Game 76: Bruins 3, Blackhawks 0

The Good

• "Vintage" Thomas Tim Thomas' shutout last night wasn't perfect, but it WAS perfect Tim Thomas hockey. The Bruin netminder was at his scrambly best last night, flopping around, diving back and forth, and ending up face down in his crease on more than one occasion. But the pucks stayed out, and that's what matters. Thomas has been heating back up as of last, having allowed just two goals in his last four starts. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the Eastern Conference, but it sure should make B's fans happy.
• Chara contributing Zdeno Chara has played some of his best hockey of the year since the Max Pacioretty incident, and he kept up his hot pace last night. In the B's ten games since that hit, Chara has 11 points (3G-8A) and is a +10. Chara chipped in with a goal last night, and also did a great job of shutting down Chicago's big guns.
• Seguin looked good again I've been watching Tyler Seguin's game a bit more closely over the past couple of weeks, and I think he's been playing some of his best overall hockey of the year lately. He and his linemates, Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley, seem to have at least two or three great scoring opportunities per game; they just aren't going in right now. Their line gives the B's an element of speed that fans haven't seen in years. Seguin looks like he's more interested in two-way hockey now, as if he finally understands that that's the route to more ice time. Good on him for getting the message and committing to improving his game.

The Bad

• Marchand's call The game was getting a bit chippy in the second period, and, as usual, Brad Marchand was in the middle of it. He was mixing things up with Patrick Kane, when after a whistle, he gave Kane a light slash on the stick, probably while he continued to chirp at him. This drew the ire of the referees, and Marchand was sent off for slashing. The call was absurd: not only was the "slash" little more than a love tap, but it was on the STICK of Kane, not on his arm/leg/chest/whatever. Marchand seems to be developing a bit of a reputation league-wide now; it'll be interesting to see if he's the recipient of more flimsy calls like this in the future.
• Thornton's cut Yikes. That's quite a mark there. Hopefully Thornton won't miss any time, and hopefully whoever chirped at him from the Chicago bench doesn't get ratted out by his teammates; Thornton will likely make that guy's face seem like Thornton's gash was a mere papercut.

The Rest

• Not much else needs to be said about this one. I'm pleased that the B's came out with a solid effort, even though they didn't need the points nearly as much as the Hawks did. They may have benefited from the Hawks' travel (they played Monday night in Detroit), but they put forth a solid all-around effort, and deserved the win.
  

Attaboy: Thomas and Recchi can share it. Thomas got the shutout, and Recchi passed some guy named Paul Coffey on the all-time points list. Not bad.

Providence Shuttle: The Bench Chirper. Thornton's coming for you, buddy.

Free Agent Frenzy Begins

Today is July 1st, AKA shopping day for every NHL club with cash to spare. There have already been a number of signings and trades, but I'm only going to comment on the biggest or the Bruins-related ones.

• Marian Hossa signs with Chicago: The Slovakian winger signed a 12-year, $62.8 million contract with the 'Hawks. The contract is front-loaded, meaning the cap hit will be lower because it is calculated using the average salary. Great signing by the 'Hawks, as it gives them another scoring threat to go along with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, but they're probably going to have to move some money around now to stay under the salary cap. This is, however, an interesting choice by Hossa. First, he leaves Pittsburgh to sign with Detroit, alienating Pens fans. Now, he leaves Detroit to sign with Chicago, one of the Wings' division rivals. Needless to say, there probably won't be much love for the Hoss when he takes the ice at Joe Louis Arena with the indian head on his sweater later this year. Another interesting note is that apparently Hossa's agent was talking to the Bruins earlier in the day, but nothing ever materialized.
• Scott Gomez is traded to the Canadiens: Not sure why the Habs would do this, as it seemed to be a salary dump by the Rangers. Gomez had underachieved horribly in big-market New York City, so what makes the Habs think he'll do any better in the Bell Centre pressure cooker? Also, Montreal had to give up Chris Higgins, one of their better forwards, to get the Alaskan Gomez. Questionable trade by Bob Gainey, but could prove to be a good one if Gomez regains his New Jersey-era form.
• Steve Montador signs with Buffalo: Not much interesting about this, other than the fact that Montador was with the Bruins this past year. Some were underwhelmed with his performance with the B's, and it didn't seem like re-signing him was in the cards.
• Henrik and Daniel Sedin re-sign with Vancouver: The Swedish twins decided that Vancouver would remain their home, as they signed identical five-year, $30.5 million contracts. This affects the Bruins because Montreal was said to be heavily involved in the pursuit of the forwards, so anything keeping the talented brothers out of the B's division can be viewed as a positive.

There have been plenty of other signings as well, including Dwayne Roloson to the Islanders, Nikolai Khabibulin to the Oilers and Mike Knuble to the Capitals, but the ones above are, in my opinion, the biggest or most Bruins-related.

There is some other Bruins news as well, some of it relatively unimportant, some of it reassuring, and some of it potentially damaging.

• The "Meh": The B's bought out oft-maligned winger Peter Schaefer today, freeing him to go play elsewhere. I was originally a Schaefer supporter, but after he seemingly shut it down in Providence when he could have shown the Bruins brass he still had something left in the tank, it was time for him to go. He may catch on somewhere with a team looking for a cheap veteran forward, but his time in Boston is certainly up.
• The Good: Apparently the Kessel-for-Kaberle deal between the Bruins and Maple Leafs is dead and talks haven't resumed, which, in my opinion, is a good thing. I still feel the Bruins would be remiss to deal Kessel, who seems to be on the verge of becoming a bona-fide scoring machine. The B's management team is apparently less enamored of the youngster, but I think they could get more for him than Kaberle. That's no knock on the talented defenseman, but I think Kaberle and the number-seven pick would have been more fair than Kaberle for Kessel straight up. Regardless, it doesn't seem like there has been much movement on re-signing Kessel. The hope here is that something materializes within the next couple of days.
• The Bad: WEEI.com's Joe Haggerty reported on his blog that multiple teams have contacted Matt Hunwick's agent about the possibility of signing the mobile defenseman to an offer sheet. Hunwick became a restricted free agent as of July 1, and any team can tender him an offer. The Bruins will have the right to match an offer, but if they choose not to, they will receive draft picks as compensation. Many thought that Hunwick, had he not been injured in the Montreal series, could have been what the Bruins needed to push them past Carolina. The youngster is a mobile defenseman who has no reservations about jumping up into the offensive rush, something that the Bruins need and something that is a rarity in the league these days. Losing Hunwick would be a big blow, and letting another team sign him to an offer sheet could drastically increase what the B's were prepared to offer him. More money for Hunwick would mean less money for fellow RFA's Byron Bitz and Kessel, and even less money for another UFA, should the B's choose to pursue one. Chiarelli seems to be fine with just waiting and seeing what happens, but it's a risky strategy.

I'll post more if there's any breaking news, but those are the big stories of the day so far. Stay tuned.