When the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins get together, you know the players are going to bring a little something extra—and so do the fans.
But sometimes with emotions running high, lines inevitably get crossed. Such was the case during the Bruins’ 4-3 shootout win over the Habs Wednesday night. In what appeared to be a frightening incident, the Bell Centre crowd stood and passionately cheered when Bruins captain Zdeno Chara was face down on the ice after being hit in the throat by a puck fired off the stick of Tomas Plekanec.
He may have been born in Sweden, but for Maple Leafs fans, Mats Sundin is as Canadian as they come.
The team’s career scoring leader will be honored before the Leafs-Candiens game Saturday night when they raise his No. 13 jersey to the rafters of the Air Canada Centre.
“To have my sweater honored, up there with Darryl Sittler and Doug Gilmour, Borje Salming and Johnny Bower, that’s awesome. It’s going to be very emotional for me.’’
Sundin will be the 18th player to have a banner raised in his honor by the Maple Leafs.
The NHL’s Winter Classic is a hockey spectacle that has grown bigger each season of its five-year existence.
It won’t get much bigger than 2013.
The NHL announced Thursday that the next stop for the Jan. 1 outdoor game will be at Michigan Stadium, home of the Michigan Wolverines, with an incredible 115,000 tickets that will be available for fans.
Adding to the mystique of the New Year’s Day game at “The Big House” will be the two Original Six franchises participating in the game—the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings.
From the video above, we can learn three things that don’t go mix together well: silly string, a mascot and a disgruntled Boston Bruins fan.
However, as a result of the footage captured of said Bruins fan taking umbrage with Tampa Bay Lightning mascot ThunderBug and her silly string antics, she—yes, she—has become a cult hero and a YouTube sensation.
Apparently, the Boston fan who hit ThunderBug from behind during the Jan 17 Lightning-Bruins game was taken away by ushers but later returned to his seat. No harm, no foul.
Thanks to President Barack Obama, Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand has a new nickname. You can now refer to him as “The Little Ball of Hate.”
The Boston Bruins visited the White House on Monday in honor of their Stanley Cup championship in June, and Marchand stole the show.
“Brad Marchand went into the season playing on the fourth line, but ‘The Little Ball of Hate’—What’s up with that nickname?—scored five goals in the last five games of the series,” Obama said to the laughter of some of the politicians and others in attendance.
Every good captain needs an assistant, and that’s why Toronto Maple Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul and New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist have been named assistant captains for the 2012 NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa.
Lundqvist will join the team of captain Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators, while Lupul will be part of the team led by captain Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins.
Thanks to some amazing chemistry with Phil Kessel, Lupul is enjoying the best season of his eight-year NHL career. He currently ranks fourth among all League scorers with 51 points (20 goals, 31 assists) in 46 games.
With all of the love that Ottawa Senators fans showed for their team through the voting process for the 2012 NHL All-Star Game—they singly-handedly voted in five Sens players—it’s only fitting that the most popular Senator, Daniel Alfredsson, would be named teamed captain.
The other team captain is none other than “the Big Z,” Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.
Alfredsson and Chara were teammates for four seasons in Ottawa (2001-02 to 2005-06), and they have both had terrific seasons thus far.
With the NHL trade deadline just about a month away, more and more rumors are beginning to surface regarding some key players. However, due to the fact that the standings are so tight right now in both conferences, we may not see much activity until the final weeks leading up to the Feb. 27 deadline. Nevertheless, here are some of the names that are currently linked to various rumors—some of which may actually be true.
James van Riemsdyk and Luke Schenn
This rumor started running wild last week when a report came out of Philadelphia claiming Flyers director of player personnel Don Luce scouted the Leafs in recent games.
Thursday night began probably like almost every other game night for Montreal Canadiens forward Mike Cammalleri. However, midway through the second period of the Habs’ game against Eastern Conference rival Boston Bruins, Cammalleri felt a tap on his shoulder and was told to head back to the dressing room and that there would be a cab waiting for him outside to take him back to the team’s hotel in Boston.
Hockey fans across North America have had Jan. 7 circled on their calendars since the release of the 2011-12 NHL schedule.
That’s because the much-anticipated date marked the first meeting between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins since their emotional seven-game Stanley Cup Final series from last season.
And while the Bruins took home the Cup last season, it was the Canucks who were victorious today, holding the B’s off to secure a 4-3 win.
