It's official, Carl Soderberg's team Linkopings HC is out of the SEL Playoffs, losing the series 4-1. That means Soderberg's free to come over to the NHL and play for the Boston Bruins... kinda.

There are still a few hurdles. The Bruins and Soderberg's agent need to work out a contract. The SEL and Linkopings also need to sign off on releasing Soderberg to come cross the Atlantic for greener pastures. But it's the most optimistic either side has been about him heading over to the NHL.

And for those wondering, Soderberg is eligible for the NHL Playoffs. Chiarelii had him on the reserved roster (or whatever the name of it is) so Carl can join the team at any time and be playoff ready.

And as the Bruins get healthy bodies back their roster is going to look mighty crowded:

IF the Bruins sign Soderberg and IF Bergeron is healthy for the postseason, Daugavins, Pandolfo, Thornton could all be healthy scratches.

— Mike Miccoli (@MikeMiccoli) April 5, 2013

We love us some Shawn Thornton but it'd be hard to find him a slot with all the guys on the roster. Seriously. Possible line combos if everyone is healthy?

Lucic-Krejci-Jagr
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Soderberg-Peverley-Horton
Paille-Kelly-Campbell

...Or.... 

Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Soderberg-Peverley-Jagr
Paille-Kelly-Campbell

Except for the first line that's two centers per line which is great for face off reasons in the playoffs. Holy smokes. That's a pretty deep team right there. Even the third line looks like a killer.

Man. We haven't been this excited since Jagrection

WARNING: WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO READ IS BASICALLY ME JIZZING MY PANTS OVER LAST NIGHT'S GAME. LETS FACE IT, IT WAS PROBABLY AS PERFECT OF A GAME THAT THE BRUINS COULD HAVE PLAYED OUTSIDE OF THE FIRST PERIOD. IF YOU WANTED ME TO DESCRIBE THIS RECAP WITH JUST ONE .GIF, IT WOULD BE THIS ONE: 

Man, what a game this was. Is there anything better that you can ask for Jagr's first game in Boston? He scores a goal - the game winning goal - and Tuukka Rask stands on his head to produce a shutout. If you look past the Jagr goal, it was a pretty quiet game but Rask was amazing in net. 

Hopefully his play tonight shuts everyone up about comparing him and Khudobin because its evident that while Khudobin is a great goaltender, Rask is the number one guy around here. 

It's weird that after a good win like this there isn't much to gush about. Rask and Jagr were the main story tonight. In the first period, the team looked like a sloppy dump and got outplayed by New Jersey. They were left scrambling for their lives while Rask was cool and collected. 

Fuck it let's get through this preview...

ESPN's Joey Mac tweeted the first confirmed images of Jaromir Jagr in a Boston Bruins uniform:

And guess who he's playing with?

Jagr taking rushes with Seguin and Marchand...^CS

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 4, 2013

Jesus Christ I think I have a huge boner right now. 

And now with that, I feel like I should tell the people to temper their expectations for tonight's game. I've seen some people saying Jagr is scoring a hat trick tonight and then is going to pull out a missile and blow up the CEC and then restore faith in North Korea, so let's take it one game at a time. If he doesn't score tonight - it's not the end of the world and if he does score tonight, don't think it's going to happen every game. 

That's the funny thing with Boston fans. It's always one extreme or the other. Jagr looks like shit tonight and people will be screaming at Chiarelli for making the trade because suddenly Lane MacDermid and some kid on the CHL are world beaters. I like Lane MacDermid and I thought he would've been Shawn Thornton's heir apparent but oh well. You move an AHLer and some guy you never heard of for a future Hall of Fame player that will boost your offense. It's a fucking no brainer. 

Then you have people complaining about Chiarelli getting Wade Redden. Yes, Wade Redden. Honestly, I'll be shocked if Wade Redden plays for the Bruins. With Bartkowski playing a lot better lately, I think Wade will be the healthy scratch and rotated throughout the season to give guys rest. Look, I'm probably the harshest Boston critic you'll find. I'm your stereotypical negative Boston fan 90% of the time, but I think Chiarelli did what he could do at the trade deadline. What do you want him to do? 

Is defense a problem? Yup, but it's not like there was much out there to acquire in terms of defensemen. Douglas Murray? Is Douglas Murray - nature's vending machine - going to solve the problems here? No and he's not worth the two second round picks Pittsburgh gave up for him. Robyn Regehr is probably the only real name that moved defensively and he cost two second round picks - so if you got him you're definitely giving Dallas a 1st round pick for Jagr. It's not like Keith Yandle was moved. Hell, Edmonton didn't even trade Ryan Whitney and the management there seems to hate his fucking guts. 

So yeah - to the game tonight. I expect this to be the usual close game vs New Jersey. The only caveat is that Ilya Kovalchuk is out and because of it - Hew Jersey's offensive production has taken a huge dip. New Jersey is currently 25th in the NHl in goals per game at 2.42 and their power play is weaker, sitting at 18th with a 17% success rate. Defensively New Jersey is average sitting at 15th overall allowing 2.61 goals per game and have killed 79% of their penalties - good for 20th in the league. 

Basically you're looking at a team that's free falling. They're barely hanging onto 8th place in the Eastern Conference (tied with the Islanders with 39 points) and while the Islanders seem to be surging (won their last 2 games), New Jersey is sinking. I guess that's what happens when you lose your best player - the one who plays about a minute PER SHIFT for your team. He leads the team with 25 minutes of ice time per game (and hasn't played in how long now?). Most teams you're looking at a few defensemen leading TOI/G before you see a forward's name. 

New Jersey isn't a deep team, they have an aging goaltender and they lost their best overall player for a few more weeks. 

But then again, so did Boston.

After the jump the rest of the preview...

Jaromir Jagr arrived in Boston this morning and spoke with Channel 7 about being traded. Despite hating to move mid-season, he seemed pretty excited when he heard he was coming to Boston.

WHDH-TV 7News Boston

“Lots of pressure, that’s for sure, but I’m not the same guy I was 15 years ago, that’s for sure. But, you know, I can promise the fans -- I love to work hard and I going to get the most I can get,” Jagr told 7News. 

Obviously the big aquisiton for the Bruins was Jaromir Jagr, but we all knew Chiarelli wasn't done. The defense this year hadn't been spectacular and Chiarelli said he wanted to add a defenseman to the mix. A lot of fans wanted someone like Yandle or Ryan or Boyle -- either the NHL unicorn (PMD) to help on the power play or a shut down defenseman to help what's been a really weird season defensively for the team.

So Chia brings in Wade Redden. Yep, Wade Redden.

Redden played for the Senators for what felt like forever, averaging in the mid 30s-50 point range per season. Then he signed a rediculous contract with the NY Rangers and just shit the bed compared to his salary.

He eventually for waived by the Rangers and signed with the Blues. And now he's in Boston. Not exactly the move a lot fans were hoping for, but Chia opted to get defensive depth instead of brining in someone to shake things up on the blue line. Chia's not igornat of Wade's... interesting carrer.

“Wade isn’t the player that he used to be, but he’s a very smart player,” Chiarelli said. “He can help us in certain ways and you’ll get to talk to him. He’s a good person, too.”

Redden was teammates with Chara and Kelly back in Ottawa. Why Wade and not someone else? Cap flex.

“There were players with multiple years on their contracts, and we considered a couple, but it was more about leaving us with [cap] flexibility,” he said. “We’ve got some guys we have to re-sign, and I’d like to try and sign those guys.”

Chiarelli said he wanted to bring the band back together.

Bruins also kicked off the trade deadline with a really lackluster move, trading Maxime Sauve for Rob Flick. From CSNNE:

The Bruins sent 2008 second-round pick Max Sauve to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for gritty, fighting center Rob Flick. The 22-year-old Flick is a lefty shooting center that isn’t an offensive guy, but has racked up nearly 100 PIMs in each of his two AHL seasons while putting his 6-foot-2, 208-pound frame to good use. Flick had five points and 97 penalty minutes in 51 games for the Rockford IceHogs this season.

So traded an offensive kid for a fighter. Whatever works.

Here's the full press conference from Chiarelli.

Last night's win against the Senators was great and all except for Patrice Bergeron getting an elbow to the temple in an accidental collision with Colin Greening. He didn't return to the game and won't be returning the line up for the foreseeable future. Chiarelli spoke briefly about it:

“He was in very good spirits,” Chiarelli said. “He was out walking today. He was annoyed at it. He was emotional [Tuesday] night.”

Yea, no shit. Fourth concussion of Bergeron's career and he'd been having one of the best seasons of his career at that, too. Not to mention there's no harder worker or competitor in the NHL than Patrice Bergeron. If we were him we'd be pissed, too. Chia said Bergy had a really sore neck today, too.

Chiarelli doesn't know when Bergy will be back in the line-up. Fact that Bergy was out walking is a good sign but it's a concussion so who the hell knows.

Bergeron has 31 points (10 goals 21 assists) in 35 games this season. Here's the hit:

UPDATE:

DAL will receive prospects Lane MacDermid and Cody Payne (Plymouth) as part of the Jagr trade with BOS.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) April 2, 2013

So Lane and someone we don't know is off to Dallas. 

Original post:

Oh God I feel like Justin right now. Now it's going to blow up in my face. Apparently the Bruins have acquired Jaromir Jagr for two prospects and a pick. I will update this when we know more. 

But hey, Jagr also confirmed it. 

I hope he lines up with Krejci. 

So....

(stick tap to PAYD)

Man, after Iginla fell apart we all thought that Boston wouldn't do anything. You heard about the big names like St. Louis and Jagr being off of the market and we all thought it was over. Apparently, we're not done yet folks. 

Man, this should be on a t-shirt. I tweeted Sam Adams to see if we could get a special seasonal brew made. But seriously, if the Bruins acquired Jagr then it would immediately upgrade their FIRST LINE (where he belongs) and power play. 

But that doesn't matter for tonight because the Bruins welcome the Senators who are STILL IN THE PLAYOFFS and currently rocking the 5th seed like bawsses. I can't believe that the Senators are still in this despite their best players seemingly dieing. 

Hopefully the win Sunday in Buffalo kciks the Bruins int he ass and they get their shit together. I'm sure the trade deadline has the guys playing with some hesitation, but you have to let that go and win hockey games. Montreal is rolling right now and if Boston doesn't get their shit together they aren't going to catch them. 

But something needs to happen. This roster needs to be shaken up. When Jack and Andy can sit in the pressbox and notice that these guys aren't playing with any urgency or jump in their step, there's definitely an issue. Time to shake up "the core" because "the core" isn't playing as well as they can.

Whatever happens, I hope Ryane Clowe isn't it. 

Khudobin is in net tonight vs the Senators. He's 1-0 against Ottawa with a 1.00 GAA and a .964 SV%. Khudobin has been playing well this season and was pretty much lights out against Buffalo. He deserves another shot tongiht. 

after the jump, the rest of the preview...

Apparently all the Jagr talk before was mere speculation but now he's officially on the trading block.

Told by an NHL source that Jaromir Jagr is now on trade market. Would be good acquisition for the Bruins.

— Jimmy Murphy (@MurphysLaw74) April 2, 2013

Do it, Chiarelli. Would love to see him on Krejci's line. Bump Looch to the third line to abuse people and create space for Peverley and whoeverelseisplayingwingthatday. Greg covered why he'd be a great fit for Boston a few days ago.

Maybe him and Quaider could grow their sweet flows back.