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June Issue Highlights

Inside the Den Blog

All year round New England Hockey Journal and hockeyjournal.com editor Matt Kalman never rests and always takes you behind the scenes with the B's. Kalman can be reached at editor@hockeyjournal.com.

Catching up with Peter
Thursday, May 10 | 9:00 p.m.

I caught up with Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli during the Providence-Manchester game Wednesday night and touched base with him on a few issues:

•Chiarelli said he's had some brief talks with the agents for potential unrestricted free agents Bobby Allen, Petr Tenkrat, Jeremy Reich and Jeff Hoggan. Although he has them prioritized in his mind, he won't reveal his preference for which ones will get signed before July 1.

•As for the two restricted free agents, Andrew Alberts and Brandon Bochenski, Chiarelli said when the World Championships are over, he'll look into signing both to deals beyond the required qualifying offers.

•Negotiations continue with 2004 seventh-round pick Matt Hunwick, formerly of the University of Michigan. The B's have until Aug. 15 to sign him or he'll become a UFA.

•After undergoing knee surger after the season ended, winger Stanislav Chistov is going through an "aggressive rehab" routine in an effort to get ready for the regular season. He's currently back home in Moscow.

Here's some more news and notes from the NHL and beyond:

•Super rookie Phil Kessel had two assists but failed on two shootout attempts in a 5-4 Team USA loss to Finland in the quarterfinal round of the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Moscow. I guess Kessel's shootout magic doesn't extend to international competition. B's winger Brandon Bochenski added an assist.

“I felt tonight was the best game our team has played in the tournament,” said head coach of Team USA and former B's bench boss Mike Sullivan in a statement. “We played with a lot of heart, but losing in a shootout is a tough way to end a game. I’m proud of our effort throughout the tournament and thought we represented our country extremely well.”

•Jim Gintonio of the Arizona Republic says B's assistant general manager Jeff Gorton will interview for the Phoenix Coyotes' GM job this week.

•Read this ESPN.com piece by George Johnson and tell me you don't want the B's to ante up for J.S. Giguere.

•B's prospect Milan Lucic scored twice in Vancouver's 4-0 win over Medicine Hat in Game Four of the WHL championship series. Fellow B's draft pick Wacey Rabbit added an assist. With the series tied at two games apiece, the two teams will meet again Friday.

•With the B's picking eighth in next month's draft, it never hurts to look at the ISS draft rankings. The final top 10 came out today, and London's Patrick Kane was on top. In order from second to 10th, the next players down the list were UNH recruit James Van Riemsdyk, Burnaby's Kyle Turris, Russia's Alexei Cherepanov, Halifax's Jakub Voracek, Calgary's Karl Azner and Sam Gagner, Russian Maxim Mayorov, Kamloops' Keaton Ellerby and Mikael Backlund.

•Well, B's prospect Brad Marchand won't be playing in the Memorial Cup after his Val-d'Or club lost in four straight games to Lewiston for the QMJHL title. But the forward held his own, leading all scorers in the league with 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists) in 20 playoff contests.

Lewis breaks it down
Wednesday, May 9 | 3:01 p.m.

As head coach of the Bruins, Dave Lewis faced the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres eight times apiece. The B's were 2-5-1 against Buffalo, and 4-40 vs. Ottwawa.

I caught up with the B's bench boss today at his home in Michigan to talk about the Eastern Conference finals, which start Thursday in Buffalo.

“Well, they’re both very high-skilled teams with obviously high expectations," Lewis said. "This year, Buffalo is going through the playoffs relatively injury free as compared to last season. And they can beat you a lot of different ways, as can Ottawa, with the balanced scoring that they’ve got from their third- and fourth-line players. It’s going to be an entertaining, dynamic, exciting season, I would have to believe.”

Lewis pointed to stopping the Ottawa top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza as a key for Buffalo after New Jersey failed to do so. He also pointed at how well Alfredsson and Buffalo's Chris Drury have played and led in these playoffs.

As for getting some ideas for stopping his powerful division rivals in 2007-08, Lewis said he took some things from a game he attended, Game Four between Buffalo and the Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

“The Rangers did a pretty efficient job in the neutral zone, for that particular game," Lewis said. "They ended up winning it 2-1. And that was the one thing that I noticed and respected the Rangers doing. And both teams, how well they got in front of shots and blocked shots, it was obviously a very physical, emotional game for both teams.”

As for the West, Lewis obviously has a slight rooting interest with the team from Motown. While expecting another great series, Lewis said the only concern about Anaheim is that when the Ducks take the ice Friday night for Game One they will have had seven days off.

“If you’re Anaheim, you worry about the layoff as much as being healthy – you worry about your timing, pace and things like that," Lewis said. "That’s one thing that I know, you worry about that as a coach or a player because you lose just a little edge.”

•Phil Kessel, Brandon Bochenski, Andrew Alberts and the rest of Team USA will face Finland in the quarterfinals of the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Moscow Thursday. Kessel's recorded 2-3-5 totals in six games, while Bochenski has put up four points (two goals, two assists) and Alberts has one assist and a plus-2 rating.

In other World Championship news related to the B's, winger Petr Tenkrat and the Czech Republic were ousted, 4-0, in a quarterfinal game today. Tenkrat didn't record a shot on net and was a minus-1 in the loss. For the tournament, the winger scored one goal in seven games and was a minus-1.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara and Slovakia fell to Sweden, 7-4. Chara fired three shots on net and was a minus-1. In seven games, Chara finished with 3-1-4 totals and plus-4 rating.

•Neither Wacey Rabbit nor Milan Lucic, two of the B's brightest rising stars, recorded a point in Vancouver's 3-2 loss to Medicine Hat in Tuesday night's Game 3 of the WHL finals. The Giants still lead the series, two games to one, heading into Wednesday night's Game 4.

•Brad Marchand, another "future Bruin" put two assists on the score sheet but it didn't help Val-d'Or in a 5-3 loss to Lewiston in Game 3 of the President Cup Tuesday. The Maineiacs now lead the series, three games to none.

•The B's won't have to deal with Montreal forward Alexander Perezhogin anymore, according to The Gazette. Perezhogin posted 1-1-2 totals in four games against Boston last year.

Ready for the quarters
Monday, May 7 | 6:34 p.m.

Team USA will start quarterfinal play at the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Moscow Thursday against Finland. But the U.S. lost its last tune-up before the playoff round, 6-3, to Canada today.

Neither Phil Kessel nor Brandon Bochenski scored, although they did combine for nine shots on net.

Zdeno Chara and Slovakia will face Sweden and Petr Tenkrat and the Czech Republic will square off with Russia in other quarterfinal action Wednesday.

Faith in Toivonen
Sunday, May 6 | 6:09 p.m.

During the teleconference to annonce the Bruins' signing of Tuukka Rask, general manager Peter Chiarelli said he's seen positive signs from his other Finnish phenom, Hannu Toivonen, during the AHL playoffs.

“He’s played well. He’s a large part of the reason they are where they are, as we’ve had a lot of injuries down there," Chiarelli said. "He had a little bit of a bumpy start. But really, I think from Game Four on in the first series … he’s been quite strong. I read one of his quotes the other day, and he’s feeling more confident. You can see that in his game, he’s got a bit of a swagger. So Hannu’s been doing quite well down there.”

For those worried Chiarelli might be committed to going with Rask, Toivonen and Tim Thomas next season without considering other options (as in, No. 1 goaltenders like J.S. Giguere), have no fear. Chiarelli said the club's vision of the future in the crease is flexible.

“We have a plan in place," he said. "We might tweak that plan before the draft and we might tweak it again come free agency period. But we have a plan in place, we’ve got some goaltenders in place, but we’re certainly going to look at it as little more closely as the offseason progresses.”

•B's prospect Milan Lucic scored a goal in Vancouver's 3-2 loss to Medicine Hat in Game Two of the WHL finals Saturday. The series is now tied at one game apiece. Lucic and fellow "future Bruin" Wacey Rabbit were both minus-1 for the Giants. Game Three is Tuesday in Vancouver.

Rask in the mix
Saturday, May 5 | 6:55 p.m.

Well, the future of the Bruins' goaltending just got a whole lot closer.

Today, B's general manager Peter Chiarelli announced a multi-year entry-level deal with the club's top prospect Tuukka Rask. The team also announced he's headed for North America and will join the Providence Bruins for the duration of their AHL playoff run.

The 20-year-old goaltender recently finished his season with Ilves Tampere with a .928 save percentage and 2.38 goals-against average.

A 2005 first-round pick of Toronto, Rask was acquired on last June's draft day for Andrew Raycroft.

Rask will reportedly address the media some time on Sunday.

“He’s calm and he’s cool in the net," B's Director of Amateur Scouting Scott Bradley told me earlier this week. "And his save percentage has always been good – on a team that was just so-so. So he carried a lot of the load.”

•Speaking of prospects, the fruits of Bradley and his staff's labors are blooming. Wacey Rabbit scored the only goal Friday night in the Vancouver Giants' 1-0 Game One win over Medicine Hat in the WHL finals Friday night. And although he was held off the scoreboard Friday, Brad Marchand has led all QMJHL scorers during the playoffs.

"It's kind of interesting to follow because the kids in Junior, some of them have had a good year. ... It's nice. There's a long ways to go, but it's nice to see," said Bradley.

As for preparing for this year's draft, Bradley said: (We're) just getting all the T's crossed and the I's dotted, and stuff like that. Just prepping."

•B's assistant general manager Jeff Gorton was a guest on the New England Hockey Journal radio show this morning, and he said that in addition to negotiations with Rask, the B's are also hoping to get deals done with Mikko Lehtonen and Vladimir Sobotka. Also, the B's are pursuing a deal with Providence revelation Sean Bentivoglio, a free agent signee out of Niagara who's popped in eight points through nine playoff games with the P-Bruins.

•No B's contributed today, but Team USA prevailed again, 3-0 — this time over Germany at the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Moscow. The U.S., which clinched a berth in the quarterfinals, will face Canada on Monday in the last game of qualifying play.

Every day's Earth Day
Thursday, May 3 | 4:50 p.m.

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference isn't shy about his environmentalistic thoughts and his interest in preventing global warming from proceeding.

Two weeks ago, he got to rub elbows with one of North America's more prominent experts on global warming — former U.S. vice president Al Gore.

Gore ventured up to Calgary to present his famous slide show (the one from "An Inconvenient Truth") at the invitation of the ENMAX power company. After the 2 1/2-hour presentation, which was tweaked to relate to the oil-rich province of Alberta, Gore held a brief meet-and-greet with the crowd.

“He was speaking to a fairly mixed crowd of environmentalists and billionaire oil men – quite the interesting collage of people," Ference told me today when reached in British Columbia.

Ference has been "going green" for a number of years now, as most of you already know from reading my Boston Sports Review feature. This year he even got the entire Calgary Flames team to go carbon neutral. He hasn't been shy about spreading the word throughout the league.

“I’m able to poke my nose into more business than I probably should," he admitted. "So I get to talk a lot with different guys in the NHL that I got to know through business rep meetings and league meetings. And the NHLPA, that’s my union, so I get to speak up as much and they can’t shut me up.”

Ference has even received some feedback from folks on the other side of the aisle.

“I actually talked to Ed Horne (president of NHL Enterprises). He’s been awesome," said Ference. "They’re very keen. He himself admitted he’s starting to wake up to it. And he knows we have to do something and it’s just a matter of combining our brain power and coming up with the best way.”

Going forward, maybe the entire NHL will go carbon neutral. Maybe those high-tech light shows that use so much power will be toned down. Or maybe enough fans will be influenced to make a difference. No matter what, the word is obviously spreading about "going green" and Ference is at the forefront of the education campaign.

“It’s getting to the point now where the science is so conclusive – something is going on and we’re causing it. I think that the science is still definitely developing itself as far as what we actually do to reverse it," he said. "There’s the obvious things … and I think the general public can see now, without a doubt, this was a pretty crazy winter, last summer was a little weird, spring was a little weird. Everybody around the world has had some crazy weather. You can hear from scientists all you want that such and such is going on, but until it his you in your back yard and you see some crazy stuff that’s happening in your lifetime, that’s when it really hits home.”

Ference's offseason isn't all about environmentalism. Later this summer he'll complete his move to the Boston area. And in late June he'll head to Tanzania with Right to Play, "an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world."

Pittsburgh tough guy Georges Laraque has agreed to join Ference, who said he's hoping at least one other NHLer will make the trip.

•On the ice, a couple of B's had a great day in Moscow today. Phil Kessel and Brandon Bochenski both notched a goal and an assist in a 4-2 Team USA win over Slovakia in the first qualification-round game for both clubs at the IIHF World Championship.

The U.S. will next face Germany on Saturday.

In the loss, B's blueliner Zdeno Chara notched a goal, while Andrew Alberts recorded an assist in the victory.

Germany, meanwhile, upset the Czech Republic, 2-0, today. B's winger Petr Tenkrat did nothing to crack the stats sheet.

Grudge match coming
Wednesday May 2 | 10:43 p.m.

Defenseman Zdeno Chara was a plus-1 but didn't register any points in Slovakia's 5-4 loss to Canada at the World Championship in Moscow today. Former B's blueliner Milan Jurcina scored a goal in the loss. Next up for Slovakia, a Thursday qualifying round match-up with the U.S. — a chance for Phil Kessel to put some of his practice moves against Chara to good use.

•Versus is holding an online poll to determine the best playoff moment in NHL history. Bobby Orr's Cup-winning overtime goal was sixth among 15 candidates as of earlier this week.

Early lead
Tuesday, May 1 | 10:08 p.m.

Well, it seems facing two elimination games was all the Providence Bruins needed to get them on track.

Once down three games to two in their opening-round series with Hartford, the P-Bruins are now up one game to none on top-seed Manchester after a 6-3 win tonight in the Atlantic Division finals.

Pascal Pelletier scored twice and David Krejci added three assists for Providence. Game Two is scheduled for Wednesday night, and hockeyjournal.com will have complete coverage from Manchester.

•Among those cheering on the P-Bruins Tuesday night was assistant general manager Jeff Gorton. When reached at his office this afternoon, Gorton said he's fully entrenched in the AHL playoffs right now — sort of the calm before the storm before draft preparations kick into gear.

"It's pretty quiet. At the end of this month, we'll head to Toronto for the combine and do our interviewing process. And after that we'll do our meetings to compile our lists," said Gorton. "More right now, there's a few teams left playing, a few guys left for the draft — particularly in the USHL — but for the most part, it's down to video analysis and making the calls to coaches and character references and stuff like that."

•No Bruins made the NHL's finalists list for postseason awards. But former B's forward Sami Pahlsson was a Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward) finalist.

•Team USA didn't fare as well as Providence, as it fell, 4-3, to the Czech Republic in Moscow. B's winger Petr Tenkrat registered a goal for the victors. Phil Kessel notched two assists in the loss.

The U.S. is 2-0-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) heading into the qualification round.

•Good news from the Junior ranks, where Milan Lucic was named Boston Pizza WHL Player of the Week last week. The Vancouver Giants forward, drafted by the B's in the second round last June, registered one goal and five assists, as the Giants captured the Kal Tire Western Conference Championship. Vancouver will now face Medicine Hat for the league title starting Friday.

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