Patrice Bergeron vs Blake Wheeler (Video)

Announcer, "We've got Wheeler and Bergeron. Really."

I couldn't believe it either. Patrice Bergeron came after Blake Wheeler. This was the fist fight for both players this season.

Neither players fight very often. Wheeler has been in seven NHL fights and Bergeron has been in four NHL fights.

Alexander Burmistrov’s Dirty Elbow on Patrice Bergeron

While we're suspending people for dirty hits. I believe that Alexander Burmistrov’s dirty elbow on Patrice Bergeron should warrant a suspension. This is definitely a violation of the NHL's Rule 48.

There's no defending this hit.

Boston Bruins: Patrice Bergeron's Controversial Game-Winning Goal (Video)

I think that the on-ice officials made the right call in this situation. I think Patrice Bergeron's stick was below the cross bar when the puck touched his stick. Nonetheless, this was a hard all to make and I am glad that I am not the official that had to make this call tonight. As you can see in another blog post, the refs blew the call earlier in the night on Craig McAdam's no-goal.

...and there you go. Ruling conclusive that puck hit the stick below the crossbar. #Bruins win in OT vs. #Pens
— Scouting The Refs (@ScoutingTheRefs) January 8, 2015

In 100% honesty, they got it right. Bergeron's stick was moving downward, and was at, or below the cross bar when the puck was deflected.
— Andy Dudones (@ADudones) January 8, 2015

Patrice Bergeron's Fluky Goal (VIDEO)

In the box score it will read, Patrice Bergeron (6) Wrist shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (11), Zach Trotman (4). In my opinion, it's God Awful goaltending by Niklas Backstrom.

Summer Links, Hockey Offseason

It's been kind of an uneventful summer so far. In my opinion, this has been one of the quietest summers that I can remember to date. Maybe that's good news. Maybe not. Of course there's a lot of summer left.

Will Junior Hockey Ban Fighting? http://t.co/vUjtnlZmgj http://t.co/p1LwXCUz84
— Eric J. Burton THW (@goon48) June 24, 2014

Tonight is the NHL Awards and it's nice to see Patrice Bergeron get this award.

And the winner of the NHL Foundation Player Award is @NHLBruins Patrice Bergeron. #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/Y5hCNG9S1z
— NHL (@NHL) June 24, 2014

Make that two times for Bergeron who also won the Selke Award as well.

"This [Selke] Award goes to all my teammates." -Patrice Bergeron #NHLAwards pic.twitter.com/IyHqIWlPVb
— NHL (@NHL) June 24, 2014

North Dakota Announces 2014-15 Freshman Class http://t.co/1Mjnq1UYae #THW
— The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) June 24, 2014

Matt Greene and the Kings are reportedly close to agreeing to a four-year contract extension http://t.co/hyasfj90ME
— Kevin (@iDoPorn4Netflix) June 23, 2014

NHL 15 Cover Vote... #NHL15Bergeron

RT this if you're going to vote for #NHL15Bergeron as much as you can today. pic.twitter.com/CbR6Z4Vjif
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) June 1, 2014

It ends today. You can use this link to vote. Voting closes today.

NHL Cover Vote: #NHL15Bergeron

Since former UND forward T.J. Oshie has been eliminated from the voting, I am not shifting my focus to Patrice Bergeron.

(Video) P.K. Subban hits Reilly Smith and takes out Thomas Vanek

Montreal Candiens defenseman P.K. Subban hits Boston Bruins forward Reilly Smith in the chest and also takes out his teammate Thomas Vanek. Subban was given a two-minute minor for roughing.

12:38 MTL P.K. Subban Roughing - 2 min against Reilly Smith

Vote for T.J. Oshie for the EA Sports NHL 2015 Cover

You can vote for former Fighting Sioux and current St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie by going to this link. I would have to think that there hasn't been too many UND hockey players on the cover of EA Sports NHL Hockey.

(Video) Montreal Meltdown - Bruins score 4 goals in 8 minutes

I thought it was over when the Montreal Canadiens pushed the lead to 3-1. Then a funny thing happened. The Bruins put it on the table and pushed back and scored four goals in eight minutes. The problem with the Bruins is they started responding to the Habs instead of just playing hockey.

0:56 BOS Dougie Hamilton (2) Snap shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (3), Patrice Bergeron (6) 3 - 2 MTL
14:17 BOS Patrice Bergeron (2) Wrist shot - ASST: Brad Marchand (4) 3 - 3 Tie
16:28 BOS Reilly Smith (3) Wrist shot - ASST: Torey Krug (5), Zdeno Chara (1) 4 - 3 BOS
18:54 BOS EN - Milan Lucic (4) Wrist shot - ASST: David Krejci (3), Kevan Miller (2) 5 - 3 BOS

Team Canada 2014 Olympic Roster

Centres Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks and Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks face-off during a game on December 16, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Forwards

Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
Jeff Cater, L.A. Kings
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Matt Duchene, Colorado Avalanche
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks
Chris Kunitz, Pittsburgh Penguins – Ferris State
Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks
Rich Nash, New York Rangers
Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks
Patrick Sharp, Tampa Bay Lightning – Vermont Catamounts
John Travares, New York Islanders
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks – North Dakota

Defenseman

Jay Bouwmeester, St Louis Blues
Drew Doughty, L.A. Kings
Dan Hamhuis, Vancouver Canucks
Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks – Michigan State University
Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues
P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose Sharks
Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

Goaltenders

Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
Mike Smith, Phoenix Coyotes

Snubs from Team Canada – Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning, Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks, Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes, Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers, Dan Boyle, San Jose Sharks - Miami University

NHL Hockey: Did John Scott Break the Hockey Code?

As I suspected, David Clarkson has been suspended by the NHL for 10 regular-season games for leaving the bench to join a fight/altercation. This is the second 10-game suspension of the pre-season already. The think that it's funny; the Toronto Maple Leafs are the only ones in this whole mess that will face any time on the beach. The Leafs Phil Kessel has a phone hearing fo rhis stick swinging incident.



I am not usually a fan of Damien Cox, but he does bring up some good points here. I was thinking about this as well.

Damien Cox, Toronto Star -- But the question NHL hanging judge Brendan Shanahan needs to ask himself is whether justice will be done if Kessel is suspended and the Buffalo Sabres don't receive any sanctions at all, not even a token fine.

If Shanahan chooses that option, he will be in effect opening the door to a strategy in which enforcers can jump star players on opposing teams without the league coming down hard on them. The league should protect its marquee players, although it seldom makes that a priority and instead allows the Patrick Kaletas of the world to run wild. You can say Kessel did wrong, but you better have a explanation as to how he should have handled a 6-foot-8 goon who had already dropped his gloves.

You can argue the goon in question, John Scott, did nothing overly wrong under the rules of the game, other than breaking them and getting a penalty. But in combination with Buffalo coach Ron Rolston, Scott instigated the entire affair by doing what most NHL people would argue is completely against the culture and spirit of the game, and that's menacing a skill player who had done absolutely nothing to provoke Scott.

I know that there’s going to be a few people that think that Phil Kessel had a beat down coming. But I ask you; think about it this way. Interchange Leafs forward Phil Kessel with Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, Zach Parise or even Jonathan Toews. Now I got your attention, right? Do we really want a two-bit goon like John Scott beating the bejesus out of a star player? Do we want him to just take liberties against marquee players? First off, I am not a dove by any stretch of the imagination. I love a good bare knuckles brawl, but the head coach of the Maple Leafs bares some of the blame in this situation.

Here’s a couple of questions that I will pose to the readers. Should Goons be going after skilled players? How’s a skilled players like Phil Kessel supposed to respond in this situation? Again, you can interchange your favorite skilled player with Kessel. Are skilled players just supposed to accept their beat down? I don’t know. Imagine the outrage if Scott had lined up again Sid Crosby or Patrice Bergeron, both players have had concussion issues. Do we want a cement head like Scott pulverizing the franchise player? You have to expect a player like Clarkson to jump off the bench and come to their aid.

Bruins Rangers and Wild Transactions

Alternate logo since 2003. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Boston Bruins have resigned Tuuka Rask and Patrice Bergeron to eight-year contracts. Bergy’s deal is worth 52 million and Tukka’s deal is worth 56 million dollars.

The Minnesota Wild have signed Jonathon Blum and Jon Landry to one-year, two-way free agent deals. Landry will more than likely play with the Iowa Wild of the AHL. Blum is a former first round draft choice for the Nashville Predators and played in 35 NHL games last season, I suppose Blum will have a chance to make the Wild out of training camp, he will definitely add to the competition for making one of the final six spots in the defensive corps.

The New York Rangers have signed former Minnesota Wild pylon Justin Falk to a one-year contract worth 975,000.00. Yikes, thank God Wild fans will no longer have to watch the slow footed Falk getting walked by Western Conference forwards anymore.

Stanley Cup Final game six: Lucic goal

This was the goal by Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic scored at the 12:11 mark of the third period. Of course the Blackhawks weren't done as they scored two goals, 17 seconds apart to win the 3-2 and the Stanley Cup Series 4-2.

A Basic Recap of Game 5 by RW77

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I say basic because I'm in the middle of a study break in Grad School (9 grad credits in 4 weeks means VERY busy).  I'll leave videos and pictures to Goon.

Big News

The Big News off the bat is that both teams suffered key losses in this game.  In the second period, Bruins star Patrice Bergeron left the game having only played 49 seconds of the second period.  He never returned.  He went to the hospital via ambulance between the second and third period.

This is a HUGE loss for the Bruins, but a baffling loss for those of us fans who watched the game.  The commentators tried to rationalize and tell us what happened but when you see his last full shift (playing on a 4 on 4 at the time) he seems to stand up straight and cannot seem to gather any speed or ability to quickly change direction.  However, he doesn't favor any leg or even seem to wince in any sort of pain.  Initially, I thought it might be a muscle spasm in his lower back, hip, or left side.  But I have absolutely no clue.  The injury occurred while he was along the boards alone.  No one touched him.  In fact, the replay showed that there was no other player in the picture.  VERY odd.

The second injury came to former UND standout Jonathon Toews.  He got absolutely CRUSHED by Bruins defenseman Boychuk.  And yeah, folks, it was a CLEAN hit.  Toews was between the circles lining up for a shot when Boychuk comes from out of the picture from center ice and a high rate of speed and absolutely destroys Toews.  The hit occured on Toews' left shoulder.  However, I believe the injury occured when Toews hit the ice.  The hit occured so fast and so violently that Toews had no time to cushion is fall, so he took the fall on his right shoulder and his helmet bounced off the ice.  Take into consideration that Boychuk also fell on top of Toews with his knee ending up either hitting his shoulder or coming awfully close to hitting Toews' head, and it's very plausible that the injury occured on the play.  The Hawks have him listed as "Day to Day with an upper body injury." Toews did not play the entire third period but he was on the bench and skated out to do the stick salute after the game.  To me, this is good news as I doubt Toews would be allowed to do this if he had a concussion.

In News that reeks of the more things stay the same...

Officiating was again brutal.  I noticed several absolutely BRUTAL noncalls.  To start the game, Chara armdragged Bickell (I think?) to the ice by his arm, an act that took Bickell from in front of the net to almost beside the goal post, and there was no call.

Second, Boston was assessed a hooking or tripping penalty when Frolik grabbed the stick of the Boston player and fell to the ice.  It may have been a legit call on Boston but come on!

Third, absolutely loved the noncall when Lucic was high sticked by Kane.  Saying that sarcastically really.  First off, I don't like Lucic.  Second, I'm no fan of Boston.  However, you HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE to make this call!  YOU HAVE TO!  It's a PLAYER SAFETY issue!  I'm becoming more and more concerned that the only way you will see penalties in the finals is if there is an injury involved!  Don Adam officiating is dangerous!  Just ask Chay Genoway, Robbie Bina, and that UW player... Smith?  I can't recall right now.

Finally, assist to the officials on the empty netter.  Frolik (again) BLATANTLY tripped B's defenseman Krug that set up Bolland for the empty netter.  You could come up with some hair brained excuses for the previous three penalties or non calls but this one?  I was rooting for the Hawks (sorry Goon) and good LORD!

I'll reiterate my conspiracy theory and Doc Emerick stated part of it early in the first period:  The officials aren't making any calls so there is lots of action!  This is Gary Bettman's plan.  The NHL is hurting for ratings and media attention.  Instead of looking at the PR campaign that everyone knows was pretty poor, he decides to have the officials pretty much ignore the rule book.  If everything goes, the game flows.  Maybe that's Bettman and Campbell's slogan.  Sorry, I don't buy the NHL officials being poor or incompetent.  There's REAL accountability in the NHL (even if it is a moving target for players thanks to the sad interpretations by Shanahan).  It doesn't go from "ok" to "Bad" depending upon regular season to post season.  It just doesn't happen.  This is all Bettman.  All of it.

The Game

The first period was pretty even, in my opinion, if you take out statistics.  Statistically speaking, Boston dominated the first period in shots on goal and hits.  They dominated the entire game in hits to be honest.  And they targetted Toews... A LOT.  And Chara had a VERY poor first and second period, which was unusual.

In the end, Kane ended the first period on a high note for the Hawks with a cleanup play from an Oduya shot that had puck luck written all over it.  The Oduya shot hit and broke the stick of Seidenberg (or maybe it was Ference?  Memory is hazy).  This alterred the path of the puck enough for it to get behind Rask and slightly wide and behind the net.  Kane came in and tucked it home.

Kane again struck in the second period after a nice set up by Toews and Bickell.  However, again Seidenberg may have helped Kane and the Hawks when it appeared that he got a bit tangled up in Rask's pads preventing Rask from getting all the way over to make a play on Kane's shot.

The second period was ALL Chicago.  It surprised me that Boston didn't give up any more goals during that period.  Likewise, the third period was ALL Boston.  Chara's goal was an exercise in stupidity by Chicago.  Watch the replay.  You'll notice only ONE Chicago player making any play at all to defend (Bickell IIRC).  The rest are standing and watching as Chara comes in uncontested and snipes a shot high and glove side.

By the way, can anyone else name a goaltender with a worse glove hand than Crawford to make it this deep in the playoffs as the #1 goaltender?  I mean, Crawford has given up 13 goals this post season, which is good, but of those thirteen NINE have been high glove side.  NINE!

It's my opinion that Tuokka Rask is by far the better goaltender of the two.  Unfortunately, he can't win games by himself that often.

That being said, both sides missed golden opportunities.  Sharp is still kicking himself over an open net and getting absolutely robbed by Rask (though to be fair, if he'd've elevated his shot it would have been an open net).  I think he missed just wide again in the second period as well.  Boston should have tied the game again but Jagr's shot went high over the open net.

Where I currently stand

Ok, after game 3, I told Goon that there is NO WAY the Cup doesn't change hands in Game 5 or 6.  Now, I think the series goes 7 games.  And, depending upon Bergeron and Toews, that may very well determine who wins the Cup.  If Bergeron cannot play I think that Chicago will win it all even if Toews can't play either.

But the big factor (pun not intended) is actually Chara.  When Chara was playing poorly, especially the second period, Chicago was running away with it.  Chara was much better in the third and the Hawks almost (perhaps should have) lost the game.

With Game 4 being an anomaly, my player of the playoffs has to be Tuokka Rask.  That guy has been amazing.... and he was basically a throwin player from Toronto in the Kessel trade.  It isn't as bad of a trade as the Wild trading Leddy for Cam Barker, but looking at Toronto's goaltending situation.... Leafs fans can't be too happy about it.

SCF Game four: Patrice Bergeron first goal of the game

Talk about over the top... Here's the first goal that was scored by Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron on the power play to make the game 4-3 in the waning moments of the second period. Bergeron would score again to open the third period to tie the game. Bergeron now has (9g-6a—15pts) in the Stanley cup playoffs.

Breaking it down further, Bergeron now has (6g-2a—8pts) in the past two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. To quote the guys on NBC, "is Bergeron is officially becoming the city of Boston's Mr. clutch?

Gif of the Bergeron goal.

This was an amazing goal by Patrice Bergeron, I guess you can't blame some for wanting to watch Bergeron and Jaromir Jagr go to work to score the second goal for the Boston Bruins...

@HBAdventure That's harsh...
— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) June 18, 2013

2013 Stanley Cup Finals Game Three: Bergy Scores 2-0 Boston after two...

The box score will read, Zdeno Chara pass to Jaromir Jagr who fed Patrice Bergeron with a beautiful cross ice pass. Bergy waited until he saw an opening and then shot and then shot the puck past Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford.

#Bruins lead faceoff battle 29-13. Bergeron/Kelly a combined 24-5. Handzus/Kruger/Bolland a combined 1-20.
— Nicholas W. Goss (@NicholasGoss35) June 18, 2013

Eastern Conference Finals: If only the refs called more penalties

Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am seeing a theme emerge this morning, the non-call that led to the game winning goal in game three in overtime, the uncalled interference call on Crosby in game four.

 You would have thought that the Penguins were totally hosed in the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Bruins. I guess the Penguins fans didn't see any of the numerous infractions that went uncalled against the Bruins that could have led to another power play in their favor.

 All that I heard after game one was Crosby whining about the officiating and how the Bruins were getting away with bloody murder. Did he see Jonathan Toews getting mugged on the ice against the Detroit Red Wings? It’s not just him.

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News -- There is not enough space in this column or any other to chronicle the litany of blown calls and shoddy work done by the supposed best officials in the world during these playoffs. But wouldn’t you like to, just once, see an important game that is officiated to the same standard as one in the regular season? And it all comes down to one of two things: Either the officials are making up their minds to be far more lax during the playoffs in the name of “letting the players decide it” or the league is mandating they change their approach. Neither one of them, quite frankly, is very appealing.

Case in point was Wednesday night in Game 3 of the Boston-Pittsburgh series. Had referees Marc Joannette and Dan O’Rourke called all the violations of the rulebook, there probably wouldn’t have been enough players to play 5-on-5 at some points in the game. Then again, had they called the fragrant fouls early, perhaps the players would not have gone through the game thinking they could get away with pretty much anything.

Instead, the two of them made it very clear that they were going to call next to nothing. Then what happened? Well, Jaromir Jagr clearly hooked Evgeni Malkin in the neutral zone and scooped the puck from him, a play that ultimately resulted in Patrice Bergeron scoring the game-winner in double overtime. Basically, Joannette and O’Rourke set the standard and the players responded to it and the game was decided in large part by a restraining foul that clearly should have been called.

Here’s my question, did Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins have the mindset that they were entitled to a Stanley Cup? It seems like the Penguins were never in this series. I almost think that the Bruins were the one team that they didn’t want to play from the start.

During the series, the Bruins took away the Penguins time and space and made it tough sledding for the Penguins offensive players. The Penguins never really seemed to make the necessary adjustments until game three and by then it was too late.

On the other side of the ice, the Bruins players got to the dirty areas to score goals and do the little things that they had to do to push their team over the top. Hockey is about making adjustments; the Boston Bruins made the adjustments and did what they had to do to win this series, the Penguins did not.

What if? What If the refs “had” called more penalties and called the games more tightly? Does anyone think that it would have really would have made much of a difference? I don’t… Both teams combined were 0-26 on the powerless play. Maybe the refs were saving us the agony of having to watch the Bruins and the Penguins suffer on the power play.

Here’s some numbers for you; “0” – here’s how it looks; Evgeni Malkin (0g-0a—0pts) -5 Sidney Crosby (0g-0a—0pts) -2 Jarome Iginla (0g-0a—0pts) -4. Tuukka Rask was the first goalie to have two shutouts in a series since Phiadelphia Flyers goalie Michael Leighton in 2010 Eastern Conference finals versus the Montreal Canadiens.

Now that the Boston Bruins have swept the Penguins, and they're going back to the Stanley Cup Finals - for a second time in three seasons - we can finally give the Bruins their due.

(Video) Brad Marchand and Chris Kunitz incident

Okay, I have to admit that this was a bush league move, I admit it, I am not condoning this play one bit. It's a cheap play. I don't know any Boston Bruins fan or media member that excused this play. It's unacceptable. 

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand was given a two minute minor penalty for kneeing and Pittsburgh Penguins forward Chris Kunitz was given a two minute minor for slashing.