Bruins Choose Zach Hamill With 8th Overall Pick

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11095&hubname=

The Bruins have picked Zach Hamill with their first round pick. TSN has him seen as a bit of a reach, ranking him 16th of thier top 60 prospects. Though Central scouting had him ranked number 9 among North American skaters.

From TSN's Top 60 Prospects:

In the post-lockout NHL, there is obviously room for the smaller, skilled player
and Everett Silvertips' forward Zach Hamill certainly fits the bill. After all,
he was the WHL regular season scoring champion this season, playing on a team
which went into every game hoping to win 1-0 or 2-1.

From this Central Scouting:

http://bluejackets.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=318487

A playmaking forward with good stick-handling ability... very good on special
teams, especially effective on the power-play... sees the ice well and sets up
his linemates with his good passing abilities... needs to work on his
acceleration and breakaway speed... sometimes needs better puck pursuit

At 5'11, 190, he doesn't seem to be too undersized, 93 pts in 69 games in the WHL show him to have a scoring touch. He also won a Gold for Canada in the Under-18 Juinor Cup.

Here are two videos of Hamill from youtube:

A nice between the legs shootout goal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTOr_mBnPiE

A higlight package of goals set to shitty music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVpneQeJavE&mode=related&search=

I'm not any sort of prospect maven, so I can't really make a judgement call on this.

New Uniforms

http://www.hockeyjournal.com/Article.php?ArtID=857547

The Bruins are getting new jerseys to go wth their new coach. I think they are quite good looking, very subtle changes that make it look almost vintge, like the 70's uniforms. I suppose if you can't put a championship team on the ice you culd at least dress them like a chamionship team.

Apparently these are the new Reebok jerseys that are supposed to be sleeker with a tighter fit. I suppose you wowuldn't be able to tell unless they were actually on a player, but the fit doesn;t seem as drastic as originally rumored. In fact, I had original wrote something about how the new uniform might have meant the Reebok uniforms had been scrapped. I'm glad they toned down the drastic changes.

All 30 teams will be getting new uniforms and I can't wait to see the other 29.

Its Official: Julien Will Coach the B's

http://bruins.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=319883&page=NewsPage&service=page

"Julien, a 47 year-old native of Kanata, Ontario, will be formally introduced to
the Boston media today at a 10:30 a.m. ET press conference to be held at the TD
Banknorth Garden.Julien has four years of National Hockey League (NHL) head
coaching experience and most recently served as the Head Coach of the New Jersey
Devils. In his lone season with New Jersey, he held a record of 47-24-8 before
being replaced on April 2, 2007 with three games remaining in the 2006-2007
regular season. At the time he was replaced by the Devils, Julien's club was in
first place in the Atlantic Division."

I'm not sure what to make of his hiring. I would have prefered the Bruins to just promote Scott Gordon from Peovidence, he seems to work well with the young guys and Beregeron gave him a ringing endorsement a week or so ago.

He is the Bruins' 17th coach in 30 years.

A good note from this TSN article: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=211393&hubname

Julien said he wants to establish a more physical style of
play in Boston, ''not with a few players but will the whole group.''
''You
want to be gritty in all areas,'' he said.

Also the Bruins owner, Jeremy Jacobs, has been named chairman of the NHL Board of Governers.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=211402&hubname=nhl

Well This Was NEEDED

Boston Bruins Press Release

"Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has relieved Head Coach Dave Lewis and Associate Coach Marc Habscheid of their coaching duties, and will reassign them to other positions within the club.

"Since the season has ended I have completed a thorough review of the team and the coaching staff, and I have determined that Dave Lewis and Marc Habscheid are not the proper fit for the Bruins at this time," said Chiarelli. "I have a short list of candidates in mind, and I hope to have a new Head Coach in place in the near future.""

Bruins Want To Get Giggy With It?

Oh god. I'm so sorry for headline. I hope that's a phrase that will die out soon.

But this is from the latest John Buccigross article on ESPN:

"The Bruins' roster is still a mess. As a result, quality goaltending is a must. The chances of getting Giguere are as good as anyone if Anaheim doesn't sign him before July 1. He has to wait because you never know what kind of offer you'll get. With Giguere's style and age, I would be very aggressive if I were the Bruins. I'd offer him an eight-year deal for $50 million. That's where I would start."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=buccigross_john&id=2902151


That's a crazy contract for anyone. 8 years? Besides, I don't think that Giguere would be the best solution. He wouldn't make the Bruin's an instant contender. Remember, despite his two brilliant playoff performences, he has been somewhat inconsistent in the regular season-struggling and even losing his starting job to Ilya Bryzgalov just a year ago. He might end up being a waste of money for whoever does get him.

Given that the Bruins are still rebuilding with youth, and have 2 quality goalie prospects, I don't think its a great idea to lock up a veteren goalie for 8 years and saddle the team with a huge contract.

I think the Bruins need an upgrade in goal, I'm not comfortable going in with Thomas as the starter, especially if that results in Toivonen sitting on the bench. If Hannu doesn't play consistently, he can't develop. I'd be happier and think the Bruins would be better off with a shorter term sloution. Perhaps signing Manny Fernandez or Curtis Joeseph to a one or two year deal?

More breaking news

Nate Dempsey signed with European team SC Bern-Swiss National League

Just around the corner

The Bruins, with the No. 8 pick in the upcoming amateur draft, this weekend summoned to town five top prospects, including Angelo Esposito, touted the last couple of years as a surefire top three (if not No. 1) pick. However, the Central Scouting Bureau's rankings had the Montreal-born center slotted No. 8 among North American skaters. Factoring in Europeans and goalies, he could end up going in the middle of Round 1. Why the fall from grace? "He didn't have as good a year as the year before," noted Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli,

Alberts Re-Signed

http://bruins.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=318134&page=NewsPage&service=page

Nothing about the money or lenght in the official site's press release.

Since its an extension, does that mean he gets the same money as he did before? I would think so, and that would put his salary at 610,000. Prety cheap for a big, young defensemen who is likely to improve.

He should develop into a nice guy to have around. He won't put up many points but he can hit and can shut down some opponents. Hopefully he will get the minutes needed for him to grow into his role and won't be buried on the depth chart, behind the rotting corpses of Jason York and Bobby Allen.

York is old and was probably toasted before the lockout, and Allen is just a journeyman minor leaguer. Alberts is probably better than Widemen too, especialy defensively, although I like Wideman for the powerplay.

Bruins top 6 D-men:

Chara

Ference

Ward

Stuart

Alberts

Wideman

Not great, but probably (hopefully) servicable. Three young guys and three more experienced guys, a nice even blend that should be reflected in the pairings. Hopefully it'll be three pairs of: Youth-Experience

Like:

Chara-Alberts

Ward-Stuart

Ference-Wideman

Edit:
Andrew Alberts will earn a total of $2.5 million over the next two seasons, with an annual cap hit of $1.25 million.

Alberts will be paid $1.1 million in 2007-08, then make $1.4 million in 2008-09.

Alberts earned $661,300 this past season. The defenseman will turn 26 later this month.

Do the Bruins resign this RFA?

Bish's Blog sucks

But I'm taking all of the important parts of it and sharing it with you!

-"Former Bruins coach Mike Sullivan is now an assistant with Tampa Bay."

HAHAHAHAH! Poor Bay of Hockey.


-"USA Today reported recently that Boston GM Peter Chiarelli has gotten inquires from other clubs about some of the B's core group, but said, "I tell them all pretty much the same thing…They're our core guys and I'm not inclined to do anything.""

If it's anything like MOC not trading Tim Thomas for a first round pick or Bergeron for Drury (with a contract), I'm not too sure ill be surprised, but its likely Alberts and Bochenski, Murray, Bergeron. It doesnt really matter.


-"On another note, that of making NHL nets bigger, the B's GM surmised, "It's not a dead issue. The goals have gone down during the playoffs, which is part of the reason it's come up again…But at the same time, I think the games have been exciting, so…it's the same discussion, should we make the nets bigger or maybe look at making the goalie equipment smaller.""

Please make equipment smaller. They can fit a wide screen TV under their pads. Do not change the net size. This league is going to hell. In 10 years I expect all players to be replaced by monkeys because it worked in that Disney movie and everyone loves Disney movies. (Maybe changing the ducks back to "The Mighty Ducks" will get people to come to more games... DUURRR no!)


- "The New England Hockey Journal reported that Bruins 2006 draft pick Andrew Bodnarchuk was named co-MVP of the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads."

Congrats!

- "The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel reported that former Bruin Al Sims was named the head coach of the Fort Wayne Komets."

Congrats!


Now, in no way will I ever show a picture of myself being attacked my a stuffed animal. In no way will Justin or I post crap about our trips to places you cant afford unless it has to do with hockey, and not rather the lack of it. Its officialy on. BostonBruinsRock blog is challenging Bish's blog. Now, we might not get the insides that he gets, but we can sure as hell come up with better topics and stay on topic and not go into great detail about the gum we licked off of Dave Lewis' shoe.

The Goalies

The old saying in baseball is that you can never have enough pitching. Its the same for goaltending in the NHL. There no such thing as too many.

Unless you have a workhorse like Martin Broduer, your "backup" goalie is likely going to play in a significant number of games.

So it seems a good thing that Bruins appear to have a fairly deep reserve of goalies in
Tim Thomas, Hannu Toivonen, and Tuukka Rask as well as Joey McDonald, and Jordan Sigalet.

Unfortunately those four are questionalble in terms of quality, experience and durability.

As far as quality goes the, Tim Thomas has been average, or just slightly above it in his two years in the NHL. A 2.77 GAA and a .917 S% in 38 games in 05-06 and a 3.13GAA and .905S% in 66 games last year. These aren't bad numbers, but are not good enough for him to be the number one goalie on any contending team. And he certainly won't be leading this team to sucess anytime soon. Despite only two years in the NHL, Timmy is not an up and comer, he's 34, he is not going to get better and is only poised to decline with age.

However, I believe, given his hot streaks, he could be decent trade bait and would definately be worth keeping around as a nice backup.

Also, despite his aforemention limited NHL experience, he actually is the most seasoned goalie here.

Toivenen has the next most experience, with just 38 games under his belt in two years, partly due to injuries. Hannu was superb in the AHL, playing in 90 games in two years, compiling save percentages of .921 and .932 and goals against averages of 2.30 and 2.05. He continued his great play in 20 NHL games in 05-06, getting a .914 S% and 2.63 GAA. He struggled the following year before going down with a knee injury and eventually being left to sort out his difficulties in Providence.

Given his youth (23 yrs old), history (AHL stats above) and pedigree (1st round pick) I have no doubts in his ability to recover and become the franchise goalie that everyone had envisioned.

Tukka Rask is by far the least experienced. He has never played an NHL game. Or an AHL game. In fact, I'm not sure he's ever even set foot in North America. In fact, the only professional experience he has comes from 34 games in the Finnish Elite League, where he did excell, with a GAA of 2.09 and S% of .926. Given his inexperience, no one should expect him to be anywhere but Providence this season. But he is consider by many to be the best goaltending prospect in the game, so the future looks bright.

McDonald and Sigalet don't have as much as experience as Hannu or Timmy, but they have more than Rask. McDonald has been around the AHL enough to be considered at least a minor league vet and Sigalet has been in Providence for about a season in addition to his college experience. Neither one of these guys are as good as Thomas or Toivonen, and may not be better than Rask right now. Niether one seems to have much in the way upside, but both could maybe sneek in as a backup goalie somewhere. But they would be a true a backup and can only be trusted for a handful games.

So, it appears that the Bruins would go into camp with Thomas and Hannu battling it out. Unless of course the Bruins sign a free agent goaltender...which is a topic for another time

Coach

Dave lewis is horrible. Too many times has he messed up. Has anyone seen what his son looks like? I have.

Now, in no way am I about to start a rumor here. It's an idea. A thought. Because rumors are garbage. waste of time 98% are wrong anyways.

Bryan Murray, coach of the Senators,has yet to be resigned. As of July 1st, he is a free man. Now, Chiarelli might want to take up this chance. I beleive that Dave Lewis will be gone if not half way through this season, then the start of next season. Chiarelli seems to love his guys back in Ottawa. Is this on his mind? IT GOD DAMN BETTER BE!

-Ari