Video of Tom Sestito hits on Steven Kampfer and on Nathan Horton

Tom Sestito is a known for his ability to rack up penalty minutes, today Sestito put two questionable hits on two Boston Bruin's players, both Bruins players were hit a long time after they had gotten rid of the puck.

Tom Sestito's questionable, late hit on Nathan Horton was the reason Horton had to miss the rest of the hockey game. Here is what Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julian had to say on the hit.

"He was kept out for the obvious [reasons]," Bruins coach Claude Julien said after the game. "It was kind of a head injury. He's just being reevaluated right now. That's basically all we know and that's as far as we've gone with the evaluation." [NESN.COM]

It would not be an understatement to say that this was a nasty game and there were three fights and a six fighting majors handed out during today's game. Milan Lucic worked over Tom Sestito at the 01:24 mark of the first period.

Shawn Thornton penalty shot goal

The days of the one dimensional tough guys that play five minutes a game and get into to a fight or two are becoming extinct and soon could be no longer needed, the tough guys of the future are going to need to fight as well as score goals and contribute in the score sheet. Check out this move, that's the second goal in the last four games for the Boston Bruins tough guy. Thornton was an assist away from having the Gordy Howe hat trick.

Benoit Pouliot scores a highlight goal against the Panthers

Check out this goal by Bruins forward Benoit Pouliot, some are saying it's will be a candidate for goal of the year. Pouliot was signed as a free agent by the Bruins in the off season and had to fight to stay in the line up. Pouliot has started to catch fired the last month and has points in four of his last five games. Pouliot-Zach has been playing on a line with Richard Peverley and Chris Kelly.

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Brad Marchand has a nose for the net

This is a perfect example of what happens when your team plays a solid, relentless fore check in the offensive zone, the Boston Bruins are a very good team on the fore check in the offensive zone. Nice goal by Bruins forward Brad Marchand but you can't discount the effort from Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron

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Hey Seguin set your alarm clock.

Image via WikipediaForward Tyler Seguin (13g-12a—25pts) is the future of the Boston Bruins and is the leading scorer for the Bruins so far this season and he leads the Bruins second leading scorer Milan Lucic by 5 points.

Boston Herald --- “He missed a team breakfast and a team meeting this morning,” said GM Peter Chiarelli, explaining Seguin’s absence from the lineup vs. the Jets. “He didn’t wake up. Honest mistake. But we have team rules. We abide by them. He has to abide by them. So that’s the reason for his scratch.”

The Bruins flew from Pittsburgh late Monday night, arriving at their Winnipeg hotel at around 2 a.m. today. Chiarelli said this was not the first time Seguin has broken such team rules.

“He’s had a couple of instances before,” said the GM. “I don’t see it as a problem. I see it as a young player who sometimes forgets to set his alarm. We gave him a couple of passes (in the past). It’s a young kid who’s learning to be a pro — and is a heck of a player.”

That being said it’s time to grow up and get to the meetings when you’re supposed to, a mandatory meeting means that everyone needs to show up. I also think it’s time for some of his teammates to make sure that he doesn’t miss anymore meetings.

Milan Lucic runs over Ryan Miller

Wow!!! Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic absolutely mowed over the Sabres all-world goalie Ryan Miller. To quote Andy Brickley, "just because the goaltender is out of net doesn't make him fair game." Brick also said, "that's a penalty you don't mind killing as a player." What concerns me more is the reaction from Ryan Miller, if he had made contact with that big goalie stick he could have been looking at a suspension.

Bruins set up to repeat?

Locker Smash

In looking at the Boston Bruins roster for next season, one could make the argument that the Boston Bruins are set up to make another run at the Stanley Cup... The Boston Bruins are going to have most of their team back from this past season. Also, unlike the Chicago Blackhawks the Boston Bruins don’t “salary cap” issues. There will not be a fire sale to start the season off.

Scott Cullen; TSN --- After winning their first Stanley Cup since 1972, the Boston Bruins don't need a whole lot more good news, but they have some nevertheless.

Off-Season Game Plan looks at the Bruins' roster and what GM Peter Chiarelli might do to give the Bruins a shot at back-to-back titles.

The good news for the Bruins, unlike the 2010-champion Chicago Blackhawks, is that the Bruins are in a favourable financial position with respect to the salary cap.

Through Chiarelli's savvy, the Bruins should not only have the room to bring back any or all of the players from their championship team, they should still have the wherewithal to address some needs.

Of course, coming off a Stanley Cup win, it's not like the Bruins have massive holes to fill.

They could use more skilled offensive players, whether on the wing or on defence, in the hopes that might help fix a power play that was an albatross down the stretch and throughout the playoffs. It's almost unbelievable that the Bruins could win the Stanley Cup tournament while struggling for so long with the man advantage, yet that actually happened.

A factor that is already in the Bruins' favour is that they have room for internal improvement, with young players like Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin the most likely to play more significant roles going forward

Mind's a Messin': Redwing77's Psychology Musings

Watching the Playoffs this year, listening to friends talk about the aftermath of games, and reading content got me thinking: We talk about the intangibles of hockey but what about the psychology?

The Finals this year reminds me a LOT of the Blackhawks vs. Canucks tilt from last year's playoffs.

Let me take you back... Then Hawk Dustin Byfuglien (IMO one of the most underrated players in the NHL) quite literally and almost single-handedly obliterated the Canucks game plan on multiple nights by simply getting them so enraged that their game plan was to basically head hunt Byfuglien (without actually hitting him in the head). This took the Canucks so off kilter that the Hawks won the game.

Right now, right or wrong/good or bad, the Canucks are doing the same thing to the Bruins. True, statistically the series still has been pretty even. True, the gripes about the Canucks methods of doing so have been merited. However, the job of the Bruins isn't to point out the cheap play of certain players. It isn't their job to go after the players either. It's their job to look at their opponents tendencies and make a game plan that expects those tendencies that still affords the Bruins the opportunity to win.

Coming into the Finals, the Bruins should have already known the following things:

1. The Canucks are a fast, great skating team
2. The Canucks are solid fundamentally
3. The Luongo of old has only temporarily shown up, but never for long enough to kill his team's chances.
4. The Canucks have been diving and getting away with it all Playoffs long
5. The Canucks aren't afraid of taking pages out of the Penguins and Blackhawks books. Penguins book- cheap hits, borderline on ice tactics. Hawks book - Aggravation, instigation, and getting under the skin of their opposition
6. They are a momentum team. The only way to beat them is to get them to lose their momentum.
7. They are a balanced team with pressure on them but only at the top. The media is swooning over the Sedins but that takes the spotlight off of players like Bieksa and so on.

Look, I'm no fan of Burrows or Bieksa, but you have to acknowledge that they've had a pretty good playoff run. I'd argue they've been more effective than the Sedins.

The flaw that the Bruin's face is that they are relying too heavily on Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara to bail them out when the likes of Burrows and Bieksa get under their skin. And that's not working. The Bruins aren't out of it yet, but if they lose one game in Boston, they will be.

Game 3 and 4 are must wins for the B's if they expect to win. With 3 wins under the Canucks' belt, winning 1 of the next 4 should be almost a sure thing.

I'm looking at Dennis Seidenberg, Patrice Bergeron, and either Michael Ryder or Rich Peverley to step up. Tyler Seguin is a rookie and, though immensely talented, relying upon him would be a recipe for disaster.

I still have the Bruins in 7 but Game 3 will tell a lot about the possibility of there even being a Game 7.

Tim Thomas takes puck off the noggin, puck ends up in net.

All I can say is ouch, at first thought that the play should have been stopped because Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas had his masked knocked off of his head, however, it does appear that the refs made the right call according to the rulebook.

9.5 Protective Equipment - When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and his team has possession of the puck, the play shall be stopped immediately to allow the goalkeeper the opportunity to regain his helmet and/or face mask. When the opposing team has possession of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity. This stoppage of play must be made by the Referee. When play is stopped because the goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask, the ensuing face-off shall take place at one of the defending team’s end zone face-off spots.

Again; why was Bruin's rookie Tyler Seguin not playing in the first two rounds?

Boston Bruins rookie Tyler Seguin missed the first 11 games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs because he was said to be a defensive liability, but made up for the absence tonight with two goals and two assists during the second period of Tuesday's 6-5 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins. The four points in the second period by Tyler Seguin tied a Boston Bruin’s/NHL playoff record for points in a period.

USA Today --- Seguin's four points in a period tied the NHL playoff record held by many players, including three other Bruins. Barry Pederson did it in 1982 against the Buffalo Sabres, followed by Peter McNab in 1982 against Buffalo and by Ken Linseman against the Montreal Canadiens in 1985.

In two games that Tyler Seguin has played in, Seguin has amassed (3g-3a-6pts) that's one more point than first line winger and the Boston Bruins regular season leading goal scorer Bruins tough guy Milan Lucic (2g-3a-5pts) again, why wasn't this kid playing in the first two rounds. The $64,000.00 question is who are the Bruins going to sit when Patrice Bergeron returns from his mild concussion? I would say that Daniel Paille, Shawn Thornton or Greg Campbell will be sitting for the Bruins all have basically been useless during the playoffs so far for the Boston Bruins.

Why isn't Tyler Seguin playing more for the Boston Bruins.

I think it's fair to ask after watching this goal why isn't the Bruins rookie Tyler Seguin playing more for the Boston Bruins? The kid played about nine and a half minutes and racked up (1g-1a-2pts) in his first game in over a month. I think maybe it's time for the Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien to re-evaluate his decision to not play Tyler Seguin the first 11 games of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Thank You Kessel

ota

Image courtesy of NESN

Since it Sioux versus Gophers week and Hockey Bias said the Grand Forks vitriol amping up with Gophers heading to town; I thought I would throw some more gas on the fire… Check out this picture of a thank you Phil Kessel jersey. Phil Kessel played for both Gophers for a minute year and his last game was the historic Holy Cross game at the REA. After his one year in Minnesota the young Kessel signed with the Boston Bruins and played there for three more season before he was traded out of town to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a couple of first round draft picks. With the Toronto Maple Leafs being proverbial doormats again this season and with the Boston Bruins holding the Toronto Maple Leafs first round draft choice, its very possible that the Bruins will get another play of Tyler Seguin’s caliber.

Sources: Bruins, Seguin agree on deal

Pretty much a formality under the new CBA, Seguin can't get more than the Rookie max. Now the Boston Bruins have to figure out their salary cap issues because they are now about roughly 3 million over the salary cap but could place Marco Sturm on long-term injured reserve to make some room and get under the salary cap. There has also been some talk about sending Michael Ryder to Providence to free up about 4 million in cap space.

Sources confirmed to ESPNBoston.com on Tuesday morning that the Boston Bruins and Tyler Seguin, the second overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, have agreed to an entry-level contract.

Terms of the deal were not immediately available, but the belief is that it will be similar to the three-year entry-level deal that top pick Taylor Hall signed with the Oilers last month. That contract includes the maximum base salary of $900,000 per season and bonuses that could max out at $3.75 million annually.

The Bruins are expected to announce the deal by the end of this week.

Seguin, a 6-foot-1, 172-pound forward, played the past two seasons with the Plymouth Whalers in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). In 2009-2010 Seguin led the OHL in scoring, sharing the title with Hall, after notching 48 goals and 58 assists for 106 points in 63 games. [ESPN.COM]

Tyler Seguin Bruins first pick in the 2010 NHL Draft?

This is the player the Boston Bruins will probably select in the 2010 NHL draft in a week. The Bruins have the Toronto Maple Leaf's first round draft choice they got in the Phil Kessel trade from last summer.