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Posts related to ‘Chris Kelly’
| Bruins-Devils Live Blog: Nick Palmieri ties it at 3 | 11.15.11 at 6:38 pm ET |
| Bruins-Sabres Live Blog: Marc-Andre Gragnani makes it 6-2 | 11.12.11 at 6:56 pm ET |
| Bruins ‘tired’ of last place, can leap-frog Islanders with win | 11.07.11 at 12:27 pm ET |
The B’s have finally won two games in a row, but to say they’ve polished off a greasy breakfast and finally shaken that nasty Stanley Cup hangover may be a bit of a stretch. After all, they’re still in last place in the Eastern Conference.
That can change Monday night at TD Garden, though. Neither of the Bruins’ last two wins have let them budge in the standings, but that’s just the NHL being the NHL. It’s tough to move in the standings when points are doled out in such plentiful fashion. With the Islanders in town, the Bruins will face the only other team in the Eastern Conference with only 10 points, so a victory Monday would move the B’s out of 15th, all the way up to 14th.
“We can move up the standings. That’s got to be a motivation factor,” Chris Kelly said after Monday’s morning skate. “I think all the guys are tired of seeing our name at the bottom there, so you’ve just got to come out and be consistent like we were the last game. ”
The last game to which Kelly refers saw the B’s score seven goals, and the one before that had them score five. Now it’s a matter of the B’s keeping the pedal to the medal, because it will take a prolonged stretch of winning hockey to get the Bruins back into the playoff picture. Kelly likes the way things have been going of late, but rather than looking at the progress they make in the standings, he’ll look at progress on the ice.
“Obviously you want to move up int he standings, but it’s early days. We just need to focus on playing our best hockey,” Kelly said. “If we don’t play the way we’re capable of playing, then we won’t move up the standings and we’ll be stuck where we’re at. I think if you get too focused on the standings at this point of the year, I think you can maybe get in trouble.”
Not as much trouble as the B’s will be in if they stay in last place for much longer. Monday provides them with an opportunity to get out of a position they never belonged in, and they’d be wise to capitalize.
| Chris Kelly to become grumpier old man with 500th NHL game | at 12:07 pm ET |
In the Bruins’ media guide, Chris Kelly put that the one word he would use to describe himself is “grumpy.”
Chris Kelly will play in his 500th career game Monday. (AP)
Now, Kelly has yet to reveal that characteristic in his dealings with the media, but on Monday, he’ll take one step toward being a grumpier old man. Monday’s tilt with the Islanders will be the 500th game of Kelly’s career.
“I didn’t know it was 500. My dad actually reminded me yesterday,” Kelly said Monday. “It’s always nice to hit a milestone like that.”
The soon-to-be 31-year-old is in his first full season with the Bruins. Acquired last February from the Senators in exchange for a second-round pick, Kelly fit in quickly with the Bruins’ tight-knit group, so well, in fact, that when Mark Recchi retired, it was he and Andrew Ference who inherited the ‘A.’
“He’s wearing an ‘A’ because he’s a good leader and also a very well-respected teammate,” Claude Julien said Monday of Kelly. “He’s got a lot of qualities that when we got him, we knew about. All he did was reinforce those.”
In his career, Kelly has 80 goals and 108 assists for 188 points. He will center Benoit Pouliot and Jordan Caron Monday.
| Andrew Ference on D&C: ‘We needed a little shakeup’ | 10.21.11 at 10:47 am ET |
Andrew Ference
Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference joined Dennis & Callahan Friday morning for his weekly appearance. After the Bruins’ dominating 6-2 victory over the Maple Leafs Thursday night, Ference talked about Boston’s line changes and improvement on the power play.
“It’s one of those things, the power play was actually working pretty good, we were getting the puck around, we just weren’t putting it in,” Ference said. “We were working towards larger things on the power play and we felt that it was doing a lot of good things, so it was a matter of time.”
The Bruins scored twice on the power play against Toronto, with Ference assisting on one of those goals. In addition to better play from special teams, the Bruins also benefited from some line changes made by coach Claude Julien in recent days. The top line of Milan Lucic, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin was particularly effective against the Maple Leafs. Ference said that the line changes helped the Bruins get back to focusing on the simple parts of the game.
“I think it helped, it energized guys I think a bit, just to give them a little kick in the pants,” Ference said. “I think when you change linemates, you get out of your comfort zone a bit. You really just concentrate on doing simple things, like skating hard, getting to the net, throwing pucks at the net.
”It was a good move. We needed a little shakeup. Guys were a little bit stale with the old lines and you can always go back to them, but I think just letting guys concentrate on the simple things really helps.”
Ference also talked about emotions running high in the Bruins’ loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday and forward Shawn Thornton‘s value to the team.
Following are more highlights from the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.
On Boston’s penalty-filled loss to the Hurricanes: “I think that game, the emotion was a byproduct of the frustration. When our team’s good, the emotion’s just a part of our game. It’s not forced, it’s just there. I think that I mentioned after the game, the game of hockey within its rules allows us to be very physical, allows us to be emotional without hitting the box all night. When our team’s playing well, sure there are fights here and there, but we’re just a physical team all the time. We’re always hitting, always forechecking, always giving teams no room. … In a game where there’s a bunch of fights and a bunch of penalties and it’s just kind of chaotic with the physical stuff, that’s going to happen once in a while but that stuff’s definitely not something that we define ourselves as.”
| Chris Kelly ready for top-six duties, but not ready to panic | 10.20.11 at 12:44 pm ET |
Bruins alternate captain Chris Kelly has been on some Ottawa teams that have gotten off to slow starts. With all due respect to the Ottawa squad that began last season 1-4-1, there’s probably a different feeling when it’s the defending Stanley Cup champions that is struggling out of the gate.
Chris Kelly knows the Bruins are capable of better performances. (AP)
With the changes to the lines made by Claude Julien, Kelly has gone from being the team’s third-line center to becoming a top-six forward, as he has centered Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin the last two days in practice. Kelly has plenty of experience playing with Seguin since coming to Boston, as he played with the youngster last season and began this season on a line with the 19-year-old, but Thursday will mark the first time he’s been on a regular line with Lucic. He likes the rapport he’s developed with Lucic in his limited time working with him in practice.
“Looch plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Kelly said. “He’s up and down the ice, he plays his position, he works hard on both ends. I don’t see it being much of a problem playing with him.”
Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes has easily been the ugliest showing from the B’s this season, as they lost their composure and saw them play themselves right out of the game with unnecessary penalties.
“I think you always want to bounce back from losses,” Kelly said. “This is a character locker room. I was fortunate to come into this locker room. They showed that [before I was here] and we need to show that. I don’t see that being that different tonight.”
The B’s will have their work cut out for them Thursday. The Maple Leafs have yet to lose a game in regulation (4-0-1), while the B’s are merely trying to turn a corner after a disappointing start to the season. As ugly as Tuesday’s loss is, Kelly looks at the character of the Bruins’ room and the fact that the season is young and feels there’s only reason for optimism.
“I think we’ve also done some things right, but there’s a lot of things that we want to do better,” Kelly said. “… We’re six games in, and there’s 82 games for a reason. We all know we can play better.”
| Andrew Ference, Chris Kelly to share Mark Recchi’s old ‘A’ | 10.06.11 at 12:07 pm ET |
Either Mark Recchi had some inside information, or he’s incredibly insightful.
The Bruins on Thursday announced that Andrew Ference and Chris Kelly will share the ‘A’ last worn by the retired winger. Ference and Kelly were the two guys Recchi named first when asked Tuesday about the letter.
Ference will wear the letter for home games, while Kelly will wear it on the road. The two will switch halfway through the season, with Kelly getting it in home games.
The Bruins had the options of giving the letter to one player or sharing it with multiple guys. In the end, they chose to go with two players, and they’re confident they picked the right two.
“We didn’t think we’d get as much impact with just moving it around all the time,” Julien said. “There’s got to be some sort of stability, but our leadership group remains bigger than the letters that are out there. We’re going to take advantage of that inside the dressing room.”
Ference has been with the Bruins since 2007, while Kelly was acquired from the Senators last February. The Bruins didn’t let the fact that Kelly has less than a season of experience with the team get in the way of him being recognized for his leadership.
“He was known as a great leader in Ottawa, but he sort of felt his way through before he started showing those qualities to the extreme,” Julien said. “In the playoffs, it was pretty obvious what kind of a leader he was. Our guys and the coaching staff recognized that.”
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