Fast Tube by Casper

We see it time and time again on the ice, poor sportsmanship after giving up a goal. This time it proved to be costly for Florida Panther’s goaltender Thomas Vokoun. Panthers defenseman Keith Ballard pulled the dumbest stunt yet this season while attempting break his stick over the crossbar after Atlanta’s goal midway into the first period, struck his own goaltender in the head.

Vokoun suffered an ear laceration and was alert when taken off the ice on a stretcher. Although there is not a rule of high sticking your own player in the NHL, the Florida Panthers management needs to address this with either a fine or a suspension with out pay to Keith Ballard. This type of behavior should not be tolerated at any level of hockey period. Ballard is lucky that all Vokoun suffered was an ear laceration, this could of been a hell of  a lot worse. GROW UP.

Florida GM Randy Sexton said. ”There was no internal ear damage, just a laceration. They stitched him up, took a CAT scan and there’s no additional injuries.”

For all the youth players out there; I watch you kids do similar acts of banging sticks against the boards, over the net or on the ice and you look stupid. Parents pay a whole lot of money for hockey, never mind the $200.00 sticks you “have to have” and by breaking them in an act of frustration or poor sportsmanship is a total disrespect to your parents, teammates and coaches. Everyone makes mistakes on the ice, deal with it and move on. Unlike the NHL, there are penalties that go along with your broken stick and usually you will sit for a unsportsmanlike or a misconduct. Acting like a fool after a mistake doesn’t take it back, it only makes it worse. Play safe and stay positive.

Quickly things changed as the Panthers vs Bruins turned into a Thomas vs Tomas as the two goaltenders were stopping everything thrown at them. More often than not if you see a scoreless game after 60 minutes with a team like Florida, you think…..what a boring game. This time was a different story, the two teams had an action packed game and the Bruins were clearly the more dominant team. Shawn Thorton got into his 3rd fight in 3 games taking on Florida’s Bryan Allen and give the win to Thorton on that one.

Tomas Vokoun stood on his head especially in the second period when the B’s had out-shot the Panthers 19-1 in that middle frame and stopping all 40 shots he faced through OT. Although Tim Thomas didn’t see nearly as many shots, he was equally as good coming up huge in more that one occasion and sealing his 2nd consecutive shut out with 4 seconds left in overtime as he made his 23rd save of the night. 65 minutes played and not a goal to be had.

The game goes to a shoot out and Thomas made a carnival like save as the puck hit the post, off his leg, dropped on the goal line as he swept it away with his blocker…did you get all that? The stale mate continued as Vokoun stuffed all 3 Boston shooters. The shootout then went to sudden death as Vokoun robs Michael Ryder with a huge glove save. It came down to Florida when Corey Stillman takes Thomas deep and beats him with back hand.What a heart breaker as Thomas gets a shut out loss out of the deal and Florida steals one in Boston.

Tonight the Boston Bruins will honor the local armed forces and their families with “Military Appreciation Night” when they take on the Florida Panthers. Bruins player, Mark Stuart purchased $5,000 worth the tickets to give to donate to the families for tonight’s game.

The Bruins have been more than impressive of late as they have won two in a row for the first time this season beating two of the top teams in the East to boot. Tonight the Florida Panthers come to town riding a two game losing streak and barely staying out of the cellar in the East, easy game for the good guys right? Not so fast scooter.

Tonight is a tough game mentally for the Bruins and they need to take the Panthers seriously or that nice 2 game winning streak will be no more. The B’s have a huge rematch Saturday night against the Penguins and have to worry about that game after they take care of business with Florida tonight. The B’s haven’t announced who will play net tonight as both Tim Thomas and Tuuka Rask have been extremely solid between the pipes.The Bruins beat the Panthers 3 of the 4 meetings between these two teams last season with the B’s out scoring Florida 14-5.