Bruins notebook

Out to strike a deal?

Games watched by Oilers scout

By Kevin Paul Dupont

Globe Staff / February 5, 2009

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PHILADELPHIA - Dave Semenko, who made his bones in the NHL as Wayne Gretzky's sidecar policeman during their great years together in Edmonton, now scouts for the Oilers, and has been showing up lately at Bruins games. He attended the Bruins-Canadiens match Sunday in Montreal, and he was here last night to see the Bruins beat the Flyers, 3-1.

Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli, when queried about Semenko's presence, flashed a broad smile and simultaneously offered a pronounced shrug of his shoulders. The third-year GM steadfastly refuses to address trade speculation - just as he won't discuss contract negotiations - which leaves the media able only to speculate about what moves could be afoot.

The Oilers, still in the hunt for one of the final playoff seeds in the Western Conference, are in need of a winger to play on the Shawn Horcoff-Ales Hemsky line. They also could use help at the faceoff circle, where Horcoff takes most of the draws.

The Bruins would have great interest in ex-Hurricanes winger Erik Cole, the big, smooth-skating winger. He has 12 goals and 22 points in 50 games this season. Cole, 30, who is making $4 million this season, becomes an unrestricted free agent July 1. The Bruins could fit him into the salary cap because they have Marco Sturm's $3.5 million at their disposal, following the German winger's season-ending knee surgery.

The Oilers likely would target the likes of winger Vladimir Sobotka (now in Providence) and/or defenseman Matt Hunwick (sidelined with flu-like symptoms) in a swap for Cole.

Thomas eats it up

The front page of yesterday's USA Today carried a picture across the top that showed a long line of customers making their way into a Denny's restaurant Tuesday in Saginaw, Mich., taking advantage of the eatery's free "Grand Slam" breakfast. A visitor to the Bruins' dressing noted to Tim Thomas, a proud Michigander, that he identified at least three of the customers to be among Thomas's many friends.

"I think you're right about that," said Thomas, playing right along with the visitor's joke, "of course, they did spend $10 in gas to get themselves a $5 breakfast."

"And that's why they are your friends," said the wag.

"Exactly," said the goalie.

Bad memories

The only other time Milan Lucic played at the Wachovia Center, early last season, he paid the price for one of his aggressive forechecks, stumbling around the goal line and hammering face-first into the rear boards, smashing his nose across the top of the dasher.

"Oh, do I remember it," said the hulking left winger, wincing over the memory. "Blood everywhere that day . . . and it didn't stop bleeding, either."

In fact, said the 6-foot-4-inch Lucic, his nose continued to bleed for the better part of three days after the nasty episode.

A legendary snorer, even before he broke his nose, Lucic still rooms alone on road trips because his roommates complained they couldn't sleep because of his rhinoblasts.

Power outage

The Bruins again were stymied on the power play (0 for 5) and are now 0 for 15 with the advantage across the last four games. At one point, coach Claude Julien resurrected a P.J. Axelsson-Marc Savard-Chuck Kobasew trio to try to get the power-play pilot light going. Nothing doing . . . Savard's scoring streak came to an end at eight games (6-3 -9) . . . . . . Shane Hnidy picked up his eighth assist, tying a career high he set with the Senators in 2002-03 . . . Dennis Wideman finished with a goal and assist, extending his point-scoring streak to seven games (4-4 -8). He now has a career-high 37 points, one more than he picked up last season . . . Blake Wheeler, who finished plus-3 (along with David Krejci and Michael Ryder), landed five shots on net . . . Telling stat of the night: Philly with 22 giveaways, compared with only nine by the Bruins . . . The Bruins also won 55 percent of the faceoffs, with Savard copping 9 of 11. Patrice Bergeron again struggled at the dot, losing five of seven. Ex-Bruin Glen Metropolit lost 8 of his 11 faceoffs.