*** HOME AGAIN: Providence Bruins coach Rob Murray said before embarking on an eight-game road trip three weeks ago that he had a feeling his team was going to take a hit at the NHL trading deadline.
He was right. The team that takes the ice against Portland Friday night no longer has Matt Lashoff and Martins Karsums, both all-star caliber players in the AHL.
Yet, even after losing two top players and going 2-6 (including two shootout losses) on the road, Providence remains tied for first in the Atlantic Division with Hartford.
Without Lashoff and Karsums, the lineup is much thinner -- five players are on tryout contracts -- and the Bruins may be hard-pressed to hang onto first.
The good news is that the schedule is favorable. There are nine home games and six road games left, and none of the road games are outside New England.
*** ROUGH ROAD: You won't hear the P-Bruins complaining about travel, because they have no more than a two-hour bus ride to most of their road games.
But they have a right to gripe about last Sunday's trip.
Saturday night was military night in Winnipeg and the game didn't start until 8:30, Murray said. So it was nearly midnight by the time the Bruins left the rink after losing 2-0 to the league-leading Manitoba Moose.
After going back to their hotel for a few hours, Murray said the Bruins caught a 4 a.m. bus to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight to Toronto.
After landing in Toronto, the team hopped a bus for Rochester. The team stopped for lunch near Buffalo -- where the team was able to catch some of the Bruins-Rangers contest on TV while eating.
The tired travelers finally pulled into Rochester at 4 p.m. for their 6 p.m. game against the Americans.
After five losses in a row and with first place hanging by a thread, Murray said the team approached the Rochester game as "almost a must-win.''
The Bruins pulled out a 2-1 win
"We just gutted it out,'' Murray said.
The Bruins then hopped on a bus for the ride to Rhode Island, arriving at 4 o'clock Monday morning.
***NEWEST BRUIN: The P-Bruins added Jason Fredericks to the roster on a tryout contract Thursday. The 6'2', 200-pounder just finished his senior year at Colgate.
Fredericks played defense at Colgate, and scored a goal against Brown a couple of weeks ago at Meehan Auditorium, but he's listed as a forward on Providence's roster.
The P-Bruins were interested in PC's Matt Taormina before he signed a tryout deal with Binghamton.
*** GORDON UPDATE: With the New York Islanders in Boston on Saturday, check out Peter Botte's analysis of Scott Gordon's first year as an NHL head coach.
And Botte also has a good piece on the close working relationship between Gordon and Bridgeport coach Jack Capuano of Cranston.
*** SAD STORY: While the NHL GMs were talking about outlawing fighting this week, former P-Bruin Brantt Myhres talked to Bruce Dowbiggen of the Calgary Herald about the toll that fighting and addiction took on his life. Myhres scored three goals and ran up 185 PIMs in 63 games in Providence in 2002-03.
*** SORRY, FANS: Pro sports teams don't usually apologize for poor performance. But the Edmonton Oilers this week told fans of the Springfield Falcons that they were sorry for the team's last-place finish in the Atlantic Division.
"We are in the business of winning hockey games, and we failed miserably in Springfield this season," said Kevin Prendergast, Edmonton's assistant general manager. "On behalf of the Oilers, we apologize to the fans in Springfield who have supported this team through a very difficult year. We will begin plans immediately in addressing the problems on the ice this season, and promise that we will do everything we can to put a more competitive and winning team on the ice next year."
Read more here.
*** LINKS: Bill Clement has 10 reasons why the Bruins can win the Stanley Cup. . . . Puck Daddy says the Bruins are losing their grip on the Eastern Conference. . . . Former P-Bruin Matt Hendricks -- traded to Colorado for Johnny Boychuck -- got a taste of the NHL life this week. . . . Former Brown star Yann Danis is playing like a No. 1 goalie for the Islanders. . . . Former P-Bruin Jonathan Sigalet is living a dog's life in Syracuse.
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