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The last time I posted about the Bruins, they had just won the Winter Classic in exciting fashion and were looking to start a second-half push to the playoffs.  A month later, key players went down with injuries and we lost ten excruciating games in a row.  Slowly but surely, the likes of Lucic, Savard, and Ference made their way back to the ice and beat the Canadiens a week ago in Montreal.  Three more wins after that, and the B’s are right back in the thick of it, seventh place in the conference and, for the most part, resting up over the Olympic break.

Baaaack in the saddle agaaaain!

All during the bleak month of January, there was all sort of talk going around… fire Claude Julien, kick Tim Thomas out of goal on a permanent basis, etc… the most interesting storyline was the question of whether or not the B’s should have traded for Ilya Kovalchuk.  Kovie is one of the most natural goal-scorers around and there’s no doubt that that’s the one area that the Bruins are truly lacking.  It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Cam Neely or Bill Guerin, so why not get a guy who can score 40-50 a year without much effort?  Well, we didn’t because he’d have only had been a late-season rental.  The team would have had to have given up a lot of great players (not to mention the all-important Toronto pick in next year’s draft) to get it done for a guy who in all likelihood will not even come back to play in the NHL next year; rumor has it he’ll go pick up a huge contract back in Russia.  In my opinion, the Bruins have actually built a great team that only needs a fire lit under them – or that high draft pick next season – to finally get back into the Stanley Cup Finals.  And believe me, that’ll be a sight to see.

My only hope is that the coming break doesn’t mess up any new rhythm the guys have.  They’ve finally started winning again, and it feels good.  We’ve got a lot of guys in the Olympics, but it’s the rest of the team getting their rest that makes me more optimistic than not.  At this point, all we need to do is make the playoffs… sometimes, crazy things happen when you’re there.

If you like Bruins blogging, go check out HubHockey.  It’s not the best written, but like NoMaas does for the Yankees, it’s funny, smart, and goes against the grain from time to time.  It also helps that it’s probably the only Bruins blog that is actually updated every game.  And check out the fight log!!

Yesterday’s Winter Classic was a lot of fun to watch.  I’m not so sure I would have said that if the Bruins didn’t win, though.

Dennis Wideman outruns the Flyers

The game itself was a lot of fun to watch.  Both the Bruins and the Flyers really went at it from the get-go, including the fight between Shawn Thornton and Dan Carcillo.  It was cool to watch the players try to adjust to playing weird bounces and the elements, although everyone said the ice was in perfect shape for a game.  And of course, the late-game comeback thanks to a clutch goal from Mark Recchi and the “walk-off” goal from Marco Sturm to avoid the god-damned shootout.

Presentation, though, left plenty to be desired, both from Fenway and NBC.  I was disappointed to see that they didn’t add seats on the field.  Essentially, the only good seats available were on the first and third base lines, and even then, you were getting the end-view of the game.  I can’t hold it against them, though.  The Fenway grounds crew is damn good, and they probably didn’t want so many fans treading all over the place.

As for NBC, don’t get me started.  Since the game was taking place in a baseball park, they had to get Bob Costas to host the thing.  Then they had to spend all sorts of time talking about the park and the Red Sox, and the whole first period was full of references to “ground rule doubles,” “knucklers,” and other corny lines.   It was good to see Mike Milbury, though, so put all of that together and it’s as if I was watching on NESN anyway.  Also, seeing the 5′5″ Darren Pang interview a 6′9″-plus-skates Zdeno Chara is hilarious.

And I’m going to have to get my hands on one of these hats:

Nice touque, eh?

Pretty soon, the NHL is going to shut down for the Olympics, so we’ll have what will boil down to being a two-week All-Star break.  Glad to see that Tim Thomas will be in goal for the USA.