Daily Pucking Grind. French Roast Blend. January 27

Today’s music selection is Let’s Go Crazy by Incubus.

Due to the freight train running through my head from last evening and carrying through till this morning,  let’s just say I’m a bit cranky.  A strong pot of coffee was brewed by me that hopefully takes the edge off.  Not helping the situation is our hockey team running into a brick wall of a goaltender in Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins. Thomas made 34 saves last night in another superb performance for him again this year.  The Bruins netminder who is headed to the All-Star game is leading the league with a 1.81 GAA and a .945 save percentage.  I would bet that Bruins fans are pretty happy that he hasn’t been traded as originally predicted by many early in the season.

Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic scored for the Bruins who have now won seven of their last 10 games as they head into the All-Star break, in first place in the Northeast Division.  This was the fourth time in a row that Boston has beat the Florida Panthers and the Panthers have now lost five of their last six games.  Bryan Allen scored for Florida and Tomas Vokoun made 33 saves himself.

Here’s the TSN boxscore.

A bigger loss however comes from an ankle injury to forward Shawn Matthias who went awkwardly into the boards in the second period and had to be helped off the ice.  The injury which from what I’ve read is apparently pretty serious, and I would expect that Matthias will be out for some time.  The Panthers looked out of this game for a good portion of it, and as Dave and I texted among each other during the night along with other faithful fans, this was a hard game to watch.  Stephen Weiss who I have refrained from calling Little Stevie for quite some time played over 22 minutes, was a minus 2 and looked exhausted most of the night.  The top line of the Panthers has been dreadful as of late and needs a shakeup.

Most of the shots that the Panthers took on Thomas came from far away and along the boards.  Not much traffic in front of Thomas and while he made many clutch saves, I don’t think there was ever a time where the Bruins felt threatened.  Not much more to say about this game.  Off until Tuesday because of the All-Star break, Florida gets a chance to regroup, collect themselves and management has to try and figure out what to do heading down the stretch.

Here’s a few Thursday links:

Jeremy Roenick joins the All-Star Game coverage for the NHL Network.  Thankfully!  NHL.com

Some current and former NHL players have lost more than 13 million in a resort deal with former Panther Len Barrie.  Globe on Hockey.

Puck Daddy’s Three Stars for Wednesday night.

A new segment on our general page Too Many Men On The Site.

Greg Wyshynski known as Puck Daddy, writes about the anonymous blogger Ecklund. Who ain’t so anonymous anymore.

50 things you didn’t know about Wayne Gretzky.  The Star.com

The Anaheim Ducks have been slapped with an Anti-Semite suit. Ducks Daily Blog.

Running for cover in Columbus.  Fire That Cannon.

Don’t forget to vote for Panther Ice Dancer Meg in the Ice Dancer Contest.  Hit the like button.  I think she’s leading!

Thanks for reading.  Your comments are always welcomed and appreciated.

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