Postgame Recap: February 3 - Majors, Minors, Misconducts, Oh My!

November 11, 2008.

Boston Bruins 5, Dallas Stars 1.

A Saturday night. A packed house.

It was the game that galvanized that Bruins team and defined that season.

6 fighting majors, 7 misconducts and 144 total penalty minutes.  But it was more than just the fact that the Bruins fought.  They stuck up for one another and imposed their will on their opponent, establishing a sense of purpose and an esprit de corps.  Cheap shot artists such as Sean Avery and Steve Ott were forced to answer for their acts of cowardice.  Tim Thomas, en route to the Vezina, backstopped the Bruins making 35 saves and Marco Sturm netted 2 goals to lead the offense.

It was the most exciting game of the year.  To this day, it remains one of the most remembered and most discussed games in recent memory.

And so, this past Thursday night found the Bruins facing off against the Dallas franchise at home for the first time since that fateful night (they did meet in Dallas on October 16, 2009 with the Bruins shutting out the Stars 3-0).

Let's see how it played out.

Just the facts, Jack (Edwards)

• Regular Season game #51, home game #25
• Boston Bruins (29-15-7, 1st in Northeast Div.) vs. Dallas Stars (30-16-5, 1st in Pacific Div.)
• Only meeting of the season between these two teams

John Blue Plate Special

I got out of work a few minutes late, but traffic wasn't that bad getting into the city.  Because of the latest snow storm, on street parking in Cambridge was at a premium.  And frankly, with the roads so narrow, I really didn't want to chance my mirrors getting clipped, so I stashed my car in the T lot at Lechmere.

After waiting 10 minutes for an inbound train (which wasn't all that bad, considering the lengthy delays and cancellations that were plaguing the system for the past week or so), I got into North Station around 6:35.  I called Heather to gauge her ETA and popped into the Fours to see how bad the crowd was.  She was running late, so I was on my own.  At this point I was faced in a quandary: grab a bite at the bar and risk missing the start of the game, or head into the Garden and grab some food inside.  After a brief consultation with my partner in crime, we decided that it would probably be best to skip the Fours and concentrate our efforts on getting there early on Saturday for the pregame before the matinee tilt against San Jose.

Long story short, I grabbed a couple of hot dogs (at least they were Nathan's Famous) and a Dos Equis and headed up to 307.  The dogs were decent, but they can't hold a candle to the cuisine across the street.

The Couture Corner

Up until Reebok inflicted it's Edge System plague on the NHL, the Stars had one of the best sets of sweaters in the league. A take on the 1994-7 All Star jerseys, Dallas introduced the star template as a third sweater during the 1997-8 season, even successfully petitioning the NHL to allow them to wear it through the Stanley Cup playoffs that year.  They were unique and very fitting for a team named the Stars.  Easily one of my all time favorites. Near perfection.

So what did Reebok do to the Stars? Sterilized them, of course.

Dallas has a great logo, but the ad wizards decided it would be better to relegate it and utilize a generic city name emblazoned across the chest NBA-style, replete with with front numbers.  Look, this look works for a college team like Boston University, but it looks amateurish in the NHL.  The one sweater that does feature the official crest has those insipid TV numbers on the upper right front of the jersey to ruin the look.  The green that was prominently featured in the past has been reduced to an nothing more than an accent color.  And the alternate uniform is white, just like the normal road one. Good grief.

But there is hope. Rumors persist that Dallas will introduce a new look next year, possibly bringing back a green sweater.  Let us all hope that this is indeed the c

With that said, it was time to see what was in the offering in the crowd.  It was looking pretty bleak at first - a customized original Dallas sweater with some guys own last name ('Aguiar') on it didn't make the cut. Nor did a blank Minnesota North Stars one (I already covered that one).

Eventually I saw this girl:

Late 90's-Early 00's Mike Modano

When you think of the Dallas Stars, one player comes to mind - Mike Modano.  When the North Stars moved south from Minneapolis to Dallas in 1993, Modano, then in his fourth full season, came along for the ride.  He was the first overall pick in the 1988 NHL entry draft, led the Stars to the 1999 Stanley Cup championship and is the all time leader in goals, points, assists and games played not just for the Stars franchise, but for all American born players as well.

The call?

Good!

 The Row 12 Rundown

307 was back in order for this one. Everyone was present and accounted for, including John Barry, who had seat 11 for the night.

Doosh of the Day

Not to sound like a broken record, but I'm going to give Doosh of the Day status to the large, unkempt doofus in row 9 who seriously stood up and/or left his seat repeatedly throughout the game, particularly during the run of play.

I seriously have no idea why this guy was there.  It certainly wasn't to see the game.  Fortunately, none of his shenanigans prevented us from missing the good stuff at the beginning of the game.  Oh wait, that's because he wasn't in his seat yet.

The Clothes Line

I saw a lady down in section 8 wearing a John Carter away sweater, but I couldn't get a decent picture of it.  Damn, because that was a great (and rare) catch.

Fortunately, I did see this guy during the first intermission:

1970 Bobby Orr All Star


To be honest, this isn't a great sweater.  It's a knockoff that isn't a true reproduction of the original.  The shoulder striping is wrong.  These pop up on eBay every once in a while.  I certainly commend the effort and the intention is good, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

The Lobel Prize

As this game was approaching, there was a distinct possibility that we could have a matchup between two goalies that are forever linked in Bruins history: Tuuka Rask and Andrew Raycroft.

Raycroft was drafted by the Bruins in the 1998 NHL entry draft and made a few appearances with the big club starting in the 2001-2 season. But he stormed on the scene big time in 2003-4 as he backstopped the Bruins, finishing with a 29-18-9 record en route to capturing the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

After playing in Finland during the lockout season in 2004-5, his play slipped considerably the following year and he was dished off to the Maple Leafs in exchange for a hotshot Finnish goalie prospect named Tuuka Rask.  Raycroft had a decent first season with the Leafs, but his play slipped yet again (notice a trend here?) and he was eventually waived.  Since then, he's been a backup with the Avalanche, Canucks and now the Stars.

So how did he do?  You be the judge:



Yep. 2 goals in 1:20 and he got pulled for Kari Lehtonen.  That works for me.

The Home End
Simply put, this may have been the greatest start to a game I've ever witnessed in person.

4 seconds in and we already had 3 fights:

Gregory Campbell vs. Steve Ott
Shawn Thornton vs. Krys Barch
Andrew McQuaid vs. Brian Sutherby

120 seconds in and we had a 2-0 lead on scores by Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron.

60 minutes later we had a final score of 6-3 and 91 minutes in penalties including 8 fighting majors, 2 misconducts and a game misconduct.  The line of Bergeron, Marchand and Recchi combined for 3 goals and 6 assists.

But it was the fact that the Bruins came out strong from literally the first second and imposed their will on the Stars with their physicality and pressure.  They skated hard and finished their checks (although Daniel Paille probably shouldn't have in retrospect) and let it be known that when they play with focus and determination, they can hang with anyone in the NHL.

Postgame Recap: November 6 - I Guess That's Why They Call Them the Blues

"Why can't we get players like that?" - Longtime WBZ Sports Anchor Bob Lobel

This old addage never fails to deliver.  It's inevitable - a former Bruin will return with another team and inflict harm on the Black & Gold.  Goals scored by ex-B's always hurt more.  Game winning scores are the ultimate insult.

So, with that in mind, I'm intoducing a new segment to this blog, the Lobel Prize. This is where I give a rundown of the eligible candidates (Bruins alumni) on the other team and what they did to claim a stake (or drive a stake) in the award for the evening.

So, let's take a look back on this past Saturday night.

Just the facts, Jack (Edwards)

• Regular Season game #12, home game #4
• Boston Bruins (7-3-0) vs. St. Louis Blues (7-1-2)
• First meeting against a Central Division opponent

John Blue Plate Special

Got to the Fours around 4:30 and was able to procure spots for me, Heather and Pete at the downstairs bar near the Louis Tiant/Carlton Fisk picture.

Seeing that the last time we had the Larry Bird in a wrap with bacon was a resounding success (2-0 shutout over the Leafs), we went with the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it." route and ordered it again.

However, we did order up a plate of potato skins beforehand.  While they were delicious in and of themselves, I don't think we'll be doing that again anytime soon based on the game result.

As a quick aside, one of the regulars at the Fours who I've had a few drinks with in the past said that his friend John Carter was with him.  I asked him if it was the same John Carter who played for the Bruins in the late 80s.  He flashed a John Carter hockey card and sure enough it was.

Now John Carter was not an extraordinary player by any means, but he was another local boy done good, a Winchester native who donned the spoked B.

What makes him stand out in my mind was that when I was at my third Bruins game at the old Boston Garden with a youth group, I bought a game program, one of those old Goal magazines.  And at this particular game, the PA announcer, Joel Perlmutter, made an announcement that if John Carter signed your program, you won a gift certificate.

I flipped to the proper page and sure enough there it was - John Carter's autograph!  I went with a chaperone down to the customer service office and got a gift certificate.  I think it was $50 to the Scotch and Sirloin on Causeway Street across from the Garden.  But I was like 12 years old and I thought it was so cool that I won something and got a player's autograph to boot.

I relayed this story to John.  I think he honestly appreciated it.

The Couture Corner

St. Louis used to have one of the better sweater sets in the league until Reebok came along with thier horrendous "Edge" system. Now they look like crap, including the cutout areas on the napes of their necks used to showcase the Reebok logo.

So when I ran into this guy on the way out of the building after the game, I had a bit of a smile on my face:



Pavol Demitra. Prolific scorer. Had his best years in a Blues uniform.

The call?

Good!

But then there was this guy:



On the surface, this looks like a 1973-4 Bobby Orr sweater.

But take a closer look.  Name on the back.  Lace-up collar. Sleeve stripes way too wide.

Not saying they are fake, per se, but they don't come close to what they should be.  The Bruins switched to a v-neck collar for 1973, they did not have names on their backs at this point and the gold stripes should be much narrower.

Hey, I love the fact that people flock to buy Bobby Orr sweaters and that stores are carrying them.  But if you're going to do it, do it right or don't do it at all.  I've seen a bunch of these around lately (3 at this game alone).  Most people have no idea that these are supposed to be from a specific season, 1973-4, when the Bruins were celebrating their 50th anniversary, as evidenced by the shoulder patches.

What say the powers that be?



No good!

As for what I wore, well, let's just say that you know a game is special when the fans break out their Bobby Orr sweaters.  And there were plenty to be seen, including mine.

The Row 12 Rundown

Not much to report from the cheap seats for this one.  Being a Saturday night, Bill & Carol were not there. As mentioned earlier, Pete was seat 11 du jour.  John Barry was there, but he was in the second Kasper seat alongside Chris.

Doosh of the Day

Some nights it's just going to be hard to find a Doosh of the Day.  Saturday night was one of them.

But after thinking long and hard, I'm going to nominate the vast majority of Row 11.  Seems that these people (10 plus of them) were out for the night together and they just so happened to go to  bruins game as their means of socializing.  It was readily apparent when they showed up with 10 minutes gone in teh first period and kept getting up and leaving via the wrong way.  And the concept of waiting for the whistle? Whatever.

Numbers are not hard to understand.  Your ticket gives you a section number, a row number and a seat number.  All you have o do is look up on the wall at the really big numbers to find your section.  Then you go up the stairs to your assigned row.  If you can't find you row, hey you might actually resort to, I don't know, counting.  Then you can count the seats to find your particular one.

The tricky part is figuring out which aisle to enter the row from.  If the row has 20 seats and your seat is between 1 and 10, go in from the low number side and vice versa.

Sadly, most people apparently do not have this cognitive skill.

The Clothes Line

For the first time all year, I was stumped.  I looked all around, walked the concourses before, after and during the game and not once did I see any sweaters of distinction. Even against a low profile opponent, I had a greater expectation.

As for what I wore - well, if you owned a replica of what the greatest player in Bruins history wore when he scored the most famous goal ever scored in the history of the NHL and it just so happened to be against the Blues, well wouldn't you wear it?

The Lobel Prize

And here it is, the first installment of this new feature.  So let's meet the nominees:

• Brad Boyes, Forward 2005-06 to 2006-07, 144 games played, 39 goals, 64 assists, 103 points, 55 PIM
• Vladimir Sobotka, F, 2007-08 to 2009-10, 134 GP, 6 G, 16 A, 22 P, 64 PIM

Sobotka, traded to the Blues in the offseason for the rights to Boston University defenseman David Warsofsky, scored the first goal of the game at 16:40 of the first period, had 2 shots on net and was a +1 for the game.

Boyes, traded to the Blues for the immortal Dennis Wideman, fired 3 shots on goal and finished a -1 for the game.  But it was his goal in the 3rd round of the shootout that gave the Blues the victory and extra point in the standings.

So who gets the award?  I'm going with Sobotka.  Boyes is known to have the ability to score, but Sobotka's meal ticket was his overall pluckiness, not his scoring prowess.  But netting the goal, he gave the Blues a lead that would last well into the third period.  It looked like it would stand as the game winner, save for some inspired play by he Bruins 4th line to tie it up late.

The Home End

The Bruins were playing their second game in as many nights, having lost to the Washington Capitals on the road the night before.  After being down 3-0, they managed to pull even with some inspired play in the 3rd period before Newton native John Carlsson gave the Caps the lead for good en route to a 5-3 victory.  Tim Thomas saw his GAA soar above 1.00 (1.05 to be exact) before he was replaced by Tuuka Rask.

With back to back games, it was assumed that Tuuka was going to play one of the two games.  Timmy started Friday night, so it was Tuuka time on Saturday.

On the other end of the ice, Jaroslav Halak was in net for the Blues.  The goalie who I thought Montreal should have kept (over Carey Price) had been stellar so far this year, matching Thomas with 3 shutouts thus far and backing St. Louis to a five game winning streak.

The Bruins were completely out-hustled for most of the game facing a one goal deficit before the grinders evened the score courtesy of a Greg Campbell goal.  Both teams had chances skating 4 on 4 in overtime, but I don't think anyone in the building had much confidence in Tuuka winning the shootout having had a good amount of rust and St. Louis featuring a good number of scorers.  It also didn't help that David Krejci was rendered hors de combat after a T.J. Oshie check sent him into the boards headfirst and gave him a concussion on the way down.