Injuries Showing; Replay Robbery

Injuries plauged the Boston Bruins in 2007-08 and it seems that yet again the injury bug has hit the Bruins, hard. "It's frustrating for everybody, it's frustrating for the players, it's frustrating for the fans, and then people that have seen our team in a better position before" Coach Claude Julien said regarding the teams recent injury woes. Yesterday the Bruins took to the ice without Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel, Patrice Bergeron, Andrew Ference, Aaron Ward and Marco Sturm (who's lost for the season). It was evident yesterday that these are not the Boston Bruins we've watched with such excitement this year. Julien later remarked "You can't replace Patrice Bergeron or Marco Sturm for his speed and his skill level..You got guys moving up that are playing big roles..and doing the best they can" and it's starting to show.


You can't blame everything on injuries though it was clear that the Bruins seemed very lackluster out there against a last place team. "I don't think our effort was there like it was against Washington". The Bruins were apparently on cruise control up until they were blessed with a 5 on 3 powerplay. They scored twice, Ryder (18) and Axelsson (4) to put them ahead 3-2. Then Chara put a weak shot from the blue line right through the 5-hole of Mason and it was 4-2 Boston. Game over, right? No. After a Stephane Yelle penalty the Blues scored on the powerplay. 4-3, about a minute left. They could still hang on, right?



Wrong. With the goalie pulled, Blake Wheeler's shot goes just wide, Krejci gets the rebound but Jackman blocks it with his body and the Blues skate up ice. Shane Hnidy then knocks the puck out of the Boston zone, and with 9 seconds left St. Louis makes their final rush then in a final frenzy David Backes bats the puck into the net past Tim Thomas with .2 seconds left on the clock as if his name was David Ortiz. Bruins players and fans thought they heard the voice of God over the PA in the words "The play is under review". It was clearly a high stick in the eyes of Bruins and fans as the stadium sang "No Goal", but the zebras and suits in Toronto had their say. The ruling was a goal. Seriously? It appeared the rules of "no goals when the stick's above the crossbar" were changed overnight and no one in the Boston area was told.

I honestly couldn't believe this call. I mean can't you just tell by that screenshot above that his stick was a good 2-4 inches above the red? Granted the Bruins were lucky to even get a point out of this but there wasn't enough conclusive evidence to say it wasn't a goal? I don't buy it. Neither did Claude Julien 'Everyone on our bench thought it was no goal'. It happens, there's 82 games in a season. But the bigger issue in this one is do the Bruins have enough fire-power to carry on down the stretch run?


With Sturm done for the year and his placement onto the Long Term Injured Reserve list the Bruins have 4+ million to play around with and be potiental buyers at this years trading deadline. Fact is, hoping for Lecavalier, Gaborik or Kovalchuk to be dawning a Bruins uniform into March is just being unrealistic; the price tag's are too high and the cap-hit is too much with guys like Krejci and Kessel becoming RFA's at seasons end. A name that intrigues me is St. Louis Blues LW and Medford, Massachusetts native Keith Tkachuk.


Adding Tkachuk would undoubtedly be a rental but his veteran presence and know-how could give nothing but an extra boost to this Boston club. Sturm's loss and the gain of a Keith Tkachuk would give the Bruins another weapon on the powerplay as 13 of Tkachuk's 30 points have been on the powerplay. His price tag may also not be as large as someone like a Nik Antropov, Mike Comrie or Islanders Captain Bill Guerin. Another appealing attribute Tkachuk has is his ability to play both left wing and center. Usually I'm not one for deadline deals ever since the Gonchar deal in which the Bruins lost both a 1st and 2nd round draft pick and saw Gonchar leave for Pittsburgh in the off-season but with the injuries this team's combating and question mark that is Patrice Bergeron I believe a deal would only benefit this team.