1. * Ottawa 61 76
2. * New Jersey 61 75
3. * Carolina 64 67
4. Pittsburgh 61 75
5. Montreal 62 75
6. Boston 60 68
7. Buffalo 61 68
8. NY Rangers 62 68
9. NY Islanders 62 67
10. Philadelphia 61 66


What a mess. Their couple of iffy home losses this month hurt them in "pursuit of the 5th seed" for sure. On this 5 game road trip though, they have 9 out of 10 possible points. Shocking to be sure. In fact, they're on a 4 game home losing streak, and have won 6 out of 7 on the road, and had an OT loss in the other. Um, need to start winning at home boys.

Philly's fallen off badly.....Montreal and Pittsburgh have picked it up. Still, better than expected with some games they should/could win coming up. They have a couple of games in hand over the NY squads, and the one over Buffalo. Hell, they've played 4 less games than the 'Canes. They'd be OWNING the Southeast! Yes, that's not saying much. I'm aware lol.

5th? Maybe not. 6th is fine with me as they'd play that Southeast division winner 1st round.

Better talkin about this instead of which of the Top 3 picks they might get.

No doubt. The whole "optimism" on my part was with the qualifier that they make some moves. Obviously they're keeping options open, but sometimes you just have to make ANY move. They seem to chemistry, just not 'enough" talent.

Showing you're willing to make positive changes can help out the psyche of a team. Maybe that combined with who they grab can overcome their lack of elite talent.

Snagging a solid platoon guy with Thomas would obviously help.

What you see is what you get. These are your Boston Bruins.

The Bruins could get injured defenseman Andrew Alberts back soon. They might even get goalie Manny Fernandez and center Patrice Bergeron back at some point. But as far as help from outside? Nope.

General manager Peter Chiarelli addressed the troops before Tuesday night’s game and told the guys he had faith in them. They then went out and played an outstanding game.

Coming off a 4-0-1 road trip and saddled by a four-game losing streak on home ice, the Bruins began a stretch of six of the next seven games at home with a strong performance, and now get ready for a visit by the Pittsburgh Penguins and newly acquired star Marian Hossa Thursday night.

Tuesday’s win, Boston’s fourth in a row, pulled the Bruins into a tie with the New York Rangers for sixth place in the Eastern Conference, but Boston has one more win and two games in hand.

Bruins 4, Senators 0: Tim Thomas didn’t know what else to say.

“It was about as complete a game as I’ve seen around,” the goalie said after facing 22 shots for his second shutout of the season. “I don’t know how to spice it up, but it’s true. Star to finish we did a great job.”

Zdeno Chara, who has been playing like the star and leader the Bruins hoped they were getting when they signed him before last season, had two goals, the second into an empty net. Shawn Thornton and David Krejci, finally coring his first NHL goal, also scored for the Bruins.

Notes, Quotes

• The Bruins evened the season series with Ottawa at 2-2-1 with Tuesday night’s 4-0 win. They have held the Senators to one goal or less in three of the five games.

• The Penguins are in town Thursday night with the B’s at 1-1-1 in that four-game season series.

• Tuesday night’s shutout was the fourth of the season for the Bruins, by three different goalies.

• The Bruins had one power play and one shorthanded goal (both by Zdeno Chara) Tuesday night, the seventh power play goal in the last four games.

Quote To Note: “It was a great game by the team. I think the thing was the win.”—Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, after Tuesday night’s shutout win over Ottawa.

Player Notes:

• G Tim Thomas, bouncing back from a shaky outing at Florida last week, notched his second shutout of the season and the sixth of his NHL career Tuesday night.

• RW Chuck Kobasew missed his second straight with a groin pull.

• RW Peter Schaefer returned from his shin injury and had an assist.

• RW Petteri Nokelainen was a healthy scratch.

• D Zdeno Chara is 5-2-6 during a five-game point-scoring streak and had the Bruins’ seventh shorthanded goal of the season into an empty Ottawa net. He has goals in six of the last nine games.

• C David Krejci, who had a winning shootout goal last week, finally scored his first NHL goal Tuesday night.

• C Marc Savard picked up his league-leading 56th assist of the season Saturday night, his 23rd on the power play.

Feb 28 vs Pittsburgh
Mar 1 vs Atlanta
Mar 3 at Washington
Mar 4 vs Florida
Mar 6 vs Toronto
Mar 8 vs Washington
Mar 9 at NY Rangers
Mar 11 at Ottawa
Mar 13 vs Tampa Bay
Mar 15 vs Philadelphia
Mar 16 at Washington
Mar 20 vs Montreal
Mar 22 at Montreal
Mar 25 at Toronto
Mar 27 vs Toronto
Mar 29 vs Ottawa
Mar 30 at Buffalo

2. * Ottawa 64 78
3. * Carolina 66 71
4. Pittsburgh 64 79
5. Montreal 64 77
6. Boston 62 72
7. NY Rangers 64 72
8. Philadelphia 63 69
9. Buffalo 63 69
10. NY Islanders 64 67
11. Washington 64 66
12. Toronto 64 63
13. Florida 65 63
14. Atlanta 64 62
15. Tampa Bay 62 57


Well, I WAS incorrect about "5th by the end of the month". However, maybe I was just a month ahead in my odd optimism.

Still stunned that Montreal, in good position, would go to the youngster over Huet. I don't watch them everyday, so they know better than I that Price>Huet for the rest of the year and into the playoffs.

Wasn't happy with standing pat, but the boys somehow responded, and dominated a struggling Ottawa team last night to bookend the month with wins vs. the Sens. Who knew they'd play so much better against them rather than the Canadiens.

This month they play a multitude of games vs. the Southeast, get Toronto 3 more times, and play the teams above them in the standings 3 times as well. Those head to head games mean alot, but they have to maintain their road success, after hopefully taking full advantage of this current homestand (6 out of 7 at home).

I like the 6th spot, as they'd face the Southeast winner.

But I'm gonna try this again.

5th by the end of the month! Dammit.

This post could not be converted. To view the original post's thread, click here.

Ok, NOW am I allowed to be excited about this team?

Dominated about every way you could tonight.

Lucic's fight was crowd-rousing. That place went NUTS when he was skating off.

6-0-1 in their last 7.

Sturm's 2 goals included his 200th career. Congrats to Marco.

Ottawa loses AGAIN. Bruins are only 4 points back of the DIVISION lead, never mind sneaking into the playoffs.

As Jack Edwards said, "The bandwagon is loading up! Jump on while you can."





"He fought smartly. He was instigated by the other guy and stood up for himself. This is our building and we're not gonna let people come in and push us around." ---Claude Julien on the Lucic fight