Projo Bruins Blog

Jamie Arniel and Zach Hamill scored in the shootout and Anton Khudobin stopped four out of five shots to give the Providence Bruins a 3-2 shootout win over the Portland Pirates at The Dunk.

Providence received first-period goals from Andrew Bodnarchuk and Tyler Randell.

Matt Watkins and Ryan Duncan scored for Portland.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Tyler Seguin scored the only goal in a shootout and the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Saturday night in the only regular-season matchup between the last two Stanley Cup champions.

Chris Kelly and Nathan Horton scored in regulation for Boston, which snapped a two-game skid to give coach Claude Julien his 300th NHL win. Nathan's tying goal at 7:56 of the third sent the game to overtime.

Boston goalie Tim Thomas stopped 27 shots through overtime, then was perfect against Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp in the shootout.

Kane and Bryan Bickell scored in regulation for the Blackhawks, who got 35 saves from Corey Crawford.

Providence Bruins backup goalie Mike Hutchinson is day to day after being injured by a high shot in practice on Thursday, so the team has recalled Karil St. Laurent from Reading of the ECHL for the weekend.

St. Laurent, 20, played for St. John of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Surrey of the British Columbia Hockey League last season. He attended Vancouver's training camp, said coach Butch Cassidy.

"One of our scouts liked him, and we're kind of looking for a little depth at that position,'' said Cassidy.

Though the P-Bruins have three games in three nights this weekend, it remains to be seen whether St. Laurent will play.

"It's not ideal for a goalie to go three in three, but Dobie's our No. 1, and he just might get three in three,'' Cassidy said, referring to starter Anton Khudobin.

Carter Camper and Tyler Randell are the scratches for tonight's game against Manchester at The Dunk.

"This game's not fair all the time in terms of who gets scratched. Right now, I don't think that any of the young guys have truly separated themselves,'' Cassidy said.

"I'm happy with the way they've played at times, and at times they've made mistakes. It's (Camper and Randell's) turn tonight, and we'll reevaluate tomorrow.''

Tonight's lines:

Sauve-Whitfield-Hamill
Tardif-Hennessy-Arniel
MacDermid-Cunningham-MacDonald
MacKinnon-Chaput-Ridderwall

Defense:
Bodnarchuk, Cohen, Miller, Warsofsky, McKelvie, Cantin

It's beginning to look as if the Bruins spent too much time partying with the Stanley Cup, and not enough time preparing to defend it.

Three losses -- two of them at home -- in their first four games, with a total of three goals in the three defeats.

Could we be looking at a Red Sox-like, 2-10 start?

David Krejci will not play for the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night against the Hurricanes in Carolina after leaving practice early with an apparent leg injury on Tuesday morning.

The 25-year-old center stayed behind when the team flew out of Boston on Tuesday afternoon.

"Krejci will continue to be evaluated by the team's medical staff here in Boston and his status for Saturday's game in Chicago will be determined later in the week,'' according to a statement on the Bruins Web site.

The injury could clear the way for Tyler Seguin to temporarily move from wing to center, which is the position he played in junior hockey.

If Seguin takes Krejci's place between Nathan Hortan and Brad Marchand, left wing Jordan Caron, a healthy scratch on Monday, could skate with Chris Kelly and Benoit Pouliot.

The Providence Bruins today assigned Yannick Riendeau to the Reading Royals, Boston's ECHL affiliate.

Riendeau failed to register a shot on Friday night and was a healthy scratch on Sunday.

The 23-year-old scored 126 points in 64 games in leading the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in scoring in 2008-09, but has managed just 5 points in 29 games in Providence. He spent most of last year with Reading.

After opening the season with a pair of losses at home over the weekend, the Providence Bruins took Monday off and then went back to work on Tuesday morning at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

Power skating coach Besa Tsintsadze put the players through skating drills for about 50 minutes, and then coach Butch Cassidy had the team do one-on-one and then two-on-two battle drills in one end of the ice.

"That was done today because it was an issue this weekend,'' Cassidy said. "We need to be harder to play against. We need to be stronger on pucks, and we need to protect pucks both breaking out of our end and in the offensive end.

"Our D were thinking too much (in the first two games). Maybe they need to get into the mindset of when they were younger: Get back on the puck in a hurry and skate. Play like a kid again in terms of 'Hey, I'm gonna get the puck, skate it, make a good decision and move it,' instead of looking for something else,'' said Cassidy.

"For forwards, they've got to be tenacious. We don't have a lineup of six-foot-four guys. We need a little bit more Brad Marchand up front.''

Boston assistant general manager Don Sweeney watched practice from the stands.

Cassidy is looking for much more from his top players.

"Our best players were outplayed, in both games, by their best players. No matter how you coach, if that happens more times than not, you're going to end up on the wrong side (of the score). We'll work on some things this week, and hopefully our better players will be better this weekend,'' he said.

"We don't want to panic, but we need to be aware in the room that we need to be better,'' he said.

Josh Hennessy (knee), Andrew Bodnarchuk (shoulder) and Zach McKelvie (concussion) have been cleared to play this weekend, Cassidy said. Kirk MacDonald has a minor finger injury that should not keep him out.

The return of Hennessy and Bodnarchuk is particularly welcome.

"You're injecting some speed into your lineup and experience. You're putting your No. 1 center back where he's supposed to play,'' said Cassidy. "We're putting Bodnarchuk back in a position where he can settle the defense a little bit, so those young guys don't have to play so many minutes against their top line.''