Game 29: Bruins 3, Kings 0

The Good

• Tuuuuuuuuuuukka Rask was excellent tonight, as he has been for the majority of this season. A 41-save shutout is a big accomplishment, and Rask made it look pretty easy. He was extremely well-positioned all night, and rarely found himself scrambling around the crease. He may have benefited from one or two King blunders, but for the most part, Rask was fantastic.
• Brat Trick Brad Marchand was great last night as well, with two goals and more than a few chances at a third. He wasn't agitating much last night and avoided dumb penalties, which is good. All in all, a great game for 63. I'm guessing performances like this are what Claude Julien was referring to as "good brat."
• Hamill time! I'm a noted Zach Hamill defender, but I think even Hamill Haters would have to admit that the kid has looked pretty good this season. Hamill had an assist and was a +1 last night, while also adding two blocked shots. In his three games this season, Hamill has yet to be a "minus" player: his stat line reads 2A-2PTS and +4. Hamill may be starting to "get it." Here's to hoping the kid gets a chance to really take off.
  

The Bad

• The Kings Your coach gets fired, your GM rips you...and you respond by getting shutout 3-0? I know the Bruins are a good team and Rask played great, but there was very little desperation or urgency shown by the Kings last night. If I'm a Kings fan, last night's game concerns me greatly. Losing isn't the worst thing in the world; losing without any fight is usually a sign of a deeper problem.
• Kampfer To be honest, "bad" is a bit harsh. But I don't have a section called "The Shaky," so Steve-o goes down here. Kampfer was a plus-2, but he also took two penalties and only played around ten minutes. Kampfer only had three more seconds of TOI than Zach Hamill, a forward, as Julien leaned heavily on Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk, and Andrew Ference. Kampfer will be out as soon as Zdeno Chara is ready, but he'll get another shot eventually. He's got to simplify his game, move past the mistakes he makes, and tighten up defensively, or he's not going to get more than those nine minutes. He's rusty and was playing on the off-side last night, so I think he'll get better. He just needs to get his confidence up.
  

What went right:

• Faceoff wins and forechecking were the keys to the Bruin goals last night. The first came when Rich Peverley collected a King miscue in the neutral zone; the second came directly off of a faceoff win; and the third came shortly after another offensive zone faceoff win. Winning faceoffs and controlling possession go a long way towards winning a hockey game. Throw in a solid forecheck, and you're going to have a good night like the B's did last night.
  

Attaboy: Tuukka. Good for him for earning the shutout.

Providence shuttle: The entire Kings team. Let the Monarchs come down from Manchester and play, they'd probably try harder.

Game 43: Bruins 7, Flyers 5

Well that was a crazy game, eh? Good to see the Bruins actually win a wild one this time.

The Good

• Marchand continues to impress Brad Marchand is quickly becoming one of my favorite players on this Bruins team. The effort is there from the youngster night in and night out, and he's now making his presence felt on the scoreboard as well. His wicked wrist shot beat Brian Boucher cleanly midway through the third period to tie the game for the Bruins, and his intense forecheck on Matt Carle led directly to Steven Kampfer's game-winner, a play that won't show up on the scoresheet. Marchand's been the most consistent Bruin this season (along with Tim Thomas), and it's going to be hard for the coaching staff to keep him on the third or fourth line if he keeps playing as he has been.
• Same can be said for Kampfer He continues to impress as well. I liked the hit he threw on Scott Hartnell in the third period, though in the immediate aftermath I was a bit concerned that he took himself too far out of position to make the hit. Kampfer's shown an offensive touch that the Bruin blueline has sorely lacked since the departures of Big Money Wides and Matt Hunwick. His willingness to rush the puck, jump into the offense and take shots has proven to be a huge boost to the B's defense corps. Even though Mark Stuart is getting healthy, there may be no place for him right now: Kampfer and Adam McQuaid deserve to stay in the lineup.
• Signs of life from the power play The much-maligned Bruin power play went 1-for-5 last night, with the one goal coming from Zdeno Chara on a first period 5-on-3. The B's showed some signs of life with the man advantage last night, moving the puck very well and appearing to have some confidence again. The team as a whole recorded 11 shots on the five power plays, a pretty good number considering how abysmal the power play has been recently. SIGNS OF LIFE.
• Bergeron remains on a tear Patrice Bergeron now has points in five straight games and six of his last seven. He's recorded a point in all but one of the B's games in 2011, and has 11 points this month. He's actually got a multi-point game streak going too, as he's recorded two or more points in four games in a row.

The Bad

• Too many odd-man rushes It's almost like the B's were letting Philly have an odd-man rush every few minutes to make sure Tim Thomas stayed awake. Way too many sloppy changes and blown assignments in this one last night. It seemed like the Flyers had either a breakway, a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2 every two or three minutes of game action last night. They cashed in on a couple of them, but the B's really dodged a bullet. They can't keep letting teams get a guy behind their defense. It's an area of concern, and one that got exposed big time last night.
• SHOOT THE PUCK! There was a period of time last night in the second period when it seemed like the Bruins had two or three odd-man rushes of their own in a row, but they didn't get a shot off. I know that with a 2-on-1, it's common practice to wait it out, make the goalie think "shot" then slip the puck to one's teammate for an easy tap-in, but the key to making that work is to make the goalie think "shot." And how does one do that? BY SHOOTING.

The Rest

• A lot of weird goals in last night's game. Mark Recchi's goal came on a wild bounce off of the glass. Scott Hartnell's goal seemed like it was batted in from behind the goal line. Nikolai Zherdev's breakaway goal probably could have been called offside. Brad Marchand's tying goal probably shouldn't have happened, as Johnny Boychuk (I think it was him) threw the puck off of the glass in an attempt to clear it, and the puck hit the glass then the bottom of the netting then came back onto the ice. And finally, Kampfer's game-winner just seemed like a weird goal: Brian Boucher never moved, almost like he thought it was going well-wide. Just a weird game overall.
• The Bruins have performed pretty well so far against the East's "elite" teams: they're now 2-0-1 against the Flyers, 2-0-0 against the Penguins, 2-1-0 against the Lightning and 3-1-0 against the Capitals. Another date with the Pens looms on Saturday afternoon at the Garden, after which the B's won't see Crosby, Malkin and Co. until March 5.

Attaboy: A tie between Marchand and Kampfer. Both deserve it with their stellar play both last night and over the course of the last few games.

Providence Shuttle: I'll give it to Boucher. That Kampfer goal is one he probably should have stopped.

Game 37: Sabres 7, Bruins 6 (SO)

The Good

• Solid showing from the rookie An excellent game from Tyler Seguin, who finished the night with a goal, an assist, a team-high six shots and a plus-2 rating. Seguin looked like the most dangerous Bruin on the ice throughout the game. I think this was his best game as a professional, and a game that should earn him more ice time in Monday's game at Toronto.
• Points from the blueline As I mentioned on the main page, this was the first time in Bruin history that four different defensemen scored in a single game, no small feat for a franchise that had names like Orr and Bourque patrolling the blueline in the past. All of the Bruin defensemen seemed to be very active offensively in this game, something that carried over from the Atlanta game. It's good to see the blueliners create offensive chances, but...

The Bad

• Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy ...not when they come at the expense of good defense. Andy Brickley alluded to the fact that the Sabres like to send a guy to the offensive blue line in hopes of generating odd-man rushes, and it worked to perfection in this game, especially with the B's newly-active D. The Sabres had what seemed like a dozen odd-man rushes, and they managed to score on a couple of them. I'm all for having the defensemen more involved in joining the rush and creating scoring chances, but not when it comes at the expense of sound defensive hockey. There's a happy medium somewhere, and the Bruins need to find it.
• Concern for Rask I know Tuukka Rask is a professional, and supposedly he and Tim Thomas have a great relationship. But I'm beginning to get a little concerned with how the Bruins are handling him this season. While Thomas is the goalie of the present, Rask is certainly the goalie of the future. I'd be much more concerned with the team "losing" a young goalie of Rask's caliber than I would be of them "losing" a veteran like Thomas, who thrives on perceived slights against his ability. I've been an ardent supporter of Claude Julien, but pulling Rask in this game was ridiculous. Yes, he'd given up three goals, but look at them: the first came when a shot from the faceoff dot got knocked down, changed direction and landed right on the stick of a Sabre in the slot; the second goal came when Thomas Vanek got away with a blatant tripping penalty that resulted in him having the puck alone right in front of Rask. Tuukka went for the poke check, and Vanek, a proven goal-scorer, deked around it and slipped the puck in; and the third goal I'd put squarely on Rask. He failed to hold the post on a weak shot that nearly came from below the goal line and allowed the Sabres to whack it in with just 40 seconds left in the first period. Rask was irate that the whistle wasn't blown, but the fact of the matter is that he must hold the post there. Of the three goals, I'd place one squarely on Rask's shoulders, blame one on a bad bounce and the other on poor officiating (of which there was plenty in this game). Julien seems to know that Rask is struggling with his confidence, so how is pulling the kid in a game the team is winning 4-3 going to help? Especially after just one period? Now the B's say they'll have Rask work with their goalie coach, but let's face it: he's not going to regain his confidence in practice. The youngster needs to play, and Julien needs to let him finish what he started.
• Where are the netminders? Going into this game, one would've been right in assuming it'd be a low-scoring affair. It was going to feature Ryan Miller, one of the best goalies in the league, and either Tuukka Rask, who matched Miller save for spectacular save in last year's playoffs, or Tim Thomas, who is at or near the top in every major statistical category for goalies this year. So what happened? 12 goals were allowed in regulation, and Miller and Thomas, arguably the two best American goalies in the game (throw LA's Jonathan Quick in there for consideration too), combined to allow five goals on six shootout attempts. Yikes.

The Rest

• Where's the top line? Boston's "top line" of Marc Savard, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton went a combined minus-4 in this one, and none of the three recorded a single point. The trio combined for nine shots, just three more than Seguin had on his own. Not good enough from a unit with that much skill, a line that simply hasn't been getting it done: Horton hasn't scored in nine games, while Lucic hasn't scored in seven.
• Seguin must be rewarded If Claude Julien is going to limit the rookie's ice time when he doesn't play well, the opposite must be true too: Seguin deserves more ice time Monday against Toronto. I have no problem with benching the kid when he messes up or making him watch a game or two from the press box as long as he's rewarded with more time when he performs well.
• While the last two games (against Atlanta and Buffalo) have been disappointing, the B's have a chance to make the road trip an overall success with a win against the Leafs. If the B's leave Toronto with the W, they'll have finished the trip 3-0-2, grabbing eight points out of a possible ten. Not bad for a five-game road trip, especially when the B's had been struggling as of late.

Attaboy: Seguin. The rookie showed all of his skills in this one, and his saucer pass to set up Kampfer's third period goal was a thing of beauty.

Providence shuttle: The handling of Rask. Completely senseless to pull the youngster after just one period. At least give him a chance to figure things out, then pull him in the second if he struggles.