Ghosts of the Garden

Hannu Toivonen will be making his second straight start tonight after surviving a shaky first half in the Penguins game Thursday. He came up big when he needed to especially during the near full 5 on 3 PK in the third period, overtime and then the shoot-out. I think Lewis and management want to see how Hannu is going to hold up in an important game, and whether his last game was a fluke.

Still out (but skating) are York and Primeau. That means Allen will make his third straight start with the big club. He has been playing strong and he looks like he belongs. Hopefully it's not just rookie adrenaline and his great play will continue. With Allen absorbing minutes that will most likely leave Jurcina with the least ice time again.

Ray Emery will get the start for Ottawa and the team has been hot as of late. They have won 4 of their last 5 games, outscoring their opponents 25-13 during that stretch. The 1st of those five games was the 5-2 Senators win on January 9th. On a brighter historical note, the Senators lost their last five visits to Boston and have won just 10-of-29 in franchise history. Out for the Sens are Jason Spezza and Mike Fisher.

I haven't compiled the team and goalie stats for awhile so here they are!

Click for a larger image.

I just read an interesting article on NHL.com about Bruins goalie Ed Johnston, who started every minute of the entire 1963-64 season for Boston :

Johnston gets to Massachusetts General Hospital and he was immediately told that he was going to get leech therapy to open his eyes.

"Our trainer brought me over there because both my eyes were shut at the time, they told me what the procedure was, so I laid there for about an hour or so, they opened it up and that was it," said Johnston. "I looked (at the leeches), it was kind of ugly.

"I never thought about it. They said it was the procedure, I just did it. Like I said I broke my nose three times and it was just a matter of getting my eyes open so I could play the next night."

Totally wicked. That would be Tim Thomas if Lewis would let him go every game!

Speaking of Thomas, I found this video by NHL.com (Saves of the Week)