This Week In Bruins: Tuukka, The Kids, Philly & My Negativity

Here in the first week of “This Week In Bruins” (okay, I’m cheating, the season is about three weeks old now but who makes up these rules anyhow?), we’re going to examine the past seven days in all things Bruins.

Following a dominating performance against a semi-healthy Dallas Stars team, the Bruins sputtered out of the gate and lost to the currently-untouchable Ilya Bryzagalov the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1 in the desert. Before the game, the Bruins lost Milan Lucic for the night, and went on to lose him for the next 4-6 weeks with a broken finger.

Just how does one of the NHL’s toughest players get away with sitting out four to six weeks because of a broken finger? Well, you can ask him if you see him, but I know I won’t be backing you up.

* To add injury to injury, the Bruins also placed linemate Marc Savard on the long-term injured reserve with a broken foot. While Savard’s seven points were good for best on the Bruins, it was deemed best if 91 spent some time in the press box, giving him time to let the broken bones heal. The injury was suffered during the pre-season, but gives Savard more time to pursue a modeling career, photos by the Improper Bostonian, courtesy of the Looch Ness Monster blog.

* The Bruins call up Guilliam Lefebvre, sent him down, call him up for a half hour, and send him down again. While Lefebvre is heading back to Rhode Island for perhaps the rest of the season, I’ve grown curious as to how much gas money Peter Chiarelli has given Lefebvre.

* Brad Marchand gets an assist in his first NHL game, but rubs Bruins, music, and musically-inclined Bruins fans the wrong way before the game when he admits to wanting to interview Nickelback.

* The Bruins acquire Daniel Paille from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for one of the Bruins 1,982 draft picks. Paille impresses Bruins fans the next night with his dogged determination, tenacity and assist on a game-winning goal for Boston.

* Steve Begin continues to make Boston fans miss P.J Axelsson and Stephane Yelle less and less by the game. Currently, Begin is on pace for 54 points and is second on the Bruins with four assists.

* Surprisingly, Patric Hornqvist survived 60 minutes out there against the Bruins on Wednesday. The Sweden native forward, who stands at a whopping 5′11″ and 186 pounds was hacking away at Thomas’ pads all game, crosschecking Sobotka and being an all around irritation to the Bruins.

* Bruins survive a last second melee in front of Tim Thomas’ crease to secure a win against the Nashville Predators, continuing their streak of inconsistency.

* My negativity towards the Boston Bruins via Facebook status leads to the team waking up, I know I’m friends with Zach Hamill on there, but does news really travel that quickly?

* Both Vladimir Sobotka and Brad Marchand admit that Marley & Me made them cry. Winning the hearts of dog-lovers all over, but creating a buzz about just what is going on in the city of Providence?

* Bruins unveil “official” Winter Classic hats during pre-game skate with Philadelphia Flyers, continuing to upset fans with their lack of anything cool for this year’s battle at Fenway Park.

* The scouting report on Tuukka Rask continues to read “top-shelf”. However, Tuukka still performs admirably in the 4-3 shootout loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, including a stellar save against Jeff Carter on a shorthanded breakaway.

* Scott Hartnell has still refused to get a haircut, to the dismay of even his closest family. His search for revenge on Bart Simpson continues.

*Derek Morris scores his first goal with the Boston Bruins and tallies an assist against Philly, stopping the complaining of B’s fans..for now.

* Is there any team more appealing to loathe than the Philadelphia Flyers? Between that clinically-insane punk Daniel Carcillo to Chris “Mr. Stomp” Pronger, is there any reason as to why anyone outside of Philadelphia would bother liking this club? I suppose it fits their city well though, GREEN-MAN!

* The Canadiens continue to stumble, to the joy of Bruins fans, posing the question, est la Coupe truly downtown? Even more joyous, the Toronto Maple Leafs are still winless seven games into the season, with a wonderfully terrible record of 0-6-1, on pace to give the Boston Bruins the first overall draft pick in 2010. Hey Kessel, how do ‘ya like ‘dem apples?

Tomorrow, the Bruins take to the ice in Kanata, Ontario to take on the Ottawa Senators. This will be the first time that the Bruins face off against Alex Kovalev since his departure from Montreal. Will L’Artist have any tricks up his sleeve or will the Bruins continue to play hard, physical and cliche as they prove to be “tougher to play against”?

If you haven’t already done so, follow me on Twitter!

Ty

30 Teams In 30 Days: Ottawa & The Heater Bound To Breakup?

Remember that devastatingly powerful line-up featuring Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley? If you told anyone that two years later, that line would be in jeopardy due to a trade request, surely you would've been ridiculed and seemingly exiled from any sort of discussion. However, is it those people who are now on the brink of having the last laugh?

Were the Senators in the process of rebuilding before the 2008-09 season began? One could argue that the replacement of Wade Redden with Jason Smith was a sign that yes, they were on the fall. Just as fast as that thought crept into your mind, the Sens made an upgrade on the blue-line by trading away Andrej Meszaros to Tampa Bay for Filip Kuba. The mystery continued to grow on into the regular season until they took to the ice and we saw how truly terrible this team was destined to be.

It may have been the lack of scoring beyond the top line, the poor and aged defense or the inconsistent goaltending of Martin Gerber and Alex Auld? Simply put, whatever it was, needed to be fixed as soon as the season ended. The 2008-09 Ottawa Senators went on to finish fourth in the Northeast Division and out of the playoffs for the first time since the 1995-96 season.

Without question the Sens biggest need was, well, everything.

Addressing perhaps their most important need the Senators traded for Blue Jackets goaltender Pascal Leclaire at the NHL trading deadline. As Leclaire sat at home and recovered from ankle surgery, the Senators continued to give Brian Elliott a test run in the NHL. Elliott played surprisingly well on a poor team, finishing with a 16-8-3 record and .900 save percentage.

During his last fully healthy season for Columbus, Leclaire had an NHL leading 10 shutouts and 24 win season for the Jackets. The duo of Elliott and Leclaire should be key components in the rebuilding of the Senators with these two players possessing great potential to be stars in this league for years to come.

On the back end, the Senators defense was simply too old. Chris Philips, Jason Smith, and Luke Richardson (who retired after just two games) are simply beyond their prime and have arguably, with the exception of Jason Smith, lost their legs. In a market seemingly barren of young NHL defensemen, the Senators made no changes to the defense and will hope for the best without veteran Jason Smith patrolling the ice.

Making the biggest arrival into Ottawa in 2009 is definitely going to be that of Alex Kovalev, who for years tormented the Ottawa Senators and rest of the Northeast Division for that matter with the Montreal Canadiens. Known for his simply remarkable techniques with the stick and smooth skating, but also for his rather lazy-bug attitude, Kovalev has joined the Senators on a two year contract that will pay him a total of 10 million dollars.

Kovalev is coming off what many consider a down year in Montreal where the part-time captain struggled to play at a high level night in and night out and put up 26 goals and finished with 65 points and a -5. Despite the 19 point drop off from the year before, Kovalev still has the skills, leaving the only question to be his work ethic and desire to give it his all for a club with almost no direction for the upcoming season.

Ahead of Kovalev in the newspapers has been the request by Dany Heatley to be traded out of town and to a contender. After refusing a trade that would've sent the disgruntled 39-goal scorer to Edmonton in exchange for Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid it was beginning to appear as if Dany Heatley was going to create a distraction in the Senators locker room and simply wasn't going to be well liked (hell, the desire to be traded went as far as refusing to go to teammate Jason Spezza's wedding).

Heatley's refusal rendered the question among most, including myself, "Why request the trade if you're just going to say no?" and Heatley's motivations were becoming very clear. He wanted to go to an immediate contender, not a team who needs him in order to be a contender. Simply put, he's quickly becoming one of the NHL's few prima-donna's.

Is Heatley the missing piece for the San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers or New York Rangers? It's very possible, but with all three of teams lacking the cap space and/or players willing to waive their no trade clauses a move to any of these cities seems unlikely. Wherever Heatley may end up (Ottawa being my bet), the price tag for the 28 year old coming off his worst offensive season since 2003-04 is still going to an extraordinarily high one considering his seven and a half million dollar cap hit from now until the end of the 2013-14 season.

The on-going Heatley saga has even irked captain Daniel Alfredsson, who recently suggested that Heatley be traded immediately for the best interest of the team and to avoid creating a distraction for the club once they return to action. Will Heatley be moved? Or better yet, can he be moved? As the season draws closer and closer, the idea of Heatley staying a Senator and creating a distraction is becoming more likely.

Considering that as of right now no Heatley trade is in place, this should be the Senators opening night line-up in 2009-10.

Daniel Alfredsson - Jason Spezza - Dany Heatley

Nick Foligno - Mike Fisher - Alex Kovalev

Jarkko Ruutu - Chris Kelly - Chris Neil

Christoph Schubert - Ryan Shannon - Jesse Winchester

Extra Skaters: Cody Bass & Martin St. Pierre

Chris Phillips - Filip Kuba

Chris Campoli - Alexandre Picard

Brian Lee - Anton Volchenkov

Extra Skater: Erik Karlsson

Pascal Leclaire

Brian Elliott

Despite the addition of Kovalev and arrival of a healthy Leclaire, this team is among the bottom of the barrel not only in the division, but in the Eastern Conference. Once again, the defense will be lit up by all four of the divisional opponents along with the rest of the NHL. The offense, although slightly improved, still lacks the depth to hang with the league's best on a night in and night out basis.

Players To Watch: Firstly and most importantly, goaltenders Pascal Leclaire and Brian Elliott should be two netminders to keep an eye on and present the second most interesting case of a goalie core next to the Ray Emery and Brian Boucher combo in Philly. Elliott, while experience success as a rookie on a bad team has still yet to prove if he is indeed the number one goaltender of tomorrow whereas Leclaire is looking to bounce back and return to form with a fully healed ankle. It'll also be entertaining to see how the fans react to and treat Dany Heatley if he is indeed not traded before the season starts.

Prediction: 5th in Northeast Division. 12th in Eastern Conference.

Two And Done: Kovalev Wants To Retire A Hab?

Perhaps this wasn't the best way to endear yourself to a new city, but he's Alexei Kovalev, right? During a charity event in the city he called home for five years, Kovalev mentioned his visits back to Montreal throughout the off-season and stated the following,

"Every time you see a fan on the street, they're really disappointed. That's why I say, maybe after two years I'll be back again. It definitely would be nice to retire here.".

Simply put, the Ottawa Senators are quickly becoming the NHL's biggest mess. Between Dany Heatley's riff with the organization becoming so personal that the superstar refuses to go to teammates weddings and the fact that Ottawa's completely fallen from grace following their near capture of the 2007 Stanley Cup, it appears that the hope for the 2009-10 Sens is already fading.

Perhaps it wasn't the quote that got under the skin of Senators fans (okay, it definitely was) but doesn't it already seem as if the 36-year old sniper has no interest in becoming the leader in Ottawa that he initially billed himself as to the fans of the red and black?

To go from "wanting to have a sit down talk with Heatley to keep him a Sen" to "longing to retire in Montreal" is simply Alex being Alex. He's seemingly taking his rather strangely mysterious approach to the game of hockey of flipping, flopping (and diving) between efforts on a given night and applied it to how he feels about being a Senator.

In the interview, Kovalev went on to mention his desire to return to Montreal during this off-season until Bob Gainey pulled the offer from the table following his signing of Brian Gionta to a five year contract. Kovalev went on to wait for what felt like weeks before signing a two year deal with the Ottawa Senators worth 10 million dollars. Despite these comments, Kovalev reiterated his desire for Heatley to remain in Ottawa with him. If his desire becomes reality, Kovalev's addition into the Ottawa line-up gives the Senators some greatly needed secondary scoring to complement their top line of Heatley-Spezza and captain Daniel Alfredsson.

However, I'm not expecting this to be the case. This an Ottawa club already starting off in the hole and relaying on Pascal Leclaire and a weak defense to compete in the high-powered goal scoring Eastern Conference.

Have fun Ottawa, you're going to losing one Heatley headache and take on a new home-sickened Kovalev one.