Nobody is in the building at this point. With the game time change, both coaches have opted to bag the morning skate, That being said, however, the three Bruins scratches (Allen, Bochenski and Reich) skated with Coaches Ward, Houda and Whitesides on Garden ice this morning. On his way out down the corridor to the dressing room, Allen was asked what the secret of life was. "Keep smiling," said Bobby. With that, he went down the hall, joined by Brandon and Jeremy, and gave some visiting kids some sticks. Nice touch, boys. Nice Touch. JB

John Bishop is the beat writer for BostonBruins.com. He covers the Black & Gold hoping to offer a positive look at the team, not only from the stands and the press box, but also from inside the locker room. A graduate of Boston U. and Northeastern, 'Bish' grew up in Connecticut and moved to the Hub of Hockey in 1993. Since then he has made all four rinks at the Beanpot schools, as well as both Gardens, his icebound homes away from home. Prior to joining the TD Banknorth Garden staff in 2005, Bishop had written for several publications, with his primary focus being college hockey. He coauthored the book Bygone Boston in 2003 and hopes someday to pen a bio of Hobey Baker.

Bear Essentials: Bergy and Phil 

Coach Julien was a little more reticent than he was yesterday, when he was very vociferous on the ice, and off. However, when I asked him if there were any danger of having the Bruins "watch" the high-powered Rangers club, rather than checking them this afternoon, he definately had sommething to say.

Obviously taken aback by the question, he steadfastly denied that possibility.

"No. I don't think so," said Julien. "Because watching them would mean that we have an inferiority complex, and we don't have that."

That also started Coach on a little bit of his philosophy as it applies to his team.

"We're going to go out there and play our game," he said. "That's the bottom line here. We have confidence in our team play. We have confidence in our game. I've said (this) numerous times, we are not going to be adjusting to teams. We are going to play OUR game. And if we do that on a consistent basis it is going to create the identity we are looking for."

The Rangers, from a couple of nights ago, were:

Dawes-Gomez-Jagr
Prucha-Drury-Callahan
Straka-Betts-Shanahan
Hollweg-Dubinsky-Orr
Pock-Rozsival (sg) 30
Tyutin-Girardi (bg) 40
Staal-Mara

Coach Julien also said this about the Rangers:

"You never lose respect for the other team. Look at their roster, there's a lot of potential there and they are a highly skilled team. It's just a matter of time before they come out of their shell and start performing to their leve. You never know when that's going to happen. We are just going to make sure that we are ready to play our game. The focus has to be on what we have to here, night in and night out. We have to create OUR identity and that confdence. Focusing on what we (are supposed to) do will make us successful."

2:08 p.m.
There is a pretty entertaining youth hockey game on the ice right now. The little guys look so small compared to the NHL-sized rink, bu they are really making a game out of it. Bravo!

Here is what I think the lines will look like today:

Schaefer-Savard-Kobasew
Sturm-Bergeron-Murray
Axelsson-Krejci-Kessel
Lucic-Metropolit-Thornton
Chara-Ward (sg) Fernandez
Alberts-Ference (bg) Thomas
Stuart-Wideman-Go BRUINS!

Manny Fernandez will start in net.

"It's huge (to get both goalies going)," said Coach Julien. "Especially at this time of year.

"It's still early in the season and Manny gave us that first win of out three game winning streak.

"And we've talked about it since day one -- that's the luxury of having two good goalies -- it should make it that much better," he said.

By the way: Nina Edwards (Jack's daughter) had a shutout in soccer, today! Congrats! JB

3:43 p.m.
I'm looking forward to the opening puck drop. Travis Roy is a very specail person and deserves all of the support he gets. Learn how to donate to his cause at travisroyfoundation.com.

3:54 p.m.
Not much more I can add over here, see you on the Running Recap.