They'll need to carry over that momentum into the playoffs. Old nemesis Montreal awaits in the first round, and the Canadiens have won 24 of the first 32 playoff series' between the Original Six rivals. While the Bruins get ready to try to buck that historical trend, here's a look at a half dozen items from the past week that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks in this week's edition of the Bruins Shootout.
1. The Bruins sent Steven Kampfer down to Providence to get in some game action in the final weekend of the regular season after he had been a healthy scratch for nine of his last 10 games in Boston. Now he won't be seeing any action for about two weeks after suffering a knee injury in Providence. That could be a big loss for the Bruins, who are down to just Shane Hnidy, who has played only three games all season after a shoulder injury in a camp tryout with Phoenix, as a spare blueliner available if injuries strike.
The Bruins have seen at least two defensemen get injured in the playoffs in each of the last two years. If that happens again this year before Kampfer is ready to return, Boston will have to dig pretty deep into their talent pool for blue-line help. Matt Bartkowski is likely next in line and may well have a bright NHL future ahead of him, but his stints with the big club earlier this year didn't exactly inspire confidence that he's ready to handle the intensity of the postseason at this stage of his career. Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli is confident, however, that the Bruins have the depth on defense to survive even if injuries do strike.
"We've got depth beyond that in Bartkowski and [Andrew] Bodnarchuk and [Colby] Cohen," Chiarelli said. "We've got some players that can fill in. Obviously [Kampfer's injury] is a blow to our depth, but from what I'm told, it's not that bad and he should be back. Hnides [Hnidy] has been, you know he's been a little rusty. In fairness to Shane, he obviously hasn't played all year. He's going to give us some back-end depth, and obviously some character."
2. Tim Thomas has dominated most opponents, particularly this year as he led the league with a 2.00 GAA and an NHL-record .938 save percentage. But he hasn't usually had that kind of success against Montreal, with just a 10-14-4 record, 3.05 GAA and .906 save percentage against the Canadiens in his career. That doesn't bode well for Boston's first-round series against Montreal. But has it really been all bad against the Habs? Thomas this year was actually 2-1-1 against Montreal with his first career shutout of the Canadiens, albeit still with a 3.22 GAA overall. Last year he was 0-1-1 with a 3.44 GAA and .878 save percentage, but Thomas wasn't very good against anyone in 2009-10 as he battled through a hip injury and lost his starting job to Tuukka Rask.
The prior season Thomas dominated the Canadiens, along with everyone else, en route to the Vezina, going 4-0-1 with a 2.12 GAA and .933 save percentage against Montreal, and following that with a 4-0 mark, 1.50 GAA and .946 save percentage in a first-round sweep of the Habs. He's always found a way to elevate his game against Montreal in the playoffs. Even after going a woeful 0-4-1 with a 4.21 GAA and .877 save percentage in 2007-08, he helped push the Bruins' opening-round series with Montreal to seven games with a 2.65 GAA and .914 save percentage. Thomas may not have had the consistent success against Montreal that he's enjoyed against other opponents, but his postseason track record against the Habs should ease some concerns heading into this year's matchup.
3. Bruins and Blackhawks fans were united in one cause on Sunday, as both groups were rooting for Minnesota to beat Dallas. The Chicagoans' motivation was obvious, as the Hawks needed Dallas to loss in order to back into the playoffs after falling to the Red Wings earlier on Sunday. The Bruins' interest was more of a long-term one. The Wild's 5-3 win gave Minnesota 86 points, moving it ahead of Toronto in the final standings. Coupled with the Leafs' loss to Montreal in their season finale on Saturday, Toronto ended up with the ninth-worst record in the league with 85 points. That guarantees the Bruins a top-10 pick in the first round with a 2.7-percent chance of moving up four spots in Tuesday's draft lottery. Boston owns the Leafs' first-round selection to complete the Phil Kessel trade that has already produced Tyler Seguin and Jared Knight.
4. Knight, meanwhile, made his pro debut over the weekend, joining Providence after his junior team's season ended. Fellow 2010 second-round pick Ryan Spooner, newly signed free-agent Carter Camper and defensemen Ryan Button and David Warsofsky also joined Providence in the last few weeks. Knight and Spooner teamed with rookie Jordan Caron to form an effective "kid line," with Knight a plus-2 with two assists in three games and Spooner collecting two goals, an assist and a plus-2 rating in his three-game cameo. Camper also chipped in two points in three games, assisting on the game-winner in Saturday's 3-2 win at Springfield and scoring the winner himself in a 3-2 win over Manchester on Sunday. Button picked up his first point with an assist on a Spooner goal against Springfield, while Warsofsky had three assists in 10 games.
"There was one line with Spooner with Knight and Caron, the kid line, it was actually very good," Chiarelli said. "Caron had first star that night [Friday's 5-4 win against Portland], and Knight had a nice assist, and Spooner was making some plays. The rest of the weekend they played well, too. Spooner and Knight played well. Camper played well, [he's a] puck-possession guy, makes good plays, and Button on Friday night, he played well. I haven't got a report on him the next two nights. They won all three [games]. It was nice to see the youth and how they played."
5. Those youngsters won't be eligible to join the big club for the playoffs as they were signed to AHL amateur tryout agreements, but Boston will keep plenty of spare players from Providence around for the playoffs. Only goalie Anton Khudobin, who was 9-4-2 with a 2.40 GAA and .920 save percentage after joining the P-Bruins following a trade deadline deal with Minnesota, will practice with Boston in the opening round, but about 10 others will stay in shape skating in Rhode Island to be ready if injuries strike. Chiarelli didn't name the full list of "Black Aces" who will remain on call, but did confirm that 2007 first-round pick Zach Hamill would be among that group.
6. When Colorado defenseman Adam Foote announced his retirement this week, it marked the end of an era. Foote was the last active player in the NHL who played for the franchise when it was still located in Quebec City. But even with Foote hanging up the skates, there are still some ties to the Nordiques in today's NHL. Quebec's final draft class in 1994 alone featured Wade Belak, an enforcer from Nashville also expected to retire this offseason, current Ranger Chris Drury, Avalanche forward Milan Hedjuk and Boston's own Tim Thomas.
Thomas was a ninth-round pick out of the University of Vermont, and he's often thought about how he was drafted by a team that no longer exists. It's only fitting, since few ever expected the unorthodox netminder to make it in the NHL either. "Yeah, definitely, I have, but I've thought about it at each step," Thomas said. "I've been thinking about it the whole time. I didn't know I was going to get drafted. When I was, it was a surprise to me, and to just about everybody else I think."
Close to 2,000 Quebec fans traveled to New Jersey to see the Bruins take on the Devils in the regular-season finale on Sunday. It was part of an effort to lure the NHL back to Quebec, but the fans took time to present Thomas with a Nordiques 1994 draft jersey. It was a gesture he appreciated, as Thomas does feel a link to the franchise that moved to Colorado in 1995.
"I wasn't officially a Nordique," Thomas said. "I was drafted by them, but I never signed a contract with them and I never went to a Nordiques camp. After my first college year, I did go to a Colorado camp and their rookie camp, but I never signed a contract with them. Maybe I'll be the last person drafted by the Nordiques still playing. That's is kind of cool if you think about it."
Photo courtesy of Flickr/slidingsideways
