Projo Bruins Blog

March 4, 2007 - March 10, 2007 Archives

Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward, who only skated for a few minutes this morning, was just on the ice taking a twirl under the watchful eye of team trainer Don DelNegro. Ward took a shot off the foot during practice on Wednesday, but said after the game-day skate today that he's ready to go for tonight.

From the 9th floor at the Garden _ six stories off the ice _ Ward could be heard telling DelNegro "it's not tender." It's likely he will be in the lineup.

Forward David Krejci has been recalled from Providence for tonight's game. P.J. Axelsson is out of the lineup for undisclosed reasons.

This will be Krejci's third trip to Boston this season. The talented rookie has 21 goals and 35 assists for 56 points, while posting a plus-6 rating in 52 games for the P-Bruins this season.

More to come . . .

** Colorado starting goaltender Peter Budaj has a history with the Bruins organization. Fans may remember Nov. 12, 2004 when Budaj played for the Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Avalanche at the time.

The Bears and the P-Bruins were playing at the Dunkin' Donuts Center when an all-out melee erupted behind the teams' benches in the lower concourse. The only players remaining on the ice were Budaj and Providence goalie Hannu Toivonen. After passing the puck back and forth a couple of times, the two masked men met at center ice and dropped the gloves in a spirited matchup.

Because Budaj is playing for Colorado ltonight, the incident was up for discussion this morning.

**No. 77 is in the building tonight. And why not? He only played for the Bruins from 1979 to 2000 before being traded to the Avalanche where he won his only Stanley Cup.

Chuck Kobasew will finally make his Bruins debut tonight. The gritty forward was acquired by Boston_ along with defenseman Andrew Ference _ from Calgary in exchange for defenseman Brad Stuart and forward Wayne Primeau on Feb. 10.

Entering last night's game he had missed 17 games due to a dislocated elbow and he was finally cleared to play.

"He feels much better," said Bruins coach Dave Lewis. "He was checked out by the doctors and trainers and they feel he's 100 percent ready to go."

The coach said he didn't think Kobasew would be able to play until the weekend.

"It'll be exciting to see him on the ice," added Lewis. "I'll ease him in and get him comfortable with playing. He hasn't played for six weeks so he'll have some rust."

At the start of the game Kobasew will play with Phil Kessel and Brandon Bochenski.