Bruins visit to Newtown brings smiles to the community

What’s Brewin with the Bruins by Chris Chirichiello of http://www.bruinsdaily.com

(Credit Andrew Ference: @Ferknuckle) Left to right Adam McQuaid, Tyler Seguin and Andrew Ference sport their Newtown jerseys on their visit to Sandy Hook Elementary school yesterday.

It was an off day for the Boston Bruins yesterday and what other way to spend it then to lend support to the Sandy Hook Elementary school?

Several players and Claude Julien rallied around Newtown after the unthinkable happened on December 14, 2012. Players included: Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton, Adam McQuaid, Chris Bourque, Andrew Ference, Daniel Paille and Rich Peverley. Street hockey games were played, autographs were signed, photos were taken and laughs were shared to try and make the Sandy Hook survivors try to forget the tragic events that took place a little over two months ago.

Head coach Claude Julien immediately felt a connection to the community minutes into their visit.

“I really admire these people for what they’ve gone through,” he said. “It can’t be easy. At a season of the year when we should have been celebrating, we ended up having to mourn.”

 

Julien reiterated how the community has rallied together and how it is just a great gesture in a time of need.

“But this town is amazing, the way the people have shown their support for each other, how strong they are and the faith they have,” Julien said. “It’s pretty amazing. For me to be able to be part of this group and help them out the best way I can, this is extremely important to me.”

Chris Bourque also chimed in on the opportunity of visiting the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

“To come out here and play a little street hockey and see all these kids smiling and having fun, it’s great,” said Bourque. “This community has been through so much the last couple of months and I hope to maybe help them forget about the things that have happened for a little bit for a couple of hours. To see all these kids smiling and having fun, it’s great to be able to do this.”

Natalie Hammond, the lead teacher at Sandy Hook was wounded while protecting her students during the attack on Dec. 14th and could not thank the Bruins enough for their time.

“It’s amazing, the fact that the Bruins have taken a day out of their busy schedule to be here with us and to make our community excited and fun and happy really means a lot,” Hammond said. “It’s really incredible.”

Hammond reiterated that the Bruins were the heroes, but in the Bruins eyes and in the eyes of many, Hammond is one of the biggest heroes on that forgetful day.

Bruins Center Rich Peverley, like all of his teammates, stated he was happy to be there to try and heal the community.

“Anything we can do to bring a smile to people’s faces and make it a positive experience,” Peverley said.

Julien ended with a remark that brought smiles to the Newtown community even with the last leg of his team’s road trip to plan for.

“I have all the time in the world for these people,” said Julien.

Newtown is slowly healing and it has been with the help of each other.

Newtown will rise up once again and the Bruins made sure they helped the best way they could.

Thomas leads em out

by Tim Rosenthal

 

BOSTON — Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas leads the Bruins out of warmups indicating that he will indeed get his third straight start against Carey Price and the rest of the Montreal Canadiens for the first matchup between the Original Six rivals tonight at the TD Garden.Adam McQuaid is out for warmups indicating that he will return to the lineup after missing the last five games with a head/neck injury.

With that, here are the line combinations per warmups:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Nathan Horton
Milan Lucic-Chris Kelly-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-David Krejci-Rich Peverley
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas

Click here for an in-depth preview of the first Bruins-Habs matchup of 2011-12 and be sure to follow me on twitter @rosieshockey for updates from the Level 9 press box.

Bruins sign McQuaid to 3-year extension

By Tim Rosenthal www.thehubofhockey.net

Media Credit/S. Babineau — Getty Images

Aside from their signing of Benoit Pouliot and their trade for Joe Corvo, the Bruins’ off-season has been relatively quiet for the most part. Today, however, is a different story as the Black and Gold signed defenseman Adam McQuaid to a 3-year contract extension through the 2014-15 season.

In his first full season with Boston, the 24-year old tallied 15 points (3 goals, 12 assists) in 67 games during the regular season and had a plus/minus rating of plus-30, good for second best behind captain Zdeno Chara and first among rookies in 2010-11. During the postseason, McQuaid tallied four points (all assists) and had a key moment against the Habs in Game 7 tallying a secondary assist on Nathan Horton’s game-winner — and series clinching goal — in overtime.

McQuaid and GM Peter Chiarelli are currently taking part in a conference call with members of the media. In the meantime, be sure to view The Hub of Hockey’s report card on McQuaid from yesterday.

 

Boston Bruins report cards: No 54. Adam McQuaid

by Anthony Travalgia http://www.thehubofhockey.net

Throughout the offseason, TheHubofHockey will be posting daily report cards on each individual of the 2010-11 NHL Stanley Cup Champions, Boston Bruins.

In order of jersey number, each player will be highlighted. In today’s edition, we have Bruins Defensemen No. 54 Adam McQuaid

Name: Adam McQuaid
Position: Defensemen
Shoots: Right
Age: 24
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 209 lbs.
Contract: $575 Thousand through 2011-12

2010-11 NHL Season stats:
Regular season: 67 GP, 3-12-5, plus-30, 96 PIM, 46 SOG
Playoffs: 23 GP, 0-4–4, plus-8, 14 PIM, 13 SOG

Line combinations (dobberhockey.com):
EV: Andrew Ference 40.44% Tomas Kaberle 59.97% in post season
PP: Dennis Seidenberg 43.04% Ference 76.92% in post season
PK: Zdeno Chara 40.92 % Ference 52.31% in post season

Anthony’s Take: Like fellow defensemen Steve Kampfer, McQuaid got the call up from Providence to fill in for some injured blue-liners. McQuaid came up and made an instant impact. With the solid physical style of play by McQuaid, it made it easy for the Bruins to trade Mark Stuart at the NHL trade deadline.

In 67 games with the Bruins, McQuaid had 15 points, and finished the year a plus-30 which was good enough to tie him for fifth in the NHL, three behind plus/minus leader Zdeno Chara. In 23 playoff games McQuaid had four points.

Playing a physical style sometimes rubs people the wrong way, and McQuaid is certainly not afraid to answer the bell. McQuaid finished the year second on the Bruins in fighting majors with 12, two behind Sean Thornton who led the Bruins.

Grade: B+

Tim’s Turn: By the time Adam McQuaid was recalled from Providence a second time around back in December he became a regular in the Bruins’ lineup for the remainder of the 2010-11 season, and with good reason.

Known for being a stay at home defenseman, McQuaid provided stability at the blue line and found himself in the right place at the right  time on most instances as evident from his plus/minus rating of  plus-30 good for second on the team. McQuaid wasn’t afraid to get his  hands dirty either with 98 penalty minutes and 12 fighting majors.

McQuaid’s biggest moment came on Nathan Horton’s series clinching goal against the Habs in Game 7 when he pinched in and won a loose puck battle in the corner on the play that started it all for one of his  four assists in the postseason.

Make no mistake, Adam McQuaid is here to stay.

Grade: B

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