Curse Continued

Tyler Seguin (#19), Nathan Horton (#18)

Back when the Bruins were in the playoffs, I wrote a post about how the Bruins were cursed. The reason for the post was because the Bruins had a ceremony for the brand new Bobby Orr statue before game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

That being said, the Bruins have added some major piece’s to help the team in the upcoming season. Two of the big additions are winger, Nathan Horton and 2nd overall pick Tyler Seguin. Both players have selected their numbers and it is a number, when combined, brings back some haunting memories to Boston sports fans.

Tyler Seguin will be wearing #19, and Nathan Horton #18, it should be an interesting season for the Bruins.

NHL Draft Preview, Hall or Seguin???

The first round of the NHL draft is Friday night from Los Angeles. Like any draft there is a lot of hype over the top players in the draft. This year the top two projected picks are both “can’t miss” picks. Those players would be Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin.
It will be the Edmonton Oilers who have first dibb’s of every player on the board. It is expected that the Oilers will take the left winger Hall.

Boston has the second pick, after strategically trading Phil Kessel, just before last season, to Toronto for their first and second round picks. The deal worked out because the Bruins will pick second in Friday’s draft and with the way last season ended it feels like they earned a second overall pick.
Boston had two picks in the first round but a recent trade of Denis Wideman and the 15th pick in the draft to Florida for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.

Now the Bruins are entertaining the idea of trading Center Marc Savard to Columbus for the fourth over all pick in the draft. Which makes no sense, but we will see what happens.

As of right now Boston will pick:
Rd. 1 pick 2 (2)
Rd. 2 pick 2 (32)
Rd. 2 pick 15 (45)
Rd. 4 pick 7 (97)
Rd. 5 pick 15 (135)
Rd. 6 pick 15 (165)
Rd. 7 pick 15 (195)

Bruins Pick 2nd; Start Quest Tomorrow

Last night was the always exciting NHL Draft lottery. Peter Chiarelli was in attendance as he was hoping he could pull-off the ultimate “F** you” to Toronto by trying to make the trading of Phil Kessel turn into the first overall pick in the draft.

2010 Draft Order:
1. Edmonton Oilers
2. Boston Bruins (from Toronto)
3. Florida Panthers
4. Colombus Blue Jackets
5. New York Islanders

The draft lotto came and went but Edmonton received the first pick and the Bruins ended up with the second pick in the draft, as expected. This is still excellent, as of now all signs are pointing to Taylor Hall but Tyler Seguin looks to be just as good of a player. Although this could all be worthless is the rumblings are true about Chiarelli toying with the idea of trading the pick along with Bergeron and Ryder to Calgary for Jerome Iginla.

–Side note: This is the second time Chiarelli has ripped off Toronto, his first move as a GM with Boston was trading Andrew Raycroft for the rights to Tuukka Rask.

On a current note the Bruins begin the playoffs tomorrow, in Buffalo. It will be interesting to see which Bruins team shows up, this is going to be a low scoring series, which in a way could work into the Bruins favor but there needs to be goal production from every line in order to win.

If there is anything the Bruins should play for is the possibilty of Marc Savard’s return. Chiarelli dicused the health of Savard during the draft lottery last night. According to espn.com Chiarelli said, “Savy’s had some good days lately and you don’t want to rule him out, but he’s still a ways away.” It is still a long shot, the article also said Savard would need to be headache free for seven days before he could return to the ice.

With the way the Bruins dealt with Bergeron and his concussion after being hit by Randy Jones I find it hard to believe Chiarelli, Claude, and the medical staff would let him just hop into the second round of the playoffs. But stranger things have happened, who knows

Gold Medal Game today at 3pm

…if the USA Jr. Team chanting in the locker room after beating the Canadians on their own soil back in January doesnt get you pumped up for this game…nothing will

Bobcats beat 4. Yale

…Highlights of the QU v. 4. Yale hockey game Saturday night on NESN. The 2nd Bobcat goal should definatly be a consideration for a Sportscenter Top 10.
QU returned the favor to Yale on Saturday night. When the Bobcats faced Yale back in December, at Yale, the Bobcats were ranked 4th in the nation much like yale was last night. Yale defeated Qu back in december 7-4.

Men’s Final

I GIVE UP!!! I got all excited when I picked the first six games of the Olympic tournament right then everything I thought was right went to shit. The Slovak’s beat Sweeden, Finland beats the Czech’s then I thought there was no shot the US scores a goal on Kipprusoff and Finland…way off. I had banked on Canada losing to Sweeden but with Sweeden losing before they could play Canada that posed a problem.
So I do not know what to expect for the Gold Medal Game. After the USA win over Canada, the Canadians seem to have a fire lit under their asses and are playing every game like it is thier last. I think Canada out played the US in the first game and it will be the same again, just with a different result.

I say Canada over USA 6-2.

…but what do I know

Seniors Steal the Show, Bobcats Win

HAMDEN – Friday night was Senior Night at TD Bank Sports Center as the Quinnipiac Bobcats took on the Brown Bears in an ECAC Conference match-up. It was the seniors who led the way for the Bobcats as they totaled 9 points on the evening, in an 8-3 win.

The scoring was kicked off at 2:38 into the first period when a cross-ice outlet pass was made to Eric Lampe who broke the puck down the right wing and took a shot on goal. The rebound was knocked around before the puck found senior captain Jean-Marc Beaudoin’s stick in front of the net allowing him to put the puck past the Brown goaltender Michael Clemente.

A Bobcat interference penalty on Zach Hansen almost midway through the first was where Brown was able to score its lone goal of the period. A Jarred Smith pass from the half board’s to the slot was re-directed in by Brown forward David Brownschidle, making the score 1-1.

The Bobcats(16-15-2, 10-11-0) added another in the period when Mike Dalhuisen made a pass from his own goal line to Mike Atkinson on the fly, breaking through the neutral zone. Atkinson continued on, past the defenseman, and drove to the goal where he got a shot off, and another Clemente rebound was left sitting in the crease for Jeremy Langlois to score his sixth goal of the season with 4:39 left in the period to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.

QU Seniors (L-R): Greg Holt, Mike Atkinson, Brandon Wong, Jean-Marc Beaudoin, Eric Lampe, & Sami Liimatainen

Langlois said, “all the underclass men took it upon us to not be our fault and make sure that we needed to do all the little things we needed to do.” The freshman, Langlois, had two goals on Senior Night.

Quinnipiac used a lot of ice to score its first two goals. Bobcat Head Coach Rand Pecknold noted: “Brown was trapping and we found the seam. They did not trap much tonight, like they did they last time we played them.”

The 2-1 lead the Bobcats had to start the period grew as QU had a four-goal effort in the second period. The first came just :38 seconds into the period when Brandon Wong tapped in the wide-open backdoor goal on a pass from Lampe. The Bobcats added two more goals just 21-seconds apart, starting with 15:04 left in the period. Greg Holt finished the scoring for the Bobcats on a seeing-eye blast from the point which found the back of the net, for the third Bobcat power-play goal of the period.

The Bobcats were able to lead for remaining time in the period. A power-play goal from the Bear’s Francis Drolet was its only answer to Quinnipiac’s four goals. Brown (6-12-4, 8-17-4) continued to bring the pressure for the rest of the period but Bobcats goalie Dan Clarke was up to the task. Clarke made a big glove save on a breakaway attempt from Brown toward the end of the period. Clarke stopped 27 of 30 shots in the game.

Quinnipiac led 6-2 through two periods. The scoring rampage continued in the third period with three more goals between the two teams. The Bobcats added another two goals on a Langlois back-hander for his second goal of the tilt, and the man who started the game’s scoring, Beaudoin, put home another power-play goal on the doorstep to finish off the scoring. Brown added one more goal to make the final score 8-3.

The second half of the game became very chippy as Brown found itself down by a lot and playing the antagonizing role to try and lure the Bobcats to the penalty box. Both teams had a combined 70 minutes in penalties.

One of the game’s three-stars, Beaudoin, talked about trying to avoid the rough play, “we showed a lot of focus there and showed some composure to stay away from it.”

Beaudoin was tied with his two teammates, Atkinson and Lorren Baron, with a game-high three points. The two goals on the game also gave Beaudoin his seventh multi-point game of the year.

The win has the Bobcats will wrap-up the season Saturday night, at TD Bank against rival No. 5. Yale at 7:30

Men’s Semi-Finals

There are only four teams left in the men’s ice hockey tournament. The two games will see 1. USA v. 4. Finland and 6. Canada v. 7. Slovakia. Both should be exciting games to watch.

Picks:
4. Finland over 1. USA
6. Canada over 7. Slovakia

The US is too young to handle what Finland is about to bring. Mikka Kiprusoff has yet to be solved in the tournament and I don’t see anything changing when facing the US. The Fins are on a mission to win the gold medal they felt they deserved in 2006, when they lost to Sweeden.

Canada is a team i thought would win from the beginning and after coming close to not even making the bracket round, a loss to the USA lit a fire under the Canadians ass and they are on a tear. They are coming off two blow-out wins over Germany and Russia. Although Slovakia will bring a tough game to Canada, there is no way team Canada will lose the gold medal in their home country.

Mens Hockey Round 2

Some great games played today. Canada had a route of Germany 8-2, the swiss won an exciting game in a shootout, the Czech’s won on a David Krejci goal in overtime and Slovakia took care of Norway late last night.

Today is the second round and there are only 8 teams remaining

Picks:
1. USA over 8. Switzerland
2. Sweeden over 7. Slovakia
6. Canada over 3. Russia
5. Czech Republic over 4. Finland

YESSS!!!!!

This is why I love Ovechkin, he plays both ways and is good at it. His hit on Jagr causes a turnover and a goal for the team. Nothing more needs to be said