Bruins rookie Trent Frederic made his NHL debut Tuesday night and he wasted little time trying to make an impression, dropping the gloves towards the end of the second period. Frederic went all Happy Gilmore on Brandon Tanev’s face and wouldn’t ya know the rook’s parents were in the stands. How did Dad deal with seeing his baby boy fist fighting a grown ass man in the NHL? LOVED. IT.
That is a #HockeyDad through and through. Doesn’t matter how many goals you score or how much tape you hit, if I’m waking up at 4 am to drive you to practice, you are going to defend the honor of our house.
Full fight below.
First NHL game, first NHL scrap for Trent Frederic, and his parents in the stands love it 👊👏 pic.twitter.com/IJJ4W03dWt
It’s only lunchtime, but I’m going to call it early and say that this is the best tweet of the day. It’s the final plays from all 11 Boston championships this century, in a tidy 2:18 minute clip. Getting back to the original question, though, which one was the sweetest? Let’s discuss.
11. 2007 Red Sox Winning never gets old, but there wasn’t much drama in this Fall Classic.
10. 2004 Patriots A very businesslike championship for the most dominant professional football team of my lifetime.
9. 2018 Red Sox A complete steamroller of a team, they rolled through the playoffs without much opposition. A very satisfying, even if not dramatic, championship.
8. 2014 Patriots Brady got back on the board after a ten-year drought, but one play in particular is more memorable than the game as a whole.
7. 2008 Celtics Made the Celtics relevant for the first time in almost 20 years. The real drama may have been the summer before, though, with Danny wheeling and dealing.
6. 2011 Bruins The B’s came back from an 0-2 deficit to hoist the Cup for the first time in nearly 40 years. I recognize that many Bruins fans would rank this one higher.
5. 2013 Red Sox The only competitive World Series the Red Sox have played in this century, it capped off an improbable run to a championship in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
4. 2016 Patriots THE FALCONS BLEW A 28-3 LEAD!
3. 2003 Patriots The Patriots never make it easy for their fans. [What I would give for a 30-point blowout next week!] The Patriots and Panthers scored a combined 37 points in the fourth quarter, and the Patriots won it (again) on an Adam Vinatieri field goal with time winding down.
2. 2001 Patriots The Patriots’ first Super Bowl championship, Boston’s first championship in 16 years, and the first championship of my lifetime. That would be tough to top, except…
1. 2004 Red Sox Curse reversed. Enough said.
What’s your number 1? Let us know on Twitter @The300sBoston and @The300sBigZ
Bruins practice starts 20 plus minutes after 1130 am scheduled time. No Tuukka Rask. Bruins release a statement saying Rask is taking “a leave of absence relating to a personal matter.”
First and foremost, hopefully this leave of absence isn’t for a serious issue or a family matter. The guy has not been playing well so it’s hard to tell if this is related to his play and a possible mental health day, but hopefully there’s nothing serious going on behind the scenes.
With that being said, this is odd. The Bruins started practice 20 minutes late and their franchise goaltender is nowhere to be found? Only for the team to release a cryptic statement saying Tuukka is taking a leave of absence? Again, I hope all is good on the home front, but just a weird situation all around.
We’ll update it when we hear more, but for now the Bruins will be relying on hot and cold Jaroslav Halak (he was very cold last night giving up 5 goals) and a player to be named later between the pipes.
Love the subtle nod to the Bear working tirelessly on these new digs. If we’re being completely honest here, I have to say these 2019 Winter Classic jerseys are solid if not spectacular. The Bruins are clearly looking to evoke memories of their jerseys from the 1930s when they rocked the brown and gold stripes with the large block B on the chest.
They tweaked the sleeves and the stripes above the logo slightly to give it a more modern look, but overall if you’re a history buff you should appreciate the throwback.
I do love the attention to detail on the collar though with the Bruins Stanley Cup winning seasons marked by shamrocks as they’ll be playing at the home of the Fighting Irish in South Bend.
LOVE the new patch though. That is an excellent patch. It’s unique, the green pops against the Brown, and it’s subtle yet instantly recognizable because of its relevance to Chicago and Notre Dame where the game will be played.
I think the matching winter hat is a no questions asked must buy item though.
Overall its a pretty solid sweater, I think I’m out on dropping $100 for one, but that also might be because of my PTSD from the last Winter Classic. I froze my balls off at Gillette as the Bruins got stomped out 5-1 by Montreal while I sat there in my brand new and immediately tainted Winter Classic jersey.
This is the face of a man completely unprepared for the thrashing he is about to see.
Thank christ someone in the marketing department said hey guys we have to work these jerseys into the normal rotation as a third alternate otherwise we will never sell a single one of these, even at Marshalls. So after a couple of seasons of seeing the sleek jersey mixed in, the sting has come off enough to regularly rock these again.
I think they should have owned it and gone with the old school yellow pooh bear jerseys, but what do I know.
Boston.com – ...the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals opened their title defense with a 7-0 thrashing of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.
After watching the franchise’s first Stanley Cup banner ascend to the rafters, T.J. Oshie opened the scoring just 24 seconds in, and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals 1 1/2 minutes later to get the rout off to a fast start
Optimistic Joey B here with the first Bruins take of the year. I’m not going to sugar coat things too much. Getting shellacked 7-0 including 2 goals in the first minute of the fucking game is not a great look. To the defending champs, in my opinion, is an even worse one. This is the preeminent team to beat in the National Hockey League and we get blanked. Hopefully this is just a “wake the fuck up” game and the B’s can get their engines revved moving forward. Last note before I move on: I didn’t see much of it so I don’t know how many goals against Zdeno Chara’s corpse was on the ice for but let’s hope this can’t be easily pinned on him or there will be calls for his head pretty soon. (Editor’s Note: That is a strong to quite strong take on the 7 footer.)
To the positives and my headline, Brad Marchand beat the shit out of someone. Now, you can view this is kind of like when the season starts in baseball and a player strikes out four times but you are able to say, objectively, they had “good at bats”. Took some good cuts. Didn’t chase a couple you might have expected them to. Made the pitcher work. So, although we did indeed get big brothered by the defending champs, at least we had Noseface doing Noseface things and bloodying some guy up. It’s a reason to stay optimistic and a sign good things lay ahead for our squad.
Not all hope is lost my friends. Boston has kept the Bruins, so Bruins will keep Boston.
-Joey B.
P.S: Deadspin’s headline was something like “Brad Marchand Is Back To Being a Prick” and it made me SQUEAL with joy. Sorry for partying, Deadspin.
If you’re a normal person and you don’t pay attention to preseason hockey then I totally get it; I envy you in fact. However, I couldn’t let the day pass without addressing this story. So just to catch everyone up to speed, the Bruins are currently in China as they’re playing exhibition games against Calgary on Sept. 15 in Shenzhen and Sept. 19 in Beijing.
The good news? Puck drops Saturday night at 2:30 AM! So when you’re coming back from the bar blind drunk you’ll be able to flip on NHL Network and watch the black and gold til the wee hours. Then they also play on the 19th at 7:30 am so you can have some Bruins with your bacon and eggs that morning.
Hopefully nobody steals any sunglasses though because I don’t think DT45 can get any more Americans out of Chinese prison for shoplifting. That….Trump…..card has already been played. I’ll see myself out.
NHL.com – Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, September 11, that the team has traded defenseman Adam McQuaid to the New York Rangers in exchange for defenseman Steven Kampfer, a 2019 fourth-round draft pick and a 2019 conditional seventh-round draft pick.
It’s sad to see Adam McQuaid go as he was always a guy ready to drop the gloves and do the dirty work for the Bruins. He was a brawler that I wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley. However, the Bruins have had a redundancy in the D-pairings for a couple of years now as Kevan Miller is essentially the same player.
So it looks like the B’s were trying to make their D-core a little more dynamic. Enter old friend and former Bruin Steven Kampfer. He actually played on Boston’s Stanley Cup winning team back in 2010-11 when he chipped in with 5 goals and 5 assists.
Kampfer is gonna need a new Bruins number as #47 obviously belongs to Torey Krug. Unless the Bruins trade him as well, which Tony Mazz has said on 98.5 he is convinced they will do this offseason.
Now obviously Kampfer isn’t exactly an elite offensive threat, having registered 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points in 166 career games. Maybe he’s a bit more skilled defensively than McQuad. Or maybe it’s just the draft picks the Bruins coveted. Perhaps they can dump Kampfer easier than they could McQuaid and make room for the young guys. The Bruins are stocked with young defensemen who are chomping at the bit. Guys like Jakub Zboril (1st round, 2015), Urho Vaakanainen (1st round, 2017), and Jeremy Lauzon (2nd round, 2015). Some fans are more excited for than others.
“It may be that Zboril ends up being trade bait for the Black and Gold given his talent, his standing as a prospect and the questions they may still have about him as an eventual finished product at the NHL level. Still, the talent is undeniable with Zboril and that’s the most important thing with these prospects.”
“Vaakanainen has the kinds of defensive tools that could make him an NHL player for a long, long time. Vaakanainen is excellent in the defensive zone, solid on the penalty kill and shows a good stick and good instincts in breaking up plays, and combines excellent skating and smart, smooth first passes into good plays out of his own end. All of that adds up to a nice stay-at-home partner to younger puck-moving D-men like Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy, and somebody that should be a solid contributor for a long time.”
“There is very clearly some raw elements to [Lauzon’s] game that need to be further developed at the AHL level. Lauzon posted five goals and 14 points in 13 games during the junior hockey playoffs to finish things off on a good note, and leave the Bruins with an idea of what they might see when he’s ready to go at the NHL level.”
Some of those guys have failed to live up to their draft billing thus far, but it’s probably time for the Bruins to find out one way or another if these young kids will sink or swim. Whether they can play at the NHL level consistently remains to be seen, but if theres one thing we’ve seen in recent years with the Bruins is that they needed to even out their roster with younger (and cheaper) players as they’ve rebounded from a non-playoff team back into a Stanley Cup contender once again.
The baby faced assassin will finally be let out of the luxury box as Bruce Cassidy confirmed Ryan Donato will play tonight. After a blistering start to his career in the regular season with 9 points and 5 goals in 12 games, Donato was tasked with riding the pine for the majority of the playoffs.
For a guy with just a dozen NHL games under his belt it wasn’t really a surprise. For such a clearly gifted scorer to be unavailable while the Bruins struggled offensively was tough to watch though. Now with the B’s facing a 2-1 deficit in what amounts to a must win game they’re shaking things up after a sloppy past 2 games. Not to mention ineffective (3 goals in the last 2 games).
What better way to shake things up than to have an absolute sniper floating around on the ice? We saw glimpses of it earlier this year; Donato has an absolute ROCKET of a shot. So while he may not be as polished defensively as they’d like, its time to try something new before this series really gets away from them. This isn’t Claude’s team anymore, we don’t need 12 fourth line forwards who grind and always stay home. This is a faster, more talented, flashier team with young studs like Pastrnak, McAvoy, DeBrusk and “older” guys like Krug and Marchand wheeling and dealing out there in the offensive zone. Lets build on that and we can all reminisce about the Big Bad Bruins later, OK?
Do you want to know the definition of first world problems? I legitimately am upset, vexed even, that the Bruins and Celtics have playoff games on at the same time tonight.
Our embarrassment of riches collide as the Bruins play Game 2 of the semi-finals and the Celtics kick off Game 1 of their respective semi-finals as both teams are playing for a shot at the Conference Finals. What a time to be a sports fan in Boston. Combine that with the Red Sox being arguably the best team in baseball and the Patriots being the talk of the NFL with their draft decisions over the weekend. No time to dilly dally.
Is it a chore to go picture in picture so I can watch BOTH of my teams playoff games? Sure. Is it hard work to flip back and forth in between intermissions? Absolutely. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. I now have my entire 6 pm-11 pm blocked off tonight. No time to watch The Office unfortunately.
Its time like these I almost envy the complete lack of passion from fans in cities like LA or Tampa. Just go about your day partaking in all sorts of activities. Me? I’ll be in front of the TV with garbage food that I 100% GrubHub’d and a 6 pack of moderately priced IPAs. Thats the cross I bear.
Holy hell what a game. As many of my buddies that are not Bruins fans texted me last night; that was an incredible game, probably the best game of the entire first round of the playoffs. As a Bruins fan though? That shit was beyond stressful. From puck drop that game was a sprint and luckily, despite some massive miscues, the Bruins pulled out Game 7 in exciting fashion.
I’ve never been a TRADE TUUKKA guy. I think he’s fine. He can flash the mitt sometimes, but he’s not a top 3 goalie. He’s just not. Among goalies with at least 30 Games Played this year, Tuukka Rask ranked 15th in Save Percentage at .917, 17th in Shutouts with 3, and 15th in Quality Starts with 30. Its not like he was a workhorse either, he was 18th in Games Played with 54, which are the fewest games he’s played since the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season.
He’s also not a complete bum. He was 6th in GAA at 2.36, but holy shit does this guy have a scary tendency to disappear in big moments. Going into last night Tuukka was 1-2 with a .849 Save Percentage in Game 7s, which is cringe inducing. Still, thats a small sample size and anything can happen in a Game 7.
So what happens 2 minutes into the game? Tuukka gives up a goal. Ok, ok it was a powerplay goal so its hard to get on him too much, but this is a bad sign.
Bruins tie it 3 minutes later on a goal from Jake DeBrusk!
Less than 2 minutes later, Tuukka gives it right back.
Tuukka, buddy, you have got to be shitting me. Are you trying to get run out of town? I’m still waiting for Ol’ Milk Crates to make an appearance.
If you’re not familiar with that reference, back in 2009 when he was still playing for the Baby B’s in Providence, a young Rask gave up a goal to lose a game in a shootout and he went berserk. He goes after the ref, throws his stick, skates off the ice, walks down the tunnel, and then reemerges to chuck milk crates onto the ice like an absolute psycho. Thats the guy I wanna see. A crazy asshole.
Not to mention the short handed goal Rask gave up to Kasperi Kapanen in the 2nd period. It was a disaster of a play from the Bruins in the offensive zone ON THE POWER PLAY, and Marchand got bodied trying to get back in coverage. But still, Tuukka got deked out of his goddamn shorts.
It was an all around ugly play. If you want to be the man on a Stanley Cup winning team you need to pull some saves out of your ass every now and again, which Tuukka hasn’t done a ton of this series. He had a huge night in Game 4 for 31 saves, but he followed that up by getting yanked in Game 5. To make matters worse, Freddy Anderson was making Superman saves all night at the other end of the rink. Hell even Joey Hags was calling for the B’s to yank Tuukka.
Frederik Andersen makes a couple of standout saves at his end and then Tuukka Rask allows Kasperi Kapanen to get around him on a shorthanded breakaway for a go-ahead score. If I’m Bruce Cassidy, I’d pull Rask at this point. He doesn’t look like he’s up for this
Imagine that? Imagine your $8 Million/year goalie getting yanked in a Game 7? That would have been disastrous.
It wasn’t just Rask though as Boston was sloppy all night long. Whether it was fatigue or injuries piling up, they just could not clear the puck out of their own zone and they were turning it over in the offensive zone constantly.
Luckily the Bruins were shot out of a rocket in the third period scoring FOUR unanswered goals (including an empty netter) all but removing the necessity for great goaltending.
We also got this laugh out loud interview with Matt Grzelyck after the game. Keep in mind that NESN cut to this on-ice interview like 20 mins after the game ended so its not like it was live.
Its 2018. I can talk, text, tweet, and stream the Bruins on my iPhone, but DirecTv can’t figure out how to not completely crumble every time the doppler radar gets a little spotty.
Now we move onto the second round where the Bruins will take on an even tougher opponent in the Tampa Bay Lightning. Awesome. If the Bruins play the way they played in Games 3-7, they’re going to get their teeth kicked in. If they play more like they did in Games 1-2 then they’re in business. Tampa finished as the No. 1 seed in the East with 113 points, winning 54 games, and they have an absolutely stacked roster. BUT the Bruins need to remember they went 3-1 against that team this year. As good as Tampa has been, the Bruins have had their number in the regular season. Now they just have to translate that to the postseason. See ya Saturday for Game 1.
The 300s 