Timmy Signs Extension

Well this writers dream has come true! Tim Thomas today signed an unofficial 3 year extension with the Boston Bruins. The deal will pay Timmy around $5 million per year (not official numbers) which is around Martin Brodeur's current salary. I know the Timmy haters will be out in force with this one, but then as usual everything they'll say will baseless and ignorant. Yes I am calling you all ignorant, if you don't like it tell me.

So before you start comparing Thomas to Brodeur take a look at the league goalie salaries first. Brodeur is not even paid in the top five of goalies, guess what he is 10th! Of that list look who's the best, Thomas.

While my nice stats above should be enough to shut you up I know it won't. Next you will be complaining about the Bruins overall salaries and how we are going to sign Kessel and Krejci. Well we will have to dump or trade some low level guys. That's reality people, we have a cap and we have to pay our best players to keep them. Thomas is the best goalie in the league this year and top 5 the year before (4th in SV%). Many of you, due to his flop style, really can't accept his numbers. Even when the Bruins suck he doesn't, but yet you still hate. Oh and did you guys read about the safety net in his salary? Not that anyone should hope they need to use it, they do have an option later.

When a player signs a new deal after his 35th birthday, per the CBA, although he
can be bought out (at a two-thirds reduction in pay), his cap number can not be
deleted from the club's salary commitments.

Since he signed this extension prior to his 35th birthday this doesn't apply. He can be bought out and salary can be cut by 1/3 and spread out over the remaining years.

Along with giving David Krejci the Seventh Player Award the Bruins also signed free agent winger Yannick Riendeau. This 20 year old led the QMJHL this year in points with 58-68-126 totals in 64 games. In his 4 game playoff series Riendeau got 19 points in 4 games. No word at this time where he will be reporting to, but most likely to Providence for now.

Update: It is now confirmed as a 4 year $20 million deal. Average cap hit each year is $5 million.

Savy, Big Z, Timmah and Smoked Meat

Well I watched the All-Star Game for some odd reason, and I actually wasn't disappointed! I know it might be shocking to hear but I actually enjoyed watching the game. I caught the skills competition on NHL.com and both Timmah and Chara did great. Timmah was by far the best goalie in the Elimination Shoot-out and Savard finished second:


and Chara set the record for the Hardest Shot:
In the Young Guns game Bruins rookie Blake Wheeler lit up with 3 goals and 2 assists on his way to a Freshmen win and MVP of the game! All these great Bruins achievements and we haven't talked about the big game itself.

Savard had a monster game and threw pass after pass at his talented linemates. Making them look effortless, the passes were quick and crisp as he got 3 assists in total and many great missed chances as well. Chara had a mediocre game making a few good blocks and 2 giveaways that lead to break away goals. More than anything he looked kind of bored (nothing unusual in a game like this). The best Bruins highlights came in the 3rd period as the great Timmah Thomas entered the game. Timmah let in 2 quick ones before even getting warmed up but settled down and let only one late one in. With the game tied they went to overtime where Timmah and the East had to kill of the games only penalty. Scoreless it went to a shootout where Timmah shut the West down. Timmah kept all his best saves for the overtime and shootout where he made the most saves (19 of 22) of all the goaltenders and got the win to boot!

Really nice story on NHL.com on Timmah as well. Enjoy!

Bergeron and Fernandez Updates

It was just announced by the team that Patrice Bergeron will be out the better part of a month, after sustaining a broken nose and concussion. Randy Jones was suspended two games by the league for applying the careless hit from behind. I expect Brandon Bochenski to fill in on the 3rd line while Bergeron is out.

In other news, Manny Fernandez suffered a slight strain of his left knee in practice yesterday. With Fernandez injured the Bruins have recalled Providence goaltender Jordan Sigalet. While highly unlikely he will see any action, it's great for Jordan to get a bigger pay cheque, even if it's only a couple games. I think it is in the teams best interest to play Thomas for the next three games to give Fernandez time to heal. That and the Bruins will be taking on the Ottawa Senators for a home at home series and Thomas has played rather well against them in the last two seasons.

Flying in under the radar

Last night in the bottom of the 11th as most New Englanders suffered and wondered about their teams World series chances, a group of Boston Bruins prepared to catch a flight home. They would be flying home under the radar as most of the region worried about the teams that play with their respective balls. These puck heads could hold their heads high as they debarked for their own New England homes, they had finally also played with some balls.

The seasons first real milestone has passed and unlike previous seasons where milestones were also marked with disappointment, with this milestone these brewing Bruins could mark the seasons first and only west coast road trip as a positive, the proverbial something to grow upon, not the learning experience to take to heart in hopes of better results next time.

A 3-2 start to the season while most were expecting a 0-5 or 1-4 with the optimists amongst us predicting 2-3, well 3-2 this is more than acceptable after last year. Especially when you see how they lost last year and how they won the last two in this road swing. Giving up late leads is something we had become accustom to. Rallying back and winning these games, well this, this is something good teams do (somebody hit me I just used good and team in reference to the Bruins in the same post!).

Where the team goes from here will depend on how well management and the coaching staff can fix or mediate the issues revealed by these first 5 games. In no particular order.

Face offs, face offs, face offs, they are not winning enough of them.

Offense. If you throw away the LA game as the obvious anomaly that it was, they are scoring at 1.75 goals per game clip- not enough. Struggling to score in part stems from playing some pretty good teams, but is also something that will need to be addressed. The team looks like it can generate chances when it needs to but in the early going seems to stop generating chances once a lead has been garnered. Good teams learn to keep the foot on the pedal while also playing responsibly with the lead.

Manny being Manny, we will need Manny to be a reliable back up to Thomas, especially with his salary hit. How well he adjusts to be being a back-up (or split duty) will be one of the biggest keys to the season.

The Lucic decision, make it before the home opener. No more needs to be seen to decide. Reich and Bochenski are not better options and none are coming up route 95. Give the kid a stall, sign him up long term now, have him sleep at Cam's house, maybe they can bunk together, welcome to Boston Milan. Can you win a face off too?

Nice work boys, keep it up. Tampa Bay Thursday will be a tough game as Tampa has started out hot and has had good performances from their centers Prospal, Lecavalier and Richards with 6, 6, and 4 points respectively in four games.

A style is developing

Last night against the Cup champs the team looked pretty darn good; for 7 minutes. For 30 minutes they looked liked they belonged on the same ice as the champs. and for 23 minutes and two costly and or unfortunate mistakes they looked like a work in process. These are a few of the things I took away from the 1-2 loss. Here are some other statements based on last nights performance.

Thomas played well and could not be faulted on the two duck strickes.

What and why is the message of no ice time being delivered to Bochenski and is it good that he looked perturbed on the bench?

When will Muzz get a point, as one of our top forwards we should be seeing more production!

Savards health is going to be critical to the above.

Face off specialist, will one emerge?

Outshot again, not a good trend.

Bergeron looks like he is on the verge of breaking out, but needs to find chemistry with someone in this line up. Same can be said for Kessel.

Lastly if they can take one of the two upcoming games to go 2-3 on the road trip, I think they have done as well as could be expected. If they take the next 2 well then we have set some potential for actually becoming excited. If they lose both, well perhaps we are looking at another long year. My prediction is they will take the game from the Kings and lose to Big Jose. So far I like what I see but for a succesful season some of these peices will need to really start clicking.

A clear shot taken

I just read that Timmy will get the start tonight against the Cup champs. This is a clear statement to the team that if you perform well, you will get ice time. The Thomas haters will be complaining if he loses tonight. They will clamor for Manny. Those of us who support him (Tim) will see it as a minor set back. This clear shot at Manny's play and attitude and backing of Timmy's, this is the coaches first bold and correct move. Congrats to you Claude, your first feather in the credibility cap.

Good luck tonight boys

Ps those of you expecting to see the game at 10:00 will see a half hour of Cup celebration.

Phoenix Post-Game

The day after the embarrassing 4-1 loss to Dallas the Bruins are taking on Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes. In the Dallas game, new tender Manny Fernandez let in 4 goals on only 18 shots and Marc Savard lost 10 of 13 face-offs. Fernandez admitted that he was not mentally prepared for the game and that there was nothing physically wrong with him. Twenty minutes before the game, it was announced that Tim Thomas would get the start.

The game began well with Zdeno Chara laying out Shane Doan with a good hit as he entered the Bruins offensive zone. There were a lot of giveaways by Phoenix in the first period and Derek Morris had to hook Bergeron to stop him from scoring. On the ensuing PP, Bergeron quickly got even on a great pass by Chara setting up a Bergeron's second goal in as many games. Less than a minute later Chuck Kobasew stole the puke on the penalty kill and he and Axelsson went in 2 on 1 with Kobasew scoring shorthanded.

Great chance for Phoenix right away in the second period when the puck was shot at Thomas and it squirted under him. Fortunately for the Bruins the referee blew the whistle while it sat on the goal line. There have been a lot of shots on goal this period for Phoenix, but Timmy has been making easy saves thanks to his players clearing the lanes. Timmy's only flaw was on Phoenix's only goal of the game on a shot that was put in off of Niko Kapanen's skate. Not too much rough stuff in the game just good control by the Bruins. the game was capped off in the third by the Bruins second power play goal of the game. This one scored by Marco Sturm on the second PP unit, and assisted by David Krejci and Phil Kessel.

- Chara finished with a team high 4 hits and lead the team in time on ice with 23:51.

- Marc Savard left the ice after Phoenix's goal and did not return. Said to be precautionary and was walking without a limp after the game.

- Tim Thomas was stellar stopping 36/37 shots and would have had the shutout if not for the "kick" in.

Backstop backdrop

I am going to predict that Timmy Thomas comes out of the 2007-2008 season as the clear number one goalie for the next season. I do not boldy predict usually, but lets review some numbers.

The Manster saw 26.3 shots per game in Minny.
Timmy saw 30.1 shots per games in the Hubster.

What these numbers do not tell you is the quality of these chances. I did not see many Manny games, but I would bet his 26.3 shots were on average unremarkable shots. The variety where there is pressure on the shooter from the defence. While Timmy needed to see a shrink by mid-season after seeing his buds in front of him not worry about impeding a puck carrierer. These shots were of the cross crease, alone in the slot, pull you hair out 30.1 times per night variety, that goalies have dreams (for the competive ones,) or nightmares about (for the collect a paycheck types).

While both goalies hopefully will benefit from improved team defence in Boston (and hopefully a dash of disipline- see 10 too many on the ice penalties) and some guys going to the puck instead of retreating to the Revere, I see the firey attitude Tim has had to adopt eventually earning him more starts.

Tim will show the doubters around here why his lower save percentage of .905 to Manny's more impressive looking .911 is smoke and mirrors. While were on it does everyone understand what these numbers really mean? 90.5 percent of the shots Tim sees he stops on a team that played zero defence and intimidated no one. While Manny was saving 91.1 percent of the shots in front of one of the games most respected defensive coaches teams. Lets do some math shall we? The difference in save percentage, anyone, anyone, Bueller? Thats right, .6 percent. This works out to something like Tim giving up one extra goal per every 6-12 games. By the way Manny's team had 28 more points than Tims. I bet Manny's team never really folded up the fly and the defensive tent anytime his team got down by a goal or two either.

So back to my prediction, while Manny will be solid and get 3 of 5 games to start the season. Tim will start stealing the games he is in and earn the larger number of split duty action for the second half of the season.

Now What!!!???

These are the bleakest days, of the bleakest month, of the bleakenest season of my hockey discontent. What o what do we think about, blog about, scratch down on paper or call our hockey buds about? What? The new coach is in place. No one knows if he will turn another new set of helmets into something to really route for. The new coaching staff is in place (yawn). The new free agents are signed (O-boy?). The returning free agents are signed (not typical). The goaltending seems to be poised to be a mature tandem with some expectations of being reliable (boring!). The forwards well you can draw up lines all day but there do not seem to be many surprises coming from these 12-14. Defense? Also mostly the same. Anyone really care to discuss Z’s partner; should it be Ward? Or maybe Alberts is Z’s partner. OH! Who cares when they have sweat on their brow while typing! Rehashing last season, were all set with that right? How hurt was Bergeron (he better have been)? Pj is back on the third line (not as big a deal as people made it out to be)? Now what! I hate August Seventh.......

PC Wants Emery?

God I hope not. I mean it one thing to WANT Emery, but it is another to blow your whole wad on the guy. TSN (via the Ottawa Sun) is suggesting that that Chiarelli would need to offer around 3.5 to 4.7 million per to land Emery. Now, even if Ottawa decides not to match, this would mean Boston loses their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd draft picks for next year (likely good ones too). I am banking that the Bruins will do horrible so we can get a shot at Tavares (assuming the league will change the rules of eligibility for him).

Tavares or not, that kind of payout is a little to hard to swallow. I'm sure we can get a goalie for cheaper than that as a UFA. Again, I will re-iterate that Thomas was not our problem last year, and if we continue to waste our cap space on a goalie the new guy will be just as screwed as Thomas. Let's take Scott Clemmensen as a backup for Thomas.

Oh yeah, in other news the cap has increased to $50.3 million.

Who is he setting up?

Just a quick observation from looking at our team stats. I noticed that Savard has 70 assists. Who scored the goals on these assists? Excluding his own goal scoring (which he can not have assists on) Boston's top 3 goal scorers are: Murray, Sturm and Bergeron with 28, 25 and 21 goals - a total of 74 goals. Has Savard been in on practically everyone of these goals? After these players the next top goal scorer on Boston is Bochenski with 12.

You expect for a 70 assist man to have someone with him on his line that would be close to a 50 goal scorer - Boston doesn't have a 30 goal scorer. Has Savard been setting up everybody and if he wasn't on our team would we have any goals at all this season? Has www.nhl.com made a mistake with their stats? For Savard to have 70 assists is amazing but it is even more amazing when you realize that no one on Boston has scored any goals. If Boston did have a goal scorer Savard would have had 100 assists!

Without Savard and Timmy on our team this season Boston might have ended the season with zero points. The rest of the team should be ashamed and hold themselves accountable and come back next year playing like Savard has been all season long. I think everyone in a Bruins uniform should apologize to both Timmy and Savard for letting them down this year.

On a side note Boston beat Ottawa last night 3-2. Hard to get excited over it but I still like winning no matter what.

BAH!!! - I Hate The Habs!!!

Last night In La Belle Province The Bruins fell to The Habs 1-0. This was a two fold hurtful loss in that it makes Boston's quest to the post season more difficult and the 2 extra points help Montreal in their own playoff aspirations.
Both goalies put on a clinic and were superb between the pipes. Just like most of the season Thomas was once again our best player. The only shot to get by him was when a Habs forward La ten undressed Aaron Ward with a beautiful move and got in alone to score.

The Bruins will now host Montreal on Thursday in the second part of this home and home series. Out of all the 79 home and home series between these two teams there has only been 23 sweeps. The last time there was a series sweep was in December of 1981 so a Bruins' victory on Thursday has statistics on their side (but I hate stats. - The Bruins have to play hard and earn their victory). The Bruins also have to stop squeezing their sticks so hard. They need to relax and have fun out there - in last nights game they were way to tense and worried more about making a mistake than creating a chance.

Game hilights:
- Great move for The Habs goal.
- Both goalies were fantastic.
- Bochenski hit the post.
- Tenkrat had a breakaway but got forced outside for a bad angle shot because he had to avoid a hip check from the ref(???).

3 Stars as picked by me:

1 - Latendresse
2 - Halak
3 - Thomas

This loss hurts The Bruins chances of the playoffs but they are still not done yet!
They have 10 games left and if they win 9 or 10 they will be in and if they win 8 they still have a slim chance. Lets not give up on them yet. I encourage all fans to send good vibes and happy thoughts their way and hopefully they can get on the winning streak they so desperately need.

Go Bruins Go!!!

Thomas Keeps Playoff Hopes Alive

Last nite The B's defeated The Hated Habs 3-1 in Beantown!!!

The Bruins were up 2-0 going into the 3rd after 2 evenly played periods. However, The B's must have watched "Prison Break" or "Gilmore Girls" during the intermission as they were asleep for the 3rd frame. All except "The Trapper" that is - he turned away 15 of 16 shots and gave The Bruins 2 much needed points in the eastern playoff race.

Game Hilites:
- Murray scored his 28th of the season which turned out to be the game clincher in the 3rd.
- Bochenski scored again - he could be the next Murray - a true natural goal scorer.
- Timmy was amazing - anyone who doesn't think he is a true #1 doesn't know nuttin' about nuttin'!
- Habs suck crap!!!

3 stars as picked by me:

1 - Tim Thomas - After Brodeur and Kiprusoff he is the league's best by far!
2 - Glen Murray - just keeps scoring goals.
3 - Zdeno Chara - you know he had a good game if I pick him as a star!

Bruins next game is tonite against The New Jersey Devils - should be a great battle of goaltenders with The B's coming out on top 4 - 1.

* I have a series of posts I will be starting tomorrow (hoped to start this weekend but stuff came up) - it deals with different opinions and comments I have been reading about The Bruins over the internet (I got the idea from a post neb did a while back). I will be examining these comments and will be giving my own opinions on them - some I will be agreeing with and a lot I will be debating. This was going to be one post but because of the length I will be doing it over several posts - each with a separate topic. Tomorrows post will be directed towards comments I have read and heard about The Coach and GM.

Steak and Beans

Line-up for tonight's game:

Axelsson-Savard-Murray
Sturm-Bergeron-Bochenski
Reich-Mowers-Donovan
Chistov-Kessel-Tenkrat

Chara-Ward
Alberts-Ference
Allen-Wideman

Period One
The game started off quick with end to end action. As Philly was skating up ice though, one of their players made a bad pass that was intercepted by newcomer Dennis Wideman. Wideman fed a beauty to a charging Mowers, who split the defence and went in untouched to beat Martin Biron. Sturm and Bochenski just went in 2 on 1 but Bochenski couldn't get enough stick on it. Mowers just scored again!! Another great feed, this time from Reich (his first NHL assist), and this time he took the puck and roofed it! This is Mark Mowers first ever 2 goal game, but you would never know it from the way he is playing tonight. Right after the Bruins goal, Reich received a hooking call, and just as the penalty ended Pitkanen went in alone and scored. Savard missed a check just outside the Bruins zone which let Pitkanen get free, and Ward had to go down early to try and block him. A couple of really good saves by Thomas as the defence has been a little too loose tonight so far. The teams are both playing a similar style in that respect as both goalies have had an active period. One minute to go in the period and PJ was just cross checked by someone, he seems to be ok though. Shoots on goal for the period are 14 for both teams. 2-1 Bruins after one period.

Period Two
Philly is taking it to the Bruins with two minutes gone in the second. Timmy is standing up though and literally taking pucks in the head to stop them. Chara got a penalty and a minute into the penalty Umberger tapped in an easy rebound as the Bruins were just standing around. Savard set up Wideman for a one timer and he just missed. Shots are 8-1 for Philly after only seven minutes of the second! And Boston has another penalty, this time a hooking call against Tenkrat. Good aggressive penalty kill for the Bruins as it looked more like a power play. Thomas just made a sick save! Thomas made an initial stop and while down on the ice still had the presence of mind to put his stick out and stop the puck on the goal line. I will need to find a video of this one tomorrow as my words do not do it justice. Philly got a penalty right after, but they scored a shorthanded goal on a excellent 2 on 1 set-up.

Another give away and Thomas had to make another great save to keep the Philly lead to just one goal. Another penalty called against the Flyers and they are now down two players. Chara a couple seconds later in front of the net gets his 10th goal of the season. All tied up now at 3 a piece and the Bruins are still on the man advantage. They just announced that Thomas has faced 33 shots on goal already with five minutes remaining in the second period. NESN has already called the save of the game on the one I described above. Truly amazing. Gauthier took another cheap shot on Marc Savard, this time Marc was checked from behind and Boston is on the power play. Pretty lousy power play so far as the Bruins can't keep it in the Flyer zone. That's it for the period and the Flyers are out shooting Boston 35-24!! 3-3 after two periods.

Period Three
Kessel has been put on the number one line with Savard and Murray for the beginning of the third. Pitkanen with an obvious interference penalty but no call was made, so Bergeron at the stoppage in play decided to respond to the hit by roughing Pitkanen up. Tenkrat just got a great scoring chance short handed, but Biron stopped the break away chance. Good pressure by the Bruins this period as the they got another good shot on net. Sturm received a hooking call and on the penalty kill, Tenkrat had another steal that lead to a wicked good scoring chance. Scottie Upshall has been assessed a hooking penalty bringing the Philly power play to an end. Thomas now has a season high 46 saves, one away from his career best of 47. Axlesson and Mowers on a 2 on 1 almost scored; this game is looking like overtime. Another shorthanded opportunity but nothing doing! We are gong to OT!

OT
Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Breakaway with 10 seconds left, score...I hate you Upshall.

Well there is nothing good about this outcome, well one thing I guess; 51 saves by Thomas! Other than that it blew.

My 3 stars:
1) Scottie Upshall (Game Winner)
2) Tim Thomas (stopped 51 of 55 shots)
3) Martin Biron (stopped 34 of 37 shots)

God

I want to start this post with a quote.

If Flyers acting GM Paul Holmgren was permitted to make the call on the Forsberg deal to Nashville, then it stands to reason he's going to maintain that position long-term, doesn't it?

But then, the dysfunctional Boston ownership did allow outgoing GM Mike O'Connell to sign Tim Thomas to a three-year contract that some in the current regime believe was a middle-finger goodbye to the organization.

If it wasn't, it's sure a pretty good imitation of one.

I haven't decided if I should go down and beat on him or just laugh in his face. So who's the man??

44, 44!!!

Not much to say here as Timmy's saves did most of the talking in his 3-0 defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Besides Timmy, and his 3rd shut-out of the season, there were some other surprising highlights; Jason York scoring his first goal as a Bruin, and PJ Axelsson getting his second sweet goal in as many games (sorry Pekese).

In case you didn't know already, joining Bergeron on the "lower body injury" list are Glen Murray and Andrew Alberts. None of them are serious from what I know, and shouldn't miss anymore than a week.

So without further ado here are your 3 stars:
1) Timmy Thomas (see above)
2) Jason York (8:57, 1 g, +3)
3) PJ Axelsson (1g, +3)

Special thanks to Jaci for supplying the excellent photo!

Hey, who ate all the Buffalo wings?

What a great game! I was so psyched after that win last night. Now don't misunderstand, I don't think the game was even close to their best effort this year, but it was physical and it ended in dramatic fashion. The night began with excitement when only two and half minutes into the game Jeremy Reich dropped them with Buffalo "bad boy" Adam Mair! It was a short fight but the decision has to go to Reich (I apologize if the video is not working, hopefully it will work later). Less than two minutes after the fight Sturm took a shot from the blue line that went in off a Buffalo player, putting the Bruins up 1-0. Lots of back and forth action and then on a harmless looking rush Buffalo's Stafford bullied the puck into the net. The goal though was helped along by Alberts as he decided to check Stafford and Thomas at the best possible time; right when Thomas was trying to make the save! Newcomer and spark plug Andrew Ference decided to get the team fired up by taking on non fighter Hecht. Hecht actually initiated this after taking exception to a love tap from Ference's stick and held his own for a couple seconds. Hecht wouldn't take his visor off so Ferrence figured if he punched the side of Hecht's helmet enough it would fall off. It worked, and eventually Hecht and his helmet fell down. 1-1 after one period.

The second period was pretty uneventful until the halfway mark and Bobby Allen got his first ever NHL point on a beauty pass to a streaking Donovan heading towards the net. Three minutes later the Bruins score again, this time time a shorthanded strike by Savard set up by Donovan. 3-1 Bruins and in full control, or are they. Savard decided to do the other thing he is good at and that's run his mouth. After just getting out of the box for a slash, Savard got an unsportsmanlike penalty after arguing another penalty to Tenkrat. This put the Bruins down two men in the second and the Sabres capitalized. The first goal came off a flurry in front of the net that was poked in by soon to be UFA Chris Drury. Still a man down, the ever annoying Daniel Briere put the puck in an open net, or did he? Thomas came across with his stick and made one of his best saves ever and knocked it out of the net. The play went on and the period ended. This is when the refs decided it would be a good time to review the goal. Shouldn't there be some sort of time rule where it just can't be called back? Upon further review Thomas did make an amazing save, but the puck just happened to cross the line before he did it. There was an issue there for a bit as the Bruins decided not to come out and finish the period, but in the end, with some threats from the ref, they finally came out. 3-3 after two periods.

Well i am not going to waste much time on a third period review as not much happened. It was pretty much back and forth with the Bruins supplying the majority of pressure. I will say that Thomas was brilliant the whole night and deserved to take the team into OT. Buffalo before the end of the period went two men down, which made OT slightly exciting but nothing happened at it went to the shoot-out. This is easily becoming my favourite time of the game as it is pure adrenaline from beginning to end. The rally caps were on and so was Thomas as he and Miller took it eight rounds before Tenkrat sealed it for an amazing Bruins victory! The goal was originally ruled dead but it clearly was not stopped by Miller and found its way past the goal line. After a short review it was verified a goal and the celebration began.

My stars:
1) Tim Thomas (Amazing saves all night, eight important ones in the shoot-out)
2) Bobby Allen (First ever NHL point and +3 on the night)
3) Ryan Miller (lots of great saves as well)

Timmah! Shuts Out The Oilers

Tim Thomas got his second shutout of the season tonight, beating the surging Edmonton Oilers 3-0. Thomas stopped 32 shots including 14 in the Oiler dominated second period. I am in need of some sleep so I will make this short.

Game Highlights:

• Timmy Rules - 32 Saves
• Brandon Bochenski - 1 goal, 2 assists
• Marco Sturm - 2 goals
  
• Jeremy Reich - kicked Matt Greene's ass (5 sec fight)
• Patrice Bergeron - 2 assists (left in the 3rd with lower body injury)

After the game Boston called up defenceman Mark Stuart in preparation for the upcoming six game road trip. If you are counting, the Bruins have now won four of their last five games. The first game of the road trip will be the rematch against the NY Islanders. The two teams just played on February 10th, and the game was decided by Zedeno Chara in a 4-3 shootout win.