Dougie Hamilton (53) attempts defensive zone coverage on the penalty kill with Jamie Tardif parked in front of the net, where he has scored the most goals and power play goals for Providence in the AHL this season before getting called up to Boston training camp (Photo Credit: Steph Vail/Flickr)
Boston, Providence, who cares? We are all Bruins.
Some people were upset that the “real” Bruins lost, but I don’t know where you’ve been the past 5 months because I’ve been in Providence watching the only “real” Bruins available to see play and they’re pretty awesome. And I am glad they won tonight, because they worked hard and it was adorable.
And also, because they are all Bruins! With the exception of 2 players on Providence that do not have contracts with the Boston Bruins (Bobby Robins and Kyle MacKinnon), every single player who played in the Black and Gold Scrimmage tonight is either on the Boston Bruins current team, in their training camp, or will be a part of their future.
Allow me to provide a quick recap for those who did not have the pleasure of experiencing the scrimmage in person at the TD Garden or watching it online live.
Dressing in the home black spoked B Bruins jerseys were the “Big B’s”:
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron (A) – Tyler Seguin
Nathan Horton – David Krejci – Milan Lucic
Chris Bourque – Chris Kelly – Rich Peverley
Shawn Thornton – Gregory Campbell – Daniel Paille
Zdeno Chara (C) – Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference (A) – Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Back-Up: Michael Hutchinson
As you probably can gather, Hutchinson is Providence’s back-up goalie. Once upon a time, he had the potential to be Boston’s “future,” but I’m pretty sure we gave up on that a long time ago. Anyway, Chris Bourque was the only player that has spent the season in Providence that suited up for Boston for a regular shift – on that 3rd line with Peverley and Kelly that he has been practicing on in training camp the past few days and probably will start the season on. And yes, Dougie Hamilton. Or, as I call him…Bobby Orr.
Wearing the away white spoked P Providence jerseys, since I can’t remember the exact lines, I’ll just list the players. Forwards:
Trent Whitfield (C)
Jamie Tardif (A)
Ryan Spooner
Christian Hanson
Lane MacDermid (A)
Bobby Robins
Jay Pandolfo
Carter Camper
Craig Cunningham
Kyle MacKinnon
Max Sauve
Justin Florek
On defense:
David Warsofsky
Matt Bartkowski
Kevan Miller
Ryan Button
Torey Krug
Tommy Cross
Aaron Johnson
Goal:
Anton Khudobin
Back up: Niklas Svedberg
So as you can see, the goaltender that will be definitely spending the season as the Boston Bruins back-up to Tuukka Rask, Anton Khudobin, suited up for Providence tonight – obviously so that he could get the playing time to fulfill the purpose of this scrimmage, which Claude Julien stated was “…to see where we were, where we stood, where certain players were with their game…”
Right away the presumption that it is Boston vs Providence is a moot point because Khudobin is Boston, yet he played for Providence tonight. Not to mention at least a handful of Providence players tonight are still in Boston training camp (MacDermid, Spooner, Tardif, Pandolfo, Johnson, Warsofsky, and Bartkowski.) This was basically an intra-squad scrimmage except given a little more competition and game-like quality to it to bring out the fight that Claude mentioned was the whole purpose of this scrimmage in the first place.
I encourage you to read this piece written by Sarah Connors over at Stanley Cup of Chowder about why Bobby Robins fight with Adam McQuaid was not a bad thing at all (because many people are ripping on Robins, and I don’t know if perhaps everyone is jumping to some harsh conclusions.) I personally liked that Robins came to the defense of MacDermid, and also, how awesome was it that MacDermid got the game winning goal? I love him. But I digress.
I’ll finish this recap with some bullet points because I’ve lost my train of thought:
- The final score was 7-5. Although people were calling for Tuukka’s head on a platter because we are known for being rational sports fans, I was happy that this scrimmage lived up to my personal expectations of being a high-scoring, ridiculous and exciting shit show.
- Max Sauve had 2 goals. Did you see the move on his 2nd goal? It was awesome.
- The scoring went like this:
- 1st period: Providence – Pandolfo
- 2nd period: Boston – Bourque (fans loved this); Providence – Sauve; Boston – Marchand
- 3rd period: Providence – Sauve; Providence – Tardif; Providence – Florek; Boston – Krejci; Boston – Seidenberg (PP); Boston – Peverley; Providence – MacDermid; Providence – MacKinnon (empty net)
- Sauve is a top Bruins prospect and if it wasn’t for injury, would be a lot further along in development. If you recall, he was called up to Boston last year but injured in his first shift. He looekd great tonight. I really hope to see him in Boston in the future. Aside from Sauve, MacKinnon, and Florek, all Providence goals came from guys that are in Boston training camp right now (Pandolfo, Tardif, MacDermid). I remind you of this to reiterate my obnoxiosu stance that the Bruins didn’t LOSE because they are all BRUINS!
- Tuukka and the rest of the Boston team for that matter seemed quite pissed after the “loss” but in a post-game interview, he seemed much more like his normal self. Remember, Tuukka gets livid at practices on a regular basis for letting in like, one goal. He even admitted that “I was sleeping there in the last period for sure…” but, like the rest of the team and coaching squad, acknowledged that it was a scrimmage that fulfilled its purpose of evaluating where the team fell on the spectrum of readiness.
- Tyler Seguin looked particularly mad after one of Sauve’s goals. As someone who played overseas and excelled to the umpteenth degree during the lockout, he probably expected his teammates to be more in sync with him than they were. To this I shake my head and laugh. He is 20 years old and one of the best players in the world…unfortunately we can’t all keep up with him!
- Chris Bourque took a penalty at one point during the game and as part of a prize won by some season ticket holders, they got to sit in the penalty box during the game. Well, the one season ticket holder that was sitting in the penalty box that Chris Bourque happened to be sitting in serving his penalty…was wearing a Ray Bourque jersey. It was pretty funny.
- Providence coach Butch Cassidy had a nice quote to sum up Providence’s feelings after the game – and I definitely thought they displayed this outwardly very well: ““We played good…We struggle to score usually, so it was good that we found the back of the net. I was happy for the guys, they worked hard and they’re feeling good about themselves, so good for them.”
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The Providence Bruins are applauded by the TD Garden crowd at center ice after the completion of the scrimmage (Photo: AHLBruins on instagram)
- Check out my photos here. I have only uploaded a small portion so far 🙂
A Cup A Bruin 