Tomorrow marks the first meeting between the Boston Bruins and MOntreal Canadiens. We all know the type of venom that this rivalry has brought over the years, but have fisticuffs been thrown to go with said venom? We're going to look at all of the fights that have occurred last season as Boston went 4-2-0 versus the Habs. We will post the video and the results of Hockeyfights.com's results, where their viewers vote on who won the fight. I will also post who I thought won. 

October 27, 2011. 

Brad Marchand vs PK Subban

These two were chirping at each other all night. They tried to fight twice before the actual bout, but the referees kept pulling them apart. They finally drop the gloves towards the end of the second period (3:05 into the video) and Subban takes a huge swing and misses. After that, the two get some good punches in, including some uppercuts by Subban. 

Hockeyfights.com winner: 

My winner: PK Subban

October 29, 2011

Shawn Thornton vs Travis Moen

There's not much to say about this one. After a whistle for an offside call, Thornton and Moen group up and Thornton starts chirping. They throw down the gloves and both get rolled against the glass, exchanging punches. It was a pretty dull fight with Moen getting a shot or two in there before the refs separate them against the boards. 

Hockeyfights.com winner:

My winner: DRAW

February 15, 2012

Adam McQuaid vs Ryan White

It all starts with TT covering the puck and McQuaid doing what every defenseman does, skate with their opponent outside of the crease to get them away from their goaltender. The two start jawing, someone probably tells the other they smell like a donkey's asshole and the gloves come flying off. The two are grabbing and tugging at each other's jersey, but Quaider gets a few good shots in. White is able to get McQuaid's jersey off and then Darth Quaider shows up and unleashes punches. White really had no offense in this fight. 

Hockeyfights.com winner:

My winner: Adam McQuaid

And just for funsies, we can't forget this epic fight (even though it was during the 2010-2011 season): 

February 9, 2011

Tim Thomas vs Carey Price

God what a disaster this was. Carey Price could have really fucked up Tim Thomas once Thomas tried to take him down, failed and pulled off Price's jersey. Thomas somehow wiggles out of his jersey and they realize that they're goalies not named Brent Johnson and stop caring. 

Hockeyfights.com winner: 

My winner: LOL WE ALL LOST THAT DAY! 

We're gonna have to call the Bruins the Black & Blue & Gold the way the past week has gone. The Boston Bruins have announced that they've recalled center Ryan Spooner from Providence on emergency basis. He'll travel with the team tomorrow to Montreal.

From the team site:

The recall for Spooner is the first NHL regular season recall of Spooner’s career. In 35 games for the Providence Bruins this season, the 21-year-old is tied for the team lead in points with 30 with nine goals and 21 assists. Spooner has recorded 12 goals and 25 assists in 43 career AHL games. The 5’10’’, 175-pound native of Kanata, Ontario had back-to-back 60+ point seasons in the Ontario Hockey League before joining the P-Bruins, having tallied 66 points in 57 games split between Kingston and Sarnia last year, and 81 points in 64 games during the 2010-11 season split between Peterborough and Kingston.

Spooner was originally drafted by the Bruins in the second round (45th overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

Julien said earlier that Marchand is expected to play in Montreal, so this could just be a "just in case" move, or it could mean Marchand's a little more banged up than the team wants to lead on. Who knows. Worst part of these injuries is -- with the except of Thornton -- they've all been really weird/fluke incidents. Marchand got tripped up by Reimer while the Toronto goalie made a save, and Paille took a stick to the face. There was no penalty called on Pie's injury and the goal that was scored shortly after Marchand got tripped was waived off because Reimer tripping Brado was "goalie interference."

And for some dumb reason, Fluto thinks we could see an all Provy line against Montreal:

Could see all-Providence line on Wednesday: Bourque-Spooner-Tardif.

— Fluto Shinzawa (@GlobeFluto) February 4, 2013

That might be the worst idea since Pizz tried getting us to go skinny dipping in that pool with the aligator and the things...

We might get a clearer picture on what's going on with the Bruins when they practice tomorrow, or at least a hint at what lines might be if Marchand isn't ready to rumble. At the moment this is all shoulder shrugs and "wait and see" stuff.

First thing we thought of when the power went out in the Superdome was "Haha, look at all those rich motherfuckers stuck in the Superdome. Sucks, don't it?" But right after that we thought, "This has nothing on the old Boston Garden."

PuckDaddy had the same thought as they found some YouTube video from the1988 Stanley Cup Final between the Bruins and Oilers.

Man. They just don't make ice rinks like they used to. Who wouldn't want to play in the fog?

We do like this theory on who was responsibile for the Super Bowl power outage. Wonder if he was in attendance in Boston, too, in 1988?

Shawn Thornton was on the ice this morning for the first time since fighting John Scott. He didn't practice with the team but did some skating and working out before the rest of the Bruins hit the ice.

From Big Bad Blog:

Asked to clarify whether Thornton was part of the group of players potentially eligible to play Wednesday, Julien indicated that Thornton will in all likelihood be held out.

“Probably very doubtful for him, but he’s feeling very good,” Julien said. “He’s been great. He’s symptom-free for a few days now. He biked yesterday, he skated today, so things are going well but obviously there’s a protocol to follow. We’re certainly going to follow that to the letter.”

Clearly Shawn Thornton is Wolverine to come back form a concussion so fast. 

Or he didn't have a full on concussion (if that's even a thing). Twos definitely looked woosy after his bout with Scott and teams are better off playing it safe than sorry when it comes to head injuries and its players. Be it concussion or something less brutal, we're glad Thornton is feeling better and on the way back to the line-up. Fourth line looks so wrong without him.

Speaking of Fourth Line, Paille is a maybe for Wedsday. He says he's feeling better but hasn't been cleared by Docs. Rest of the battered Bruins -- included Marchand -- are expected to play against Montreal on Wednesday.

Last night was Chris Bourque's first goal as a Boston Bruin. And he paid a nice homage to his old man afterwards with the Bourque Sliding Fistpump. And thanks to the Internet, GIFs exist of both for the world to enjoy side-by-side. 

Not sure if they're the ones who made it, but we found the GIFs via the BostonBruinsGIF Tumblr account.

Old fan favorite Marco Sturm has signed with the Kolner Haie (Cologne Sharks) in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League), according to the team website.

From Google Transalte:

S/T to Marc. M for sharing this story with us.

Boom. This was exactly what the Boston Bruins needed after that shitshow against the Sabres. As Greg pointed out the team had been playing awful defense the last few games but it was vieled by wins. That Sabre's travesty was the ass kicking the team needed. So what do the Bruins do? They go up against the Maple Leafs and play strong defensive hockey, the type of hockey fans expect under Claude Julien and get their first shutout of the season.

You know it, Mr Connery.

Thanks to unfortunate injuries to Thornton and Paille, Chris Bourque gets put back into the line-up with Chris Kelly and Rich Peverly. And maybe Raymondson just needed to see the game NHL13 style. His drive to the net put him position to bank in a sweet pass from Kelly for the game's only goal. As Chris O' said (with sarcasm), it's gonna be awesome to see #48 next to #77 in the rafters.

The Chris Bourque Experiment continues, folks. Love him or hate him, it's good to see #48 and the rest of the third line producing.

The good, the bad, and the lingering questions after the jump...

Can we get one thing out of the way before I dive into this preview? Can we please stop talking about someone antoning for Shawn Thornton's injur versus John Scott? For some reason, people want to see Lucic or Chara go toe-to-toe with John Scott and my question is why? Why have one of your best (or better) players fight a guy who is in the NHL strictly to fight people? Losing Chara or Lucic for 5+ minutes (or worse if an injury is involved) certainly hurts Boston more than losing John Scott hurts the Sabres. 

Enough is enough. It wasn't a dirty play, it wasn't a cheap shot, it was a fight. Enough. Is. Enough. 

The Bruins are in Toronto, only their third away game this season. The Bruins will be missing some fourth line pieces as Danny Paille and Shawn Thornton won't be playing tonight. Instead, Boston has called up Jamie Tardiff on an emergency basis and Chris Bourque (sigh) will be back in the lineup. 

The good news today is that Boston is playing the Maple Leafs, who have just left Hockey Town with their new starting goaltender. The bad new? James van Reimsdyk is on fire. I bet Philadelphia wishes they kept him around now huh? I'm sure Luke Schenn is doing amazing things on their blue line for them. 

If Boston wants to win tonight, they need a defense to show up.. For some reason, people haven't been down on the defense this year and have chalked the loss up to Buffalo as more of a one-time thing than a seven game problem. Toronto is a fast team and speed can beat this team. Look at Gaborik, he skated up and down the ice on the Bruins defense. 

This is going to be a lite version of the preview, but I wanted to make sure that I touched on a few things. I'm not completely sold on this defensive unit yet as I talked about in the post underneath this one. Chara has not looked like Zdeno Chara so far this season. He's been out of place and his decision making as been poor at best. 

After the jump the lines and stuff...

Shawn Thornton didn't look so good after taking a beating from John Scott last night. Bruins should give Twos a fucking purple heart medal for that and everything else he's done for the team. And the Bruins are now announcing that Thornton is out for the next 7-10 days with a concussion.

From BostonBruins.com:

Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli issued the following update today, February 1, on forward Shawn Thornton: Thornton will miss the next 7-10 days due to a concussion sustained during the first period of the Bruins/Sabres game on Thursday, January 31.

Thornton has skated in seven games this season and has registered one goal and 25 penalty minutes. For his career, the 35-year-old has appeared in 457 games with 31 goals, 43 assists and 797 penalty minutes. The two-time Stanley Cup champion joined the Bruins as a free agent on July 1, 2007 and recently signed to a two-year contract extension through the 2013-14 season on March 17, 2012.

We're assuming MacDermid will stay on the Fourth Line. Maybe Paille goes back down to Merlot and Tardif to third? Or Tardif to fourth? Who the fuck knows. Krejci, Bergeron and Paille also weren't at practice today but no news on them yet.

Anyone know where we can send a "Get Well" card to the DOY Patron Saint?

Grindin' Gears is a segment I started when Justin, Jon and Robb asked me to write for DOY. It was merely a weekly thing where I could rant and rave about the Bruins and whatever happened throughout those seven days. It was well received and has remained a staple throughout the three years I've been here. If you're new to the segment, it's an unedited, uncensored look into my brain when it comes to the black and gold and sometimes the NHL in general. 

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I think I'm finally over last night's loss. In fact, I was pretty much over the loss when the horn sounded to end the game. What can you do? The "vaunted" Bruins defense looked like gar-bitch and it's not the first time they've left Tuukka Rask out to dry like he's a bedsheet. Remember the second game versus the New York Rangers? 

The Bruins defense was all over the place and not in the good way either. They were lost, making tons of mistakes and left Tuukka Rask to fend for himself. Rask was able to make some unbelievable saves against the Rangers, but faced too many 2-on-1s or breakaways and can't stop everything that comes his way. Here's a screen shot of Gaborik's first goal: 

Chara was burnt by Gaborik coming down the right side of the ice. He had no idea he was there. Boychuk had no idea that Chara was going to be above the faceoff dot and not in his position, so he took the man with the puck and Nash hit a wide open Gaborik, who waiting for Tuukka to make a move and scored. 

After the jump, the rest of the shitty defense...