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Dennis Seidenberg’s late goal lifts Bruins past Senators to end skid 03.21.13 at 10:15 pm ET
By DJ Bean

Dennis Seidenberg

Dennis Seidenberg‘s first goal of the season was a huge one, as the veteran blue liner took a feed from Zdeno Chara following a Patrice Bergeron faceoff win with just over a minute to play and blasted a one-timer past Robin Lehner to break a late tie and give the Bruins a 2-1 lead over the Senators Thursday night in Ottawa.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Bruins and improved them to 20-6-3 on the season. The B’s got the win on a night in which Claude Julien made Rich Peverley a healthy scratch, keeping Ryan Spooner in the lineup as David Krejci made his return from a knee injury.

The Senators got on the board when Kaspars Daugavins fired a wrist shot past Anton Khudobin early in the second period. After a sloppy showing throughout the second period for the B’s, Daniel Paille beat Lehner with a wrister with 1:22 remaining in the second to tie the game.

The Bruins will play the first game of a home-and-home with the Maple Leafs by wrapping up their four-game road trip Saturday night in Toronto.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

- Julien treated the Merlot line as his third line Thursday night, and it paid off with Paille’s goal. The Paille-Gregory Campbell- Shawn Thornton line got got more shifts and ice time than the trio of Spooner between Jay Pandolfo and Jordan Caron, with Campbell playing 15:33 to Spooner’s 8:17.

- Khudobin came through for the B’s in the final 30 seconds of the first period, making big stops with the Senators buzzing in the offensive zone against the Spooner line. The backup netminder came up with stops on Kyle Turris, Jakob Silfverberg and Patrick Wiercioch in what was a frantic end to the first period.

- Paille’s strong offensive season continues, as his six goals put his total through 69 games last season (nine) easily within reach. Paille’s career-high for goals is 19, which he got with the Sabres in the 2007-08 season. His best total as a Bruin is 10 in 2009-10.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRUINS

- The B’s were sloppy, sloppy, sloppy from an offensive standpoint in the second period. Krejci’s line blew a 3-on-1 when Milan Lucic made an extra pass to Nathan Horton and failed to connect. Later in the second, the B’s were on an odd-man rush and Lucic passed to Tyler Seguin, who had turned back to go for a line change.

- Speaking of line changes, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron were getting off as the Senators went the other way on the rush on which Daugavins gave the Senators the 1-0 lead.

- The Bruins went without a shot on goal in both of their power plays, as the B’s made it three straight games without a power-play goal (0-for-8). Julien tweaked the units for the first power play, putting Seguin on the second unit and replacing him on the top unit with Spooner. Dougie Hamilton was also moved to the second unit, with Seidenberg taking his place on the point on the first unit.

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  • NYCBruinsFan

    Glad to see the B’s win one in the 3rd. Way to put it on goal Dennis.

  • Anonymous

    nice win, would’ve like to see ulf neil get a beating but 2 points is 2 points.

  • Anonymous

    A win is a win. Be nice to dominate once in a while. Montreal has showed up as a real threat. Goalie great job. Go B’s.

  • Fab4ever

    At no point did they make me feel comfortable that they could win this game. That last power play was wretched..no shots..barely any offense. The guys were gassed. A win is a win. A move forward…that’s it.

  • Titletown1

    Khudobin pulled their bacon out of the fire (and no mention of him in the “what went right” paragraph-good job beanbag). The PP is hard to watch at this point. They get more scoring opportunities when they’re short-handed.
    Yet another three on one tonight for Krecji-Lucic-Horton and they didn’t even get a shot off…they need a goal scorer, period.

  • marchandscores

    Dobey – hell of a back up… kept us in the game. Nice to see some emotion in third. This team needs their snarl back. This could be a game to get us back on track.

  • ChrisinDanvers

    It was nice to see this win. It did look a little rocky early on, but the goal to end the game was solid. It was great to see this team actually have a third period that didn’t look as shaky as usual, resulted in them with a goal, and actually had some strong, physical play. Hopefully this is a step forward.

  • Shoe bottom

    The word is out on how to handle the lucic line out skate them and don’t hit Milan. With the exception of the capitols game if you basically leave lucic or Horton alone in the physical play category they simply fall asleep and loose interest which has been about every game. As for the power play I believe the merlot line has earned a chance whats to loose. Last why can’t we unleash Hamilton and let him play his style like a Chris letang, or Dustin byfuflyn. Claude and make everyone a defense first player is one dimensional. I think sea bass should step up and kick some butt.

  • ILoveHockey

    It’s a team style of play, you can’t have everyone moving in one direction, defense, and have another guy doing his own thing- that’s when you end up with chemisty problems. See Kessel!

  • ILoveHockey

    I thought Bourque was the problem???????

  • ILoveHockey

    Not sure about fixing this PP. I would feel more comfortable if they just ran their normal lines out there- especially the Bergy line- you give Marchand and Saguin space- with that lines chemistry – goals SHOULD follow. All these different pairings coupled with the fact that they don’t draw a ton of penalties- I don’t think they are going to get it together.

  • Titletown1

    And new problems can’t crop up? Get real. At that time, he was a problem. The team is better by his subtraction. And at that time, the PP was horrible too. It’s been a constant all season.

  • fab4ever

    As I mentioned, again, the power play is wretched…just awful…that last effort was pitiful to watch…dump the puck in, chase it, and I use the term loosely because they had no legs, and watch the other team get to it first and slam it out of the zone..no shots, not even a sniff of a play, nothing. But again, they caught a break, they won, it’s one less game on the schedule, they keep pace, we move on.

  • fab4ever

    Someone in that organization has to be smarter than you and I…and I’m sure they see even more than we do…I’d like to believe that they are plotting at this very minute, a plan on how to improve the team and power play because frankly, it’s not getting done and hasn’t for 2 seasons…even in 2011, they weren’t exactly setting the NHL on fire with that power play…I keep hearing rumbles about Jagir coming to Boston…I’d welcome that trade provided they don’t have to break up the current group…he might be 41 but he’s big, he brings veteran leadership (think Mark Recchi) and he still has game, bear witness to his current stats…he’s a playmaker….what they don’t need is Morrow…he’s scrappy but they don’t need “scrappy”…

  • ILoveHockey

    I agree with you that the organization has been kept up nights with this PP- it has been longer than 2 seasons though. In the Cup year all the talk was how bad their PP was and you can’t win a cup without a decent PP.
    They have to trade for someone before the deadline, not sure I’m as optomistic as you about Jagr, with all the cap space they have right now I’d like to see them make a bigger splash- who knows who is available, and at what cost though.
    Easy for us to make moves, complaints from behind our keyboards though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ILoveHockey

    I’m just giving you a hard time because of how much attention you gave the Bourque thing, I realize this team has problems.
    One problem that I didn’t think they would have is they don’t seem to play that hard hitting, team that other teams don’t want to play style this year- my assumption is it is due to the condensed schedule. I hope in the final stretch of 5-8 games they ramp that up in prep of the playoffs, that is a huge advantage they have had over other teams in the past and they require it to be dominant

  • Uncle Buck

    Good points, agreed. Nobody likes to say this and the team would never admit it, but this has been a brutal stretch in the schedule and we all knew it would be challenging. They are hanging on despite some injuries. The snarl will come back with rest, health and the big games. But as we all have said in one way or another, they need a lamp lighter.

  • fab4ever

    The talk is whatever they get, it will cost them either the combo of 2 prospects, or a prospect and a current payer…or…a player and a pick…or something to that effect…in other words, it won’t be cheap…

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