I just put up a weekend wrap-up, but I figured I'll do another entry with some notes and news.

The first comes from Jimmy Murphy, who posted this article on twitter. The Ottawa Sun Times has reported that the NHL will be looking into Marc Savard's contract to see if retirement was mentioned during negotiations because it is such a front loaded contract.

With a player in or nearing the end of his prime, you see these types of contracts handed out and the NHL is already investigating in a number of them (see: Vancouver G Roberto Luongo, Philly D Chris Pronger and Chicago RW Marian Hossa.)

No idea what will happen, but it is a pretty interesting read under the heading "Off the Glass".

The second piece of information is that last week I was in Bloguin's National Podcast talking about the Marc Savard contract. You can catch the podcast here or on the left side of the site under "Podcasts".

We will be unveiling a couple new things to our blog to arouse interest in our readers. The first is going to be a monthly comic called "The Hick and The Stick". The first one should be out shortly and, depending on feedback, will become a monthly installment in our blog.

We will also be doing a Monday Mailbag, which will be unveiled tomorrow. I'll be redesigning the site a tad to make this work, but you'll be able to submit any and all questions (doesn't have to be hockey related, but it should be) and I'll try to answer all of them the best I can.

Ok, that's all I got. Enjoy your football!

I hope everyone is having (or had) a great weekend. There was some excellent hockey played on Saturday and some very ugly hockey before it on Friday. Lets get to the games:

December 4, 2009 - Bruins Send Saugus High School To Play Against Montreal

Cammalleri layed a BOOM BASH on Boston Friday night

The Boston Bruins, in a very classy move, made sure the Montreal Canadiens won on the night they retired the numbers of Elmer Lache and Emile Bouchard. To do this, the Bruins sent a local hockey team from Saugus High School to live their dream in play in the NHL.

Wait, what? That WAS the Bruins out there on Friday night?

For those under a rock, the Bruins lost to Montreal on Friday night to an ugly tune of 5-1. Mike Cammalleri tallied a natural hat trick while Glen Metropolit and Jaroslav Spacek (sorry Bell) scored for the blu, blanc and rouge to put the black and gold on ice.

Tim Thomas was not very good in net for Boston, stopping only 18 of 23 shots and eventually getting pulled for Tuukka Rask. Carey Price, on the other hand, looked sensational once again against Boston as he stopped 37 of 38 shots.

Vladimir Sabotka scored the lone goal for Boston. There were several lapses during Cammalleri's hat trick, most notably from Matt Hunwick and Thomas.

It was an ugly game to say the least and was not pleasant in the Ezell household.

December 5, 2009 - Marc Savard Shows Phil Kessel How It's Done

Kessel's head is still ringing from the boo-birds in Boston

Ever since Phil Kessel was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for 2 first round picks, everyone circled this date on their calendar. Today was the day that Phil Kessel, now villain #2 (Scott Walker, still? No?), OK now villain #1 would come back to Boston after a long offseason of "trying to get a deal done".

I'm not sure if Kessel made the trip though, because he was a non factor in this game. The Bruins got on the board early, and often, against the hapless Maple Leafs and welcomed Kessel back with a 7-2 wood shed-like ass whopping.

The highlight of the night was Marc Savard scoring a hat trick mid-way through the third period when the game was put away. It is always good when it's raining hats in Boston though, right Jack?

Tuukka Rask got the start in net for the Bruins, stopping 31 of 33 pucks thrown his way, while Joey MacDonald was replaced for Vesa Toskala in the second period.

The Bruins power play played very well scoring two goals, while the penalty kill shut the door on a decent Leafs power play (14th in the NHL).

There's your weekend wrap-up. A separate news related post shall be up very shortly!

The Boston Bruins used an offensive blitzkrieg to take down the Tampa Bay Lightning at the TDBank Garden on Wednesday.

Marc Savard, Patrice Bergeron each had a goal while Marco Sturm netted two for the 4-1 victory. Tim Thomas played well, stopping 39 of the 40 shots that came his way. The only goal for the Lightning came from ex-Bruin Jeff Halpern at the beginning of the 3rd period.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

Marc Savard. The guy has been busy as hell this week. Two days ago he signed a 7 year contract extension that will keep him in Boston until the 2016-2017 season. Last night, to award the Bruins for the extension, Savard scored on the power play to give the Bruins 1-0 lead.

Penalty Kill. The penalty kill was great last night, killing off 6 penalties. This moves the Bruins to 2nd in NHL on the penalty kill at 85.4% behind San Jose at 86.0%. The Bruins were able to throw their weight around when down an extra man and are continuing to show that they are one of the best teams when down a man.

The defensive unit. The defensive unit played extremely well last night, especially on the offensive end. The group had 3 points (2 from Zdeno Chara, 1 from Derek Morris) and although they allowed 40 shots to hit Thomas, they were able to stifle guys like Martin St. Louis and Steve Stamkos.

The Bad

Power play. Ok, bear with me here. It wasn't bad last night, per say, but it wasn't good either. Yes, they scored on the power play but the Bruins ended up going 1 for 3 on the man advantage. They currently rank 25th in the NHL with a 17.0% success rate and are slowly but surely dragging themselves out of the 20s.

The Ugly

Ok, maybe it is just me but does Dennis Wideman have a gold tooth? If so, this needs to be taken care of.

Win of the Night

Stourque at the Globe boards, which is known for its idiocy and negativity, came up with a little trade tidbit that is pretty good. Here you go.

Remember Barry Pederson?

• Barry Pederson was traded to Vancouver for Cam Neely and a first round pick that turned out to be Glen Wesley.

• Wesley went to Hartford (now Carolina) for 3 1st round picks.

• Those picks turned out to be Kyle McLaren, Jonathan Aitken, and Sergie Samsonov.

• McLaren was later traded to San Jose for Jeff Hackett and Jeff Jillson.

• Jillson was traded back to San Jose for Brad Boyes, who was later dealt to St. Louis for Dennis Wideman.

• Samsonov was traded to the Demonton Oilers for Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a 2nd round pick.

• That 2nd round pick turned out to be Milan Lucic.

So Wideman and Lucic are remnants from a deal over 20 years ago!

---

I thought it was pretty clever.

If you read my previous post about the Marc Savard rumors, you'd notice the first line I wrote:

He said he wanted to finish his career in Boston. At least you can't call him a liar.

I received a text message from the Boston Bruins stating that Marc Savard has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in the black and gold until the 2016-2017 season.

TSN reports that Savard's contract is a cap hit of $4.2M per season.

So what does this mean for the Bruins? Well lets get the easy part out of the way. This extension means that Boston will keep one of the best set-up men in the NHL until he is 40 years old. Savard has led the Bruins in points the last three seasons (including Kessel's AMAZING 36 GOAL SEASON RIGHT LEAF FANS!!!one11!one1one!) and may do so this year providing he can stay healthy. Right now, Savard is 10th on the B's with 10 points, 8 behind leader Patrice Bergeron despite playing 15 less games.

Another great thing (at least in the short term) is the price. Many people (fans, writers) have said that Savard could command anywhere from $5M to $6M on the open market this offseason and it's very believable. What kind of team wouldn't want a playmaker live Savard? Guys like Marian Hossa, Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta commanded at least $5M this past offseason and couple can make an argument that Savard is better than any of them.

So what does this mean for Boston in terms of personnel?

The Bruins get Savard for a smaller cap number than he has had the past four season ($5M). This will allow Boston to put money towards players with expiring contracts that they want to keep (guys like Blake Wheeler [RFA], Shawn Thornton or Steve Begin).

This contract should also help the Bruins in their maturation process of players like Wheeler, Milan Lucic, David Krejci (at the center position) and hopefully guys like Zach Hamill and Joe Colborne.

Savard will command the 1st center and power play position for a while and when his play starts to decline, the Bruins have the guys to fill that spot and let Savard become more of a teacher/leader.

What the future holds for a 37-38-39 year old Savard no one can tell, but for now the Bruins have put themselves in a great position for the future.

Now get the man a winger to feed the puck to.

He said he wanted to finish his career in Boston. At least you can't call him a liar!

Reports from the Boston Globe online are reporting that the Boston Bruins and center Marc Savard are close to signing an extension that will keep the center in the black and gold for 7 years. The report is stating that Savard will have a cap hit around $4.5-$4.8M.

Bob McKenzie from TSN tweeted that the Savard deal is more around $4.2M range.

"@TSNBobMcKenzie Savard's extension is for 7 years with a cap hit of around $4.2 million per year."

Regardless of the cap number, this is a HUGE discount for the Bruins as most thought that Savard would go into this offseason and command somewhere between $5-$5.5M.

The one thing I have a problem with is the years. Savard will be 33 when this deal officially kicks in and 40 by the time this deal is over.What will happen with Savy between now and then? Who the hell knows. He could be a great player into his late-30's or he could pull an Alexi Zhamnov (the name still haunts us, I know).

All I know is that if this is true and Savard does sign this deal, the Bruins will have a playmaking center in their #1 offense/power play center slot for a long time. Bring in young guys like Wheeler, Lucic (here for another 3 more seasons), Bergeron and Krejci (another 3 seasons) you have the talent to put together a good team.

So far, the Bruins have been a disappointment, but given their last 7 games or so, there is a sparkle of that team we watched last season.

In the words of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson from Wedding Crashers...LOCK IT UP!

11/28 Ottawa Senators @ Boston Bruins

Hello world, I'm sorry I haven't been around lately but with the Thanksgiving holiday, I've been kind of busy. Tomorrow I should have a nice recap of the weekend, but I wanted to alert my readers to The NHL Arena, which is having a poll for official Bruins' Blog of The NHL Arena.

I wanted to make you guys aware of this and if you enjoy reading Something's Bruin, please vote for us.

For the first round, the first 8 will make it and it seems as though we will do so.

Anyways, thanks checking it out.

Since I will be indisposed tomorrow (see: really hungover) I will post this now.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM SOMETHING'S BRUIN

Last night, the Bruins won their third straight on the road with a 4-2 over the St. Louis Blues. More shockingly, at least to me, was that the first two goals were scored by guys over the age of 60 (in hockey terms).

Mark Recchi and Keith Tkachuk got out of their hyperbaric chambers last night and each tallied a goal in what was a very close game. The power play showed up last night as the Bruins went 2 for 3 on the man advantage and the penalty kill was strong as well.

Tuukka Rask played well for the Bruins, stopping 29 of the 31 shots that came his way and made some great saves when the puck was in close on him.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron is on fire during this road trip. In Atlanta he sealed the deal with a game-winning shootout goal that left Pavelec still looking for his pads. In Buffalo Bergy tipped in the game-winning overtime goal and last night he had 4 assists in the 4-2 victory. Bergeron has clearly found his stride and hopefully this will carry on in the absense of David Krejci.

Their skating. Last night was the first time in a long time that we've seen the Bruins skate well for 60 minutes. I don't know if it was just me, but their level of play was definitely better and their play was solid. The Bruins kept their legs churning throughout the game, they were much more physical and they found the back of the net. It all starts with basics and last night, they were on point.

Power Play. I'll give credit where credit is due. The Bruins power play sucks, but last night it looked promising. You can't discredit a 2 for 3 effort, especially since the Blues are ranked 6th in the NHL on the penalty kill. There were a few times where the Bruins would come down the ice and try to force a play, but for the most part there was a fluidity we haven't seen. When you're able to muster 2 goals off of 5 shots on the power play, you're doing something right.

The Bad

Not Having Brad Boyes. This kid is the real deal and last night showed it. Since coming to st. Louis, Boyes has been electric, scoring 84 goals (with one 43 goal season) in 204 games. Boyes did have an assist against the Bruins. Yeah, we traded him for "I can't skate" Wideman.

The Ugly

Nothing really to ugly here. Both teams played well and it was a close game up until the end when Sturm put it away with a short handed marker.

Win Of The Night

Stat Of The Night

With Keith Tkachuk's goal last night, he has moved within 14 goals of tieing Mike Modano for having the most goals scored by a US born player.