Bs v Hawks: The good, the bad, the ugly

I save the best for last, so we'll start with:

The Ugly

:28 into the game, Marc Savard took an awkward hit, tweaking his knee, went down and didn't return. Word from Julien is he'll be having an MRI today. This is so very not good. 3rd key player to go down in 3 games. Are the Bruins jinxed? If anyone knows a good protection charm to put on the remaining players, now might be the time to get that done.

The Bad
Obviously #1 here is the 5-2 loss. But let's be a little realistic. This is a Franken-Bruin team against the top team in the league. That they scored 2 goals was a blessing if we're going to be honest about things. #2 is that Tim Thomas was pulled after the 4th goal, a 65' wrister of Duncan Keith's that rang in and down off the crossbar. My first thought after that goals was, better pull Tim, and sure enough Coach did. Whether it was a mercy pulling, or a sending-a-message pulling, I don't know. But Tuukka managed to keep the Hawks to only one goal in the remaining period in a half. Sometimes I wonder if Timmy has a Vezina hangover. Sidenote: my 5 year old niece thinks it's cheating by catching the puck. Oh I have much to teach her. Morning lessons in goal-tending commencing in 3.... 2.... 1.

The Good
My favourite part.  Where to start. Let's start with what we all know is my favourite: The return of Milan Lucic.

Now, listen. You can't expect a guy to miss 18 games in a row, who has played a total of 10 (now 11) games this season, and jump back on the ice his first game and kick ass. Yeah, he was rusty. Yeah his hands looked a little heavy. Yeah he wasn't quite back in the groove. But the point is, he's back in the lineup, and with Mark Stuart and Andrew Ference out, despite not being a defenceman, Looch's presence is needed, desperately. No one's afraid of Adam McQuaid or Johnny Boychuk. For what it's worth, Looch had 16:23 of ice time, 5 hits, and was a -2. Considering how the game ended, that's a successful return.

Good #2: Satan scored his first goal as a Bruin, and his first goal in 6+ months. Am I the only one who finds hilarious irony in the word "Satan" being above the #81? No? Good.

Good #2a: Blake Wheeler once again had a multi-goal game, scoring off of Johnny Boychuck's rebound, and figuring in on Satan's goal. If it's not Wheels with the multi-goal games, it's Krejci or Boychuk. I'm liking this new trend. Welcome to the new guard.

Good #3: Johnny Boychuk's first NHL fight, vs Hawks tough guy Colin Fraser. A continuation of Derek Morris' first-period fight with Fraser. JB, however, got the point across a little better than did DeMo.

I'm really starting to love JB. If he's not breaking glass with his slapshots, he's breaking faces with his fists, or sending crisp passes up ice. This guy's a keeper, and giving how our D is dropping like flies (dear God, please don't let Chara or Wideman go down, please please please), he should figure to be in the lineup for a while still. Here's hoping Julien keeps him even once Ference and Stuart are healthy.

Don't forget the Frozen Fenway tonight, the marquis game being the Battle of Comm Ave with puck drop at 7:30 pm. That should be a great atmosphere. It should be around 18°F with snow at when the Eagles and Terriers take the ice. They're college kids, they can take it! Go Eagles!

Up next for the Bruins are the witless/winless Rangers. Unless you count that last time they played the Bruins. I mean for God's sake, the THRASHERS beat them last night. If the Bruins can get their game a little back on track, and re-group with Savvy out (or, miracle of miracles, with Savvy back on the ice having nothing more than a teeny tiny minor tweak), there's no reason this team can't be beat. I mean it's the fucking Rangers, c'mon.

GOAL BY LUCIC!

In a beautiful win by the Bruins over the (division) 1st place Sabres, Milan Lucic [ME-lahn LOO-cheech. Idiots. I'm going to make a bingo card out of all the ways people say his last name wrong. All time favourite is still "Luke-itch."] scored such a pretty, pretty goal. Might be my favourite play of the season. Some Sabre shot the puck, Rask made a pad save, it made its way through a few Sabres, then Byron Bitz poke-checked it, used his loooong stride and quickly skated into the offencive zone with it, sending a sillllly pass beneath some other Sabre's stick to Looch, who just tapped it in.

LOL: Bitzy's face, and the 2 Sabres fans w/the crossed arms.

Tuukka Rask got his first assist in the NHL (his comment on that: "... I did? Really? Huh, I had no idea. I guess I made a save or something."), and Milan Lucic got his first goal of the season. As well as some AWESOME hits on various Sabres - the hurt he put on Tallinder in in the first comes to mind.

I have to collect my thoughts on this game, but bullet points. Some for laaaaater:

• Pominville taking Z's slapshot in the shin from 15'
• Blake Wheeler hunting a goal like his life is on the line
• Tuukka Rask's catch-and-hold
• Marc Savard's press-box attire
• "When Marc Recchi entered the NHL, Tyler Myers was... not even a fetus!"
• The B's jump in the 2nd
• Rask commenting that it was "kind of slow" for him in the 3rd. Dude, what? The 2nd wasn't?
  
• Milan Lucic and Byron Bitz - switch out Begin for Savard? 
• Jack Edwards' lessons in physics
• Jack Edwards getting nailed in the balls by a water balloon. Thrown by Mike Milbury. I KNOW!
  

Oh, yeah. If you're playing a "4 point game" and the game goes to OT? YOU CAN NOT CONTINUE REFERRING TO IT AS A FOUR POINT GAME BECAUSE THE OTHER TEAM GOT A POINT. RETARDS.

Photo courtesy Getty. You can click it. It gets bigger. (That's what she said.)

Halloween treats, and tricks.

TRICK: Pavelec honours Jacques Plant.
I might've given up on blogging about the Thrashers, but it is absolutely worth mentioning that last night, Ondrej Pavelec accidentally honoured the 50th anniversary of Jacques Plant storming off the ice and refusing to return without a mask. You know the part in Transformers 2 when Simmons is climbing the pyramid and is right beneath Devastator's swinging steel wrecking balls? Yeah, that's Pavelec. Had no choice but to take a shot, maskless, and made a shoulder save on it. Ondrej Pavelec, here's to you. Curious here, if he had stood up and moved from the crease, would the play be blown dead and/or the goal negated if one was subsequently scored? The Thrashers went on to, well, Thrash the Senators, 4-2. Well done,former team. Very well done!

TREAT: How's Looch doin?
Milan Lucic made a visit to the NESN desk to join Kathryn (irregardless is not a word, lady) Tappen and Barry Pederson this past Hallow's Eve. This might be the most charming and charismatic 21 year old I've ever ran across. Everyone calls/ed Crosby "poised" and "mature" but he's so wooden, as if saying his lines by rote. This guy has more than the standard 82 hockey cliches memorised. He's made up his own. Admirable, but the rapport with the press can be analogised as such; Lucic and Crosby equals Bill Clinton and Hilary. Looch glad-hands the cliches, I can't lie, but he adds in so much colour and humour into his answers. Check him out.

Also, two other semi-relevant points. #1 - Did anyone else see the "Big Mouth" segment where Jack and Brick joined the Philly broadcasters in the 2nd intermission of that painful loss? Jack and Brick were so natty and sharp-dressed-men in comparison to the Philly guys. And a lot more entertaining to listen to but I wouldn't know since NHL Network aired the Comcast feed. #2 - Looch is also so well dressed. He wears a suit well.

TREAT AND A TRICK: Pony shuts up the Habs cult.
The Habs were leading the Leafs by 2 (hardest lead to hold) with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd. The smarmy cult of Habs fans had begun singing the Goodbye song (na-na-na-na na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey, good byyyyyyye (one of the things I really do miss in hockey these days, I have to admit), when Alexei Ponikarovsky scored, and shut the fans up. The Leafs then promptly potted another, and the game went to OT. Then it went to the shootout. And the Leafs, being the Leafs, did not win. BUT! In their defence, how the hell are you supposed to focus on the shots you have when that butt ugly and dizzying striped jersey in front of you all night? I hate that jersey. That is THE WORST jersey in the NHL.

TREAT: Tuuuuuuks gets the S v Edmonton
A lot of people in the hockey world (although not Bruins or Team Finland fans) were really first introduced to Tuukka Rask when he lost his shit down Providence. Last night he tricked the Oilers and gave them a shutout for their efforts. The game was typical Oiler hockey, which is to say, fast, quick transition, constant line changes on the fly, few whistles, lots of hits, lots of back check, fore check and hip check! It was totally a game the Bruins were up for. As someone who's also a fan of the Oilers (OH GOD GATOR GET A JOB WITH THE OIL, SOB!), I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Bruins step right up and play in stride. A great 60 minute game with full effort.

TREAT: Wheeler and Sobotka are the shit
For what it's worth, Sobotka better stay up in Boston, and he, Wheels and Paille will be the Kessel-Savard-Lucic line of this season. The last 6 seconds of the 2nd period were breath-taking, heart-stopping, and fist-pumpingly awesome. In the most deliciously vicious cycle, Vladi made a point-blank shot on Khabibulin, Ryder sent the rebound to Wheeler, Wheels threaded it to Vladi, and again he shot on Twitchy. Three times in just seconds and the 4th one went in, popped the water bottle, and caused the fans to raise the roof in celebration. So loudly that few heard the period-over siren 0:02 seconds before the puck crossed the line. But Vladi and Wheels heard. And they made sure the next two counted. Wheel from Vladi, then Vladi from Wheels, and the Bruins sent the Oilers away with 0 points and a shutty.

Hell yeah, Luc, Wheels and Little!!

Listen I just want you to know I can totally sit here for about an hour and come up with funny anagrams out of "luc wheels little" but I won't. Because I know you're dying for the news that's already on 93 other legitimate outlets, BUT THAT'S OKAY! No one gives it to you with my perspicacity! MOVING ON!

They're doing rookies vs sophomores this year, and I gotta be honest, I don't have the attention span to read the whole article and figure out who's playing where, although I could probably look and tell you. However, Here's your 2009 YoungStars lineup, sorted alphabetically.

Nicklas Backstrom (Washington)
Patrik Berglund (St. Louis)
Mikkel Boedker (Phoenix)
Andrew Cogliano (Edmonton)
Drew Doughty (Los Angeles)
Brandon Dubinsky (New York R)
Erik Ersberg (Los Angeles)
Michael Frolik (Florida)

Bryan Little (Atlanta)

Kris Letang (Pittsburgh)

Milan Lucic (Boston)

Steve Mason (Columbus)
James Neal (Dallas)
Mason Raymond (Vancouver)
Luke Schenn (Toronto)
Marc Staal (New York R)
Devin Setoguchi (San Jose)
Steven Stamkos (Tampa)
Kris Versteeg (Chicago)

Blake Wheeler (Boston)

Why the hell is Phil Kessel being snubbed for the ASW?