By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Everything seems to be breaking just perfectly for the Bruins right now, and the timing couldn’t be better.
Due to one of the most bizarre and unexpected twists in NHL playoff history, Boston has secured home-ice advantage and a date with the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers for the upcoming second round. That’s right–two of the last teams to qualify for postseason play in the entire league will now battle it out for a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Bruins, bumbling and stumbling out of playoff contention little more than a month ago, are odds-on favorites to advance.
While I’d never dreamed of saying such a thing, we can thank Hal Gill and the Montreal Canadiens for this magnificent aligning of the stars. By shocking the world with a 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Capitals on Wednesday night and erasing a 3-1 series deficit, the Habs not only dispatched Alexander Ovechkin & Co. from the playoff race, but they snatched Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin right off the Bruins’ postseason platter. Had the Capitals won, they would’ve hosted Philly, leaving Boston in line for an incredibly challenging matchup with the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Now if [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
The Bruins return home to the Garden tonight with high expectations following their Game 5 setback in Buffalo on Friday night. The Sabres cut Boston’s series lead to 3-2 with a convincing 4-1 victory, but the Bruins still have two more cracks at upsetting the Northeast Division champions and moving on to a matchup with either Pittsburgh or
Philadelphia, depending on the outcome of the Capitals-Canadiens series.
Here’s 5 things to consider as we gear up for Game 6:
1. Is Thomas Vanek set to return?
While possibilities of Marc Savard’s return by the end of the series are the hottest rumors around town these days–some are speculating that he’ll swing down from the Jumbotron James Bond-style in time for the opening faceoff, while others swear they’ve already seen Boston’s best offensive player using the alias “Ryder” a few games back–he likely won’t be available until next round, should the Bruins advance. On the other hand, Vanek’s return is much more imminent; coach Lindy Ruff even stated that his Austrian sniper can return “whenever he feels ready.” Which could mean trouble for the Bruins.
But in regards to Ruff’s comment, how the hell could a player nearing health not be ready for an NHL playoff game if given clearance to make the decision himself? [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
If you told me back in October that, come April, the Bruins would be locked in a Battle Royale for the eighth and final playoff spot, I probably would’ve slapped you. After all–distant a memory as it may seem–the Bruins are just one year removed from a dream season that delivered a first-place finish, numerous accolades, and the franchise’s first playoff series victory since 1999. Not much was expected to change this year. If anything, the Bruins were supposed to build off of their success, picked in the preseason by fans and experts alike as a trendy Cup favorite.
April was going to be the time of year when the Bruins, having already clinched a playoff spot, were preparing for the long postseason haul. Six months ago, it wouldn’t have been crazy to assume that the season finale against Washington on April 11 would potentially serve as an exciting, yet meaningless, Eastern Conference Finals preview between two elite teams.
Instead, that contest could be the deciding factor in whether or not the Bruins even make the playoffs–and God forbid that it does come down to that game, for the goal-starved Bruins are ill-equipped to match up with the top dog in the East.
And if they do hold their own against the unstoppable Washington offense?
Well, [...]

By Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
So that was it? That’s the best they could do?
Disappointing.  Pathetic.   Shameful.  There’s no shortage of negative adjectives to describe the effort the Bruins put forth in a game that so many people anticipated as perhaps one last indication that this season isn’t swirling down the toilet.  No way to possibly put into words how weakly they responded to the unjust loss of one of their most valuable players.
Flash back two weeks.  Marc Savard lay on the ice, barely twitching, after Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke swooped in with a late blindside elbow to the noggin.  Savard was eventually taken off on a stretcher; two weeks later, he’s still suffering from dizziness and confusion, essentially confined to bedrest for the remainder of the season.
The hit sparked outrage for two reasons.  First, the NHL failed to respond, letting Cooke off scot-free in yet another example that the league needs to implement a disciplinary policy for hits to the head. Second, the Bruins failed to take matters into their own hands when the incident occurred, instead standing around idly and observing their fallen teammate as if he were some fascinating exhibit at a museum.
Since then, the Bruins have been emasculated by every media outlet that gives [...]

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
It looked like the Bruins were in for a fresh start after the Olympic break. Winners of four straight heading into the layoff, they appeared to finally be gaining steam and getting healthy.
But five games later, it’s the same old story.
Injuries and inconsistency.
The same two factors that have plagued the Bruins through this entire season of disappointment and bizarre twists are unwilling to disappear. The Bruins are just 2-2-1 since returning from their two-week hiatus, and as usual, they pretty much look asleep at the wheel. They blew three separate one-goal leads to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, eventually losing in overtime. Tim Thomas finally had one of his signature games, flopping left and right to make impossible saves, but per usual, the whole team couldn’t find its game simultaneously.
To make matters worse, they may have lost Marc Savard–their most valuable forward–for the season after he suffered a grade 2 concussion on a nasty hit from Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke. Zdeno Chara also missed the Toronto game and has been listed as day-to-day with a minor lower-body injury.
Perhaps of equal concern is that the Bruins, in desperate need of scoring, virtually stood pat on [...]

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 [...]