Byron Bitz

MONTREAL - It has come to this: Perhaps the most challenging decision Claude Julien pondered yesterday was how to squeeze a fourth-line role player into the Bruins lineup for Game 4 against the Canadiens at the Bell Centre tonight. "I'll tell you one thing right now," the Boston coach said. "Somebody is going to be sitting out that doesn't deserve to be sitting out. " Byron Bitz, elevated from healthy scratch to No. 4 right wing in Game 3 Monday when Milan Lucic was required to serve a one-game sitdown, did everything his coach asked him to do in his playoff debut.

For one of his first Black-and-Gold acts, Dennis Seidenberg, trying to shake off forechecking heat, backhanded a riser that sailed over the glass and plopped into the TD Garden stands at 11:10 of the first period Thursday. Welcome to Boston. “I’m pretty sure he wasn’t too pleased with that over-the-glass penalty,’’ said coach Claude Julien. “It’s a tough way for him to start.’’ The finish turned out to be better for the newest Bruin. By the end of the night, Seidenberg, acquired from Florida Wednesday along with the rights to collegian Matt Bartkowski for Byron Bitz,...

In search of a remedy for melancholy, the Bruins found just the elixir last night in the form of the Florida Panthers, who arrived in town with a first-bend-then-break defense and with their goaltender, Craig Anderson, serving up rebounds like a human Pitch-Back. When the night was over on Causeway Street, the Bruins could boast a 6-1 win - their largest margin of victory in nearly three months - and rookie winger Byron Bitz could say that he had the near-sellout crowd of 16,781 chanting his name in the final moments, hoping that the strapping kid from Saskatoon (with a Cornell business degree stashed in his...

On July 25, when Derek Morris agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million contract with the Bruins, general manager Peter Chiarelli believed he had landed a No. 2 defenseman who could play with Zdeno Chara and round out a roster that could chase down the Stanley Cup. In hindsight, Chiarelli was inaccurate on both counts. While last year’s first-place club continues to scrap for the playoffs, Chiarelli yesterday dumped the defenseman whose signing required two previous transactions - trading Aaron Ward to Carolina, then buying out Patrick Eaves - for a 2011 conditional fourth-round pick from Phoenix.

NEW YORK - Effort alone doesn't necessarily win hockey games, but it typically has to be part of the 60-minute equation. Good effort with equal goaltending goes a long way in today's NHL, as it did in the old NHL, as it did even in the dead-puck era (google: New Jersey Devils) of the NHL, and as it will in tomorrow's NHL. Effort and goaltending are the death and taxes of hockey, and yesterday goaltending was the death of the Bruins. With even adequate netminding yesterday before a full house of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden, the Bruins easily would have pinned up their 44th win of the season.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Bruins kicked off their three-game California tour last night at the Honda Center with lots of fight (first NHL scrap for Adam McQuaid, followed up by a Byron Bitz tangle). Lots of character. Lots of chances. For all that, the Bruins came away from Anaheim with nothing. In the third period, ahead by one goal, the Bruins couldn’t do much to stop an Anaheim rally. Ryan Getzlaf and Steve Eminger beat Tuukka Rask with third-period goals to give the Ducks a 4-3 victory.

In one corner, put a first-place club hungry to reclaim the emotion-filled, thump-first, puck-possession game that once had them atop the league. In the other corner, place a struggling team plagued by leaky goaltending, a tendency to take stupid penalties, and the lack of character that had them sipping from the Cup only two seasons ago. Let 'em loose at each other and what do you get? A 6-0 punt to Anaheim's rear end delivered by the suddenly clicking Bruins, who shook off the surly Ducks' intimidation game and gave them a kick in the teeth that might reduce Anaheim to...

BUFFALO - In a season full of missteps, miscues, and inconsistent offense, the Bruins took a second strong step forward in as many nights, pinning a 2-1 loss on the Sabres when Patrice Bergeron tipped home Zdeno Chara’s long-range wrister with 47 seconds gone in overtime at HSBC Arena last night. The victory, the second straight in extra time, provided what may be the first signs of substantive traction in what has been a frustrating season for the Bruins, who finished first in the Eastern Conference last season but have been lodged among the also-rans, pretenders,...

MONTREAL - This Bruins' season is different in many ways - look to the top of the Eastern Conference standings for proof of that - and they left here late yesterday afternoon with yet another reason to think, vive la differénce in 2008-09. The Bruins didn't outright humble the Canadiens in their 3-1 victory at the Bell Centre, in front of a sellout 21,273, but they did manage to keep their long-time nemesis frustrated and tied in knots, even after the Habs moved to a brief 1-0 lead in the first period.

The not-quite-ready-for-regulation-time Bruins played into overtime again yesterday - for the fourth time in five games - and their payoff was a 2-1 shootout loss to the Devils that ended Boston’s season-high four-game winning streak. The loss also had to raise concerns about Boston’s overall ability to score goals, which some two months into the 2009-10 season isn’t happening with enough regularity to think this is a team that can challenge for the Stanley Cup. Yesterday’s lone Black-and-Gold goal was scored by Blake Wheeler, who was bumped up to the No. 1 line upon...

TD Garden, the lifeless house of snores and bores for the Bruins (losers of five straight on home ice), was finally crackling. Mark Stuart had smoked Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles’s best forward, then willingly dropped his mitts when Wayne Simmonds came knocking. The lifeless power play had broken through twice, with Marco Sturm and Mark Recchi doing the honors. Michael Ryder and Marc Savard had beaten Jonathan Quick in the shootout. Those are some of the reasons most of the 17,565 fans, on their feet in the shootout after having so little to leave their seats for this month, left the building stunned that the...

WILMINGTON - On Jan. 14, from the visitors’ suite above the HP Pavilion ice, Cam Neely and the Bruins hockey operations staff - every executive and scout was present for pro scouting meetings - watched a team missing its top three centers (Patrice Bergeron, Marc Savard, David Krejci) and two dependable defensemen (Andrew Ference, Mark Stuart) scrap out a 2-1 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks, one of the NHL’s premier clubs. Just over two weeks later, Neely and assistant general manager Jim Benning were flanking general manager Peter Chiarelli in the...

From Winter Classic to Winter Clunkers. In just over two weeks, the Bruins, showcased across the land as emotional winners in the NHL’s outdoor game at Fenway Park Jan. 1, have gone slip-slidin’ away amid a jumble of injuries, minor league emergency call-ups, and a case of battle fatigue, all in evidence at the Garden yesterday in a lifeless 5-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. “When you lose like that,’’ mused defenseman Dennis Wideman, “you aren’t competing the way you want.’’ In fact, the Bruins barely competed, falling behind, 2-0, in the first period,...

LOS ANGELES - At the Staples Center yesterday, as the Bruins completed a grinding three-game road trip up and down the California coast (they started in Anaheim, flew north to San Jose, then traveled back to Los Angeles), they found themselves without some of their top guns. No Patrice Bergeron (thumb). No Marc Savard (knee). No Marco Sturm (leg). No Dennis Wideman (sick). No Steve Begin (undisclosed) for half the game. What they had, surprisingly, was a two-goal lead in the third period.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Bruins kicked off their three-game California tour last night at the Honda Center with lots of fight (first NHL scrap for Adam McQuaid, followed up by a Byron Bitz tangle). Lots of character. Lots of chances. For all that, the Bruins came away from Anaheim with nothing. In the third period, ahead by one goal, the Bruins couldn’t do much to stop an Anaheim rally. Ryan Getzlaf and Steve Eminger beat Tuukka Rask with third-period goals to give the Ducks a 4-3 victory.

Even when they fell behind by two quick goals, there was enough skill and character on the NHL’s best team to brush off a first-period road deficit like a stray snowflake. Young captain Jonathan Toews, relentless on the forecheck, set the physical and emotional tone for the Blackhawks. Duncan Keith, perhaps the NHL’s top defenseman, had his stick involved in three goals. Naturally, fourth-line pluggers such as Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, and Tomas Kopecky (5 points among them)

Two teams headed in different directions - the Bruins to tomorrow’s Winter Classic and the Thrashers seemingly to a long winter’s slumber - spent 60 minutes at the Garden last night with their GPSs locked on their respective itineraries. Backed by three first-period goals, all in a span of just over 10 minutes, the Bruins rolled to a 4-0 so-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it victory, their 20th of the season. The Thrashers, who cobbled together only 18 shots despite a game plan built on movement and shooting and shaking out the offensive trunk, ran their winless streak to six (0-5-1)

Nearly three minutes into yesterday's overtime session, Randy Jones flipped a floater from inside the Bruins' blue line that wouldn't have cracked an eggshell. But what looked like a harmless shot gave the Flyers a 4-3 OT victory over the Bruins before 17,565 at TD Banknorth Garden. The slow-moving puck ticked off the pad of Andrew Ference, who was standing in front of the net, took a turn in mid-air, and skidded past Manny Fernandez at 3:00 for a most unlikely and unfortunate deciding strike against the Bruins.

Two teams headed in different directions - the Bruins to tomorrow’s Winter Classic and the Thrashers seemingly to a long winter’s slumber - spent 60 minutes at the Garden last night with their GPSs locked on their respective itineraries. Backed by three first-period goals, all in a span of just over 10 minutes, the Bruins rolled to a 4-0 so-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it victory, their 20th of the season. The Thrashers, who cobbled together only 18 shots despite a game plan built on movement and shooting and shaking out the offensive trunk, ran their winless streak to six (0-5-1)

CHICAGO - As his Cornell business degree indicates, Byron Bitz is no dummy, and he’s smart enough to know that his shift away from Marc Savard and the first line is not considered a demotion. “I don’t look at it like that at all,’’ said Bitz, who skated with Blake Wheeler and David Krejci last night. “We tried it out. It may have worked at times. Probably not consistently enough to keep it going. We weren’t scoring, so you change it up. I don’t look at it as a slap in the face to me at all.’’ The coaching staff’s thinking was that with his smarts,...