With the exception of  the undisclosed injury of goaltender Tim Thomas, the Bruins are finally back to full staff and have to start making some noise. The B’s survived a huge blow in October as they lost two of their major players by staying above .500 and sitting in the 8 spot of the Eastern Conference. Players like Ryder, Wheeler and Sturm picked up the slack with Savards out and Shawn Thorton and Byron Bitz picked up the enforcer roles. Patrice Bergeron leads the B’s in points with 14 and Chara is right behind him with 12.

The return of Marc Savard will help boost these numbers as the B’s have struggled in the goal department. Tonight Savard is expected to center Byron Bitz and Marco Sturm. Continue reading »

The Boston Herald is reporting that both Marc Savard and Milan Lucic could be back in action as early as Thursday night when the Bruins travel to Atlanta. Savard is expected to participate in a full work out on Wednesday. Lucic is already been in full workouts and was originally expected to return Friday night in Buffalo. Continue reading »

There wasn’t much to tonight’s story line when the 12th place Panthers came to town. In fact the biggest story in the morning skate was that Milan Lucic was back on the ice and eying a return against the Islanders next week.

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. Continue reading »

Hockey fans had a little bit of a let down Saturday night as what was billed as an Olympic goaltenders showdown ended up a battle of their back ups when Bruins back up Tuukka Rask took on Buffalo’s back up Jhonas Enroth at the Garden Saturday night.

USA Olympic hockey fans are anxiously awaiting for New Years day when the announcement of who will be playing for their team that will go to Vancouver in February and a lot of the Focus has been on who will play net for team USA. Tim Thomas was the hands on favorite when this season started but Buffalo’s Ryan Miller has a strong case for himself with his 9-1-1 start. Continue reading »

It’s not too late to buy a few extra TV’s for tonight as the NHL puts everybody to work with all 30 teams in action tonight. This is the second time this season the NHL has gone full boat and surprisingly only the fourth time in history.

Sports fans have their work cut out for them tonight to try to keep track of all the action across the nation. Put the NHL aside, you have a loaded schedule of college football, and there is that little baseball game happening tonight as well (put a whammy on those damn Yankees).

Highlighting tonight’s match ups would be the Penguins going for their 8th straight victory after Crosby scores all 3 goals to lead to their dramatic come from behind win in shoot out last night against the Florida Panthers.

The walking wounded Boston Bruins have literally had a up and down season alternating wins and losses every other game and hope that pattern continues at least for tonight as they lost in Philly Thursday night in a shootout. Look for Shawn Thorton in the lineup tonight …well at least that’s what his V-Blog says. If you ask coach Julien, he says it will be a game time decision. As you know , he was supposed to return the other night and was a last minute scratch. The Bruins are stating Thorton has an undisclosed injury. What is this the playoffs? Although Tuukka Rask played exceptionally good Thursday night, look for Thomas in net. Timmy has been a thorn in Ottawa’s side as he has won 7 in a row against the Sens with a 1.27 gaa in those games.

The Toronto Maple Leafs still the only team without a victory this year visit Vancouver where the last time they have posted a win at GM Place was 6 years ago. At this point, you may want to keep all sharp objects away from Kessel.

The slumping Carolina Hurricanes losers of 5 straight will lose Tuomo Ruutu as he was handed a three game suspension for a boarding infraction on Colorado’s Darcy Tucker in Friday nights game. Tucker was injured on the play with a concussion and also received 40 stitches.

The less than impressive Nashville Predators (2-4-1) come to Boston tonight hoping to do what the Bruins are looking to do by getting on track this season. The big question I have is, what Bruins team will we see tonight in this Jeckle and Hyde season.

The B’s have three games in the next four nights and this will be a good test on what this squad will bring us this season. With Lucic out for the next 4-6 weeks, the rest of the team needs to bring their toughness to the rink tonight. Peter Chiarelli has sent a message with the recent trade of Kobesaw, the Bruins GM is trying to shake things up.

The Bruins acquired forward Daniel Paille from the Buffalo Sabres for a third round pick in 2010 and a conditional 4th round pick in 2010. The 6 foot 197 pound Paille has 35 goals, 42 assists and 54 pim in the 195 games played in the NHL but has played only appeared in 2 games for the Sabres this season. Hard to believe but this marks the first ever trade between the two franchises.

The good news for the B’s would be that Shawn Thorton who was listed day to day should return tonight. Look for Thorton to play on the 4th line with Begin and Bitz. More good news may be defenseman Dennis Wideman who has been sidelined since October 10th could also return tonight. With the acquisition of Paille and the return of Thorton and Wideman, the B’s have assigned Lefebrve to Providence.