Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Boston-Bruins

Video- Sometimes You Can Catch A Guy Just Right…

by Paul on 02/04/12 at 03:07 PM ET
Comments (6)

... and he can go airborne, just like Daniel Paille did when hit by Brooks Orpik today.

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 Tags: Brooks+Orpik, Daniel+Paille,

Video- Craig Anderson With The Bad Goal Of the Night

by Paul on 01/31/12 at 09:59 PM ET
Comments (1)

Dennis Seidenberg from center ice and the game winner.

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 Tags: Craig+Anderson, Dennis+Seidenber,

Peter Chiarelli Stays Under The Radar

by Paul on 01/31/12 at 12:13 PM ET
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from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

As the NHL comes out of the All-Star break and the unofficial start of the stretch run to the playoffs, the Bruins have adjusted comfortably to life as defending champions for the first time since their last Cup win in ‘72.

Winning, of course, changes everything. It changes it for the players, the coaching staff, even the general manager.

Everything is different. Even how other GMs treat you, GM Peter Chiarelli told ESPN.com in a recent interview at the team’s practice facility.

“Expectations have always been high here but now they’re even higher,” said Chiarelli, 47. “It’s a different feeling. Obviously, it motivates you. I feel I have a higher standard now. It has been enjoyable.”

Profile is a difficult thing to gauge. And when there are 30 NHL general managers, a low profile is a bit of a relative thing.

But among the 30, even after winning a Stanley Cup, it’s fair to say that Chiarelli has a pretty low profile.

more

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 Tags: Peter+Chiarelli,

No Tim Thomas Trade Talk

by Paul on 01/30/12 at 01:29 PM ET
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from TSN,

Tim Thomas isn’t going anywhere.

Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli shot down any trade rumours on Monday, saying there were no plans to move his star goaltender.

“Not trading him,” Chiarelli said in an e-mail to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun. “I have not talked to anyone and I don’t plan to.”...

One rumour that surfaced during the All-Star break had Thomas being sent to Chicago in exchange for forward Viktor Stalberg.

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 Tags: Tim+Thomas,

Evening Line

by Paul on 01/29/12 at 08:07 PM ET
Comments (24)

(Tim) Thomas’s decision to skip a team visit to the White House because he buys the garbage pumped out by Glenn Beck and his ilk was bad enough. But then, having pulled a highly public stunt to call attention to his whacko politics, Thomas blamed the media for paying attention.

Look, if this cretin wants to stand outside the White House and spew his drivel, that’s free speech. But standing up the president? All that does is show that Thomas has the class of a swamp-rat.

What’s worse, you know Thomas would not have done this with the liberal Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House. Truth is, he felt free to dis Barack Obama, because Obama is black.

-Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette, where you can read a bit more on this plus other hockey topics…

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 Tags: Tim+Thomas,

Thomas Still Dealing With His White House Decision

by Paul on 01/28/12 at 09:34 AM ET
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from Bruce Arthur of the National Post,

Tim Thomas waded through the crowd and sat in the shaky folding director’s chair behind the podium, in a room swimming with fellow NHL all-stars and media, and managed an easy smile. “I can’t believe this chair held Z,” he said, referring to his looming teammate, Zdeno Chara. He gave a little laugh.

That was pretty much the end of the fun, even in this most frivolous of weekends. As the rest of the available NHL constellation sat and talked with ease, the usually affable Thomas chose his words with great care, pausing to stare into the middle distance, and tried to hole himself up in the edifice he had created this week by skipping Boston’s Stanley Cup visit to the White House and releasing a libertarian political message on his Facebook page. Now, Thomas clearly wants the whole thing to go away.

“I think it should. I think it should,” Thomas said. “Why? Because it’s all media-driven right now. It has been from the start. And everything that I said and did was as an individual, not as a representative of the Boston Bruins. It … all it has to do is with me. But it’s separate from hockey. That’s my personal life. Those are my personal views. Those are my personal beliefs. It has nothing to do with hockey. It has nothing to do with this All-Star Game. And it has nothing to do with the Boston Bruins.”

That is an entanglement that seems impossible to break. It was, after all, a team event, and as Thomas has refused to expand on or defend his beliefs in detail — “I followed my conscience,” he said Thursday night after the NHL all-star draft — his teammates and coach and general manager have been asked to explain his actions, and how they might affect the team. As David Shoalts of The Globe and Mail asked Chara before the draft, “Zdeno, you said you won’t be picking all right-wingers. Does this mean you won’t be picking Tim Thomas?” As one Bruins team source told The Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa, “[Expletive] selfish [expletive].”

continued

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 Tags: Tim+Thomas,

Bruins Depend On Bergeron

by Paul on 01/25/12 at 10:49 AM ET
Comments (1)

from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on with a team that you don’t see,” GM Peter Chiarelli told ESPN.com.

A good team is like a family, and families have squabbles, Chiarelli said. And Bergeron is one of the guys who helps the Bruins sort through their trials and tribulations.

If a guy is getting picked on or is the butt of practical jokes, Bergeron is the one who steps in, Marchand said.

Julien said you can tell a lot about Bergeron from his decisions away from the ice. He’s not out partying. He lives in a modest place.

“Everything’s very well-thought out with Patrice. You’ll never see him going out, never,” Julien said. “He’s a simple guy. He’s not your typical 26-year-old.”

You often hear about a young player evolving as a leader. But what does that mean?

For Julien, it is in the moments that Bergeron chooses to speak. Like between the second and third periods of a recent game against New Jersey. The Bruins’ play had slipped a little and they trailed the Devils 1-0. Bergeron got up and told his teammates that there was more in the dressing room than the team had showed, that they were better than they were showing. In the third, the Bruins scored four times to come away with a 4-1 victory.

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 Tags: Patrice+Bergeron,

Two More Concussions

by Paul on 01/25/12 at 10:23 AM ET
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from John Vogl of the Buffalo News,

The Sabres’ never-ending quest to get healthy remains just that. Buffalo suffered another unexpected absence Tuesday, losing center Jochen Hecht to a concussion. He took part in the morning skate prior to the 2-1 shootout win over New Jersey, but he quickly began to feel terrible.

Hecht visited with doctors, who diagnosed him with his second concussion of the season and third in less than a year.

“He’s not good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. “He’s got concussion symptoms. Wasn’t feeling bad [Monday]. He took a hit from [T.J.] Oshie in St. Louis, kind of an elbow — and came off [Tuesday] and he was a mess. He couldn’t focus. Emotionally, he was really unstable. He’s in a tough place right now. We’re worried. ... To come off and be the way he was tells you that there’s something wrong.”

continued

from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

The hope is that by Tuesday, when the Bruins next play, Nathan Horton will be well enough to return to the lineup. For Horton and the Bruins, the All-Star break is taking place at the right time.

Horton missed last night’s 5-3 loss to the Capitals because of a mild concussion. His symptoms include headaches, according to coach Claude Julien.

“He’s doing as well as he can for a guy with a mild concussion,’’ Julien said. “He didn’t skate today. He’s still suffering from mild headaches.

“Concussions are day-to-day. At the end of this five-day break, hopefully we’ll have the news we want to hear.’’

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres | KK Hockey | Permalink
 Tags: Jochen+Hecht, Nathan+Horton,

Talking Tim Thomas

by Paul on 01/24/12 at 09:01 AM ET
Comments (72)

from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE,

The question was never whether Thomas HAD the right to skip the White House visit, but SHOULD he simply have stifled his personal interests for the betterment of a team celebrating their win one last time. Many will applaud the B’s goaltender for damning the torpedoes and simply doing what he felt was right in his world view. That is the kind of stand-alone bravery that can foster change in times when it’s needed.

But here’s one suggestion: why not announce Thomas’ intentions prior to the visit in order to defuse the situation and take the heat out of it on Monday afternoon. Thomas is wonderful at stopping pucks in tense situations and he’s one of the most humble athletes you’ll ever come across.

But he’s not a brilliant PR strategist and there seems to have been no notion of getting out ahead of the train wreck that steamed into the East Wing of the White House Monday afternoon.

more

from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on? All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.

Thomas needed to be there in solidarity, and celebration, with his team. It was the same government yesterday, and will be today, that protected his country, his security, his family, and his right to make $5 million a year, all last season. In his absence, he stole his teammates’ spotlight. Win as a team. Lose as a team. And when asked to stand up and take a bow, then stand up there and suffer if need be, even if you don’t like the setting, the host, or any of the political trappings and tenets that come with it.

more

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 Tags: Tim+Thomas,

Tim Thomas Does Not Attend White House Ceremony

by Paul on 01/23/12 at 03:01 PM ET
Comments (132)

via Fluto Shinzawa of the Bruins Blog at the Boston Globe,

Tim Thomas, one of two Americans on the roster, chose not to attend today’s ceremony at the White House, according to GM Peter Chiarelli.

“We’re like a family. We have our issues,” Chiarelli answered when asked if Thomas’s decision overshadowed the visit. “You deal with them, move on, and try and support everyone. It may or may not. If it does, I hope it doesn’t. The guys seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed it.”

All other players were in attendance. Chiarelli said attendance today was not mandatory. Steven Kampfer is the other American player.

“I can require someone to attend a team event. If they don’t, I can suspend him,” Chiarelli said. “I’m not suspending Tim. Whatever his position is, it isn’t reflective of the Boston Bruins nor my own. But I’m not suspending him.”

added 6:15pm, Tim Thomas releases a statement via Facebook, read it below…

Continue Reading »

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 Tags: Tim+Thomas,

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