Tim Thomas traded to the Islanders!

Thank you, Garth Snow!!  Thank you!

I found myself stewing with mixed emotions as I heard the news.  The first reaction was pure joy.  Not because Thomas is gone (well sort of), but because his $5mil cap hit is gone.  That was a significant chunk of dead weight we were carrying on the books.  Pooof!  Gone.  We received a conditional 2nd round pick in either 2014 or 2015, but really who cares.  The most valuable part of this trade is the CAP SPACE!  If we put Marc Savard on long-term injury reserve, I think I heard on the radio that we would then have $11mil in cap space.  Let that sink in.  $11mil of cap space to play with.  That is a tremendous amount of room to add a stud player or two.

A caller on the radio had the same thinking as me: JAROME IGINLA.  For the love of hockey gods, please,  let's bring this guy to Boston.  He's on a horrible Calgary team and is nearing the end of his career.  He has one more year left on his contract, and his cap hit is $7mil.  Yes that is high, but the B's have the room and he's a FA after this year.  He's scored 30+ goals 11 straight seasons, scoring 50 or more goals twice.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CALL THEM.

I don't know what they'd want in return.  Dougie and Seguin are off limits.  I'd be hesitant to offer a player on  our roster.  I'd offer up draft picks (yes multiple) and then a pick out of our top prospects: Jared Knight, Ryan Spooner, Jordan Caron, Alex Khokhlachev, etc.  Since he'd be a "rental" player, I don't think the B's would have to give up too much, but hey, make them take our offer.  Load it up now and make a run for another Cup!!

That was my giddiness.  Remove the White House snub, the Facebook posts, the Chick Fil A support, etc, and I'm a little sad this is how the Tim Thomas era is ending.  This guy had one of the greatest sports stories in recent memory.  He fought his way through Europe and the minors to finally be a starter on a team and then basically single handedly ended the B's 39 year Cup drought.  I mean take a look at this video.  Without a majority of those saves, the B's don't even make it out of the 1st round let alone the Finals.

Farewell, Thomas.  It's officially TUUKKA TIME!!

GOLDEN POINTS: Boston Bruins vs New York Islanders

Bruins 4 - Islanders 2

Bruins goals: Thornton (1), Campbell (1), Chara (1), Bergeron (1)
Islanders goals: Aucoin 2 (3)

It started out as one of those games you know the Bruins SHOULD dominate, but they were not playing up to their capabilities.  Luckily by the third period, they got their shit together and finished off the Islanders Mortal Kombat style.  Well, sort of... Seguin did completely air mail an open empty netter, but still... the Islanders were drastically outplayed towards the end of the game.

The first two periods were very inconsistent.  One or two shifts in a row would provide solid pressure and opportunities, but then the next few minutes the Islanders would be on the attack.  This team kills me.  Even against "easy" teams (sorry Islanders fans that don't read this).

• I promise, this will be the first blog that I don't talk about Dougie Hamilton.  Why would I talk about his 2 beautiful assists to go along with his golden locks?  The first was only a great, low shot from the point that generated a rebound.  And the second was only a sexy break out pass that led to a break away.  I mean the Bruins have only been trying to get a defender to do that for a decade now (Wideman, Hunwick, Kampfer, Kaberle).  So no, I will not mention Dougie Hamilton.  
• But I will mention Looch.  I believe it was the last blog post that all I was missing from Lucic was a fight.  If you cross your fingers, wiggle your nose, and click your heals together you get exactly what you ask for!  It wasn't much of a fight, but a poor lad by the name of Carkner decided he wanted to meet Looch's fists up close and person, then take a brief nap. And side note, I want Jack Edwards to commentate my LIFE.
• One reason for the success of the B's the past few seasons is the consistent play of the 4th line.  Campbell, Paille and Thornton know their roles and play them perfectly.  Thornton and Campbell were rewarded last night with a goal a piece.  What I liked even more, even though it cost Thornton a 10 minute misconduct, was how he stuck up for Paille.  We know Paille would probably lose a fight to the girl scouts.  He laid a beautiful hit on an Islanders Brian Strait.  Tough guy Martin comes over and wants to fight Paille.  Thornton, looking out for his linemate, steps in to make sure that doesn't happen.  Good stuff.
• Special teams again is the tale of two faces.  The power play couldn't find the back of the net, but luckily neither could the Islander's.  The penalty kill for the B's is still impenetrable.  I will say I like the power play significantly more than in prior years, there is a lot of movement and the B's are generating shots.  Prior years everyone just stood around in an umbrella formation and waited for someone else to do something.  Once they get on a roll, I think the PP will be a weapon for us.

Next up: Carolina Hurricanes  #DontCryWhalersFans

Golden Points: Boston vs New York

Bruins 2 - Islanders 3
Bruins 3 - Rangers 4



What am I going to do with this team?  Don't the Bruins know that my parents family grew up in New York?  Me and my siblings are the only Boston sports fans.  Do the Bruins know how much it sucks to get swept by the New York teams?!?!?!  Screw the points they left out on the ice, think about me!

To be honest, I thought the B's played two pretty good games (minus the first few minutes of the Rangers game).  The re-energized first line of Lucic, Krejci, and Seguin looked AWESOME again, with Seguin scoring a nice goal and Lucic grabbing a power play goal.  The only problem was, like Claude pointed out, they aren't getting that "secondary" scoring.  Who else is going to step up?  We can't just rely on the normal players to give us a goal.  A goal or two needs to come from someone else.  They had plenty of opportunities, but just couldn't get one past Nabokov.

It was also good to see Boychuk back out on the ice.  Sorry Mottau, you didn't get to face your old team.

A huge hold your breath moment during the game when you see Rask go down in pain like that.  We now know it's a groin injury and that he'll miss 4-6 weeks.  I initially thought it was a groin injury the whole time.  People were speculating knee or hand.  I'm probably the furthest thing from a doctor, but Rask flicks off his blocker and waves his hand indicating he needs the trainer to come on the ice immediately.  Then what's the normal human reaction when you have an injury...you hold it.  I don't know why, but when you get hurt you grab whatever is hurt.  Tuukka placed both hands on his lower ab/groin area...hence why I thought it was his groin.  If it was his knee wouldn't he be grabbing his knee?  I think this might be the first thing I got right all season long!!
The icing or non-icing call...  Was it bullshit?  Yes.  There was neither an icing signal or a non-icing signal, but who cares.  You are taught at a very young age to "play 'til the whistle".  Both Lucic and Seguin were right there and just stopped.  Just an unfortunate play that ended up leading to the game winning goal.  The B's can't use that as an excuse though, they had control of most of the game and had plenty of opportunities to finish them off.

Yeah yeah yeah, cousins, your lowly Isles beat the B's.  Enjoy hockey in April...oh wait...enjoy another lottery pick.

Onto the Rangers............

I don't hate the Rangers as much as other people do.  For one, they aren't in our division.  I know people like to play the New York versus Boston card.  It's a nice original 6 rivalry.   Don't get me wrong, I don't like the Rangers, but I don't hate them as much as I hate the Jets or Yankees.  For me, my hockey hatred is geared towards the Canadiens, Canucks, Flyers, Maple Leafs.

I give the Rangers front office credit.  Earlier in the decade they tried building a team around individual stats and sexy names.  It's like they were putting together a fantasy team with the likes of Jagr and Kovalev.  Those guys were great, but the chemistry just didn't seem to be there.  They've changed their approach and it all starts with their captain, Callahan.  I was talking with a coworker and I agree, I would love Callahan to be a Bruin.  He's the definition of a Bruin, hard working and tough.  And that's what this Rangers team is.

Anyways, you take out the first few minutes (and the Rangers first two goals) and the game is ours.  Why can't this team put together a full 60 minutes???  They aren't good enough right now to take even ONE shift off.  After a couple bouts, the B's finally started playing much better.  Big props to Lane MacDermaid who stood up for himself in his first NHL game.  Rupp isn't like fighting Sergei Samsonov either, he's a very tough dude.

Even though the first goal was all Chara's fault, I still thought Thomas should've made the save.  The second goal was a bit weak as well (yes I know it deflected off our own player), but I feel like last year Thomas figured out a way to keep the puck out of the net.  Maybe he's tired, maybe he's old, either way he's our goalie the rest of the way and NEEDS to step it up.  Just like last year, we go as far as Timmy will take us.

Claude finally got his secondary scoring from Jordan Caron and Pepe Le Pouliot.  These weren't pretty goals, just making the other team pay for their mistakes which is what both teams did all night.  Hopefully that third line can get rolling a little bit.

Although it's lame that Thomas used it as an excuse, I've always wondered why the "Greatest Arena on Earth" was called that and yet it has some of the WORST lighting on Earth.  It's painful watching all the shadows on the ice.  Come on!!  How hard is it to put some lights up in there??

Next Up: The B's need to snap their 2-game losing streak against the Maple Leafs tonight.  It'll be the Leafs first home game under their new coach, so you have to assume they'll come out flying.  Hopefully the B's can match it or I'm throwing my computer out the window...