hey,you gotta see lashoff in the skills competition on the break away
drill.....never seen that move before,wow!

Rumblings out of Columbus have Zherdev in the move. They are weak up
the middle and could use a centerman. Zherdev is a scorer, something
the Bruins could use. The Bruins would have to offer up some
additional picks or prospects to make the deal. Zherdev scored 27
goals last year in his 2nd NHL season.

The downside is that he seems to take shifts off and doesn't listen to
the coach.

Cmon Chia, pull this one off!!!!!!

With victory last night, Baby B's have won 9 of 10 with the only loss
coming in a
shootout. David Krejci was AHL player of the week last week and Petr
Kalus has
been red hot since his return from injury. Kris Versteeg is now 15th
in the league
in scoring. All these guys are first year pros.

Question: Should they be allowed to develope in AHL, or should they be
poisoned
by the Boston experience this year?

In today's Herald, a great section from Flynn's column:

"Not much else went right for Boston. Coach Dave Lewis' newly created
"energy line" of Wayne Primeau, Jeff Hoggan and Shean Donovan was
anything but energetic. With the club desperate for any kind of...

I thought this year would be an exciting, yet frustrating season of a bunch
of rambunctious and talented kids still learning the game, making mistakes
and showing promise for the future; similar (but not as talented) to the
Oilers back in '80 or so. It would be a team of speed and character and the
strategy would be adjusted to take advantage of the "new" NHL. They would
not be a contender yet, but they certainly wouldn't be boring.

Or at least that's what I was lead to believe.

Instead, we have the opposite in almost every way. Lewis made sure to get
rid of the young guys in training camp and sent them to Providence, save for
Kessel, a PR commodity whom he could always hide on the bench with the big
club. Then he instituted a lifeless, take no chances at all strategy that is
one of the most boring I've ever seen and does not even work. At least Pat
Burns got results. The lineup became filled with free agents and vets who
have spent their whole careers barely clinging to the NHL. This recipe was
supposed to get us to the playoffs and likely another 1st round exit. So
much for rebuilding. Nothing has changed. The bright young guys are pushed
aside or hidden away while the Mowers, Primeaus, Donovans, Yorks, Dempseys
et al are placed front and center.

Kessel barely plays for 2 periods, in the third is hands down the B's
best player.
Coach Lewis really needs to get his head out of his ass in this
regard.

Forwards are passive forecheckers, poor backcheckers and bad in the
defensive
zone. What is it that they do well?

Yet another 36-shots-allowed-game.

After watching his team for over half a season, Chiarelli is in an
odd position - he doesn't really have an obvious strategy to take,
mainly because he doesn't know how good his team really is - or isn't.
Unless the players have a collective epiphany, the team defense will
continue it's horrific ways. Best case they can crawl into the
playoffs and lose. I see little point to acquire a top 6 forward or
goaltender if it costs them prospects or salary cap space.

That said he should identify those players who will be part of the
future and deal those who won't.

Goal:
It would be nice to get a better back-up short term, but at less than
2m in cap space, Thomas and Toivenen should stay - at least until they
know what they have in Toivenen and Rask.

Defence: They need 1 more solid D until such time that Lashoff/Stuart
prove to solid contributors.
Jurcina just isn't developing - but he has potential to be very good.
Brad Stuart is a problem - he probably won't be resigned, but he
should be replaced with 2 solid hard nosed D. Deal him and get one of
those solid D + a prospect/high draft pick.

Primeau is back so that will mean Kessel will get little or no more time on
the ice in the third period.

In Ottawa today, Rangers on Monday, in Buffalo Tuesady, Buffalo
Thursday and
in Carolina Saturday.
By next Sunday morning, we may be able to bury the B's.

Dude thank you that was brilliant. I was born very late in 69 and my
memories of Bobby are fleeting. Its always great to see stuff like that or
classic games to be reminded of just how good he was ( and Gretz in the
early mid 80's ). I always wondered how good team Canada would have been if
Bobby's Knees had of been good and he had played for 20 years. Imagine Bobby
and Gretz on the same team in the mid 80's!