launch party.

*During the DVD Launch Party on Tuesday, March 24, Bruins greats Ray Bourque, John Bucyk, Ferny Flaman, Cam Neely and Milt Schmidt as well as current Bruins captain Zdeno Chara will participate in a Question and Answer session with NESN commentators Andy Brickley and Gord Kluzak. This event will begin at 6 p.m.

Bruins take day off, change on the horizon?

Hello BruinSpace faithful,

The B's took the day off today and will get back to work at the ice box tomorrow. With the B's having the day off today and no game Wednesday, expect tomorrow's practice to be a doozie.

We won't know until tomorrow morning if Dennis Wideman, will be available for Thursday night's tilt against the Los Angeles Kings.

The same goes for Stephane Yelle, who is still recovering from an awkward fall into the end boards a week ago Saturday.

With the Bruins carrying eight defensemen, is this the time to shake things up on the back side? Chara, Wideman, Ward and Ference will be your top four, but who gets the final two spots? The candidates are Marc Stuart, Steve Montador, Matt Hunwick and Sherrif Shane Hnidy. A shake-up could be in order.

We'll check back tomorrow evening folks.

Bruins outlast Isles, 2-1

The Boston Bruins defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 today at the TD Banknorth Garden. Outlast

The Bruins looked like they were going to coast to a victory today after taking a 2-0 lead, just over four minutes into the game. However, the Isles tightened things up and the B's had to battle for their two points.

With the two points, Boston moved eight points ahead of the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins have 12 games remaining on their regular season schedule.

Here is an updated look at the standings.

1 Boston - 99 points (12 games remaining)
2 New Jersey - 91 points (15 games remaining)
3 Washington - 90 points (13 games remaining)

Here is a look at the Bruins goal scorers today.

Phil Kessel (30)
Marc Savard (22)

This is Phil Kessel's first 30 goal season and Marc Savard tallied his 76th point, and is leading the Bruins in that category.

Bruins Sink Sens, 5-3

The Boston Bruins survived a late Ottawa rally and beat the Senators, 5-3 Thursday night at the Garden.

Ottawa came from 4-1 down to cut the Boston lead to one, before Phil Kessel put in an empty netter to ice the triumph.

With the win, the Bruins remain six points up on the New Jersey Devils with 13 games to play.

An updated look at the standings.

1 Boston - 97 points (13 games remaining)

2 New Jersey - 91 points (15 games remaining)

3 Washington - 90 points (13 games remaining)

The Bruins goal scorers:

Phil Kessel (28, 29)

Chuck Kobasew (17)

P.J. Axelsson (6)

Aaron Ward (3)