Projo Bruins Blog

December 3, 2006 - December 9, 2006 Archives

The media and fans in Toronto are getting restless as the Maple Leafs, riding a five-game losing streak, stagger into the Garden for tonight's game with the Bruins.

The Leafs took a 2-0 lead into the third period in Atlanta Tuesday night, but Andrew Raycroft stopped only three of seven shots in the third, and Toronto lost, 5-2. Hal Gill had a giveaway that ended up in his own net, and committed a hooking penalty that led to an Atlanta power play goal.

Yesterday, Toronto Star columnist Damien Cox questioned whether Raycroft should continue to be the No. 1 goalie. After the Bruins traded him, Raycroft crowed about how much he welcomed the challenge of playing for the team he rooted for as a kid. Now it's time to put up or shut up.

Speaking of shutting up, before the last game between these two teams nine days ago, Darcy Tucker of the Leafs all but promised that he'd be looking for a rematch against Paul Mara after the Boston defenseman bested Tucker in a fight in the previous game. But once the puck was dropped, Tucker was hard to find.

On Saturday night, he took a run at Montreal's Francis Bouillon and got smacked down.

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None.

Zero.

Zilch.

That's how many New Englanders were named the other day to the U.S. team for the World Junior Hockey Championship.

Here's where the team members come from:

Minnesota 9

Michigan 6

Wisconsin 1

Illinois 1

Utah 1

Tennessee 1

NJ 1

NY 1

Colorado 1

It's clear that the system for developing hockey players in New England is broken. This region is no longer producing players on a par with other strong hockey areas such as Minnesota and Michigan.

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The URI club hockey team fell from second to fourth in the most recent ACHA national poll. Oklahoma and Penn State, which swept a recent two-game series in Kingston, vaulted over the Rams. Illinois remains No. 1. URI bounced back from the Penn State losses by beating Division III Worcester State 6-4 at home and taking a pair of 5-4 decisions from Arizona State on the road.

The Rams host No. 16 Washington & Jefferson tonight and tomorrow at 7. A huge measuring stick for URI comes at the end of this month when they play in the Norwich University holiday tournament.

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Ugly incident in Boston last weekend as three BU hockey players and a women's lacrosse player were attacked after a late-night party. Defenseman Kevin Schaeffer suffered serious eye injuries.

It recalls the incident early last Jan. 1 when Providence Bruins defenseman Chris Dyment, an ex-BU Terrier, was clubbed in the eye with a bottle outside an East Side restaurant. No arrests were ever made in that case.

Dyment is now with the Florida Everblades of the East Coast Hockey League.

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In case you didn't catch Pierre-Marc Bouchard's amazing shootout goal in Wednesday night's Chicago-Minnesota game, here it is.

By Mark Divver

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Phil Kessel of the Boston Bruins reportedly will not be a part of the United States team at the World Junior Hockey Championship, according to a report on TSN.

Kessel, 19, led the U.S. team and the tournament in scoring at last year's WJC, with a 1-10-11 line in 7 games. Pittsburgh's rookie star Evgeni Malkin was second with 10 points.

The U.S. roster will be announced tonight between the second and third periods of the Chicago at Minnesota game on the Versus network. That's expected to be around 9:40. The roster will also be available at usahockey.com/

Two Providence Bruins, Petr Kalus and David Krejci, are listed on the Czech Republic's roster. However, Kalus is out with a knee injury and may not be healthy in time for the tournament, which opens the day after Christmas.

Other Bruins prospects who are expected to play in the tournament are Finland's Tukka Rask and Mikko Lehtonen.

Brad Marchand has been invited to Canada's training camp.

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