Projo Bruins Blog

November 2008 Archives

PROVIDENCE -- Four-time Stanley Cup winner Claude Lemieux, who is attempting a comeback with the San Jose Sharks after five years in retirement, could be in the Worcester lineup on Friday night in Providence.

Lemieux, 43, signed a tryout contract with San Jose on Monday and was assigned to Worcester. He will not play tonight in Portland.

Back in the day, Lemieux had a long list of enemies around the NHL, including Boston superstar Cam Neely, who memorably labeled Lemieux a "gutless puke'' for playing an agitating style but rarely fighting.

Lemieux retired after the 2002-03 season. He scored 379 goals and 406 assists and racked up 1,756 penalty minutes in 1,197 games with Montreal, New Jersey, Colorado, Phoenix and Dallas.

Lemieux started his comeback in Shanghai, playing two games for the China Sharks, San Jose's pro affiliate in China.

"I'm not doing this just to play one game in the NHL and that's it,'' Lemieux recently told the Denver Post. "I really think I can still help a team make the playoffs, and into the playoffs. It would sure be nice to get that fifth Stanley Cup. ... It's a long year and I plan to keep working out hard. The biggest thing is that I know I can still play with guys who are still playing now for teams, and I know what it takes to win."

Exciting news for Hanson brothers fans, courtesy of the Boston Bruins web site:

Throughout the Bruins/Panthers game on Friday, November 21, the Boston Bruins will honor what many say to be the greatest hockey movie of all time, Slap Shot.

The first 10,000 fans in attendance on Friday will receive Hanson Brothers style glasses, courtesy of TD Banknorth. A lucky fan will also receive the ultimate Slap Shot prize pack featuring Hanson staples: grape and orange sodas, aluminum foil and a toy car set. The winner will also have their seat upgraded.

Steve Carlson, who played the character of Steve Hanson in Slap Shot, will be introduced during the first intermission and will participate in an on-ice contest with a fan. Following the contest, Carlson will be available to sign autographs through the second period and subsequent intermission in the concourse behind Loge 6 on Level 4. Carlson will be available to the media at 6:00 on press level nine behind section N18.

Fans are also encouraged to wear a Chiefs jersey in honor of the hockey club portrayed in Slap Shot.

NORTH SMITHFIELD -- The Providence Bruins will be without prized goalie prospect Tuukka Rask for Friday night's game against the Portland Pirates and possibly for the rest of the weekend as well.

Coach Rob Murray would not disclose the nature of Rask's injury, but said today that he has not been able to practice this week and is questionable for the weekend, which also includes a visit to Springfield on Saturday and a home game with Hartford on Sunday.

Rask's last game was Saturday night's 5-2 loss in Portland.

"He's a little sore,'' Murray said.

Rask's injury does not appear to be serious. The 21-year-old Finnish goalie was seen walking around the practice rink in shorts with a wrap on his left ankle.

Rask had a strong training camp in Boston, but with Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez ahead of him on the depth chart he was sent down for a second year in the AHL. Rask has not matched his preseason performance: His goals-against average of 2.78 in 11 games is 22nd in the league. Rask's save percentage is 0.909.

Kevin Regan will start Friday against first-place Portland at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, Murray said. It will be the fifth start for the UNH grad, who was last year's Hockey East player of the year. Regan is 3-1 with a 3.23 goals-against average and a 0.872 save percentage.

The backup will be Kevin Nastiuk, who has been playing with the Gwinnett (Ga.) Gladiators of the East Coast Hockey league. Nastiuk was en route from Georgia yesterday but should be here in time for Friday's game. Nastiuk was in training camp with the P-Bruins but was released when Rask was sent down from Boston. Nastiuk has a 3.04 goals-against average and a .0886 save percentage for Gwinnett.

Zach Hamill, the eighth overall pick in the 2007 NHL draft, has recovered from hand surgery and is likely to make his season debut with the Providence Bruins this weekend.

"He's a go, unless there's a setback,'' coach Rob Murray said today.

Hamill, 5'11, 190 pounds, turned 20 in September. A playmaking right-handed center, he joined Providence for five regular-season games (0-5-5) and nine playoff games (1-3-4) last season after his junior team in Everett, Wash., was eliminated from the Western Hockey League playoffs.

In other news, the P-Bruins this morning released defenseman Brett Motherwell and winger Mark Bomersback, and added former Boston University defenseman Kevin Schaeffer to the roster.

According to Murray, Schaeffer, who played 31 games for Providence last year, had shoulder surgery after last season and was not ready for training camp.

Schaeffer, 23, scored one goal and one assist and was minus-2 in Providence last season. Before joining the P-Bruins, Schaeffer was playing for the Reading (Pa.) Royals of the East Coast Hockey League. He also played three games with the AHL Binghamton Senators.

PROVIDENCE -- One of the questions facing the Providence Bruins in the early going this season was who would replace Steve MacIntyre, last year's consensus AHL heavyweight champion who moved on to Florida and then to Edmonton of the NHL.

That question has been answered with the acquisition over the weekend of right wing Jonathan "The Hammer'' Tremblay, on loan from the Quad City Flames of the AHL.

Tremblay caught the eye of P-Bruins coach Rob Murray while playing with the Worcester
Sharks during parts of the last two seasons. A left-handed puncher, the 6'3'' 240-pound
Tremblay got the better of MacIntyre in an exhibition game in September 2007, though MacIntyre earned a decision over Tremblay in a return match last November. Here's a link to video of that bout:

Tremblay, 24, recorded no points Saturday night in Portland or Sunday afternoon at home against Norfolk, but he did fight with Norfolk's Jay Rosehill.

The P-Bruins clearly aren't expecting Tremblay to put up many points. His last goal in pro hockey came during the 2004-05 season, with the Johnstown Chiefs of the East Coast Hockey League.

Since then, he has played in Cleveland (AHL), Toledo (ECHL), Kalamazoo and Quad
City (both of the UHL), Fresno (ECHL), Worcester (AHL), Quad City (AHLcq) and Wichita (CHL).

This season, Tremblay played four games with Wichita, where he was sent by Quad City last month after playing five games there. Among his teammates in Wichita were Matt Byrnes of Lincoln and Alex Hager of Warwick.

Tremblay was drafted in the seventh round by San Jose in 2003, but is not currently the
property of any NHL team.

The latest issue of Sports Illustrated includes a feature on the Boston Bruins' Phil Kessel, a player that SI describes as "the most heralded young player in U.S. hockey history" when he was a teenager.

That was before Kessel found out he had testicular cancer, which was diagnosed and treated during his rookie season of 2006-07; and before Kessel's rocky second season, in which he finished -6 (worst among Bruins forwards). After the regular season, Kessel was a healthy scratch for part of the playoffs, an indication of Claude Julien's disappointment in the talented 20-year-old.

But this season, as his Bruins have gotten off to a fast start, Kessel seems to have arrived. As the Sports Illustrated article, by Michael Farber, puts it: "This is a different Kessel, a look-you-in-the-eye-and-speak-from-the-heart guy who is ready to work at hockey instead of merely play it."

I can't find a link to the story on SI's web site, but it's in the edition of the magazine that's on newsstands now -- the one with UConn hoops stars Hasheem Thabeet and Maya Moore on the cover.

Andrew Ference, who did not return after taking an Andrei Markov blast off the right foot or lower leg near the end of the second period Thursday night, did not make the trip to New York for Saturday night's game against the Rangers.

Ference, probably Boston's most consistent defenseman in the early going, was scheduled to see a doctor Friday. He is doubtful for Saturday.

Ference leads the team with a plus-nine and is averaging 22:25 a game in ice time. His likely replacement is Matt Hunwick, who most recently saw game action on Wednesday night in Chicago.

Maybe you missed it because you were watching the Patriots game. Or maybe you saw it last night and just want to savor it again. Here's Milan Lucic's smackdown of Montreal Mike Komisarek:

Read the latest on the Providence Bruins, starting with a lost weekend in which the team lost two of three despite firing 141 shots on goal.

Click the link to read the full story.

The NHL is buzzing over Providence College grad Brian Burke's decision to step down as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. It has been rumored for months that Toronto, where Burke's PC teammate Ron Wilson is coach, is his most likely destination. But what about Boston? Burke, as Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun points out, has family in the Boston area, and is a hunting buddy of longtime Bruins boss Harry Sinden. By bringing in Burke as general manager or president or both the Bruins would automatically become a bigger player on the Boston sports scene. Let the rumors begin.

-Mark Divver

Here's the text of the news release from the P-Bruins:

The Providence Bruins, in their 17th season in the American Hockey League, announced that left wing Ned Lukacevic has been reassigned by the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins to the Reading Royals of the ECHL. With the move, the P-Bruins have 24 players on their roster, including 13 forwards, nine defensemen and two goaltenders.

Lukacevic, 22, came to Providence on October 13 after being acquired by Boston from the Philadelphia Flyers with a 2009 conditional draft pick for defenseman Andrew Alberts. The fourth-year pro went scoreless with a minus-one rating in five games for Providence.

Lukacevic, who began this year with the Philadelphia Phantoms though did not see any action for the club, spent all of 2007-08 in the ECHL, posting career-highs in goals (17), assists (19), points (36) and penalty minutes (52) for Reading. Lukacevic split the 2006-07 campaign between Reading and the Manchester Monarchs, scoring one goal in 12 AHL games in addition to 24 points (7g, 17a) in 53 ECHL contests.

The native of Podgorica, Serbia, made his pro debut in the 2006 postseason with Manchester, registering one goal in seven games. The AHL action came after a successful junior season with the Western Hockey League's Swift Current Broncos, where Lukacevic led his club in scoring with 25 goals and 53 points. Prior to his time in Swift Current, the AHL rookie spent parts of four seasons playing for the Spokane Chiefs, also of the WHL.

As a pro, Lukacevic has 61 points (25g, 36a) and 99 PIM in 131 games. He was originally drafted 110th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in round four of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

John Bishop reports the news on his blog at the Bruins web site. Sobotka, a 21-year-old rookie center from the Czech Republic, has not dressed for the Bruins' last four games after appearing in the first five contests of the season.