Bruins-Caps preseason live blog: Jeff Schultz is Sergei Gonchar’s residue
Here is a live blog of the Bruins-Capitals preseason game in Boston at 4 p.m.
Want lines? Here are Washington’s, Boston’s are here.
All updates are below the jump.
Postgame thoughts
Saw a lot out of Sobotka and Wheeler here today. Both were very impressive and will force some type of move to shuffle up the cap situation, as the Bruins are right up against it.
Not a bad showing from the Caps, either. They basically brought the skeleton crew plus Fedorov (no Ovie, no Backstrom, no Greenie), and came out with a win against a decent-ish Bruins lineup. I know it’s preseason, but their power play was pretty impressive.
Bergeron looked to be missing three-quarters of a step, but it’s early yet. Season’s still a week and a half away. He probably put in an 80 percent effort tonight, and that was probably on a mandate from the front office. You don’t want this kid killing himself, given his situation, to win games in September.
The Bruins power play was the Bizarro version of the Caps’. It stunk. Badly. It was very embarrassing, especially given that it was some semblance of the team’s top line out there doing it. That has to be sorted out quickly. A number to think about: The Caps were 2 for 3, the Bruins were 0 for 6, and 0 for 2 on 5-on-3s.
Third period
We’re under way. Wheeler creates another chance. Real solid shift again, and he helped draw a penalty. We’re on our way to another ineffective, mediocre Bruins power play.
Matt Lashoff really needs to get off the ice. He almost skated into Thomas on one dump-in, and definitely skated into Wideman at the blue line and allowed the puck to come out of the zone. Lashoff, like this power play, is brutal to watch.
BOSTON GOAL: Petteri Nokelainen beats Theodore five-hole on a pass from Shawn Thornton just after the power play ends. B&E begin babbling about how important that power play was in establishing the momentum, ignoring the fact that the power play was unwatchable.
Bruins draw another penalty very quickly.
Brickley is now extolling the virtues of Sobotka again. Kid’s gotta make the team this year. And Lucic stole the puck and drew a hooking penalty from Poti. That’s a 5-on-3 power play.
There has been absolutely no discussion of anything the Caps have done, not that there would be much to discuss had B&E decided to do so.
Here’s how this 5-on-3 has worked. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, shot into a shin pad, pass, pass, pass, pass, shot wide, pass, pass, clear. Good work. First penalty got killed.
Both penalties killed. That was kind of sad, really. Still, shots this period are 11-3 for the Bruins.
Ol’ meatheaded Andrew Alberts just took a dumb penalty to give the Caps a chance to go ahead. Their PP has looked the exact opposite of Boston’s. Specifically, it has been good.
The chucklefest continues in the booth. Old Red Sox jokes. Weeee. And now Brooks Laich takes a penalty. so we’re 4-up for 1:13.
Yelle, by the way, is a lock to make this team. He’s been good in all three zones tonight.
Bourque goes for hooking and it’s a 5-on-3 for 25 seconds. Nothing will come of this.
Bingo. Alzner tries to spring a fresh-out-of-the-box Brooks Laich for a breakaway, but the pass is way too soft and Laich steps offside before he receives it. Very fortunate for the Bruins there.
Memo to the Bruins: Passing diagonally through the box on the power play NEVER works. Ever. Penalty coming up against Sturm.
Surprised the Bs announcers haven’t talked about huge Caps d-man John Carlson. Kid committed to UMass and then went to juniors instead just before the draft. Pissed off a lot of people out in Amherst, it did. He was supposed to be their big-deal player this year.
WASHINGTON GOAL: Ugh, Edwards screams “CHRIS BOURQUE COMES HOME TO BOSTON!” as the kid rips nice wrister from the top of the circle past Thomas on the power play, and Fedorov gave him a picture-perfect cross-ice feed. It was the most energy he’d shown all night, and if it had been Laich or Fehr or Clark who scored it, he wouldn’t have cared at all. This city’s love affair with Chris Bourque, and indeed his father too, really bothers me. It’s 4-3 to the Caps, and that’ll likely hold.
The Bruins are buzzing here in the final minute, and have put a number of shots wide or over the bar. Not too bad right at the end there.
Bourque gets the game-winner. Yippie! That’ll do it.
Second intermission
There have been a lot of anti-Obama ads during this game. I was fairly certain that NESN’s broadcast area (say, New England) was a pretty solid lock to go Obama almost 100 percent of the time.
Here’s Funayama with Blake Wheeler. Real “I’m just going to keep my game simple and play within myself” stuff.
Wow, Ray Bourque! Here’s my Chris Bourque chatter. I have a feeling Ray has answered the “What do you say to coach your son?” question a few times. Ray Bourque is a Hall of Famer, so that’s gotta be intimidating, right guys!?
Bourque should be a coach: “I think making the playoffs every year would be important.” Thanks Ray.
Agh it’s Mike Milbury. He’s hosting a NESN show this season. Says it’s a little early to dump Peter Schaefer for Blake Wheeler, which is almost fair, but the consideration has to be made that Wheeler theoretically scores goals, and Schaefer sucks. The cavalcade of former Bruins continues with Bob Sweeney after the break.
Sweeney’s talking about some thing the Bruins are doing to promote a reading program. Reading is important, I’ve heard.
By the way, if you haven’t read Wyshynski’s post about the late, great Paul Newman, you really should.
Second period
We’re under way. Stuart’s out there again. That’s good news.
NESN has scoring chances at 6-5 for Boston, which is about right. Laich just put one off the post and had it bounce almost all the way out of the zone.
B&E just take a quick shot at Neely. “How’d your interview go with Cam,” asks Brickley. “He’s sensational,” replies Edwards to a chuckle. These guys really are blockheads. I can’t stand this broadcast team.
St. Pierre just got high sticked under the shield by Chris Clark. Sobotoka is centering Wheeler and Sturm while Bergeron drops to the point with Ference. That’s a pretty mediocre PP unit.
Edwards talks about how bothered he is by Claude Julien not getting nominated for Jack Adams last year. He mentions that he’s not knocking Bruce Boudreau, Mike Babcock or Guy Carbonneau, but he deserves it. Brickley adds this pearl of wisdom: “Unfortunately you can only have three candidates.” This all, by the way, took place during a scintillating Bruins power play that produced literally nothing even remotely threatening.
WASHINGTON GOAL: Tom Fleischmann neatly picks out the corner after an atrocious attempt at a D-to-D pass down low. That was Waltham, Mass. native Keith Aucoin on the pickoff.
This game has been positively tepid. Brashear and Thornton exchange words but at this point they should really be throwing hands just to inject some type of life into this game.
Peter Chiarelli, the Bruins GM, has joined the broadcast team. He namedrops Karsums and Wheeler as kids they’ve liked so far, along with “the young defensemen.”
Jesus, Wheeler sure looks good on this rush too. “He’s adapted to the cycle and he’s using his body and fitting in well with this line,” says Chiarelli, adding that he’s a smart player. He really has adapted to the pro game well.
A quick note: I hate hearing about how D is “activated.”
Edwards is now yammering about “fan response.” Chiarelli talks about it, but really has nothing to say on the matter. “Our identity is compatible with the sports fans in this city.” Awesome stuff, this.
Chiarelli is actually saying things about the Northeast. Montreal improved, Ottawa got a little worse, Buffalo will improve. “Who am I missing?” “Toronto.” “Oh! *laughs* I don’t have a good read on Toronto.” Ouch.
This game is a snoozefest. I just noticed what might be the problem though. The ice isn’t properly mic’ed. Everything sounds very far away. The crowd, on the other hand, is properly mic’ed, but you wouldn’t know it because there are like 3,000 people in the stands.
Boy has Edwards ever shown himself to be a big fan of Slava Kozlov. Just can’t stop raving about the guy.
And here’s the Sturm-Bergeron-Wheeler line to make the game somewhat interesting for a second. They’ve been the only real reason to watch this game, but typically, they have no real finish.
That’s it for the second period. Bleh.
First intermission
Pretty sloppy. There was only one non-garbage goal, that being the Ference one, and even that was a seeing-eye tip by Chris Bourque instead of something that the Bruins did right.
Funayama is with Andy Ference. Talking about Sobotka’s desire to get the defense involved in the offense. That’s something the Bruins didn’t do nearly enough of last season.
And now the New England State-Run TV Network has a puff piece on universally disliked owner Jeremy Jacobs. Edwards goes out of his way to note that the Bruins are spending at the cap and the “financial commitment is there.” Now the very attractive Kathryn Tappen is tossing him softball questions about how good the shootout is and how great Sid Crosby and Alex Ovechkin are for the league. Jacobs on the Bruins: “We’ve got role players.” Shut up, Jacobs. You have a Norris candidate, a dynamite playmaker, a Patrice Bergeron, and the best No. 2 defenseman in the East. Christ it’s easy to see why this guy is so hated.
Jacobs on how the team plans on building: “We talked about role players and the next generation of players. They’re coming in now.” Does this guy understand hockey at all? The only guy he seems to be able to pick out on the team is Bergeron. Earlier this week, he mentioned that he likes what Milan Jurcina brings to the team. That’d be fine, but Jurcina got traded like two years ago for nothing (a fifth round pick? Help me out here), and he’s currently one of Washington’s better d-men. I’m convinced Jacobs doesn’t watch the Bruins play hockey ever.
Cam Neely joins the broadcast. He’s fielding further softballs about the strength of the Northeast and how great Wheeler has been. Whoopie.
First period
This is Patrice Bergeron’s first game at the TD Banknorth Garden since Randy Jones drilled him headfirst into the boards.
The Garden is a ghost town, by the way. Edwards calls the crowd “spirited.” I call it “sparse.”
Andrew Ference is rocking the A on his shirt.
Vladimir Sobotka is already working very hard, digging a puck out of the corner and creating a chance for Dennis Wideman.
Penalty on Boston, Sobotka has a seat for some stickwork in the neutral zone.
Blake Wheeler is out there on the penalty kill, and there was a great article on him in the Boston Globe this morning. The Bruins expect big things out of him.
WASHINGTON GOAL: Chris Clark strikes with a garbage goal at 3:00 even, bumping up the Caps’ already-robust PP percentage of 42.1 in the preseason.
Edwards: “Schultz is the residue of Sergei Gonchar.” I knew what he meant, that Schultz was one of the players selected from the draft picks the Bruins sent along with Shaone Morrissonn to the Caps in 2003-04 for Gonchar, but there’s gotta be 14 better ways to say that.
Mark Stuart just took a bump on the knee as he tried to hit a falling Cap. He’s off to the dressing room with the help of two trainers.
Some scary stats for the Bruins last year. Last year, they were 24th in goals, 16th on the power play, 28th on the PK. They’ll be better.
BOSTON GOAL: Ference and Yelle, two old teammates with Calgary, combined for a goal. Ference with the hard one-timer from the point, Yelle with the tip. Theodore had no chance. 1-1 now.
Y’know, it’s too bad about Milan Lucic’s preseason. He’s been pretty awful and has often looked disinterested by all accounts, which stands in stark contrast to last year, when he earned a spot out of camp as a teenager based upon nothing but his intensity. Of course, as soon as I finished typing the word “teenager,” he ripped one off the post.
Change of scoring on that Bruins goal. Chris Bourque tipped the Ference shot in the circle and it beat Theodore five-hole. Yelle provided the screen but never touched it. This instance gave NESN a chance to show off its fancy new telestrator, which was pretty nice.
Stuart’s back.
BOSTON GOAL: Blake Wheeler really wants that job with the big club. He chipped a centering pass into the crease from Bergeron past Theodore with 7:43 to go. 2-1 Boston, and Wheeler’s looked brilliant.
Edwards and Brickley are talking about Marty St. Pierre like he’s Marty St. Louis. “Quality.” Yeah, is he? I’ve seen him play and I could have sworn he was mediocre. Any Blackhawk fans wanna back me up on this?
And Lucic just turns it over in the neutral zone to Tom Poti. He’s been atrocious.
WASHINGTON GOAL: With 2:23 to go in the period, Boyd Gordon scores from the side of the net. Great feed, but someone should have picked Gordon up. 2-all.
Discussion now of the chances that Karsums, Thompson or Thornton make the team. I’ll summarize because B&E refuse to prognosticate: slim, none, and sure thing.
And Stuart heads back to the locker room.
Matt Lashoff is not exactly making a case for himself as the No. 6-7 defenseman. His zone entries have just been atrocious. Kid’s got a head full of rocks, but with Stuart hurt for a little while here, he’ll probably be the beneficiary for the rest of the night.
Period over.
Pregame chatter
Boston announced a little while ago that it sent 10 players down to Providence before the game. Notables include Boston’s 2007 first-round choice Zach Hamill and former UNH netminder Kevin Regan. Hamill, for what its worth, was excellent in his call-up stint with the P-Bruins at the end of last season. The Bruins will make additional cuts after this afternoon’s game.
Also, if you look at Washington’s lines, Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green are conspicuous by their absence. That’s too bad. The top line, instead, has Sergei Fedorov centering Eric Fehr, who had like six points last season, and and Brooks Laich. I had to look it up, but somehow Laich pumped in 21 goals last season. Jeff Schultz and 2007’s fifth overall pick and veteran of zero NHL games Karl Alzner will make up Washington’s top pairing.
Two things we do know about Boston’s lineup as of 3:37: Tim Thomas is starting, and Chuck Kobasew is playing.
Update at 3:45: Okay, we have Boston’s lineup, but not their line chart. No Savard, Ryder or Chara.
Forwards
Centers: Stephane Yelle, Petteri Nokelainen, Patrice Bergeron, Martin St. Pierre, Vladimir Sobotka
Left wings: Marco Sturm, Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton, Jeremy Reich
Right wings: Chuck Kobasew, Blake Wheeler, Martins Karsums
Defense
Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference, Andrew Alberts, Matt Hunwick, Matt Lashoff, Johnny Boychuk
Goalies
Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask
One last update at 3:56: Boston lines look like this. Nate Thompson apparently is playing instead of Reich.
Sturm-Bergeron-Wheeler
Lucic-St. Pierre-Kobasew
Sobotka-Yelle-Nokelainen
Thornton-Thompson-Karsums
Wideman-Stuart
Lashoff-Hunwick
Alberts-Ference
Thomas
Rask
Bruins play-by-play man Jack Edwards is going a little heavy on the Just for Men. Now he and Andy Brickley are talking up 21-year-old Vladimir Sobotka, who has scored two goals this preseason after scoring one all of last regular season and two in the playoffs.
New rinkside reporter Nakao Funayama talks to Stephane Yelle for a minute. He says “organ-eye-zation” and makes me very happy.
Ugh, here’s the chit chat about possibly the most overrated player in the Washington organization: Chris Bourque. He’s Ray’s son and went to Boston University, and I’m sure I’ll hear about that all night.
