For the first time in four years the Stanley Cup playoffs come back to Boston. Being picked by many to finish dead last in the NHL, Boston was supposed to be the door mat of the league. Now they are in the playoffs. That alone makes the B’s relevant in Boston again, never mind that they face off against their hated rivals, the Canadiens. What is better than a Boston vs. Montreal playoff battle? The B’s head into the series as the heavy underdogs. What else is new?They have been the underdogs all season long. B’s Habs, wouldn’t want it any other way.

2007-2008 Regular season match up

The Habs owned the season series, sweeping Boston in all eight games. To go back further, Montreal has won 11 straight against the B’s. The last time Boston beat the Canadiens was on March 3, 2007 in a 3-1 home victory.

2007-2008 Winner Scores

Canadiens 6-1
Canadiens 2-1
Canadiens 7-4
Canadiens 4-2
Canadiens 5-2
Canadiens 8-2
Canadiens 4-2
Canadiens 3-2

Patrice Bergeron has been cleared to play in the playoffs. The Bruins young forward has missed the majority of the year with a level three concussion. After being examined by the doctors early Monday morning, Bergeron can play in the post season. Bergeron, who had been knock unconscious in the 10th game of the season courtesy of a Randy Jones hit, has missed the last 72 games. Now Bergeron can practice with the team in full contact. Before he was not allowed to be hit by his teammates, only allowed to initiate contact.

It’s still unclear that Bergeron will see anytime in the playoff. He still needs to see how his body reacts after a full contact practice. If he is cleared to play, the team could desperately use him against Montreal. The B’s are 0-8 against the Habs this season. The possibility of Bergeron along with the probable return of Marc Savard gives the Bruins hope that they can pull off an upset.

According the NHL, the Jack Adams Award is an annual award presented by the National Hockey League Broadcasters’ Association to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.

Listening to the supposed national expert’s picks for coach of the year makes me sick. You wouldn’t know that Claude Julien has the Bruins, who many picked to finish nowhere near a playoff spot, sitting in 7th place. Instead, Versus and ESPN has  coaches such as Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau, Guy Carbonneau, and Ron Wilson picked to be leading candidates for the award. There wasn’t even a mention of Bruin’s coach Claude Julien. That reason, I have no idea.

Now I’m not just being a homer and believe that Claude Julien is the Bill Belichick of hockey, because i don’t. As a matter of fact I wanted to see Mike Milbury behind the bench when the Bruins were searching for a head coach after the Dave Lewis debacle.  So why am I lobbying for Julien as Coach of the Year, because no coach has done more with what he’s been dealt this year. No other coach has gotten more from their team than the Bruin’s coach.

Bruins snagged three out of a possiblefour points this past weekend against division rivals. The B’s had an impressive 4-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and manage to gain a point in an overtime 2-1 loss against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.

Currently Boston is tie win the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. However, due to the tie breakers, Boston remains in that seventh position, with the Rangers being the sixth and having a game in hand. All three teams are three points ahead of Washington, who remains on the outside looking in.

David Krejci continued his stellar play in both contests. The Bruin’s young forward tallied a goal and two assist Saturday against the Sens and added the B’s lone goal against the Sabres on Sunday, which happened to be a short handed goal. Before Sunday’s loss, Krejci has had three consecutive multi-point game. Krejci has been the Bruins’ primary source of offense in the absence of Marc Savard. He has three goals and five assists over that span of four games.

After another win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and officially eliminating the Leafs from the playoffs, the Bruins now sit in the seventh in the Coference with five games left to play.

In the absents of Marc Savard (broken bone in back) and Chuck Kobasew(broken leg), the B’s have managed to score four or more goals in Bruins wins. David Krejci has taken the role of Savard on the powerplay, and has looked great doing it. You have to apprieciate the play of Bruin’s rookie center. He has tallied four points in his last two game and was the best player on the ice in last night’s game. 

Krejci made a perfect pass to set up Marco Sturm for the first goal of the game. Toronto tied it up on a Jiri Tlusty goal in the second. Then three third period goals by the Bruin’s Phil Kessel, Glen Murray, and Peter Schaefer sealed the fate of the game and ultimately, Toronto’s season. Tim Thomas made 30 stops in the win.

Weird stat of the night: The teams played 11:53 without a stoppage in the first period.

The Maple Leafs became the fourth team in the Eastern Conference eliminated from the playoffs. The others: New York Islanders, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning.

While the B’s have faltered down the stretch, the Maple Leafs have given the city of Toronto slim hope. Toronto had been one of the hottest teams in the NHL. So hot, that the Leafs have played themselves out of a lottery pick and into the playoff race going into last nights game. Essentially, Toronto had to beat the Bruins in regulation in last night’s game and beat them again on Thursday in order to have a realistic chance.

That chance,  was put to an end. Playing a desperate and motivated hockey club, the Bruins all but ended the Leafs playoff chances by beating them 6-2. That win  put Boston six points ahead of Toronto with six to play. The Leafs would have to surpass the Bruins and four other teams in order to make the playoffs.

You have to appreciate the resiliency of this year’s Bruins club. Toronto was playing for their playoff lives and needed that win. Boston headed into last night’s game, losers of three straight and having the worst month this team has seen all year. Everything was going against the B’s, Washington had won to move ahead of Boston for that final playoff spot (number of wins being the tie-breaker), Marc Savard and Andrew Ference were out with injuries, Big Z was banged up, and the B’s have had a whale of a time trying to find the back of the net. To make matters worst, Boston’s sniper Chuck Kobasew was injured early in the first period and didn’t return.

Boston plays Montreal. Boston loses to Montreal. Sound familiar? That’s because the very scenario has happened all seven times the B’s have faced off against the Habs this season.

The reeling Bruins dropped another one to their northern rivals last night at the Garden. Just how bad have things gotten for the Bruins in the last couple of weeks? The B’s have only managed three wins out of 11 games this month, Philadelphia and Buffalo are within two points of Boston for the final two playoff spots and Washington sits only three points back.

The B’s may have been home last night but it looked like an away game, as Montreal fans flooded the Garden. There were giant pockets of red, white, and blue throughout the sea of fans. Although, Montreal fans are well traveled and Boston is only a hop, skip and a jump from Montreal, as a Bruins fan this is like Fenway Park having more Yankee fans attending the rival game than Red Sox fans.

Boston Bruins forward Glen Metropolithas been nominated for The Bill Masterton Trophy. The Masterton Trophy is awarded to National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. For the second year in a row a Boston Bruin is up for the award.

You may remember last year when Boston’s young forward Phil Kessel won the award. Kessel was diagnosed with testicular cancer in early December. He played a Dec. 9 game against New Jersey, knowing he would be admitted to the hospital for surgery on Dec. 12. He missed only 12 games before returning to the club.

This year Glen Metropolit didn’t have to overcome life threatening odds but he did endured much of the same uncertainty of playing in the NHL. After splitting time last season with the Atlanta Thrashers and the St. Louis Blues, Metropolit had an extremely difficult time finding an NHL team that was interested in his services. With a rather successful campaign split between the two teams, no NHL GM had called Glen by the middle of the summer.

The Boston Bruins seemingly played the Washington Capitals every other game in the past two weeks. The two met again yesterday afternoon in Washington. After the B’s beat the Flyers in a thrilling overtime game on Saturday, Boston lost to the Capitals 2-1 in a shootout on Sunday. The good news, Boston  gained a point to move three ahead of the cut off for a playoff spot, the point also earns them a tie with the sixth place New York Rangers.

Boston, again played without their captain Zdeno Chara. Big Z missed a fifth straight game with an undisclosed upper body injury Sunday. Rumors that Chara might be shut down for the remainder of the season was dismissed by his agent, “He’s banged up, that’s about all I can say about it,” said Matt Keator. “He’s definitely not finished for the season. He should be fine. I don’t think he is going to miss much time at all.”

As for the game, Chuck Kobasew score again for the Bruins. After going 15 straight games without a goal, Kobasew finally scored his 20th of the season on Thursday in the Bruins’ 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay. After scoring three goals in his last three games, Kobasew has set a new career high in goals with 22.

The Bruins remained ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers in the standings after defeating them 3-2 in overtime. Tim Thomas made his second consecutive start making 24 saves. Chuck Kobasew (21) and Andrew Ference (1) score in regulation. Ference’s goal came with under a minute left in the third period to tie the game up at two. The goal was Ference’s first of the season. Aaron Ward’s slapper half way through overtime, beat Flyers goalie Martin Biron and gave Boston a much needed win. The B’s get right back into action as they skate against the Washington Capitals today at 3.