Kessel could be out a month with mononucleosis

That's just great.

Wow, this came out of nowhere. That's a huge blow :/ Phil was doing so well this year, was on the road to 40-50 goals. Hope he'll recover fast, hard schedule this month.

I have treated many athletes including hockey and track men and women using hyperbaric oxygen therapy. the results are very quick and last about 48 hours. The treatment may continue for a few months. If interested notify me and I can put you in touch with a testimonial of a 30 year old hockey player who had very quick recovery. He is Ron Dugay's best friend.I have treated mono patients for over ten years with this treatment.

Where is Sobotka? He was a favorite of mine early in the year playing well above his frame. Is he up or down. With all the injuries I'd like to see him get some minutes with the big club.

This isn't good...

Definitely didn't see this coming. Hopefully he'll have as easy a time with it as I did in college. I also hope he had more fun catching it than I did (still no idea where it came from).

Real tough blow. He could recover quick, but with mono, he'll likely just be sleeping all day and taking antibitotics. This could cause him to lose a lot of weight and probably some strength and stamina too. Probably will need a few weeks to get those back after he gets back to full health.

Anyone know the deal with Looch? I thought I read on here or in the globe somewhere that he had the flu. Hope he plays tonight, we are runnin thin and coulld use him.

Just want I wanted to hear. We still have a rock star club. Go bruins!

No Kessel, Lucic, Bergeron or Sturm for an undisclosed period of time is really going to show the league what the Bruins are made of if they keep up this pace.

Good luck to St. Pierre, Sobotka, Nokelainen and Bitz!

So basically what Chiarelli is saying is, "Stop makin out with the ladies Phil."

'remains faithful that the kids from Providence can help the Bruins maintain their standing atop the Eastern Conference'? 'Providence' is apt and, hopefull, divine but, Chiarelli, please tell me you have a plan? That you had a plan to improve your club even before this 'epidemic'? When you say 'faith in the kids' You ARE talking about the 'kids' who didn't make the team in the first place? I'm all for youth movements, but not by accident. C'mon Chiarelli. This is your moment, when you show what you're made of. You hope for the best, but you plan for the worst. meanwhile, while you 'continue to assess', the Canadiens are walking around Vincent Lacavalier. Shanahan woulda looked a pretty prudent signing now. Assess away, Pete, just don't assess away your Playoff spot, your job.

Mono can be serious in people with previous auto-immune issues, which Kessel has had, so they need to watch him. And even when he's "better" he'll have to stay away for a month because of the risk of spleen rupture. This is a drag all around.

No sense in throwing in the towel and making a trade for the sake of it. The vultures will be circling looking for some kids and picks, but ride out the storm. Every NHL team goes through the injury and flu bug. The Habs want Vinny? Let them have him. The B's can plug holes until the wounded return. Then you're not stuck with a glut of players in the pressbox. Nothing kills the young guys quicker than quick fix signings of 38-year-olds. To see guys like St. Pierre, Bitz et al jump into the system has been great. They may prove they can't play over a long stretch, but let's get through this and go from there. Don't panic, lads. Flesh wounds only.

Tony,
No chance Montreal signs Vinny... just impossible with the cap restrictions. Montreal only has 1M in cap space so they would have to blow up their roster to free up the other 5.8M needed to acquire Vinny. If anything, I would be thrilled if they did get Vinny since it would blow up their current roster, thus ruining any chemistry, while weakening their farm system (would need lots of young talent) and hurt their financial future (Vinny has a HUGE contract).

As for Shanahan, no thanks... would rather stick with the kids over an aging stopgap veteran.

//Montreal only has 1M in cap space so they would have to blow up their roster to free up the other 5.8M needed to acquire Vinny.//

Actually, the rumor is the Canadiens would move several players for Vinny (including Pleskanec), much as the Penguins did last year for Hossa. Great for Boston if they make that trade.

And Tony, please. Depth is a major component of all NHL teams, and injuries are something everybody plans for. There are several players in Providence that would be playing in the NHL for other teams. When the inevitable injuries strike, you don't go running about and making panic moves, you rely on that depth.

//He could recover quick, but with mono, he'll likely just be sleeping all day and taking antibitotics. This could cause him to lose a lot of weight and probably some strength and stamina too//

You don't take antibiotics for mono. The only cure is rest. And everyone has different reactions. I had mono in college, was sick for a few days, couldn't sleep to save my life, and felt fine after a week.

moves.

"Actually, the rumor is the Canadiens would move several players for Vinny (including Pleskanec), much as the Penguins did last year for Hossa. Great for Boston if they make that trade."

Plekanec only makes like 1.7M... they would still need another 4M off. Only way they could make it work would be to lose Koivu, Kovalev, Tanguay, Lang, Markov or Hamrlik (all 4M+). No way Tampa would want most of those (age, UFAs at season's end) and no way Montreal could afford to part with most of those either. Only hope would be to trade an overpaid Hamrlik and give plenty of AHL prospects to TB to equal out the talent level. That would severely hamper Montreal's chances over the next five years...

You're right duinne everyone has different reactions. Mono put me out for 2 months and had me sleeping a lot. Hardly even had the energy to get out bed or off the couch when I wasn't sleeping and lost a bit of weight too. Thought I remembered taking meds for it but it was years ago so i could be wrong. Hope Kess has better results.

Plekanes is only one of the names being thrown around. At any rate, Gainey is denying everything, so it could be, as most of these things are, just a lot of talk.

There are only about a half dozen potentially available, reasonably priced guys out there Phil won't be out that long, and trading a roster player or two (or prospects and picks) get someone who PC only _thinks_ will gel with a lline is risky. Hell, Ryder who is talented and motivated didn't manage to click with either Bergeron or Savard. Sykora didn't mesh with Crosby either. I'd rather ride it out, we might not be in first place by the end of the month, but at this point the B's can play .500 hockey the rest of the season and still finish with more points than last year.

That said I'd be tempted in PC's position to bring Reich up so he and Thornton can make sure no one futher up the depth chart gets hurt pounding the crap out of people.