Bruins right winger Shawn Thornton took a beating from Buffalo's John Scott. (AP)

Shawn Thornton will not return to Thursday’s game after suffering a beating at the hands of Sabres enforcer John Scott.

The 6-foot-8 Scott and 6-foot-2 Thornton squared off at the Sabres blue line just three minutes in the game. Before Thornton could get himself free to throw punches, Scott delivered no fewer than five rights to the head and neck area of the Bruins enforcer. Thornton and Scott went to the penalty box to serve their fighting majors.

The fight did not come as a surprise as the game was billed as a physical contest coming in, with several physical tussles expected between the Bruins and the Sabres, who were trying to make a point in the Northeast Division. Anticipating the fisticuffs, the Bruins scratched healthy players Aaron Johnson and Chris Bourque, activating Lane MacDermid.

Once the penalties expired, Thornton went immediately down the Bruins tunnel and into the dressing room and did not return. The Bruins announced at the start of the second period that he would not be returning but did not specify the nature of his injury.

The fight had no impact on the scoreboard as the two teams skated to a scoreless first period. The Bruins actually fell behind 1-0 early in the second before awakening with three goals in a span of 5:42, including back-to-back goals from Brad Marchand in a span 3:11.

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NESN Bruins analyst Barry Pederson spoke with Dennis & Callahan on Wednesday morning about the Bruins’ hot start, Dougie Hamilton‘s role, and which players aren’t quite in top form yet.

“I think the exciting thing is, they’ve got [11] points and they’re not anywhere near hitting on all cylinders,” Pederson said. ”What I saw in November and December of [2011] was, to me, the best I’ve sen a Bruins team play since the [Bobby] Orr and [Phil] Esposito days. When they were just totally dominating after those two months, and then just ran out of gas.

“That’s when the Bruins are hitting on all cylinders to me — when their team defense is good, they’re getting contributions from their special teams. This is a team that’s right up there as the best 5-on-5 team in the National Hockey League. It doesn’t take much to contribute on special teams to put them over the hump. But I think, more importantly, when you see this team playing physically and dominating teams on the forechecking game, that’s when they’re hitting on all cylinders.”

After seeing Tyler Seguin‘s shootout bid interrupted by an “unidentified food object” in Tuesday night’s shootout win over the Devils, Pederson offered some of the stranger things he saw thrown on the ice during his NHL career.

“Thumbtacks, some beer bottles. Of course it was crazy when beer bottles were glass,” he said. “There’s animals and rats and everything else. It was kind of funny there, but as we all know, one of the things you hate when you’re out there playing is something you can’t see on the ice and you step on it, and bang, somebody blows out a knee.”

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When the Bruins went on their Stanley Cup run in 2011, they made a habit of scoring big goals late in games.

The last two nights, the Bruins have gone back to their Cup-winning formula, hanging in games close and winning them late.

In Raleigh Monday night, they needed someone to step up and it was Dougie Hamilton feeding David Krejci for the go-ahead marker with under two minutes left in regulation.

On Tuesday night, with the team battling to find its legs for 40 minutes, it was Tuukka Rask who held the fort until the burst of energy came in the form of a third-period awakening. The period started strong and finished strong as Nathan Horton beat Johan Hedberg with 4:05 remaining to send the game into a shootout.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Horton said. “That’s what we talked about, you’re not always going to be at your best, but we pull through. You’re down a goal, you’re down two goals, it doesn’t matter you just work hard and fight back. That’s the kind of team we are and the kind of guys we are on our team. We all know we can come back when we’re down and I think that’s what makes us so good.

“I think we knew all along we can come back, we’ve done it a lot before in the past. Just to reassure that, to know that we can come back at any time, I think again when we roll four lines here, we stay fresh, and you keep battling away, eventually you’re gonna win.”

Not even a sausage-throwing moron from the stands could stand in the way of Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand and the Bruins walking away with the hard-earned and well-deserved two points. Talk about tasty. Seguin had to score twice in the shootout to put the Bruins on the board and Marchand netted the game-winner in the sixth “inning” as the shootout went three extra rounds.

“It was tough, but we found a way,” Seguin said. “I think the main thing is, we have to keep our shifts short, and we were pretty good at that. We were pretty stingy. We didn’t give a ton. We played a good game. Read the rest of this entry »

Shawn Thornton provided early energy for the Bruins with his bout vs. Devils forward Krys Barch. (AP)

Brad Marchand scored the decisive goal in the sixth round while Tuukka Rask stopped 5-of-6 shots in the shootout as the Bruins beat the Devils, 2-1 in overtime Tuesday night at TD Garden. The Bruins (5-0-1) have gained at least a point in all six games this season. The highlight of the shootout came when Tyler Seguin had to re-do his first shot that produced a goal because a fan threw something on the ice. Seguin repeated his effort and scored again.

The Bruins and Devils are the only teams in the Eastern Conference without a regulation loss so far, joining San Jose and Chicago in the West, who were perfect coming into Tuesday’s action.

The two teams battled to a scoreless tie in the opening 20 minutes. Each team recorded nine shots on goal but neither team sustained serious pressure. The main highlight of the first period was a fight between Boston enforcer Shawn Thornton and New Jersey tough guy Krys Barch. In a bout that lasted for nearly a minute and a half, Thornton landed several clean shots before the two were broken apart by the officials, with both teams applauding their skater for staying on their feet the entire time.

The Bruins killed off an Andrew Ference tripping penalty with five minutes left in the first, giving them 24 straight kills to open the season.

But the Bruins were not as lucky in the second period as Johnny Boychuk was whistled for tripping at 7:22. David Clarkson redirected a Marek Zidlicky shot from the left point past Tuukka Rask for the first power play goal allowed by the Bruins in 25 chances this season.

The Bruins would kill off the next three power play chances and finished the game 4-for-5 on the penalty kill. They are 27-of-28 on the penalty kill this season.

The Bruins came out with much greater intensity in the opening minute of the third period and were buzzing around Johan Hedberg. Boston’s best chance came when Dougie Hamilton fired a shot from the left point that just went wide, missing the stick of David Krejci. Instead of a goal, Krejci was called for goaltender interference, taking some momentum away from the Bruins. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bruins have started out 3-0-1 and have looked impressive in the process.

But for 40 minutes Friday night, Claude Julien watched as his team was sluggish, falling behind 2-1 to the Islanders before recovering to tie the game, 2-2, before the third period.

Zdeno Chara scored on a perfect pass from Milan Lucic with just under 13 minutes left to break the tie and Patrice Bergeron add late insurance in a 4-2 win.

“Obviously happy we haven’t lost in regulation yet. But, I don’t think we’re extremely happy with our game [Friday],” Julien said. “For 40 minutes, I didn’t think we were on top of our game, we didn’t seem to be in sync, we didn’t seem to have the energy that we usually show. So, it was a struggle for us tonight, but the last 20 were a little bit better, we found a way to win. A lot of times, that’s what you’ve got to do, you’ve got to push through those kind of nights and we did. So, you take the two points and you move on.”
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He’s only 19 but defenseman Dougie Hamilton is already showing why the Bruins’ management felt comfortable putting him right into the fire of the NHL.

Hamilton had two assists as the Bruins defeated the New York Islanders 4-2 Friday night at TD Garden. The crowd began to chant his name in the third period after his outlet pass set up Patrice Bergeron‘s insurance goal. The players are already singing to him in the locker room, asking him to — as the song says — “Teach me how to Dougie.”

Claude Julien noted Hamilton work in juniors that prepared him for his debut early on in this shortened season.

“There’s a couple of things that’s happened to help him along the way here,” Julien said. “He’s been playing since September with his junior team, he’s gone to the World Juniors, so he’s played in high-caliber tournaments. So, he’s got that experience and he’s come in here with a good jump, having played four months of hockey and right now he’s playing with a lot of confidence. The guys that he’s playing with have been extremely helpful with him on the ice.

“I think that’s why our [front office] guys drafted him, because they saw a lot of things we’re seeing right now. We liked his size, we liked the way he moved on the ice, but at the same time, we thought he had real good hockey sense. He sees the ice well, he finds the passing lanes and you saw on that goal, breakout out of our own end. You see the guy scoring, but it all starts from our end, and that was from his pass to [Brad] Marchand and to Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] for the breakaway. Those kind of things is what our scouts saw in him and those kind of things he’s demonstrating right now. You have to be pleased and impressed with a young player playing the way he has been.”

Daniel Paille decks Islanders defenseman Brian Strait as the Bruins and Islanders battled at the Garden. (AP)

Zdeno Chara fired a wrist shot past Rick DiPietro with just under 13 minutes left in the third period to break a 2-2 tie, as the Bruins bounced back from their first loss of the season with a 4-2 win over the Islanders Friday night at TD Garden. Rookie sensation Dougie Hamilton added two assists and set up Boston’s fourth goal with a pretty outlet pass as the Garden crowd began to chant his name.

The Bruins overcame a two-goal night from Waltham and Chelmsford, Mass. native Keith Aucoin to improve to 3-0-1 in the young season. With seven points on the season, they also have gained a point in all four games.

Tuukka Rask has started all four games and stopped 24 of 26 shots on the night to record his third win.

The Bruins jumped on top just under five minutes into the game when Shawn Thornton collected a loose puck and put it past DiPietro. Hamilton set up the goal when he took a shot from the right point that deflected off the stick of Daniel Paille. DiPietro couldn’t control the shot and Thornton was in the right spot on the doorstep for his first goal of the season and Hamilton’s second NHL point.

The Islanders tied it six minutes later when the red-hot Aucoin took a pass from Colin McDonald from the side of the net and put it past Rask.

The first period featured a fight between Milan Lucic in which the Bruins leveled Matt Carkner with a right cross, getting the Friday night Garden crowd into the game.

The Islanders opened the second period on the power play. While they couldn’t score, they used the advantage to gain momentum of the game. That proved productive when Rask and the Bruins allowed a loose puck to bounce uncontrolled to the high slot. Aucoin was in the right spot at the right time again and blasted a slap shot past Rask at 9:50 of the period for an unassisted goal, his second of the game and third in two nights.

The Bruins used good fortune to gain the equalizer four minutes later when David Krejci threw a puck on net from the far boards. The puck glanced off the skate of Islanders defenseman Joe Finley and onto the stick of Gregory Campell, who put it past DiPietro to make it 2-2 after 40 minutes.

With just under 13 minutes left, the Bruins regained the lead when Lucic took a pass from Nathan Horton and fired a pass from the right circle to the tape of Chara. The Bruins captain snapped a wrist shot from the slot past DiPietro to give the Bruins the lead with 12:53 remaining. It was his first goal of the season and he pumped both hands in the air in relief after the goal. Read the rest of this entry »