By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
In the first period of Saturday night’s game against the Panthers, David Krejci skated up the boards and flung a desperate, bad-angle shot at Thomas Vokoun as he was forced into the corner. The puck caught the Florida netminder off guard, sneaking through his legs and across the line.
Then, with the game on the line in the third round of the shootout, Marc Savard skated in and fumbled the puck as he deked. Vokoun lost sight of the puck and stayed with Savard as it found its way underneath him, keeping the Bruins alive on another fortuitous bounce. Savard laughed visibly as he skated back to the bench–a loose reaction of joy better associated with the ’08-09 squad than this year’s embattled crew.
It looks like the Bruins are finally getting their breaks.
And now they’ll have the Olympic break, a two-week recess in which the players can ease up a little after stringing together four straight wins. Just one week after losing ten in a row and slipping to 12th in the conference, they’ve jumped all the way back up to 7th place. With four other teams nipping at their heels, however, momentum andconfidence from this four-game stretch will be important in getting the Bruins through the final quarter of [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
It’s no secret that the Bruins have been gliding on thin ice for weeks now, fighting to maintain their wobbly grasp on a spot in the Eastern Conference’s top eight–a spot that even the most skeptical of fans thought was guaranteed heading into the season.
But after a humiliating 5-1 loss to the bottom-feeding Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, the ice has officially cracked. In fact, the Bruins have fallen straight through to the bottom with a resounding thud.
Losers of five straight overall, Boston has now slipped from fifth in the conference to ninth in a matter of one week. More damage is possible during the next four days–the Bruins are idle until Friday night and could potentially be leapfrogged by four more teams over that span. Yes, that means that it is entirely feasible that the Boston Bruins will be thirteenth in the Eastern Conference come Friday, an absolutely stunning fall from grace for a team that once harbored Stanley Cup expectations.
Assessing the carnage is a lengthy task. Defensively, the Bruins are a mess, starting with the captain. Zdeno Chara has just four goals on the season and has struggled in all aspects of his defensive [...]

By: Jess Lander, Yawkey Talkies Editor
What’s buzzing in Beantown over Yawkey’s talkie today?
Sox open with Yanks: Opening day couldn’t be more exciting. Starting the season right, with a (hopeful) win and payback against the ones we hate the most. The defending World Series Champions come to Fenway for a Sunday night game on April 4. The two rivals end the season together too, at a time when every win is crucial. Luckily the season closes at our beloved Fenway Park, however, the two play each other in six of the last ten games of the season.
Finally getting that big bat? Epstein claims he doesn’t feel pressure to add a big bat to the roster. (Is he crazy? Did he forget about all those scoring droughts and Big Papi’s never-ending slump?) Luckily, he has sense enough to at least look, and is in discussion with San Diego Padre’s first baseman and power hitter, Adrian Gonzalez. He hit 40 homers last year. Enough said. Don’t get too excited yet though, he could pan out to be too expensive.
Brady missed practice again. Brady reportedly missed practice today because of shoulder, finger, and rib injuries, just as he did Wednesday and Thursday last week. [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Just when it was beginning to seem like it was no longer possible, the Bruins pulled it off. They shocked the world. They scored a goal (italics).
More as a result of sheer relief than jubilation, Patrice Bergeron’s tying marker against the Canadiens with 52 seconds remaining–Boston’s first in 192 minutes of play–launched the restless Garden crowd into a frenzy on Thursday night. The Bruins ultimately fell 2-1 in the shootout, but they at least managed a point, and steered clear of a dubious feat they hadn’t accomplished since 1929: three straight shutout losses.
While the Bruins will gladly accept the compensatory point, Bergeron’s goal was merely a temporary bandage for a deep-running wound. The injury-ravaged squad has scored four times in the past five games, falling to 1-3-1 in that span despite having allowed just seven goals against. One would think that a showdown with the Habs would trigger some sort of spark from the depths of Boston’s offensive abyss, but that wasn’t the case until crunch time–perhaps because the players realized that riots may have ensued had they not tucked one behind Carey Price before the buzzer.
To the Bruins’ credit, it’s not like they haven’t [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Good as new after an offseason of shoulder surgery, extensive rehabilitation, and equally tedious contract negotiations, Phil Kessel will reportedly take the ice when his miserable Leafs host the Lightning tonight. Needless to say, should the Bruins’ offense continue to flounder against the Wings, Kessel’s performance will be closely monitored by a growing number of concerned Black ‘N’ Gold enthusiasts.
Kessel’s scoring touch has eluded his former teammates thus far, as the Bruins rank just 22nd in the NHL with 31 goals in 13 games. Last season, the Bruins finished second overall in scoring behind a well-balanced, consistent attack. They certainly haven’t been helped by the absences of Marc Savard and Milan Lucic–injuries that appear to finally be catching up to a beleaguered offensive unit. That being said, the upcoming weeks could serve as a strong determinant of just how much Kessel’s services are missed.
Boston’s struggles have been highlighted in the past three games, a span in which the Bruins have gone 1-2 while managing just three goals. They returned to the .500 mark after being shut out 1-0 by the Rangers on Sunday afternoon, continuing their bizarre, frustrating trend of alternating wins and losses each [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
Down 3-1 to the Senators with under two minutes to play, the Bruins’ fifth loss of the season was inevitable. In fact–loyal fan that I am–I turned off the TV and chucked the remote, feeling I had better things to do on a Saturday night than watch the clock run out on yet another setback in a season marred with perplexing inconsistency. I whined to my sister via text that the Bruins, now a sub-.500 team, were nearly halfway to their loss total from all of last season. After all, they hadn’t shown much fight through their first nine games, so what was there to indicate the possibility of a last-minute comeback?
Of course, being a mercurial, pessimistic Boston sports fan, I disregarded the Bruins’ uncanny ability to claw back into games–a quality that carried this team through so many brilliant stretches last season, but seemed to be absent thus far in the 2009-10 campaign. Some of that magic must still be lingering, though, as I received a text barely a minute later: Mark Recchi goal, 3-2 Ottawa with a minute left. Feeling slightly ashamed, I tuned back in to see if there was a faint glimmer [...]