Tue, 06/18/2013 - 5:49pm — Anonymous

Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with Patrice Bergeron during a magical Bruins playoff run. (AP)

Following Monday night’s 2-0 win over the Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, Claude Julien paid the ultimate tribute to his team by saying they’re fully committed to the cause.

Ask the players, and that is high praise indeed. The players know how much they played with fire late in the regular season and how much that spilled over into the first round. They were almost burned against Toronto.

But now?

The Bruins can sense the difference in consistency. That is to say, it’s there every night, compared to the beginning of the playoffs.

“Yeah, especially against Toronto,” Brad Marchand said, referring to the “Jekyll and Hyde” phase the team was going through. “Guys are way more focused and determined to do the little things right. I think after going through what we went through against Toronto, it kind of opened guys eyes to realize we need to all bear down and be better if we’re going to have shot at winning. I think after that series we all bared down and we’re doing a lot more things right.”

Obviously, for the Bruins to reach their goal, they need to do even more of those things in the next week and manage two more wins, something Marchand is fully convinced he and his teammates are capable of accomplishing.

“I think there’s still areas where we can improve, but for the most part we played a pretty good game,” Marchand said. “We’re doing some things right, there’s still lapses in our game where we need to get a little bit better. Hopefully we can clean that up going down the stretch.”

Blog Author: 
Mike Petraglia
Tue, 06/18/2013 - 5:24pm — Mike Petraglia

Ever since April 15, sports in Boston has taken on deeper meaning as the city and its people look to heal from the Boston Marathon attacks.

On Tuesday, the off-day between Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, Claude Juilen articulated in a very sensitive way what a Stanley Cup championship might mean to Boston and its people.

Tue, 06/18/2013 - 5:16pm — Anonymous

Claude Julien knows his Bruins are part of Boston's healing process. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)

Ever since April 15, sports in Boston has taken on deeper meaning as the city and its people look to heal from the Boston Marathon attacks.

On Tuesday, the off-day between Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, Claude Juilen articulated in a very sensitive way what a Stanley Cup championship might mean to Boston and its people.

“I think we can help in probably a large way,” Julien said. “Everybody is looking right now for something to cheer about, smile about. I guess it doesn’t fix the things or the people that have been lost. That will never be fixed. At the same time you have to try to heal.”

Julien then gave perspective inside the Bruins dressing room and reminded everyone just how much the events of April 15 affected them.

“As much as the city itself has been touched by that, so have we as a team,” I’ve known for a long time, that’s all we talked about in the dressing room. It really hit us hard. Right now, we got to focus on doing our job and trying to stay focused on that so that in the end you hope that you can make that happen.”

Julien said his team is riding a fine line between wanting to be motivated for the people of Boston and going about their job. Julien said the focus now is the latter.

“But right now it’s got to be about us before we can even think about that,” he said. “If we think about ourselves, the job we need to do, hopefully the rest takes care of itself.”

Blog Author: 
Mike Petraglia

Gregory Campbell has no regrets. (AP)Hockey players will do just about anything for the Stanley Cup. You knew that, of course. This isn't a news story. 



Tue, 06/18/2013 - 2:30pm — DJ Bean

Speaking to the media Tuesday, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said that right wing Marian Hossa is “likely to play” in Game 4 Wednesday at TD Garden.

Hossa was a surprise scratch in Game 3 due to an undisclosed injury. He took the warmup prior to the game but was out of the lineup, with Quenneville denying reports that Hossa was injured during the warmup.

Hossa is tied with Patrick Sharp for the Blackhawks lead with 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) this postseason.

Tue, 06/18/2013 - 2:30pm — Anonymous

Speaking to the media Tuesday, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said that right wing Marian Hossa is “likely to play” in Game 4 Wednesday at TD Garden.

Hossa was a surprise scratch in Game 3 due to an undisclosed injury. He took the warmup prior to the game but was out of the lineup, with Quenneville denying reports that Hossa was injured during the warmup.

Hossa is tied with Patrick Sharp for the Blackhawks lead with 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) this postseason.

For more on the Bruins, visit weei.com/bruins.

Blog Author: 
DJ Bean
Tue, 06/18/2013 - 1:37pm — DJ Bean

Gregory Campbell spoke to the media Tuesday for the first time since breaking his right leg blocking a shot from Evgeni Malkin in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Tue, 06/18/2013 - 1:33pm — Anonymous

Gregory Campbell

Gregory Campbell spoke to the media Tuesday for the first time since breaking his right leg blocking a shot from Evgeni Malkin in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Campbell, who was on crutches, took the podium at TD Garden and discussed his now famous shift, in which he blocked the shot, got up and played nearly a minute on a broken leg while clearly in pain during a Penguins power play.

“I mean, it hurt a little bit,” Campbell said of the pain he was in while staying on the ice. “It was sore. But your adrenaline’s going pretty good at that point. You’re stuck on the ice with a couple of the best players in the world. You really don’t have much time to think about anything else but trying to help out and kill a penalty.”

The Merlot Line center and penalty-killer said he wasn’t 100 percent sure that his leg was broken when the puck hit him, but he was “fairly sure that there was something wrong.”

Campbell underwent surgery last Monday and has a recovery time of six to eight weeks. He hopes to be on his feet again by late July/early August and plans on participating in training camp, regardless of whether he’s completely up to speed.

“I’m fully expecting to be 100 percent at camp. Maybe I won’t be participating fully in camp. I can’t say that right now. But if you look at six to eight weeks, it puts me in mid July to late July, early August. I’ll be back on my feet.

“Obviously my training program is going to change a little bit. That’s a big part of my game. But that’s just something that I have to deal with and I’ll have to work around.”

For more on the Bruins, visit weei.com/bruins.

Blog Author: 
DJ Bean
Tue, 06/18/2013 - 1:16pm — Jerry Spar

NBC Sports hockey analyst Pierre McGuire checked in with Mut & Merloni on Tuesday to dissect the Bruins’ 2-0 victory in Monday’s Game 3.

The B’s frustrated the Blackhawks by limiting Chicago’s scoring opportunities.

Tue, 06/18/2013 - 1:14pm — Anonymous

Pierre McGuire

NBC Sports hockey analyst Pierre McGuire checked in with Mut & Merloni on Tuesday to dissect the Bruins’ 2-0 victory in Monday’s Game 3.

The B’s frustrated the Blackhawks by limiting Chicago’s scoring opportunities.

“First of all, [the Bruins] were really doing a good job controlling the puck and controlling the neutral zone and dictating the terms of the game, that’s No. 1 and 2,” McGuire said. “I think the third thing they did, obviously, is they were able to get last change, so they had the matchups they wanted. Not having Marian Hossa in the lineup for Chicago really hurt them in terms of manufacturing offense. … That’s a big loss for Chicago; that’s not Boston’s fault.

“And then for both teams, the ice conditions. Tuukka Rask alluded to it when I interviewed him, and Dennis Seidenberg and I talked about it after the game. The ice conditions were not good. I could tell in the morning they weren’t going to be good because of the humidity in the city of Boston yesterday. There’s not a building in the league that would have had good ice yesterday, just because of the humidity. You’ve got to hope it cools off.

“But Boston’s doing exactly what they did to Pittsburgh: They’re killing the stars. Look at the hits on Jonathan Toews. They’re just crushing him. Hey, that’s all fair game in hockey. That’s part of the sport.”

McGuire also praised the Bruins defense and noted: “You add in the Patrice Bergeron factor and the faceoff-winning factor for the Bruins, and they’re a very, very difficult team to play against.”

McGuire noted that the Blackhawks’ comeback in Game 1 might have come at a cost.

“The one thing I’ll you that I don’t think is getting talked about enough: The wear and tear of Game 1, the three overtimes, I think it took a lot more out of Chicago, even though they won, compared to what it took out of Boston. I really do,” he said.

Hossa’s injury remains a mystery, as he left the pregame skate and was replaced in the lineup by Ben Smith, who did not go through warmups.

“It’s bizarre,” McGuire said. “We went and scanned the tape. He takes a shot. After he takes a shot, he goes off the ice. He participated in the line rushes, he participated in the two-on-ones. He didn’t look like he was hurt. Chicago put out a press release saying that he got injured in the warmup, and then they say that he didn’t get injured in the warmup, and they knew earlier in the day there was a possibility that he wouldn’t play.

“Not having Ben Smith at least on the ice for the skate, that’s a little bit bizarre — really different. So, again, I don’t know what happened. … Injuries this time of year, nobody talks about them very much, and if they do, they usually don’t tell you the truth.”

The Bruins’ new-look third line of Daniel Paille, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin has come up big in the last two games.

“There are very few teams in the league that have that kind of speed on one line. All three guys can absolutely burn you,” McGuire said. “Seguin is putting so much pressure on the Chicago defense, it’s opening up a lot of gaps. That’s allowing Kelly and Paille both to get pucks that they usually wouldn’t get to. It’s been tremendous. Obviously, Claude [Julien] deserves a lot of credit for doing that in the second period of Game No. 2.

“And I can tell you … [Julien] threw a five-star nutty in Game No. 1 of the Pittsburgh-Boston series, in the second TV timeout in the second period, and the players responded. And it was all about getting their identity back. Well, I can tell you, in the first period of Game No. 2, he threw worse than a five-star nutty, and he really challenged these guys. And the guy that really stood up after the challenge was Chris Kelly. I can tell you that right now. He was verbal, he was physical, he was nasty. He was really pushing and prodding. But he fed off what the coach did.”

To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Bruins news, visit the team page at weei.com/bruins.

Blog Author: 
Jerry Spar