Thanks To All Who Serve And Have Served For Our Freedom; Recchi; Price; Hall Of Fame

Hello, Bonjour & Hóigh!

Hope you have a had a great week and enjoyed some great hockey! It was a busy week for DropPuckMurphy.com as I covered the struggling and hard-luck Bruins and also plenty of NHL news. You can find links to all of my hockey scribblings from NESN.com and NHL.com on the site. You can also find the latest info on the Inside Hockey Radio Show, including this week's lineup and links to the last two shows. Should be a great show tomorrow as we welcome on WWII veteran and Hockey Hall Of Famer Milt Schmidt!

As for those Bruins who went an astonishing 192:06 without lighting the red light, I will just say that this team still has what it takes to turn around this season and once Marc Savard, David Krejci and Milan Lucic are all in the lineup again, then we can truly judge if this team is a legit Stanley Cup contender. Until then, please spare me the Phil Kessel banter and if I hear anyone else say that Mark Recchi is "done" I just may go Tuukka Rask on them! Or maybe pull a Milan Lucic on Chris Neil!

Recchi is a future Hall of Famer and for that alone deserves more respect. He is also one of the main leaders in that dressing room that is keeping this team sane through their early season injuries and struggles. Oh and by the way, I don't seem to see bigger Bruins constantly in front of the net and in the dirty areas the way the 5'10" Recchi always is.

For our readers in Montreal and Habs fans everywhere, let me tell you that just as Bruins fans and media shouldn't give up on Recchi, you should not give up on Carey Price! What I saw Thursday night, was in my opinion, Price's best game yet and encapsulated what this young talent can be on a regular basis. The Habs should've handled his development in much the same way that the aforementioned Rask was handled by the Bruins but that is in the past now and they must deal with where Price stands now. Be patient, be thankful they have Jaroslav Halak and soon enough Price will be the goalie you thought he could be. He single-handedly beat the Bruins with 42 saves and three in the shootout but somehow wasn't named the game's top star? That doesn't matter because if he is handled better going forward, he will win plenty more than a game's top star!

Finally, congratulations to all the 2009 Hall of Fame inductees Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille, and Lou Lamoriello, as well as Pittsburgh Post-Gazette long-time hockey scribe Dave Molinari who will receive the Elmer Ferguson Award and also St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations John Davidson who will be recognized for his brilliant career with MSG Network, CBC and various other networks in the United States and Canada as this year's winner of the Foster Hewitt Award.

Thank you to my father, grandfather, cousin Patrick, cousin Chris, Josh Staunton, Scruffy Wallace and all our fallen and active soldiers as well as all veterans who served for our freedom. Lest we forget…

Sláinte!

Murph

PS: You know why Yzerman is going into the Hall of Fame? Because he's Stevie Y! That's why!