Tag Archives: Gregory Campbell

Mar 9 2012

Daily Noontime – March 9, 2012

Boston has now won back-to-back games for the first time since January 10 and 12. (Photo Credit: Star-Telegram).

By NoontimeSports.com 

Happy Friday to everyone, and welcome into another grand-slam edition of the Daily Noontime! We’ve got some news, updates and headlines, so let’s get rolling!

* The Boston Bruins earned their 40th win of the season on Thursday when they defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1. Gregory Campbell, Johnny Boychuk  and David Krejci all scored goals, while Tim Thomas deflected 19 shots. The Bruins have now won back-to-back games for the first time since January, and will return to the ice on Saturday when they host the Washington Capitals at 1:00pm.

* The Boston Celtics will look to snap their one-game skid on Friday when they host the Portland Trailblazers at 7:30pm. The Green and White are currently clinging to the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, and would probably play against Chicago or Miami in the playoffs. However, there is still a decent amount of time remaining before the tournament begins, right?

* According to reports – former Boston Celtics guard-forward Gerald Green inked his name on a 10-day contract with the New Jersey Nets on Thursday.

* The Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team didn’t exactly recover from a slow start on Thursday during their first ACC tournament game, as North Carolina State handed them a 78-57 loss.

* Finally, the Providence College men’s ice hockey team shocked University of Massachusetts (Lowell) on Thursday in Game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinals, 5-3.

Jan 20 2012

Daily Noontime – January 20, 2012

Nathan Horton and the Boston Bruins capped off their road swing with a 4-1 victory on Thursday! (Photo Credit: Zimbio.com)

By NoontimeSports.com 

It’s Friday, wahoo! Here are some headlines and news to kick-start the final day of the workweek, enjoy!

* The Boston Bruin ended their four-game road trip with a 2-2 record, as they defeated the New Jersey Devils, 4-1. The Black and Gold notched four goals in the third period, as Andrew Ference, Nathan Horton, Gregory Campbell and Chris Kelly all scored for Boston, while Tim Thomas deflected 30 saves between the pipes. Boston will return to the ice on Saturday afternoon when they host the New York Rangers at the TD Garden.

* Boston Celtics President of Operations Danny Ainge told WEEI, (Boston Sports Radio) on Thursday that he was stating the obvious about dealing the “Big-3.” Although, he did admit if there is a decent deal on the table, he’ll most likely pull the trigger.

* Rajon Rondo told the media on Thursday that he’s doubtful for Friday’s contest against the Phoenix Suns, which means Avery Bradley, will most likely be the starting guard.

* According to various reports – the New England Patriots are “believed” to be the AFC foe that’ll face the St. Louis Rams next year in London, England. The Patriots last played overseas in 2009 when they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Dec 24 2011

Marchand, Rask Lead Boston Past Florida, 8-0


By Matt Noonan 

BOSTON, MA — Over the past few weeks, the Boston Bruins have been unstoppable.

The Black and Gold have only dropped two games in the month of December by a combined score of 4-1, but on Friday, Boston skated flawlessly in an 8-0 shellacking of the Florida Panthers.

“We played a good game,” said the smiling Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask. “Lots and lots of good things and lots and lots of goals, so it’s good for the fans I think.”

This was indeed a great game, as Brad Marchand tallied a career high five-points, (three goals and two assists), while Rask recorded his second shutout of the season, and 10th of his career.

Boston also received some help from Patrice Bergeron, who recorded a goal and two assists.

Gregory Campbell, Dennis Seidenberg and Benoit Pouliot also made an impact, as each player registered one goal in the team’s 23rd victory of the season.

 

“I think we were moving our feet well [on Friday], and being hard on the forecheck, and causing some turnovers,” said Bergeron, when asked about his team’s performance.

Bergeron continued by saying, “We talked about that last game, in the third period, [and] I thought that’s what gave us success, so we had to keep that going [for the rest of the season].”

The Bruins certainly made a statement in the opening period, as Boston recorded four goals in 14 minutes, which practically solidified the victory, and the evening.

“We’re playing well and we’re winning and it’s a little easier to get in the game when we play like this,” said Pouliot. “We are on a great run right now and we have a good break and hopefully we’ll keep going after [the holiday’s conclude].”

Boston will certainly want to keep this success going, especially since it seems that the Bruins have officially found their championship mojo.

“Well, the one thing I said to them was we’ve gone from 15th to first in less than two months – they deserve a lot of credit for that and they worked hard to accomplish that and I think it’s important that they enjoy the three days of the Christmas holiday they have,” said head coach Claude Julien.

Julien continued to elaborate on his team’s performance over the past few weeks when he stated, “And those three days will be beneficial to us hopefully not just in the long run, but in the short term. If we come back with the right approach and the right attitude, and head out on the road and play Phoenix, and take off where we left off, then that three days will look even better.”

The Bruins will certainly want to preserve their successful trend from the past few weeks when they travel to Arizona on Wednesday, (Dec. 27) to visit the Coyotes.

Dec 23 2011

Boston Bruins vs. Florida Panthers – Second Period Recap

By Matt Noonan 

BOSTON, MA — After an eventful first period, Gregory Campbell extended the Bruins lead when he netted his third goal of the season at 3:50.

Campbell’s goal was assisted by Brad Marchand, (one goal, two assists), and Andrew Ference, who recorded his fourth consecutive assist.

Florida then attempted to respond with five consecutive shots, but Tuukka Rask, (18 saves) denied the Panthers offense before they watched Patrice Bergeron, (one goal, two assists) chip in his seventh goal of the season to give the Bruins a 6-0 advantage after two periods.

Nov 23 2011

Boston Bruins Forward Gregory Campbell to Donate 400 Thanksgiving Pies

Gregory Campbell will donate 400 Thanksgiving pies on Thursday morning!

By NoontimeSports.com

The Boston Bruins announced on Wednesday that forward Gregory Campbell will donate 400 Thanksgiving pies to four local charitable organizations on Thursday morning.

Here’s the press release courtesy of the Bruins:

BOSTON, MA – On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, Bruins forward Gregory Campbell will personally deliver $2,000 worth of pies to various shelters and charitable organizations throughout Boston. Campbell purchased the 400 pies himself from Mike’s Pastry in Boston’s North End.

He will make the deliveries from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, with his first stop being the Yawkey Family Inn (241 Kent
Street, Brookline, MA 02446) followed by The Home for Little Wanderers (161 South Huntington Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130) and St. Francis
House (39 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116). His final stop will be the Pine Street Inn (444 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118.)

Estimated Drop off schedule/Media availability:
8:15 a.m. Yawkey Family Inn, 241 Kent Street, Brookline, MA 02446
8:45 a.m. The Home for Little Wanderers, 161 South Huntington Ave,
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
9:00 a.m. St. Francis House, 39 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
9:15 a.m. Pine Street Inn, 444 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118 

May 4 2011

Goaltending Helps Boston Prevail against Philadelphia

Tim Thomas has been terrific and a major reason for Boston's playoff success, especially against Philadelphia!

By Dan Libon

Goaltending: it’s what this series is all about.

On one end of the ice is Tim Thomas, who has been playing out of his mind all year for Boston, while on the other side is the game of musical chairs known as the “Philadelphia Flyers goaltending.” It is a group that has featured mid-game changes in all 10 of their playoff affairs this past year. Philadelphia’s goalies are incredibly slow and as Bruins head coach Claude Julien would say, “they’re flat,” especially with a save percentage of [.904] and a playoff worse [.875], so it’s hard to think that the Bruins would indeed repeat what happened last May, especially with these gaudy numbers.

Although, while this particular series is all about goaltending, that’s not the only reason why the Bruins are up three games to none.

With the sudden awakening of the teams first line, the Bruins are showing production from their top players. The second goal of Wednesday’s game, which was recorded by David Krejci is one of those goals that shows how productive a line can be. Throwing the puck down to Milan Lucic, Krejci got it back for a great shot in front of the goal during the first period, which made it, 2-0.

In the second period, the Bruins scored two more times, as Gregory Campbell hit Daniel Paille in stride for Boston’s third goal, which was followed up by Nathan Horton scoring the teams fourth goal and completing the Gordie Howe hat trick. Philadelphia was then forced to take Brian Boucher out of the game and replace him with one of their back up goalies, Sergei Bobrovsky.

The final period was capped off by watching Boston score their first power play goal of the playoffs, as Zedeno Chara scored with a two man advantage for the Bruins to secure their third of the series.

Overall, I don’t expect the Bruins to self destruct, again. With the exception of Game 2, this series hasn’t been close. The Bruins look like they are peaking at the right time and with the first line awakening, along with productivity from lines 2 and 3, Boston looks like they are in good shape to potentially wrap up the series on Friday night at the TD Garden.

Apr 30 2011

Boston Beats Up Philadelphia in Game 1, 7-3

Tim Thomas played yet another exceptional playoff game and kept the Bruins in contention to beat Philadelphia on Saturday!

By Matt Noonan

It was one of those performances where fans walked away baffled by what they had witnessed. For those wearing black and gold, they were definitely content, but the ones sporting the orange and white were not happy one bit.

The Boston Bruins not only beat the to the Philadelphia Flyers 7-3 on Saturday, but also made Brian Boucher look incredibly vulnerable in net. The Bruins sent five pucks passed Boucher before he was pulled in the second period for Sergei Bobrovsky who allowed two goals himself. Both goaltenders seemed incredibly out of sync and saved 26 shots combined.

Although, would Philadelphia consider their goaltending a weak part of their team, especially after allowing seven goals to Boston? Absolutely, but the blame should also be shared by the Flyers defense for allowing the Bruins into their zone quite frequently.

Boston got on the board early, as David Krejci recorded his first of two goals at 1:52 in the first period. Boston celebrated their first point of the day, but those cheers were silenced 10 minutes later after Danny Briere recorded scored and tied the game, 1-1.

The Bruins though rebounded during the final minute of the opening period when Nathan Horton beat Boucher to give Boston a 2-1 advantage prior to the first intermission.

The Black and Gold never relinquished their lead during the second or third periods, as Krejci, Mark Recchi, Brad Marchand and Gregory Campbell goals helped keep Boston’s lead safe and secure.

“I don’t think there was ever any doubt before we started the series that we couldn’t skate with them,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said to the media via NHL.com.

“I don’t think that was an issue and the bottom line is this is a big strong, physical team that really does a pretty good job once they get in your own in end. They do a pretty good job of finding ways to score goals, so we just had to be strong, we had to be smart and skating and fore-checking was part of our game plan and I thought our guys did a pretty good job”

Philadelphia scored during both the second and third periods, as James van Riemsdyk and Mike Richards prompted somewhat of a comeback that was certainly short lived.

Tim Thomas played tremendous and saved 31-of-34 shots between the pipes, but also, Boston struggled on the power play again and finished the game 0-for-5. Will the power play unit bounce back in Game 2 on Monday? We’ll see, but for the second year in a row, Boston came away victorious in Game 1 against Philadelphia.

Apr 9 2011

Bruins Earn Final Regular Season Home Win Against the Senators, 3-1

By Stacey Kilpatrick

BOSTON, MA – The Boston Bruins [46-24-11] won their final regular season home game, 3-1 on Saturday at the TD Garden against the Ottawa Senators [32-40-10] in pretty even play.

“I talked about Ottawa, they’ve been pretty good in the last month, and as you saw today they’re a good young team, they wanted to leave a good impression in their last game,” said Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien.

But, their impression didn’t matter to Bruins fans and Julien didn’t appear to be thinking on any level of the team across the border.

“A lot of good things came out of today’s win,” Julien added.

The Bruins got on board with 7:07 remaining in the first when Shawn Thornton skated up center ice, passed to Gregory Campbell at the right of the net, and Campbell behind-the-back passed to Daniel Paille for the score.

It looked like Boston was going to head into the locker room at the end of the first up 1-0, but with 1:33 left, with assists from Ottawa’s Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza, Bobby Butler tied it up 1-1 as he netted his 10th goal of the season, earning his fourth consecutive game with points.”

The second really started off at 18:52. Senator Ryan Shannon received a four-minute high-sticking penalty and out of nowhere on the power play Bruin Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 2-1 advantage by making his 26th goal of the season, with assists from Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic.

Horton followed up with another play with 10:36 remaining in the second: throwing up his deuces against Ottawa’s Zach Smith and earning his seventh major fight of the season. My first NHL fight — what a glorious moment in time. The mostly silent audience of 17,565 had begun to actually use their voice boxes.

While some spectators and Ottawa fans might feel that Horton is too much on the “dark side” with all his fist throwing and jabbing, Julien said he’s not worried. Horton will be good to go for the postseason and he’ll play how he plays.

“Well I think we’d all like to have the right answer and I’d like to stand in here and say I absolutely know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to have to wait and see,” Julien said.

“But the way [Horton’s] come around in the second half of the year, how I think his whole attitude and his approach to the game has really gotten better and better. I have no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be playing (in the postseason) because he’s playing with an attitude and that attitude’s been with him for a while now and you saw today with what a lot of people would have talked about a meaningless game, so I’m not worried about him. I think he’s ready and excited about the playoffs.”

Rich Peverley ended out the game with 5:08 left, giving the B’s their third and final goal of the night, with a little flip trick in front of the net for the score.

“[Peverley] always has good speed,” Julien said. “He’s got decent hands and we’ve seen him score some of those highlight goals by taking it to the net. And he’s usually pretty good at that and I thought his feet were moving well tonight, and his line mates, they were able to create a lot. So that’s I think, moving forward you want to be able to have that kind of depth and know that if your first or second line doesn’t score then you’ve got your third or even fourth scoring for you. Right now it feels comforting to know that other lines are contributing.

“I liked the line with Peverley and [Micheal] Ryder and [Chris] Kelly,” Julien continued. “We moved those guys around a little bit. They were great for us and they created some good opportunities.

“[Tomas] Kaberle I thought played extremely well for us in the back end; you could see him sharing the puck and moving it up the ice.

“I think we could have had a few more goals as well,” said Julien. “It was obviously a lot more efficient than it was the other night, so a lot of good things to take out of tonight.”

The Bruins won to a sold-out crowd of 17,565, making this the team’s first season since their 1972-1973 campaign that they sold out every home game.

Tim Thomas earned a [.9382] save average after Saturday’s win with 1,699 saves on 1,811 shots faced this season, making it the best save percentage in an NHL season since the league started keeping track during the 1982-83 season.

“Well he’s had a big year for us,” Julien said. “He had some great saves again for us tonight.”

And Mark Recchi, 80 games this season, played in his 1,652nd NHL game, securing fourth place on the NHL’s all-time games played list.

Yes, this was a fantastic final regular season home game for the Bruins.

Apr 6 2011

Bruins Take Down the New York Islanders, 3-2

By Brian Willwerth

BOSTON, MA – The fourth line came up big for the Bruins Wednesday night. Shawn Thornton scored a key goal, Dennis Seidenberg and Gregory Campbell scored 1:08 apart in the second period and Tim Thomas made 30 saves, as the Bruins hung on for a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders at TD Garden.

The first period featured back-and-forth action for the entire 20 minutes, with “entire” being the key word.  Tim Thomas and Rick DiPietro were spectacular between the pipes for their respective teams.  The Bruins had a two-man advantage midway through the period, but couldn’t cash in.

That is, until the final few ticks of the clock, when Shawn Thornton, returning to action for the first time in a week, banged one home past DiPietro with 0.1 left in the period. It was Thornton’s tenth goal of the season.

“There were some lapses,” said Thornton.  “We just have to worry about playing the game, and not worry about who were playing against.”

“I hate watching hockey,” he said of the games he missed due to injury.

It was a huge boost for the Bruins and a backbreaking goal for the Islanders. The Bruins outshot the Isles, 15-14.

The action remained fast-paced in the second period, and the scoring picked up as well.

Michael Grabner beat Thomas and tied the game at one. It was his 31st goal of the season and certainly it would not be his last. DiPietro – yes, the goalie – got an assist.

The Bruins came right back. Dennis Seidenberg collected his seventh goal of the season when he tipped home a shot from the point to give Boston the lead.  Shortly thereafter, Gregory Campbell stole the puck in the New York zone and beat DiPietro to give the Bruins a two-goal advantage. It was Campbell’s 13th goal of the season and the first scored by the Bruins in a 4-on-4 situation all season.

“I think the consensus after the first period is that we were just playing OK,” said Mark Recchi.  “For us to come out and score a couple of goals and get on top, and find yourself in the same situation you were in Monday nigh and to keep that lead, that was good for us.”

Late in the period, the Bruins went on the power play again, but the Islanders got on the board.  And again, it was Grabner, stealing the puck at center ice and skating in alone on Thomas. Grabner won the battle and New York closed to within a goal at 3-2. Grabner has a power play goal and a shorthanded goal.

The action slowed down considerably in the final period, with neither team being able to score. The Islanders pulled DiPietro with about a minute remaining, but never really got a decent chance on Thomas.

Head coach Claude Julien praised the work of the fourth line, but wasn’t too happy with the teams overall effort.

“Certainly not the kind of game you want to see from your team,” he said.  “I think the execution wasn’t very good tonight, our best players certainly didn’t make a difference.  What made the difference was our fourth line.”

It certainly did.

Before the game, the Bruins handed out their regular season awards.  Thornton was the recipient of the Eddie Shore Award, an award given by the Gallery Gods for exceptional hustle and determination.  The Elizabeth Dufresne Trophy (outstanding performance during home games) went to Thomas.  And the John P. Bucyk Award, given to the most charitable Bruin, went to Andrew Ference.  Ference.

Mar 26 2011

Bruins Give Up Early Goal, Lose to New York, 1-0

By Matt Noonan

BOSTON, MA – What exactly went right for the Bruins on a Saturday at the TD Garden? Was it the fact they showed up to play just 60 minutes of hockey? Did a majority of the players continue to embrace the excitement from Thursday’s beat down against Montreal? All in all, what were the true highs for the Bruins?

In all honesty, not a whole lot, as the Bruins watched yet another two-game winning streak come to an end, as the New York Rangers escaped with a 1-0 victory.

“It took us a while to get going. I thought the other team played a solid game. They were strong on the puck, they were solid, they’re gritty and we were a little light on our sticks for the first forty minutes and that kind of put us obviously in a bad situation,” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien.

New York may or may not have been solid for the entire game, but after an early tangle between Gregory Campbell and Sean Avery, which resulted in a five-minute penalty for both squads, the Bruins immediately lost any sort of energy and simply played uninspiring hockey.

Although, roughly four minutes after an exciting brawl, Michael Sauer whipped the puck toward Boston’s net, which resulted in a Derek Stepan goal due to the puck ricocheting off his stick.

It was the only goal that would occur throughout the game, but it obviously was the difference maker in deciding who would win or lose.

“I didn’t see the play before, but no matter what, he made a good tip,” said Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask.

The Rangers goal was somewhat controversial, as fans, media members and Julien all believed that New York had a player who was clearly offside during the play, but either way, it seemed that the Boston players and coaching staff decided to let it go.

“It’s unfortunate that the only goal that was scored maybe a little bit of controversial goal, but we had lots of opportunities to make up for it,” said Julien.

After the goal was recorded, the game was practically over. Boston showed little to no effort on offense and played incredibly sloppy. Yes, the offense did shot the puck on net, 23 times to be exact, but other than firing shots on New York’s Henrik Lundqvist, they had nothing else to celebrate.

“I think we didn’t get pucks in deep and we didn’t get our feet going early enough and that’s where we had success last couple [of] games,” said Julien.

“Even at the end when we were firing away late in the third they were all collapsing, they were doing whatever they had to do to block shots and they were willing to pay the price.”

At times, it seemed as if the Bruins were going to score, both during the second and third period, but New York’s defense didn’t even allow Boston to become comfortable in their zone, as they denied any goal scoring opportunity.

Yet, besides the horrific play of the Bruins offense, Boston at least had something positive to acknowledge, which was Rask’s exceptional play, but even the goaltender knew that this loss was frustrating.

“It’s disappointing to lose obviously, but I thought we put up a pretty good effort,” said Rask. “We definitely came out hard in the third [period] and got our chances, battled hard, but a 1-0 loss is always tough to take when you don’t score a goal after you score seven.”

Besides all the frustration, aggravation and tension, which came out of this game, Boston is still a team that is inconsistent, but also, a squad that seems to have trouble rebounding after emotional wins. Although, with only eight games remaining in the regular season and still, a Northeast division up for grabs, the Bruins will need to regroup quickly, as they travel to Philadelphia on Sunday to face the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Boston needs to regroup and get ready for the playoffs because otherwise, they won’t advance if they play the way they did against New York.

“Let’s turn the page on this one here and hopefully be a better team tomorrow,” said Julien.