Archives for April 8, 2012

‘Only in Buffalo could a team go five years without winning a single playoff series and pass it off as progress.’

‘Milan Lucic’s bulldozing of Miller and the Sabres’ lack of response to their franchise goalie getting run started a tailspin that lasted more than two months. They entered the Boston beatdown with a 10-5 record, but they won just nine of the next 33 games.’

‘The season started heading south Jan. 7. In the final 38 games of the season, Vanek scored just seven times and recorded 21 points, including two assists in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss in Boston. He had skids of seven, four and three games without a point.’

‘”I thought during this season that perhaps I should have done a few more games than I did,” said Jeanneret, who worked 39 home games and 18 road games this season. “When you pick the games at the start of the season it all looks great. Then in January I had 17 days off. I spent some of them in Florida, I spent some of them with my wife yelling at me around the house, saying ‘Why aren’t you working?’‚”‘

Bergeron gives his all in Game 82 (Boston Globe)
Figuring playoffs adds degree of difficulty (Boston Globe)
Bonus baby: Top scorer Seguin hits jackpot (Boston Globe)
B’s wrap up regular (Boston Herald)
Pouliot develops in end (Boston Herald)
Photo gallery (Boston Herald)
Bergeron leads Bruins to 4-3 win over Buffalo (Quincy Patriot Ledger)
Bruins ice Sabres; Capitals playoff opponent (Worcester Telegram and Gazette)
Adam McQuaid is Bruins question mark for playoffs (Worcester Telegram and Gazette)
Bruins wrap up regular season with shootout win over Sabres (Nashua Telegraph)
Bruins ready for playoffs to start (Nashua Telegraph)
Patrice Bergeron nets game-winner as Boston Bruins end regular season with 4-3 shootout win over Buffalo Sabres (Springfield Republican)
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin line clicking on all cylinders as Boston Bruins head into playoffs (Springfield Republican)
With playoffs coming, spotlight’s now on Seguin (Providence Journal)
B’s poised to make another Cup run (ESPN)
Tyler Seguin: ‘This Is When the Important Season Starts’ (NESN)
Bruins Optimistic Johnny Boychuk Will Be Back for Start of Playoffs, Less Certain About Adam McQuaid, Tuukka Rask (NESN)
Tyler Seguin Wins Friendly Contest with Brad Marchand for Team’s Goals, Points Lead (NESN)
Bruins Will Open Cup Defense Against Capitals But Are Focused More on Own Game Heading into Playoffs (NESN)
Rally sends B’s to playoffs on winning note (CSN New England)
15 Thoughts: Bruins-Sabres (CSN New England)
Seguin youngest to lead B’s in scoring (CSN New England)
Bruins will host Caps in playoffs (CSN New England)
Bruins in perfect position for playoffs (CSN New England)
Rested Thomas ready for playoff run (CSN New England)
Bruins Chomping at the Bit (BostonBruins.com)
Bruins, Capitals Set to Battle in First Round of the Playoffs (BostonBruins.com)
Bruins, Seguin Wins B’s Scoring Race (BostonBruins.com)
Photo gallery (BostonBruins.com)
Photo gallery (Sabres.com)
Photo gallery (AP)

‘Brad Boyes scored twice for the Sabres, who finished with 88 points—two behind the Capitals, who had one game to play.’

‘Boston erased a 3-1 deficit in the third period with goals from Tyler Seguin — his second of the game — and Brad Marchand 2:25 apart.’

‘Boston would not go down quietly, however, as Seguin’s 2nd of the game cut the deficit to a goal about one minute after Pominville scored. About two and a half minutes later, Brad Marchand shoveled a shot past Enroth to tie the score 3-3. The two sides skated to a scoreless overtime before Patrice Bergeron notched the lone shootout goal to lift Boston to victory.’

‘Last season the Sabres went on this big run and got away with it, no team in NHL history has done it two years in a row and the Sabres won’t be the first. Thomas Vanek said it best, “We’re here to lead this team and we failed. I needed to be one of the guys that needed to keep going and be a leader and I didn’t.”’

‘“It’s frustrating, it sucks any word you can find it’s out there. I think the standards have to be higher around here, we have to find a way to be better. It’s unacceptable to be out in the position that we’re in right now and disappointing we came up short.” Pominville added, “We gave ourselves a chance, we lost a game in a tough way where we had the lead and ended up losing, but you can look at that game or you can look at games earlier on in the season. We’re probably going to pinpoint the one in Philly, but I don’t know if it’s fair to say because we win a couple of those games early on and we’re not even in this position and we’re not on the outside looking in.”’