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He’s been on the All-Star team twice, posted 88 points last season and, even though he’s just coming back from a broken foot, he’s already notched up four goals and six assists in 11 games.

More importantly, though, is the fact that he seems to genuinely love wearing a Bruins jersey and I truly believe that it makes all the difference.

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“It’s one of those injuries that we have to allow him to get better,” coach Claude Julien said. “Yet it could be something that could be cured on a day-to-day basis.”

Fortunately, they’ve got promising rookie, Tuukka Rask, to defend the team between the pipes just in case Thomas is out for a bit.  Rask started for the fifth straight game against the Minnesota Wild last night.  He stopped 28 shots in the 2-1 victory and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the Bruins have won four in a row.  I gotta say that Boston is pretty lucky to have two good goalies to choose from which should take some pressure off of the team if Thomas is sidelined.

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The Bruins picked up winger, Craig Weller, and the rights to prospect, Alexander Fallstrom, in exchange for the veteran forward.

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Overall, I don’t think it’s a bad move for Kobasew since I think he will fit right into their lineup and I actually think the Wild are getting the better end of this deal.  They need all the help they can get at this point so hopefully this will get things started.

As a Calgary Flames fan, I wish he’d come back to our club.  I thought he played pretty well with Jarome Iginla and I really don’t understand why they let him go in the first place.

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The break happened after he made contact with Boston Bruins defenceman, Dennis Wideman, during their terrible loss on Saturday night.

There was so much action during that game that I have to admit that I had almost forgotten about this injury and I’m disappointed that it is this serious.  Honestly, though, you can pretty much see from this video below that it’s not going to be good.  I can’t tell but a lot of fans say that Cole was trying to sidestep and that Wideman went out of his way to create the collision.

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The Bruins definitely came out on the ice and proved that, when they are on their game, they are virtually unstoppable.  Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler put the puck in the back of the net just 26 seconds apart in the first period and the team scored four-power play goals to beat the Hurricanes 7-2. 7.

“We wanted to come out and put our better foot forward tonight and I think we did that,” said Marc Savard. “The biggest thing is we played simple tonight.”  Savard had a goal and two assists.

Of course, as is often the case in a blowout like this one, things got pretty heated between the teams and resulted in so many penalties that it’s pointless to list them all.

Here’s a video in case you need a better idea of what happened last night.

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Besides, like the Dany Heatley drama, Kessel wasn’t happy with the team and eagerly signed a five-year deal worth $27 million deal despite the fact that the Nashville Predators and the New York Rangers had expressed some interest.

Leafs GM Brian Burke said: “Bringing Phil Kessel aboard, it’s a statement to our players that we intend to be competitive right away, and I think he gives us a dimension that we need.  This is a free agent that could have signed with other teams, he wanted to sign with us, and I think it’s an important pick up for us.”

What about that huge salary?  Burke continued “it’s a very high price but it’s one we feel makes sense for us and I think what’s made it possible to expend those picks is two focuses: one is that he’s a young player, he’s not even 22 yet.  And second, we think with some of the players we acquired without giving up picks like Tyler Bozak, (Robert) Slaney, (Christian) Hanson and (Jonas) Gustavsson, these are players that were they available on the draft would command a high price like that. We feel by stocking the cupboard we can take some of the cans off the shelf for the future.”

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Basically, he played 74 minor league games last year (3 goals, 18 assists and 82 penalty minutes) between the St. Louis and Pittsburgh organizations but I’m not really overly optimistic about what he’s going to add to Boston’s lineup.

This has just fueled rumors about Phil Kessel’s potential future on the Boston roster.  Some think this is a sign that the team is getting ready to deal away a d-man to make room in the cap for Kessel while others point out the fact that the club is spending money on everyone BUT Kessel.  Ultimately, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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In what seems like a rare moment between NHL coaches and the team administrators, Julien spoke about how important it is to feel that he has the support of the upper management. 

If a coach feels like no one has any confidence in what he’s doing, I can imagine that it has a really negative effect and I think Montreal and Tampa can take a look at the way this club is run and learn some lessons.

Claude Julien won the Jack Adams Award last season and I believe that he really deserved it.

The Bruins ended last season with an Eastern Conference-leading 116 points but lost in game seven of the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes.

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During his 10 year career in the NHL, he has played for the New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames while splitting his 75 games last season between the Rangers and the Coyotes.  He had five goals and 15 assists.

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Canes GM, Jim Rutherford, seems happy to have Ward back with the team: “With this trade, our defence really takes shape.  We envision him complementing Joni Pitkanen well as a defensive pairing.”  I agree that it will be good for Carolina to have Ward back in the lineup.  He still lives in Raleigh and he helped the team capture their first Stanley Cup back in 2006.

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Of course, a lot of fans are probably going to think back to that nasty sucker punch that Scott Walker (Carolina) delivered to Ward (then with Boston) during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.  Walker got away with it and Bruins coach, Claude Julien, was furious.

Just in case you forgot and would love to see it again, here’s a video of the punch.  Hopefully, the boys have ironed out any issues before the season begins

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