Thursday's Bruins...

[the mugs]

Coming home from a long successful road trip...This series has been dominated by the road team since the Whale left town. Does anybody miss the Whale? Having lived in CT for a couple years, I kind of do miss them. They were always good for a joke or two...Probably passing on this one tonight. B's first home game since October 8th - usually results in a bad game...Canes played a full OT last night and then traveled here...Usually a bad sign. Everything points to the B's tonight but...Anyway, here we go!

BOSTON BRUINS vs. CAROLINA HURRICANES
Thursday, October 23, 2003
FleetCenter; Boston MA

Tonight?s Game
The Bruins host the Hurricanes tonight in the first of four games between these teams this season and the first of two games of this season?s series at the FleetCenter. The Bruins are 4-1-2-0 thus far this season with an 0-0-1-0 home record. The Hurricanes are 0-2-2-0 thus far this season with a 0-1-1-0 road record. The Bruins are 0-1-1-0 vs. Southeast Division opponents this season and are 0-1-2-0 vs. Eastern Conference foes. The Hurricanes are playing their first game of the season tonight against a Northeast Division opponent and are 0-2-2-0 vs. Eastern Conference foes.

Lifetime Series
The Bruins are 81-54-15-0 lifetime vs. the Carolina franchise (includes Hartford) with a 530-450 scoring advantage in those 150 games. On home ice, the Bruins are 46-23-7-0 lifetime vs. the Hurricanes franchise with a 273-203 scoring edge in those 76 contests. The Bruins are unbeaten in their last two games vs. the Hurricanes at 1-0-1-0 with their last loss to Carolina a 4-2 setback in Boston on Jan. 4, 2003.

Recent Bruins Games
The Bruins have won their last four games and are unbeaten in their last five games at 4-0-1-0 with a 1-1 tie in Florida on Oct. 11, a 2-0 win in Dallas on Oct. 15, a 4-3 win in Los Angeles on Oct. 18, a 4-3 overtime win in Anaheim on Oct. 19 and a 4-1 victory in Colorado on Oct. 21. They have taken points out of six of their first seven games this season at 4-1-2-0 with their lone loss in that span a 5-1 setback in Tampa Bay on Oct. 10.

Recent Hurricanes Games
The Hurricanes are winless in their first four games of this season at 0-2-2-0 with a 3-1 loss in Florida on Oct. 9, a 2-1 loss to New Jersey on Oct. 11 and 2-2 ties each to Florida on Oct. 13 and at the NY Rangers on Oct. 18.

Upcoming Bruins Games
The Bruins face their next two games on the road, playing the Devils in New Jersey on Oct. 25 (7:30 p.m.) and the Canadiens in Montreal on Oct. 28 (7:00 p.m.). They will next return home to host the Canadiens on Oct. 30 (7:00 p.m.)

Upcoming Hurricanes Games
The Hurricanes conclude their current four-game road trip in Philadelphia on Oct. 25. They will then host San Jose on Oct. 28.

Bruins Injuries
Rob Zamuner: Hamstring strain; out indefinitely.

Bruins October Transactions
Oct. 3: Travis Green acquired from Columbus for 2004 sixth round draft pick; Andy Hilbert and Zdenek Kutlak assigned to Providence/AHL.
Oct. 5: Steve Shields traded to Florida for future considerations.
Oct. 6: Patrice Bergeron signed to a three-year contract; Sergei Zinovjev assigned to Providence/AHL.
Oct. 14: Ivan Huml and P. J. Stock assigned to Providence/AHL.

Bruins Facts

Bruins among the NHL leaders at this point of the season include:

Joe Thornton (third overall in scoring with 1-7=8 totals and tied for second in assists)
Brian Rolston (fourth overall in scoring with 5-2=7 totals and tied for second in goals)
Glen Murray (11th overall in scoring with 0-7=7 totals and tied for second in assists)
Patrice Bergeron (leading all rookies in points and assists with 1-5=6 totals)
Nick Boynton (tied for first in plus/minus at +7).

The Bruins have 13 sets of back-to-back games this season. They are 1-1-0-0 in the first game of these sets and are 1-0-1-0 in game two of consecutive-night contests.

 

[the mugs]

Injuries

Injuries

Carolina Injuries
Jeff O'Neill C Shoulder Ques Thurs
Bob Boughner D Hand Late Oct

Boston Injuries
Jonathan Girard D Hip out for season
Rob Zamuner F Hamstring Out indefinitely

 

[the mugs]

Recent Meetings

Recent Meetings

Recent Meetings
Date Home Away Line ATS
3/4/2003 Car. 2 Bos. 4 0.5,-135/5 Bos./O (02-03)
2/19/2003 Car. 1 Bos. 1 0.5,-115/5 Car./U
1/4/2003 Bos. 2 Car. 4 -0.5,-135/5.5 Car./O
11/21/2002 Bos. 3 Car. 1 -0.5,-120/5.5 Bos./U

3/30/2002 Bos. 0 Car. 2 0,-220/5 Car./U (01-02)
3/26/2002 Car. 2 Bos. 3 0,100/5 Bos./P
2/28/2002 Bos. 2 Car. 6 0,-220/5.5 Car./O
1/2/2002 Car. 3 Bos. 6 0,-130/5.5 Bos./O

2/18/2001 Car. 5 Bos. 4 0,-140/5.5 Car./O (00-01)
1/18/2001 Car. 4 Bos. 2 0,-135/5.5 Car./O

 

[the mugs]

Boston Globe 10.23.03

Boston Globe 10.23.03

Bruins' victories on road were by the numbers

The Bruins arrived home from their long trip in the wee hours yesterday morning, exhausted but buoyed by their remarkable 4-1-1-0 run, which ended with four straight victories and a trouncing of the Colorado Avalanche Tuesday night, 4-1.

In a sluggish start to the season -- a 3-3 tie with New Jersey at home followed by a loss in Tampa Bay and a tie in Florida -- the club's weaknesses were far more evident than its strengths.

So, what turned the Bruins' fortunes? Here are a few reasons they're at the top of the Northeast Division:

1. General manager Mike O'Connell called out his top players -- particularly his forwards -- a day after the team escaped with a 2-0 victory in Dallas. If not for Andrew Raycroft's excellent netminding, the Bruins would've been buried. O'Connell was peeved that his best and brightest -- and most financially compensated -- players weren't doing their jobs. There's nothing like your GM publicly kicking you in the pants to get your attention. After O'Connell spoke up, captain Joe Thornton and right wing Glen Murray -- who admitted they were playing subpar hockey -- combined for 10 points in the final three contests with five assists each.

2. Coach Mike Sullivan is as plainspoken, well prepared, and rational as anyone in professional sports, so when he had a meltdown after the first period of the Bruins' game against the Kings in Los Angeles because of his team's ridiculous recurring penalties, the team wasn't shocked because the criticism was deserved. After giving up seven power plays -- three of which turned into Kings goals -- Boston rallied for a 4-3 win and hasn't lost since.

3. The wait is over for Sullivan to reunite Mike Knuble with Thornton and Murray. No matter what other combinations the coach wants to put together, that trio is money in the bank. They proved it last year and since they have been reunited, they've combined for 14 points in three games.

4. Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending. Last year's netminding corps was about as reliable as the New England weather. It's still early, but Raycroft and Felix Potvin, who turned in his best performance as a Bruin against the Avalanche, show signs of being an excellent tandem.

5. Because Sullivan plays everybody, those he relies on most aren't likely to burn out. Last season, Brian Rolston was one of the club's best penalty killers and a fixture on the power play but then-coach Robbie Ftorek overused him and he ran out of gas. Sullivan balances out his players' minutes and now that they've finally gotten the message that excessive penalties equal disaster, Rolston will be fresher longer and more likely to continue his offensive production (five goals and two assists in seven games).

Last year, the Bruins were the best in the league out of the gate but faltered badly. The players say this season has a very different feel. "Sometimes last year, every time there was a shot, you were holding your breath," said Knuble. "Nothing against John [Grahame] and Steve [Shields]. It's not good to talk about guys when they're gone but that's kind of how guys felt. The pucks just seemed to go in and now our goaltenders are stopping them and keeping us in the game.

"The goaltenders have the team's confidence. In Dallas, when we won, 2-0, that was a huge turning point. We probably won a game that we shouldn't have. Then we won two more games we probably shouldn't have, either. It will catch up to us if we keep doing it but we'll take 'em. Any points we get early are so beneficial to us.

"We have tremendous balance. Every line has contributed offensively. Robbie always had to have two tough guys out there [on the fourth line] and they were just really a grinding line. Now they're used in penalty killing and key situations. Sully's showing faith in guys and [they] are responding."

Knuble said part of it is that the Bruins have learned what the coaching staff wants and now they're reacting instead of thinking about how they should react. Asked if his move to the top line was one of the reasons the Bruins started to win, Knuble smiled.

"It certainly looks like that on paper," he said. "It's been fun. I'm not going to lie, I love playing with those guys and I think they like playing with me, too."

Knuble said he noticed a big difference when he made a mistake that resulted in the first -- and only -- Colorado goal. Nothing was said to him.

"They don't get on me about it or anything," he said. "The next thing you know, we ended up getting four. That's the difference from a year ago when it might have been the end of my night. He keeps throwing me back out there and not a word said about it.

"I know I made a mistake and it won't happen again."

After Dallas, O'Connell said he thought Thornton and Murray, along with some others, were in a funk. Thornton played down the controversy, saying it was only a matter of time before they snapped out of it.

"We never get too nervous," he said. "We knew we definitely had the players who could turn it around."

Sullivan said he issued his own message to Thornton -- often.

"We challenged Joe almost daily on this trip to be the best player and he's a guy who is so gifted and when he works and battles and competes, I don't know that there's anybody in the league who's better than he is," said the coach.

"He's certainly been a big leader for us the last few games."

Is the Knuble factor the reason? Sullivan wouldn't commit to that.

"Obviously they enjoy playing with one another so I'm sure they were excited that he was up there and they certainly had success last year," he said.

"At the beginning of the season, it was just a case where we were trying to find line combinations that help the whole group. So we experimented to see who was going to jell and who wasn't.

"I think it's a constant work-in-progress. Right now we've got a couple of lines that are really going and we're happy about that and we'll see where we go from here."

Rolston said the big difference he sees this year is that the rest of the team isn't sitting around waiting for Thornton's line to win games.

"It was just Joe's line doing it last year," he said. "When that happened, the other lines kind of said, `Well, Joe's going to do it,' and that's just not the case. We didn't start real strong and some people were panicking a little bit but we showed what we were made of in the last three games. We're seven games into the season. No one wins a Stanley Cup in October, I'm not trying to make that big of a deal of it but it seems like we're starting to jell as a team.

"That's something we didn't do last year. We didn't play as a team and that's something we're doing a lot better."

In Sullivan's view, the team he saw play a terrible game in Tampa early in the trip is a different club than the one that snuffed out the potent Avalanche attack.

"We were still trying to find our way and figure out what kind of team we were going to be," he said.

"I thought from the second period of the LA game up to this point, our team has really discovered itself and we've got to continue to be that type of team if we're going to be successful."

 

[the mugs]

Boston Herald 10.23.03

Boston Herald 10.23.03

Bruins try not to trip and fall

DENVER - Several Bruins made sure to qualify their remarks after the Bruins' impressive 4-1 victory in Colorado.

Yes, they know full well this is still autumn and, no, they didn't think a good road trip in October earned this team a chance to be playing into June.

They also did not hide the optimism that has very suddenly enveloped this team. At the start of the six-game trip, on which they went 4-1-1 and won the last four games, the B's looked like a team that could barely get out of its own way. They couldn't stop opponents from getting great scoring chances and they weren't creating any chances of their own. Not exactly a formula for success.

But then, when the skies were darkest, they saw the light.

After winning a game they shouldn't have in Dallas, thanks to a great shutout performance from Andrew Raycroft, the B's were looking pretty foolish in the first period in Los Angeles. They'd taken seven minors, given the Kings three 5-on-3 chances and were down 3-0 when coach Mike Sullivan went into the dressing room and gave them an old-fashioned tongue-lashing between periods.

The Bruins stormed back to beat the Kings, had another comeback victory against Anaheim and, in their best effort, beat the talent-laden Avalanche rather handily in the trip finale Tuesday night.

While there's no telling what will happen when the B's take the FleetCenter ice tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes, the home team will be much more confident than on the road two weeks ago.

``We were still trying to find our way and find out what kind of team we were going to be,'' said Sullivan after the 4-1 win over Colorado. ``I thought from the second period of the L.A. game up to this point, our team has really discovered itself and we want to continue to be that kind of team if we're going to be successful. That's the message the coaches are trying to preach.''

That message, about playing as a team and doing some of the unglamorous but necessary things it takes to win, is getting through to the players.

``I think everybody's kind of buying into his stuff now,'' said Mike Knuble, who scored four goals in the last three games of the trip after being reunited with Joe Thornton and Glen Murray. ``And now it's becoming more habit instead of having to stop and think of what you're doing on the ice. And we're having success with it.''

The visible reason for the turnaround came when Knuble went back up to the top line. In the final three games of the trip, that line created constant pressure, taxing opponents by cycling down low and cashing in on opportunities.

``I'm not going to lie. I love playing with those guys and I think they like playing with me, too,'' said Knuble.

As good as the Thornton line has been, the attack has been balanced.

The line combination of center Brian Rolston between P.J. Axelsson and promising rookie Patrice Bergeron [news] has been a force, with Rolston scoring five goals in the last four games. The fourth line of Ted Donato, Sandy McCarthy and Michal Grosek have not only held their own while on the ice, but have also created scoring chances. McCarthy had a big goal in L.A. and Grosek had the backbreaker in Colorado.

``It was just Joe and Joe's line doing it last year,'' said Rolston, explaining the different feeling between this successful road trip and last year's 4-1-1 October swing. ``I think when that happened, the other lines just kind of said, `OK, Joe's going to do it.' And that's not the case this year. Joe is still going to have his points. We all know that because he's a great hockey player and that line is going to put up a lot of goals . . . but I think one of the biggest things is Joe's line is playing strong defensively as well, and everybody as a team is pulling together.

``If we keep going as a team, we're going to be dangerous.''

Perhaps the biggest plus on the road trip was the team's biggest question mark coming into the season - the goaltending. Felix Potvin and Raycroft have fluctuated between being spectacular to very good, but in every one of the last four wins they've made the key saves at the right time and have won in various situations. Raycroft stole the game in Dallas. Potvin and Raycroft kept it close for their teammates to stage comebacks in L.A. and Anaheim, respectively. Then, against Colorado, Potvin was given a lead and he made it hold up.

``Last year, you kind of had to hold your breath with every shot and this year it's not like that,'' said Knuble. ``It's part of the reason (for the turnaround). This whole trip, the goaltending's been solid. Some nights, you're going to need your goaltender to win games like we did in Dallas.

`Our goalies pull out the game in Dallas and, the next thing you know, we've won four straight.''

 

[the mugs]

Road / Home Records

Road / Home Records

NHL.com

Hurricanes - 0-1-1-0 on the road

Bruins - 0-0-1-0 at home.

 

[the mugs]

Carolina - 13-5 ats in Boston since 96 and 12-5-2 su
Carolina - 3-1 ats in Boston last 3 yrs and 3-1-0 su

Looks like Pinnacle is going with the trend.

This is from Nick Douglas' "Pinnacle" thread

 

[grooven]

gl mugs......... and far as that direct tv issue they changed their basic package with nesn since ly