Tag: Boston Bruins

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Bruins make several moves as Taylor Hall returns to the lineup.

Steve Babineau/NHLI/Getty Images

The Boston Bruins have been without the services of veteran forward Taylor Hall since the month of February, but on Saturday Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery confirmed that the former Hart Trophy winner would make his highly anticipated return to the lineup.

Hall was no doubt excited for the opportunity to play tonight given that the opponent will be the New Jersey Devils. Not only are the Devils playoff bound and fierce competition, but they are also one of Hall’s former teams and that no doubt includes former teammates he is eager to test himself against.

The return of Hall, and by extension the return of his salary to the Bruins cap hit meant that the team also had to make a number of adjustments on Saturday. The team moved both Nick Foligno and Derek Forbort to long term injured reserve retroactive to when they suffered their injuries, shutting both men down for the remainder of the regular season.

The Bruins also sent forward Oskar Steen back down to the American Hockey League on Saturday, after Steen was called up on an emergency basis earlier in the week.

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Jack Edwards is at it once again!

Boston.com

Passionate fans of the National Hockey League are very well acquainted with outspoken Boston Bruins television commentator Jack Edwards, who has become well known over the years for his polarizing broadcasting style and favoritism resulting in a treasure trove of verbal highlights. 

Edwards found himself embroiled in controversy earlier this season when he appeared to fat-shame Tampa Bay Lightning forward Pat Maroon, stating that “inadvertent fasting for Pat Maroon is like going four hours without a meal”. 

During last night’s 2-1 overtime win by the Bruins over the visiting Original 6 rival Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, Bruins forward A.J. Greer was penalized and also assessed a ten-minute misconduct for instigating after he went after Toronto’s Sam Lafferty for his hit on Matt Grzelcyk. 

Color commentator Andy Brinkley was the first to offer his thoughts: 

“I thought Greer went about it the right way,” Brickley said. “Yeah he’s the first one there and he wants to respond to the hit, but I thought he invited the fight from Lafferty and [Lafferty] accepted. To me that’s not an instigator.”

But in the mind of Edwards, the call was a result of what he thinks is a pro-Toronto bias from the officials. 

“Well, it is Toronto,” Edwards responded. 

And it wouldn’t be long before Edwards was once again right back at it, implying that the on-ice officials are trying to help out the Leafs. 

“One shot on goal for the ref. As if they aren’t helping Toronto enough,” Edwards said during the 2nd period. 

Edwards is not the first high profile figure to opine his belief that the League favors Toronto. Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter said as much earlier in the season following what he left was an extremely one-sided game in terms of penalties dished out by the on-ice officials: 

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Bruins announce critical health updates

NHL.com

With the Boston Bruins having already secured the President’s Trophy, they can certainly afford to not have a few important faces in the lineup as the regular season winds down to a close. 

Defenseman Charlie McAvoy departed last night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs after sustaining a hit along the boards; he was held out of the rest of the contest due to precautionary reasons. The good news for him is that his ailment isn’t believed to be serious.

Meanwhile, veteran forward David Krejci isn’t expected to be able to suit up by the next time that his team hits the ice, according to head coach Jim Montgomery.

“Krejci is very doubtful, I would say,” Montgomery said. “McAvoy is to be determined, it’s just how he responds to treatment today to be honest. [Taylor] Hall is getting closer. He hasn’t checked all the boxes, but he’s close. He is a possibility for this weekend.”

They host the postseason-bound New Jersey Devils tomorrow night at home at TD Garden. 

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Boston Bruins can claim a piece of NHL history on Saturday.

Keystone

The Boston Bruins have a chance to share in a piece of National Hockey League history on Saturday when they will face off against the New Jersey Devils, and given the way that things have been trending for the Bruins this season they could even make that piece of NHL history their very own.

The Bruins are coming into Saturday’s game against the Devils with 61 wins in their back pocket already, but a win over the Devils on Saturday would tie the NHL record for most wins in a single season by any team in the league’s history. Only two other teams in the NHL’s history have managed to accomplish this feat before, with the Detroit Red Wings picking up 62 wins during the 1995-1996 regular season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning matching that accomplishment over 2 decades later during the 2018-2019 regular season.

Perhaps what will make the game on Saturday must see TV however is the fact that the Bruins have a very real chance of overtaking both of those historically great teams further down the line. Although the Bruins can tie to the record with a win on Saturday, they have 3 additional games remaining on the schedule with a matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday as well as a pair of matchups against the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens next week.

The Bruins will first have to overcome a playoff bound New Jersey Devils squad today to even tie the record, so I doubt very much that they are looking ahead at the possibility of potentially breaking the record just yet.

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Boston Bruins announce Patrice Bergeron’s status

Stanley Cup of Chowder

The Boston Bruins have already had the advantage of being by far the best team in the National Hockey League this season, having already plowed their way through their opponents and secured the President’s Trophy as the top regular season squad with plenty of time left yet to go in the schedule. 

And a fortunate luxury for the team is that they can now afford to rest some of their more important players with their postseason berth already secured. Captain Patrice Bergeron, who has been a bit banged up lately, has missed the last two games. However, for tonight’s game against the Original 6 and Atlantic Division rival Toronto Maple Leafs, he’ll be back on the ice. 

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Brad Marchand mired in major slump

Fox News

The good news for the Boston Bruins this season is that they’re easily the top squad out of all 32 National Hockey League teams, having already secured the President’s Trophy as the top regular season squad with plenty of games to go still on the schedule. 

The bad news is that forward Brad Marchand, who is one of the focal points of the offensive attack, is mired in a pretty big slump of late. To be specific, it’s been 13 games since he’s last lit the lamp, which took place on March 9 against the Edmonton Oilers. It’s been eight years since he’s experienced something like this, as it was in 2015 that he underwent a career high slump of 15 games of not finding the back of the net.

For Marchand, who missed the first portion of the regular season after recovering from offseason surgery, he’s admitted to feeling not in perfect form. 

“I thought I’d feel better now than I do, to be honest with you,” Marchand said on March 8, just before the start of his current drought. “I think it’s been great, it’s been really relieving that we have the team we have and we’re as deep as we are. That definitely takes pressure off. But I thought I’d be kind of where I was last year right now, and I don’t necessarily feel like that.

“It just gets a little frustrating when I have an expectation to play a certain way and it’s not necessarily there yet,” he added.

Right now, Marchand has tallied 63 points in 68 games played, good for just slightly under a point per game pace.

He and the Bruins will be back in action tomorrow night when they take on their division and Original 6 rival Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto.

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Bruins release crucial health updates

WCVB

The NHL-leading Boston Bruins are next in action tomorrow night against their Original 6 and Atlantic Division rival Toronto Maple Leafs, and it appears as though not only will they continue to be without forward Taylor Hall, but veteran forward David Krejci as well. 

According to several Bruins beat writers, Krejci departed practice early this morning for an unknown reason. Head coach David Montgomery later stated that he was experiencing some discomfort, and that his status for tomorrow night’s game isn’t set in stone. 

Meanwhile, Hall continues to work towards a return to the lineup, and hasn’t been ruled out of playing tomorrow. 

“There’s still some steps and conversations I have to have before I’m fully playing,” Hall told 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson after practice. “We’ll know that by (Thursday) morning.”

Krejci has scored 16 goals with 40 assists for the Bruins since making his return to the team after playing a year in his native homeland. Meanwhile, Hall has also tallied 16 goals along with 20 assists as he’s settled into a 3rd line role with the President’s Trophy winners.

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Bruins concerned over Patrice Bergeron’s health?

The Boston Globe

Is it time to start getting worried about Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron’s health? 

The perennial defensive forward has been held out of a handful of recent Bruins games, including their 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins as well as yesterday’s shootout victory over the St. Louis Blues. And with the Stanley Cup playoffs on the horizon, the Bruins will certainly need all hands on deck if they’re to prove that their historic regular season hasn’t been just a fluke. 

“Bergeron’s out,” Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said earlier in the week. “Resting nagging injuries here that — obviously the cross-check in ear — but he’s been dealing with some upper-body and lower-body issues that we’d like to get him some rest on.”

With 57 points on the season, Bergeron ranks third on the Bruins in scoring behind sniper David Pastrnak and scoring pest Brad Marchand. However, he recently took a hit to the head from Montreal’s Rem Pitlick late last month, sparking a beatdown from Marchand at TD Garden: 

He also recently received stitches after an injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

The good news for Boston is that their playoff berth was already secured a long time ago, as well as already having cemented their status as the top regular season squad in the League. Resting Bergeron won’t have any effect on their postseason positioning, so it may be the wisest choice for the coaching staff to have him get some well deserved time off.

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Wayne Gretzky will be angry if Bruins collapse in playoffs!

Yardbarker

Despite fans and pundits expecting them to begin a downward slant and take a considerable backward step this season, the Boston Bruins have taken those predictions and tossed them into the Atlantic Ocean. They’ve already clinched the President’s Trophy as the top team in the National Hockey League will several games left remaining on the regular season schedule, and have also set a handful of new records. 

And as such, they’re easily considered the favorite to be raising Lord Stanley’s Cup when it’s all said and done later this year. But what are the chances that something completely unexpected takes place in the opening round of the postseason, as the 62 win Tampa Bay Lightning found out against the last-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019? 

While the odds of that happening remain as slim as ever, that’s the great thing about the Stanley Cup Playoffs – anything can happen. And there will be one particular well known member of the hockey community who won’t be pleased if Boston isn’t the last team standing. You may have heard of him, his name is Wayne Gretzky.

“In ’71 there was eight teams I guess that it was with Bobby Orr, Esposito, Cheevers, there was eight teams that they could beat, six in the west, and Toronto and Detroit weren’t very good, so eight of the 12 teams, and they didn’t get 62 wins,” Gretzky explained. “This team is playing a good hockey club every single night. There’s no days off; there’s no nights off, every game is hard. What they’re doing to me in this year is absolutely amazing.”

“Listen, it’s almost like you feel bad for them if they don’t win the Stanley Cup because they’ve done so many good things for the game, and they’ve played so unselfishly, and they’re so much fun to watch, you know, you almost feel mad if they don’t win the Stanley Cup.”

Strong words from the Great One! 

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Torey Krug roasts former teammate Brad Marchand on Sunday.

Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

The Boston Bruins faced off against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday and that meant that Blues defenseman Torey Krug would be getting a reunion of sorts with his longtime former teammates in Boston.

Krug was of course signed as an undrafted free agent out of Michigan State University by the Bruins and spent the first 9 seasons of his career in the National Hockey League with that organization. That being said it would come as a surprise to no one to learn that Krug has forged lifelong friendships with members of the Bruins roster, something that no doubt makes these games against the Bruins both challenging and exhilarating for the veteran defenseman.

Prior to the game on Sunday, Krug was asked if he was forced to temporarily suspend those friendships when facing off against the Bruins, and he took the opportunity to take a hilarious shot at former teammate Brad Marchand.

“That’s right, especially the guy with a big nose,” said Krug of his unfortunate looking friend.

Marchand has of course been ripped throughout his career by fans, opponents and just about everyone else regarding the size of his schnoz, but it’s particularly amusing to hear it from a former teammate that spent nearly a decade playing alongside him.