Hitting The Links: Suppressing the Panic Edition

The Bruins are going to lose every game from here on out. The Bruins should trade Tim Thomas. The Bruins should ACTUALLY trade Dougie Hamilton, David Krejci and ALL THE PICKS for Rick Nash. OR maybe they should trade Patrice Bergeron. Yeah, that's it. Let's trade Patrice Bergeron for like, Bobby Ryan or something. Because the current formula isn't working!!!1

Okay. Got that all out of your system? Good. The fact of the matter is, if you truly thought the November-December tear would last all year, you're a little delusional. It's like that Flyers 82-0 commercial; a lampoon of an actual hockey season. Every Stanley Cup team since the lockout has suffered a "slump" between 1/15 and 3/1 - a slump that still includes wins. While losing does suck, and I don't encourage the team to keep doing it, let's also consider some other former front runners from earlier this year. The Minnesota Wild, formerly in first place in the conference, are currently 3-6-1 in their last 10, sitting in 11th place with 58 points. The Washington Capitals, touted coming into the season as one of the premier teams to beat, are sitting in 9th place with 61 points. Bruins fans: our team is still in second. Let's wait a little while before we actually hit panic.

After the jump, Evander Kane is growing up, an awesome SI article on Brad Marchand, and Andrew Ference gets his own TV show...

Bruins News:

• Sports Illustrated did a feature on the "denim-collar" Brad Marchand and lo, it is awesome. [SI]
• Andrew Ference's 10-episode series on National Geographic TV - yes, really - airs tomorrow night. [Something's Bruin]

• Josh Hennessy is feeling right at home in the Bruins' dressing room. [Enterprise News]
• So yeah, this Johnny Boychuk contract is a big deal. [TSN]
• The Bruins are poised to make another deep run this year. [Canada]
• Claude Julien was obviously unhappy with the Bruins' effort against the Rangers last night. [ESPN]

NHL News:

• The Red Wings Presented By Amway tied the NHL record for consecutive home wins, but they did it including shootouts which is a bit of a cop out. [SBN]
• Hey, the Blue Jackets won a game. [10tv]
• The official Penguins twitter asked fans when they joined the bandwagon and actually got responses, confirming what we all already knew. [SBN]
• Rick Nash is on the trading block. Eklund already confirmed he'd be off to the Kings. So....he's probably Rangers-bound. Or something. [TSN]
• Barry Trotz is a good coach. We already knew this, but it's fun to revisit anyways. [Tennessean]
• Evander Kane is maturing and gaining the respect of his fanbase. [Winnipeg Free Press]
• Ilya Kovalchuk got his first hat trick as a Devils player last night, thanks to Zach Parise. [NJ]