Bolts a bunch of hacks

After watching the game between the Bruins and the Lighting it would appear that Tampa Bay is a bunch of hacks, the stick swinging in this game was ridiculous. Check out the fight video of Milan Lucic as he buries Josef Melichar who was stupid enough to hit him up high with a bush league high hit. A whole lot of nasty is what Blues GM John Davidson called Lucic. Also, on the injury front Phil Kessel is still out of the line up until at least next week.

By Kevin Paul Dupont, Globe Staff April 1, 2009 01:30 PM
Lots of stick work--and an abundance of shattered sticks--in last night's game.

''I guess you are right,'' said Milan Lucic, pulling up his sleeves to show slices in both forearms from enemy hacks. ''You saw that a lot of that in the old NHL, but not so much today.''

Julien kept to his minimal updates on the injured likes of Phil Kessel and Shawn Thornton. Kessel, he said, won't play until, next week. Thornton is considered day-to-day with a minor injury.

Kessel Cleared to play.

Bruins forward Phil Kessel, has been cleared to play tomorrow against the New Jersey Devils after being on the injured reserve list for mononucleosis. Kessel hadn't played since January 10th and missed 6 games; during that time the Bruins went 4-1-1.

This is very good news for the Boston Bruins who now seen most of their injured players return to the Bruin's line up; Manny Fernandez is still out. In last nights game Andrew Ference (31 games), Patrice Bergeron (15 games) and Milan Lucic(7 games) all returned to the Bruins line up after being out with injuries. The return of these players makes the Bruins that much deadlier.

Phil Kessel back skating.

I would hope that this means that the Bruin forward is going to be playing for the Boston Bruins soon. The Bruins will need his offensive imagination in the second half as the Bruins make their run to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Kessel skates for 35 minutes
Kevin Paul Dupont --- Globe Staff

Phil Kessel skated for approximately 35 minutes under the watchful eye assistant coach Doug Houda, but based on coach Claude Julien's summation, it did not sound as if the third-year forward is on the verge of returning to the lineup.

''He can't take any contact,'' said Julien, noting standard practice for someone recovering from mononucleosis. ''That's why he stayed on after [the rest of the group worked out]. His condition can change, day-to-day. But he is obviously feeling much better.''