Conference diver1::boston_bruins

can the B's continue their winning ways ?

Will Rob Tallas live up to his name, and ROB the
Senators of scorring Chances ??

Will Ray Bourque up his point total, and will we
hear more drivel on how many points Rayh B. now has ?

Will Kasper stop pickin his nose behind the bench ?

and what about Cap Raider, will he be sporting a toupe' (ever) ?

These questions, and more, will be answered tonight!

/pelkster.

    
    
    Anyone catch the 1st round of the Beanpot last night?
    
    Despite the lopsided final scores, both games were close
    most of the way.  The BC/NU game was the better of the two,
    I thought, even though there were a lot of high-jinx at the end
    between the two teams because of some trash-talking by the BC
    players.  I think it started after the 3rd goal and escalated from
    there.  
    
    And, stop the presses, the Fleece was FULL for a hockey game!!!
    Wow.
    
    CF

    The Senators are going into Boston a battered team.  They will be
    without top scorer Daniel Alfredsson.  Also missing from the lineup will
    be penalty killers Bruce Gardiner and Dave Hannan.  Defenseman Christer 
    Olsen is also out of the lineup with a rib injury.  Tonight will be the
    Sens third game in four nights, fifth in seven nights.
    
    Tugnutt will most likely get the call in nets for Ottawa.  A win by
    Ottawa would go a long way in securing a case of beer from Toby ;-)
    
    Bernie.

Senators are a defintely different team this year and
those injuries aren't gonna help them out much, but
injuries are something B's fans are no strangers
to..  Ranford's been out so far, almost half of this season.
   

Bruins are gonna have come out the same way they've played
the last two games where they've won.  (Colorado, and Tampa)

If they show up flat, like against the Panthers, it'll be
a win for Ottawa, the B's really suck when their flat.

/pelks.

    
RE- -1   Did you say flat?  Look at what Bourque called
         the team...  FLAT!!!!
    
Andreas Dackell's power-play goal with 7:44 left in the third
period lifted the Ottawa Senators to their season-high third
straight victory, 4-3 over the Boston Bruins. 

Tom Chorske scored twice and Sergei Zholtok had a goal and an
assist for the Senators, who converted three of their four
power-play opportunities.  Ottawa, which was 2-for-34 on the
power play over its previous seven games, improved to 6-2-3 in
its last 11 games and is 3-0-1 in its last four road contests. 

"Probably the key to the game was our power play, we feel we
have good units out there," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said.
"We scored one last night and tonight we really got it going.  I
think our effort has been there and we've picked it up since the
All-Star break.  We're playing with much more confidence, we're
much improved.  I think we've learned our lesson in the first
half." 

Boston's Mattias Timander was called for a slashing penalty with
7:08 remaining in the third period and Dackell took advantage 24
seconds later.  Alexei Yashin centered a pass out of the left
corner to Dackell, who beat goaltender Rob Tallas to the stick
side for his ninth goal of the season. 

Ted Donato had a pair of goals for the Bruins, who have lost
three of their five meetings with the Senators this season after
going 21-0-2 in the first 23 games between the teams. 

"If you look at the standings, who are we to be overconfident
against," Boston coach Steve Kasper said. "Ottawa's the hungry
team.  Ottawa's players are saying that they can make it (the
playoffs).  I don't understand what happened tonight. I'll take
my share of the blame, but we had players not show up tonight
and that's totally unacceptable." 

Ray Bourque gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal
5:40 into the contest.  Zholtok tied it for Ottawa with his
seventh tally, a power-play goal, with 7:34 left in the opening
period. 

"We'll see about next game, but tonight was very disappointing,"
Bourque said. "The effort just wasn't good enough. I don't know
why we were flat." 

Donato's first goal of the game and 18th of the season at 7:09
of the second period gave Boston a 2-1 edge, but the first of
Chorske's two goals 56 seconds later tied it.  Chorske tallied a
power-play goal, his seventh, with 8:58 to play in the second
period, giving Ottawa a 3-2 lead. 

Chorske, regarded as a grinder, has been seeing time on the 
power-play unit recently. 

"It's nice to come up in a big way in a big game for us,"
Chorske said.  "It adds a little bit to it, to be out there in
special situations is important.  The success tonight came from
the work of five guys pretty much on the same page." 

"We've been talking about getting our power play going and
tonight it showed," Ottawa's Randy Cunneyworth said.  "We still
can be a little better on the penalty kill.  The difference this
year is that our young guys have been chipping in.  A lot has
been expected of them and they're stepping up." 

With Boston enjoying a power play, Donato redirected Barry
Richter's shot from the high slot between goaltender Ron
Tugnutt's pads for his second goal of the contest with 8:52 left
in the third, making it 3-3. 

Tugnutt stopped 19 shots to improve to 5-6-0. 

    .....and Steve "how many games do we have to lose before I'm dead-meat"
    Kasper called this one the "worst game we played all year"...I dunno,
    there's been ALOT of those thus far......
    
    as a great statesman once said, "These are the times that try men's
    souls"......seems fairly appropriate for this year's crop of talent...
    I'm still hedging on going up to Montreal (weekend of March 22-24),
    and if we do (Games Away Tours), the game will most definitely be a 
    side-line to that weekend............... the Habbies ain't lighting
    any fires in the Division either....
    
    I got some questions to pose after watchin' this stinkeroo:
    
    *When is Ranford coming back?  Is he done for the season?
    
    *Will the much-anticipated draft next year help us out?
     (don't forget..we get TWO 1st rounders)
    
    *What ever happened to the defenseman we took in the 1st round
    last year?  We could use ANYONE right now.....
    
    
    oh well.....bring on the Whale...speaking of..where the heck is 
    Johnson???  Maybe he'll come outta hiding for Thursday's tilt....
    
    mac

Ranford may make the road trip next week.

Heinze is still questionable, but Moger, and Rholoff 
are due back soon, (not sure how positive that is..)
and Stumple is day to day at this point.  No word on
Mclaren.

B's played well in spurtz, but overall wasn't a consitant
effort.  Tallas played well for the msot part, but that
rebound that led to the third goal was tuff to give
up.  I don't think the B's give the Senators much respect,
but these guys have really improved, out shot the B's by
a wide margin last night..  this has gotta be the first season
in a long stretch where I recall the B's being outshout
in as many games as they've been outshot in..

and.. Tochette has vanished into the wood work again, and with
Kasper is shuffling the lines, and that's not helping, especially 
Oates...  B's just continue to missfire, in the wrong places at
the wrong times, not bearing down, and just doing little things
wrong, like Dimao's faliure to clear on the last power
play goal,,,  the little things seem to still be the turning
point in these games.

Bourque played one hell of a game though..  He appears
to be the only hungry guy out there..

/pelkster

    	I think I'm cancelling NESN. They do best in the games that I don't
    watch. Must be some bad karma there or something, yeah that's the
    ticket. When ever I watch 'em they play flat. I can't believe I'm
    saying this but take heart gang, pitchers and catchers report next week
    or the week after don't they?  8-)
    
    Barry
    

    This wasn't their worst game all year, they were in it at the end.
    Kasper must have blocked the bad ones from his mind.
    Not to make excuses, but the slashing call at the end looked
    pretty lame to me.  
    
    I think Ray's record will stand at least as long as the Chief's did,
    and probably forever. With free agency and today's "show me the money" 
    players, noone is going to stay with one team long enough to break 
    his record. That's assuming the game stays like it is. In the future,
    I can see them desperately trying to appeal to the "fans" by making the
    goal as big as a soccer net, or declaring all checks illegal or 
    something just as stupid!
    
    

>In the future, I can see them desperately trying to appeal to the "fans" by making
>the goal as big as a soccer net, or declaring all checks illegal or something just
>as stupid!

They might even start giving out assits to evryone - oh I forgot, they already did
that !!!  8*)

	Bernie,

		don't drink yer beers before they're bottled!   8-)


	Toby

    Toby,
    
    From my point of view, it's looking a lot better than it was just a few 
    weeks ago.  I just can't figure out how Kasper manages to get so many
    wins with that collection of riff-raff (Oates and Bourque excluded) ;-)
    The guy is a genuis!
    
    Bernie.