New Bruins superstar Jaromir Jagr, acquired in a Tuesday trade with the Stars, says he’s not a young kid anymore but he’s very happy to be with the Bruins.

At 41, Jagr figures to re-energize a team that again has aspirations of lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup in June.

So, it’s no surprise to find Jagr hasn’t given serious thought to retirement.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I love to play. If I feel healthy and I feel like I can play on some kind of good level, I want to keep playing, if I can get an opportunity to play. I’m not going to saying anything [like] I’m retiring because I’m not ready for it. I love the game too much, so if I’m not good for the NHL, I’m going to go and play in the Czech League or somewhere else but I still love the game and like everybody else, if you love something, you just don’t want to let it go. You hold it ’til you can.”

Is there enough left in the tank?

“I believe where there is love there is no time,” Jagr said with a smile.

“I [don't have] a no-trade clause so I guess wherever Dallas got the best opportunity, they took it. But I’m happy about it. You don’t ask questions, you just go to play. Through my whole hockey career, I was pretty lucky to play where it was always good for me. I know it’s going to be good, maybe not from the start but at the end, it’s going to be great.”

Jagr feels like Boston is similar to Philadelphia in 2012, a team that was a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Jagr helped the Flyers beat the Penguins in the first round before losing to the Devils in the Eastern semifinals.

“I’ve changed so I kind of like it,” Jagr said. “I don’t mind it at all. I was in the same situation in Philadelphia last year. I was so happy when I see the other guys play with me, my teammates, doing so good. When they did interviews [in Philadelphia], they said, ‘Jagr helped us.’ So, that’s what makes me also happy, not just scoring goals but he can help. I know I can help. There’s a lot of young guys. I’ve learned a lot of stuff through my hockey career. I played for 23 years and I’ve played with so many great players and I’ve learned so much stuff.

“You can always learn. No matter how old you are, you can always learn. If someone thinks they know everything when he’s 25, he’s lying to himself or he’s dumb. So, you can always learn and I’m here to teach the guys and tell them what I have to go through and make their hockey life easier.”

For more, visit the Bruins team page at weei.com/bruins.

Clearly, the Bruins felt a positive buzz from the acquisition earlier in the day of Czech superstar and future hockey hall of famer Jaromir Jagr. The Bruins went out, fired 50 shots on net and beat the Senators, 3-2, at TD Garden.

But Bruins coach Claude Julien made it very clear that he’s not expecting the 41-year-old player to save the Bruins, just help them, much in the same way Mark Recchi helped Boston to a Stanley Cup in 2011.

“Well, there’s no doubt he’s going to help us,” Julien said. “And I think that’s the key word, he’s coming to help us, he’s not coming to save us. That’s what people have to understand. He’s a great player, and he still is a great player, but at the same time, if we expect to watch him do the work we’re not going to be going anywhere.

“We need our team to play better and he’s certainly going to help our team be better. I like the acquisition – a big strong guy, he’s hard to knock off the puck around the net area, in the corner; he does a great job. To me, he seems to suit our needs and what we’re all about. Again, I know he’s happy to come here and we’ll certainly be happy to have him in our lineup because he’s going to help in a lot of areas.” Read the rest of this entry »

Marty Turco did Tuesday night what he’s always done in his long NHL career – stem the tide.

The powerful Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a couple of fluky goals in the first period.

The 35-year-old in those unmistakable gold pads and blockers then held the fort until the Bruins could muster the strength to tie the game. What happened late in the second period he had little control of as he became a shooting range target during a 5-on-3 power play that yielded two goals and the game was essentially over, as the Penguins prevailed, 5-3.

“I think by the end of the night [with] the chances, the amount of chances, that we had you feel like you deserve to win a hockey game. Those power play goals really ended up costing us, with those calls. But there’s a lot to be taken from this game. For me, it’s the end of the line as far as the regular season goes and these guys, you know, they battle to be down twice like that and even though we went down 5-2 in the third, there was no give up in this bunch,” Turco said.

“And that’s, I think that’s a huge thing for these guys to build on. They’ve been a tremendous third period team, everyone knows that real well. But to see them pour it on at the end and give us a chance was also a good sign too. But at the end of the day it’s disappointing to lose anytime, never mind against a team like that.”

Turco has had quite the career, including with Dallas in 2002-03 when he set a new NHL record with a 1.72 goals against mark. He won the NCAA title with Michigan twice, including in Boston in 1998. He signed with the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in the summer of 2010.

But to find what Turco means to this Bruins team you have to look back to March 3. That’s when Tuukka Rask injured his groin against the Islanders and was essentially lost for the rest of the regular season. Two days later, the Bruins signed Turco, who in December 2011 signed a deal with the EC Red Bull Salzburg of the Erste Bank Hockey League in Austria. He cleared waivers on March 7 and joined the Black and Gold. Since he was signed after the NHL trade deadline, he is not playoff eligible. But that does not diminish his presence over the last four weeks in the Bruins dressing room, and their impact on him.

“It’s been tremendous, really,” Turco said. “I’ve been around for a bit; can’t say that disappointments have been much a part of my time here. I’ve been fortunate to have an opportunity and I’m truly grateful, for my family and I, for [what] the Boston Bruins gave me when things seemed pretty bleak. You want to play great and you want to show them, never mind anyone else, and for the most part – days, game and practice, and being a good team man – I’ve felt pretty proud of my time here so far. Between Tampa and a little bit tonight, those two games – part of them anyway – are pretty disappointing but at the end of the day I’ll continue to hold my head high like I have all year to be ready in this position and still want to play some. So, we’ll see what happens.” Read the rest of this entry »

Just four minutes into Thursday’s slugfest at the Garden, Stars forward Adam Burish came in on Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask and fired a shot several seconds after the whistle had clearly blown, stopping play.

That is a big hockey no-no.

And Andrew Ference made sure Burish paid the penalty. The Bruins defenseman came over to enforce the hockey the law, eventually drawing Burish into a fight — which Ference clearly won — and a message had been sent. Don’t mess with these Bruins or you pay the price, especially on Boston’s home ice.

“We’re a tight group,” said Patrice Bergeron, who scored twice and assisted on an empty-netter. “We’ve always said that and we all know that. We’re … we get along real well off the ice and we try to bring that on the ice. I think that Ference fight is the best example just by showing that he took a shot after the whistle on Tuukka and Andy responded right away. So I think it’s … it showed our unity, and we’ve got to keep going.”

As for Ference himself, he said Thursday’s win showed how the Bruins can get back to being the right mix of talent and toughness, just like 2008-09, when they were the top seed in the East and a favorite to get to the Stanley Cup finals.

“One of the good things we did in that year, and something we’ve established over the last few is, when our team is emotionally and physically involved, we’re a very good team,” Ference said. “We’ve proven that the other way around, too. When it’s not there, we lose games. You know, go back to the Carolina series a couple years ago. I think that’s what almost all of us pointed our fingers at, it was missing. We know that that has to be there for us to be successful, and it was good [against Dallas].”

Bruins coach Claude Julien certainly had no problem with it.

“It was an opportunity for us to step up for each other, and we did and I thought it certainly played in our favor,” Julien said of the four fights in four minutes — three in the opening four seconds. “We’re a team that can handle that and guys seem to be ready for it and certainly that part of it was good. Those two quick goals also were proof that we were ready to play.” Read the rest of this entry »

For the Bruins, Saturday night was alright for fighting and pounding the opponent into submission. Marco Sturm scored twice and the two teams combined to take 36 penalties for 146 penalty minutes, including seven game misconducts (Dallas 4, Boston 3) as the Bruins scored three third period goals to shoot down the Stars at TD Banknorth Garden.

Milan Lucic said while Sean Avery and Steve Ott were trying to draw them into a cheap game, the Bruins kept their cool.

Lucic said it was great to get Marco Sturm rolling with his first two-goal game of the season.

Mark Stuart, who scored in third period, said it was great to give Tim Thomas some support in net.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said it was a physical game.

Chara said the Bruins weren’t about to get pushed around in their building.

The Sturm face was proudly on display in the first period

Prior to last night’s 5-1 thrashing of the Stars, Bruins coach Claude Julien asked Marco Sturm to “be involved more” following Saturday morning’s pre-game skate.

Sturm and the rest of his teammates were all heavily involved in a thrilling fight-fest that moved me to ask if this was the return of the Big, Bad Bruins – or at least as close as they’ll ever get in the kinder, gentler version of the NHL.

The B’s winger didn’t waste any time obliging — and he did so without any need for Draconian punishments like a punitive benching or a red-faced tirades from his hockey coach.

Sturm ended a seven-game scoreless streak with a slapper from the left face-off circle just 2:41 into the first period off a nice behind-the-net dish from rookie Blake Wheeler. The score was Sturm’s second strike of the season and the amazing ninth time this season in 12 games that the Black and Gold have scratched first blood.

The assist on Sturm’s first goal was also the first helper of Wheeler’s NHL career to go along with the three goals he’s scored over the first dozen games. Sturm added a third period tally to give him the two-goal evening, and the move to pair Sturm with David Krejci appears to be paying immediate dividends all around.

“It was nice. He needed to react, and not just react but find his game,” said a satisfied Julien after the game. ”I thought [Sturm] played better tonight and he was in the right spot, even on that last goal he was in the right place and he buried [his opportunities]. I thought he was a better player tonight.”

The B’s ended up taking the 5-1 decision over the Stars in a very chippy, conentious, entertaining Old Time Hockey-style game that featured Stars agitator Steve Ott twice refusing to drop both his stick and the gloves when Shawn Thornton and Shane Hnidy circled round looking for a fights — one after a hit aiming for Stephane Yelle’s leg that Lucic later termed “gutless”. Hnidy actually dropped his stick and his gloves to go with Ott, but the 6-foot, 193-pounder thought better of it each time and held his stick vertically to shield himself from his Black and Gold challenger. 

Eventually Andrew Ference and Sean Avery dropped the gloves after the Bruins defenseman — who earned the Third Star in the win and continues his impressive early season play – leveled Ott with a clean open ice hit in the third period. That hit also turned out to be a big turning point in a game that was still squarely in the close category in the third period. 

In the end, the combative game had 177 penalty minutes and seven misconducts and made many spectators wish these two teams played each other again during the regular season.

–The Bruins much-maligned penalty kill unit also looked better after six successful kills of Dallas PP’s throughout Saturday night’s game — a testament to the work they’ve put in to exert more pressure on the points while also just getting tougher aroun their own net.

Julien said before the game that the solution to the PK’s problems were pretty simple: “It’s just being proactive. The puck has to go all the way down [to the other end of the rink] and we’re soft on the puck when it comes time for scoring chances. These are the areas that I think will improve our penalty kill and will improve our goal production.”

For two periods Ott and Sean Avery attempted to draw penalties from annoyed Bruins skaters and their aggravating tactics actually allowed the Stars to gain some man advantage opportunities in the second period. But their agitating, sandpaper ways finally backfired on them and the rest of their Stars teammates in the third period. Avery leveled Milan Lucic from behind midway through the third in the final coup de grace of what been a pretty dirty production of hockey put on by both Avery and Ott all night – and all heck broke loose at that point.

Marc Savard came to the aid of the fallen Lucic and started pounding on Avery, and then both players worked over the Vogue intern while separate bouts involving Shane Hnidy and Mark Stuart took place. Savard, Lucic, Hnidy Mark Stuart, Ott, Avery, Matt Niskanen [how did a peace-loving Fin with zero penalty minutes headed into tonight get involved in all this?] were all done for the night when they each got 10-minute misconducts with less than nine minutes to play.

Apparently even some of Ott and Avery’s teammates had a serious problem with some of the underhanded things they were pulling out on the ice in the third period.

“Tonight it seemed to be idiotic,” said Stars elder statesman Mike Modano. “It’s stupid. It’s one of the more embarrassing things I have seen, on the ice and involved with the fans. In 20 years, I haven’t seen anything like it. If that’s what we’re going for, maybe I need to find myself an office job.”

The Stars were shaking their heads and dropping F-bombs in their locker room while the Bruins seemed a tighter, more resolute bunch after standing together and sticking up for each other.

“It was good to see everybody pile in their and come to my aid, but most importantly we got the win,” said Lucic. “In the end we all stuck up for each other and it’s only going to make us stronger going down the road. It was a good character game and a good character win for us. Savvy came in here after the game saying that he was a killer, but obviously it was nice what he went out there and did.

“Hnidy said to me as we were coming off the ice that it felt like a junior hockey scrum out there, so yeah it felt like Old Time Hockey,” added Lucic. “What we need to do is bottle this up and make sure we have some of it for Thursday [against the Leafs.]“ 

–Somewhat overlooked in a penalty-filled Saturday night flashback to the glorious days of the Big Bad Bruins was the work of goaltender Tim Thomas, who made 35 saves in the 5-1 victory and was again rock-solid between the pipes. The win was his fourth consecutive start for the Bruins and it would seem he has clearly wrapped up the starter’s role with the B’s. The All-Star goaltender mused that the sketchy Stars must have received the wrong scouting report on the Bruins when they attempted to pull the McFilthy and McNasty routine with penalty box buddies Ott and Avery.

“We’re a clean team, but we’re not going to let anybody push us around or play dirty with us,” said Thomas. “I think we did a good job of sticking up for ourselves and showing what kind of character we have. I don’t know what kind of scouting report they had on us, but I think they picked the wrong team to try to do that to.”

Flyers goalie Ron Hextall was one guy that never saw a brawl he didn't want to be a part of...

The B’s netminder actually thought he might get involved in the third period donnybrook when beleaguered Stars goalie Marty Turco skated out toward center ice following the Avery hit from behind on Lucic. Turco has had a terrible season thus far, and it could have been he was looking for the rare-but-always-entertaining goalie scrap. The Dallas goaltender stopped, however, once he saw Thomas make a move near the pile of skating pugilists.

“It’s actually some of the hardest games to play because you get your adrenaline going a little bit even though you try to stay as calm and even-keeled as you can be,” said Thomas. “When Fer [Andrew Ference] got hit and then stood up for himself I got a little excited, and it’s hard to finish out a game that way.

“I wasn’t going to let [Turco] into the pile. It looked to me like he was going to try to get into the pile, so that’s why I skated over to the other side of it,” added Thomas. ”I think he’s the one that made the suggestion by coming to center ice, and I just responded by getting over to the other side of the pile and saying ‘I don’t think you’re going to go any further’ and he stayed there. I can’t remember a game like that for a long time…maybe the AHL. I haven’t experienced  anything quite like that before.”

–Below I’ve included the transcript of Mike Modano’s comments provided by the crack Bruins media relations staff following Saturday night’s game. It seems that the longtime Dallas Stars forward was none too pleased with his team’s careless lack of discipline in a game that was still close in the third period. 

Modano and dumb penalties don't get along...

DALLAS STARS FORWARD MIKE MODANO
On the team’s identity

…
Tonight it seemed to be idiotic.  It’s stupid.  It’s one of the more embarrassing things I have seen, on the ice and involved with the fans.  In twenty years that I haven’t seen anything like it.  If that’s what we’re going for maybe I need to find myself an office job. 

On the physicality of the game…
Yeah, I mean it got out of hand, it was still a 2-1 game and then we find ourselves blowing it again, putting ourselves in trouble with dumb penalties and dumb situations.  That’s kind of the trend it’s been all season.

On the cause of the frustration…
There isn’t any mental toughness, that’s kind of one of the big things.  Everything we’re letting get to us.  We’re letting the refs get involved in the game with us.  We’re spending more energy on them than the details of winning the game.  It’s another thing that’s been a bad part of our game.

On the goaltending performance of both Tobias Stephan and Marty Turco…
They’re doing about as best as you can ask for them, but the quality of chances are just like doorstep goals and outnumbered rushes again.  You can put two goalies in there; those are still going to go in.  You allow those quality type of chances, I don’t care who you have in net.

On trying to fix the team…
Well, I don’t know if you can put your finger on something.  Moving the puck, I don’t know, practice skating, getting shots on the net, things like that.  Defending is probably first and foremost.  We come off a couple of hard practices and we have one of our best defensive games of the season against Minnesota.  Back to the same old.  Less is more sometimes.  Just getting the puck out and then getting it in.  Hopefully your forecheck can create something for you and go from there.  To look to create, there aint nothing there.

Today is a day off for the B’s after the team opted to fly home from Calgary this morning rather than hop on the red-eye right immediately after last night’s game. With that in mind, here’s some other assorted NHL goodies on a day when everybody deserves sugary treats rather than a trick or two. Happy Halloween from a guy who’s being asked to dress up like Tony Romo — complete with a bandage for my right pinkie finger – to appease my Jessica Simpson-clad girlfriend. Good times.

B's fans haven't seen nearly enough of the Sturm Face this season

The Bruins simply dug themselves too large of a hole after parading into the penalty box — and again exposing their PK issues at the same time – during the second period of Thursday night’s game, but I take their unwillingness to give up in the third period as a big positive for this team.

 Does the team need more offense on a consistent basis? Absolutely, but they should start scoring more on a regular basis once Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm start firing on all cylinders. Sturm is a guy that’s approached 30 goals and potted 10 power play strikes in each of the last two seasons and clearly should have more than a goal and 4 assists in the first 11 games. 

–Dallas Stars bad boy Sean Avery will be in town tomorrow, so it seems like an appropriate time to pimp his plans to turn his much-ballyooed summer internship with Vogue into Hollywood Gold. And he wants Ryan Gosling to play the lead role of the hockey bad boy wearing the black nail polish. That’s gold, Jerry, Gold.

–In honor of All Hallows’ Even and my affinity for all things Star Wars, a big salute to Ottawa Senators goaltender Martin Gerber and his “Darth Gerber” goalie mask. Gerber had taken to wearing an all black goalie mask last season and Sens fans began calling him Darth Gerber, and this season the 34-year-old goalie actually had Itech design a special Darth Vader-inspired goalie mask

Impressive! Most Impressive!

that he’s worn this season.  Gerber obviously doesn’t have the force with him this season, though, as he hasn’t started since Oct. 22 and has gone 1-3-1 with a 3.39 goals against average in five games thus far this season. 

–Learning something I didn’t already know when I took a gander at Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart’s blog with the The Hockey News: Stuey was apparently an English Major at Colorado College. Who knew? Something tells me we’re going to have a kick-butt conversation about Beowulf in the near future. Stuart has undoubtadly been a solid calming presence along the blue line over the last two seasons, and while he isn’t going to rack up any gaudy point totals — the guy is another defenseman along with Zdeno Chara and Aaron Ward that plays with some snarl and a real physical edge.