Pre-game Chatter

According to nesn.com, Adam McQuaid will be a game-time decision. Tuukka Rask will be starting between the pipes for the B’s tonight.

The B’s will look to have a better effort than a week ago when they played the Hurricanes. And for all you Tomas Kaberle fans out there, he will be returning to the Garden for the first time since winning the Cup with the Bruins and Kaberle will be receiving his ring before the game, privately.

Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-Tyler Seguin-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Rich Peverley
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Jordan Caron
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas
Scratches: David Krejci (core injury), Matt Bartkowski, Steven Kampfer (knee)

Projected Hurricanes lines
Forwards
Jeff Skinner-Eric Staal-Chad LaRose
Alexei Ponikarovsky-Jussi Jokinen-Tuomo Ruutu
Jiri Tlusty-Brandon Sutter-Patrick Dwyer
Brett Sutter-Tim Brent-Anthony Stewart
Defense
Bryan Allen-Tim Gleason
Tomas Kaberle-Jay Harrison
Joni Pitkanen-Jamie McBain
Goalies
Cam Ward
Brian Boucher
Scratches: Justin Faulk, Derek Joslin, Zac Dalphe (lower body)

B’s Acquire Joe Corvo

NHL.com — Not long after losing Kaberle, the Bruins acquired Joe Corvo from the Hurricanes in exchange for a 2012 fourth-round draft pick.

Corvo, 34, had 11 goals and 29 assists in 82 games with the Hurricanes last season. In eight seasons, he’s had at least 10 goals four times, and has 79 goals and 179 assists in 568 NHL games with the Kings, Senators, Hurricanes and Capitals.

When I first heard about the Bruins move, trading a fourth-round pick for Joe Corvo, I thought it was a bit of a lateral move.

Corvo would obviously be the guy to replace Kaberle, who signed a 3-year $12.75 million dollar deal with the Hurricanes this afternoon.

As I sat in the car dealership today waiting for my car to be repaired and having this as my only train of thought…

…I finally managed to get to thinking about the trade for Crovo.

It makes sense because he is only a $2.25 mil cap hit for the Bruins next season. This still allows the Bruins to spend money on free-agents this offseason. Corvo also had 40 points with the Hurricanes last season which would have made his the second highest point getter among defenseman if he were on the Bruins.

Corvo and Seidenberg were also D partners for Carolina three seasons ago when the Hurricanes knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs in the Conference Semi-Finals.

The only reason this move does not make sense is because by adding Corvo this keeps the same D core intact for next season. Not allowing room for a player like Kampfer to get a shot.

Kampfer is a highly talented defenseman. This leads me to believe the Bruins could be interested in moving a player like McQuaid or Boychuk, possibly even Kampfer.

A move involving McQuaid or Boychuk would not be surprising because both their contracts are up after next season, along with Joe Corvo.

B’s Try to Deal Rights to Kaberle

CBS Boston — The Boston Bruins are looking to deal the rights to defenseman Tomas Kaberle, according to a tweet by TSN’s Darren Drager.

The Bruins sent out a league-wide email Tuesday informing teams they would like to try to move the rights to the upcoming free agent. Acquiring his rights would give the team exclusive negotiation rights with Kaberle when free agency begins on Friday.

Hey everyone. Remember back in February when the Bruins were trying to make the move for puck-moving, power-play saving defenseman Tomas Kaberle and EVERYONE thought it was a brilliant idea.

I wanted Brad Richards. There are plenty of guys on the Bruins who know how to pass the puck and make plays and Richards is the type of guy who knows how to score from where ever he is on the ice.

Don’t give me this whole nonsense of, hey the B’s won the Cup who knows if they would have won if Kaberle wasn’t on the team. Hey fun fact for all you people who just needed to have Kaberle on the blue line. The B’s were 17 for 154 (11%) on the power-play from his first game February 18 through game seven of the Cup Finals in the 49 games Kaberle played.

Now to Kaberles credit one player cannot save a power-play. But when he was brought here and hyped to make the power-play better, his hold the puck and fake slap shot routine was not the answer.

Kaberle Practicing Stick-handling Drills in Practice

ESPN — In every series, there seems to be one designated whipping boy.

That one, lonely, unfortunate player whose underachieving, faux pas or foibles make him a lightning rod for criticism and derision.

There was Marian Gaborik in New York as the Rangers bowed out in the first round.

There was Nicklas Backstrom in Washington as the top-seeded Capitals were swept in the second round.

There were the goaltenders in Philadelphia who imploded all spring.

And in Boston, there is Tomas Kaberle.

Maybe it’s the history — the failed attempts by the Bruins to acquire the smooth-skating defenseman from Toronto over the past couple of seasons — that has ramped up the disappointment meter this spring.

It amuses how quickly fans (especially the badwagon fans) will turn on a player. Back in March everyone is Boston was saying how the Bruins needed to trade for Kaberle, he needed to be a Bruin, do what ever it takes to get him just get the deal done.

Well, now here we are heading into game two of the Eastern Conference Finals and all everyone is Boston is talking about is how awful he is, how sucks on the power-play, and that he should basically just not play.

I couldn’t agree more.

The only difference is, from the beginning, I was one of the few people who wanted no part of Kaberle coming to Boston. I had numerous reason but my biggest reason is because the Bruins didn’t need ANOTHER defenseman. They need (and still need) a natural goal scorer. Sure they have Horton and potentially Seguin (pending how he develops) but a guy who night in and night out is a threat to score. And don’t try and argue Lucic with me because he will not be a consistent 30 goal scorer.

Not a guy who is learning how to stick-handle, in the CONFERENCE FINALS, when the puck is passed to him behind the net.

It’s A Road Trip

So the Bruins began a six game road trip last night with a win over the Islanders 6-3. So far so good, 1-0 on the road trip and the B’s will be back at it tonight in Ottawa, which is good because new aquistion Chris Kelly will be able to play.

Now not that this is Chiarelli’s fault but he traded for a guy who has not been able to join the team because he is having visa problems. The good news is, the former Senator will be sitting on the opposite bench in a Bruins uniform tonight because the game is in Ottawa. The Bruins following two games will be in Canada so Kelly will be able to play in at least three games.

Next, reports out the wazoo are saying that the deal for Tomas Kaberle is all but done. The deal looks to include the Bruins 2011 first-round draft pick and prospect Joe Colborne for Kaberle. Now I joked yesterday about trading Joe Thornton. Well…the B’s drafted Colborne after they had dealt Jumbo Joe to the Sharks. When Colborne was drafted (16th overall in 2008) all the hype around him coming out of Juniors was that he was big guy who wanted to go to U. Denver for a few years to bulk up. All comparisons made about Colborne was that he would be the next Joe Thornton. Awesome. But the Bruins got a puck-moving defenseman, remember Paul Mara, Dennis Wideman…yeah…puck moving defenseman.

So now that the Bruins still have not solved the problem of finding a goal scorer, something needs to be done. I would love Brad Richards and would want him on my team, I think that goes without saying. But the Bruins problem is the reason why Blake Wheeler was pulled from the Kaberle deal, is because he sucks, same with Ryder. So teams are not going to give away a cornerstone player for two guys who are at most worth a bag of pucks.

B’s Trying To Make Moves

What is going on?!?! It is looking more and more like the Bruins are going to trade for Maple Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle. According to reports from the radio (98.5 Sports Hub) and other sources, it looks like the Bruins are going to send Blake Wheeler and a draft pick to Toronto for Kaberle. In addiditon, it seems the B’s may also send Mark Stuart to Chicago for the Blackhawks second-round pick, in a move to free up cap space.

Now, Cam Neely had a closed door meeting with the team back around December and he pretty much tried to preach to the team that they cannot win games 0-0, in an effort to drive-up the B’s intensity and score more goals.

So like the Red Sox run prevention last season, if the B’s get Kaberle they are going to try and win games 1-0. By having a team full of defenseman you will never give up goals, right?

The same organization who is telling their players they need to score goals because you can’t win 0-0 so to better our team we are going to trade for the best defenseman available. Good call guys.

Hey why don’t we trade Joe Thornton too.