Can the Bruins establish a streak at some point?

I really don't know what to say. I have never seen a start to the season quite like this current Bruins season. The Bruins are 11 games in and they've yet to establish a winning streak or a losing streak. They currently stand at 5-5-1 which isn't bad, but it isn't great either; not something you would come to expect from the reigning number one seed in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins fell last night to the New Jersey Devils by a score of 2-1. I must admit it was one of the Bruins' stronger 60 minute efforts of the season, but you can tell how much they miss having Marc Savard and Milan Lucic in the lineup.

New Jersey head coach Jacques Lemaire really gave the Bruins a gift by not starting future first ballot Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur in goal last night. Brodeur only gets a handful of nights off per season, and I honestly can't remember seeing Brodeur play in Boston twice in the same season; New Jersey always comes in twice a year, and I know that I have seen the Scott Clemensons and the Kevin Weekes' of the world. New Jersey threw Yan Danis between the pipes, giving him his 2009-2010 season debut, and I thought the Bruins would put a few past him...wishful thinking, huh? New Jersey got on the board first as Andrew Ference made another mistake by being caught down behind the New Jersey net-why, I don't know-and that left Shawn Thornton to cover at the blueline by himself. Niklas Bergfors literally used Thornton as a cone and coasted right by him, leaving Mark Stuart back to defend a 2 on 1 with David Clarkson. Bergfors took the initial shot which was stopped by Tim Thomas, but Clarkson one-handed the puck into the net on the rebound to make it 1-0. It wasn't a bad period; the Bruins generated some good quality scoring chances, but Danis stood tall between the pipes.

The Bruins got an immediate powerplay to start of the second period which resulted in nothing..surprise, surprise. Shortly after the powerplay had expired, however, the Bruins capitalized and tied the game as Zdeno Chara fired the puck from the blueline, breaking a New Jersey player's stick, and deflected to Marco Sturm, who then backhanded the pass to Patrice Bergeron in the slot. Bergeron wasted no time firing it into the back of the net to tie the game at 1. I thought Patrice Bergeron was hands down the best player on the ice last night and he has been pretty much all season. You're really starting to see the Patrice Bergeron we all watched grow up in front of our own eyes. Tuesday marked the two year anniversary of Bergeron's first concussion from Philadelphia Flyers' defenseman Randy Jones, and you can tell that with every game, he's gaining more and more confidence and looks really comfortable out there, and that's great to see. Jersey and Boston went into the room deadlocked at 1 after 40 minutes of play.

The Bruins and Devils played a real tight checking third period with limited scoring chances on both ends. I was disappointed that the Bruins didn't focus on getting the 1 point and forcing overtime. New Jersey cycled the puck for the last 3 minutes of the third period, and with 1:26 remaining in the period, Jamie Langenbrunner took a booming slapshot from the right faceoff dot which was stopped by Thomas, but Zach Parise shoveled the pass behind Thomas in the crease, leaving a wide open net for Dainius Zubrus to score what ended up being the game-winning goal. I saw the puck laying in the crease and screamed "NO!!" but I don't think any of the players heard me as Zubrus put the game away. The Bruins nearly tied the game with 30 seconds left as Dennis Wideman fired a wrist shot from the point which Zdeno Chara deflected off the crossbar; when it missed, the game was pretty much done. This loss was real tough to swallow because we were so fortunate to not face Martin Brodeur and had sustained a strong 60 minute effort.

Earlier in the day, I received some of the best news I have gotten in a while...My cell phone rang at 4:00 and it was my season ticket holder representative calling to inform me that it was my turn to purchase my Winter Classic ticket. I had already decided on the $225 price level because if I spent $100 less, I would be out in the middle of nowhere in the bleachers, totally isolated from what would be going on during the game, not to mention the fact that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I've been getting off going to Bruins games really cheap all these years. My rep let me decide exactly where I wanted to sit, and I chose the third base side because the Bruins will be shooting at the end twice. My seats are in Section 26, Loge Box 147, Row NN, which is roughly 30-35 rows off the field and a few rows shy of being underneath so the roof, so I don't have to worry about being behind a pole or any other sort of obstructed view. Due to my season ticket payment plan, the Bruins had already billed me for 40 home games this season instead of 41 because of the Winter Classic, and they credited me $15 dollars on the Winter Classic, so the total damage when I bought my ticket yesterday was $210; I can live with that since, again, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Later, during the warmups, I was fortunate enough to recieve a phone call and a text message from my friend Jessica who I hadn't seen since my Mother's wake in April of 2008; she was sitting in Loge 20 for her birthday and had empty seats next to her, so that's where I was last night; I never even made it to 325. Seated in the row of in front of us were a group of drunken, middle-aged people with no concept of what was going on, which I found to be annoying, but you can't pick the people who sit near you at a game, right?

If I can take anything negative out of last night, it was the warmup music; after the traditional lead off song "Back in Black," they proceded to play 3 consecutive Rhianna songs, which was horrible and totally uncalled for; no one can get fired up for hockey listening to that. In all my years, I have never heard R&B or rap in warmup. Blake Wheeler was getting into it as he was singing along, but I was quite annoyed.

The B's have another home game tomorrow afternoon versus Edmonton. Tomorrow is Halloween, so between the costumes and everything else, I should have some good stories!

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Mark Recchi-David Krejci-Marco Sturm
• Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Michael Ryder
• Daniel Paille-Vladimir Sobotka-Blake Wheeler
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz
• 
  
• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Matt Hunwick
• Andrew Ference-Mark Stuart

Scoring Summary...

• NJD: David Clarkson assisted by Niklas Bergfors and Bryce Salvadore
• BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Marco Sturm and Zdeno Chara
• NJD: Dainius Zubrus assisted by Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner

Bruins goal video...

• Bergeron: European Vacation polka dancing scene

Warmup music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Three god awful Rihanna songs of which I don't know the titles; Blake Wheeler probably does.
  

I didn't know Route 2 East took you to Providence...

I must admit, I am shocked to be writing to you about a 3-2 Bruins victory. I had no hopes whatsoever going into last night's contest between the Nashville Predators and Boston Bruins despite Nashville being one of the worst teams in hockey. The B's have been through a lot in the past week; I found out Wednesday morning through many text messages that our best all-around player, Marc Savard, will be out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot that happened right at the tail end of the training camp according to Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli. Not to mention that Milan Lucic will also be out 4-6 with a broken finger which he had surgically repaired on Sunday. Peter Chiarelli recalled Vladimir Sobotka and Brad Marchand from Providence, and then later recalled Trent Whitfield on an emergency basis because they weren't sure if Shawn Thornton was ready to go (he wasn't; he didn't play). Earlier in the week, the Bruins also tried shaking up the team as Chiarelli pulled the trigger on a few deals; first off, he traded Chuck Kobasew to the Minnesota Wild. Chucky really grew on me; initially, I couldn't accept the fact that he's a former Boston College Eagle, but his hardnosed-sandpaper-grind it out style of play really won me over. The Bruins recieved a conditional 2011 draft pick and two stiffs that I've never heard of and who you won't see on Causeway Street anytime soon. The second trade was minor as the B's acquired center Daniel Paille from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for another conditional draft pick. Paille has been labeled as an underachiever and couldn't find his way out of Lindy Ruff's doghouse in Buffalo, so hopefully a fresh start in Boston will rejuvenate his career. A shakeup is what I think this team needs. It's an encouraging sign that 7 games in, Chiarelli and Cam Neely aren't sitting back waiting for the problem to fix itself, and they're actually doing something about it, a pattern that we haven't been used to when Harry Sinden had control of the team. I found warmups a little more interesting as I was seeing Marchand, Whitfield and Paille for the first time in person and had to remember their number, their size and which way they shoot to try and paint a picture of what to expect.

The Bruins had a real boring first 20 minutes of hockey, and to my knowledge, they didn't even have a scoring chance. They registered 5 shots on goal but did a nice job on the man advantage, but I shouldn't get too excited as Nashville is one of the only teams in the league whose powerplay is worse than ours; they have only 1 powerplay goal on the season and it came in their first game. Nashville got on the board first seconds after their powerplay expired as David Legwand carried the puck into the zone and dropped it for Jerrod Smithson, and Smithson wristed one right along the ice past Tim Thomas. I sat there in disbelief because I can't remember Timmy Thomas ever giving up so many soft goals; he did win the Vezina last season, right?

The Bruins managed being down only a goal after the first period, which was a miracle. The boys came out and scored 34 seconds into the second period as Brad Marchand beat and muscled Ryan Suter off the puck, pushed it again, and flipped it over Nashville defenseman Kevin Klein's stick and over to Michael Ryder, and Ryder backhanded it just under the crossbar to tie the game. It was Marchand's first NHL point. Nashville quickly got the lead back as former BU Terrier Collin Wilson got his first NHL goal by pouncing on a Padraic Hornqvist rebound that was laying on the goal line and pushing it over the line. I don't think Tim Thomas realized where exactly the puck was, and my initial thought was that Hornqvist's shot went under the crossbar in the netting and came down and laid in the crease, which is a goal, right? Chad Larose had a similar goal against us in Game 2 of the playoffs last season that was called back, so I really don't know. The Bruins managed to tie the score as Patrice Bergeron pounced off a rebound of a Zdeno Chara bomb from the point; Bergeron was on the side of the net and not at the best angle, and someone got the puck into the back of the net. His celebration was priceless; he's usually pretty even-keeled, but he was pretty fired up as he raised his hands as he screamed the F bomb like 3 times in a row. The B's, despite the minor league lineup, went into the room deadlocked at 2.

The Bruins came out for the third with a lot of energy, which was nice. They controlled the tempo for a vast majority of the period and took the lead just over the midway point of the period as new addition Daniel Paille tried a wrap around shot, but the puck wound up in the slot, allowing Steve Begin to net his first goal as a Bruin. Begin was an acquisition that I was not overly fond of because I remember his antics well in Montreal where he would run around cheapshotting players from behind, or throwing a jab to the face and then running and hiding, and he's forever being called for diving. I know he's one of Julien's boys and thats pretty much the reason he came here, but I think with Neely watching up above, Begin won't be pulling any of those shenanigans. Neely hates players like that. The Bruins did hang on and win the game despite Nashville putting on a pretty aggressive attack towards the end, but Timmy Thomas, as always, held down the fort!

My section was pretty dead Wednesday night...Let me rephrase that; the Garden as a whole had no energy and undoubtedly the smallest crowd thus far in the young season. I mean, it's a Wednesday night against Nashville. I do have one story, though; these kids no older than 10 years old came running out of 326 into my section with no shirts on and their pants pulled down with their boxers hanging out and the kid in front of me yells out, "Everyone start playing Michael Jackson music, with all these little boys running around exposing themselves!" I gave him props and a highfive. I had the entire last row to myself which was nice. I will be blogging again on Halloween weekend as the Devils and Oilers visit the Garden, and hopefully I'll get some characters in my row.

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Mark Recchi-David Krejci-Marco Sturm
• Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Michael Ryder
• Vladimir Sobotka-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz
• Daniel Paille-Trent Whitfield-Blake Wheeler

Scoring Summary...

• NSH: Jerrod Smithson assisted by David Legwand and Cody Fransen
• BOS: Michael Ryder assisted by Derek Morris and Brad Marchand
• NSH: Collin Wilson assisted by Padraic Hornqvist
• BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Zdeno Chara
• BOS: Steve Begin assisted by Daniel Paille

Bruins goal video...

• Ryder - Wedding Crashers champagne popping scene
• Bergeron - European Vacation polka dancing scene
• Begin - Napoleon Dynamite dancing scene

Warmup music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Kings of Leon - "Use Somebody"
• Nine Inch Nails - "Survivalism"
• Green Day - "Welcome to Paradise"

Time to go on the road!

OK, I realize these aren't your father's Colorado Avalanche which were led by Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Rob Blake, but come on, the Bruins can't beat the young and inexperienced Colorado Avalanche in their own building? The Bruins dropped their third home game in 5 tries to the Avalanche yesterday afternoon at the TD Garden. The Bruins didn't suffer their third home loss last season until January 3rd as they were defeated by the Buffalo Sabres by a 4-2 score. The Bruins came out yesterday with a real lackluster first period and were in a 2 goal hole less than 10 minutes into the contest. The Avalanche got on the board on their first powerplay as Milan Hejduk backhanded one top corner as Tuukka Rask was down and out; I sat there and said to myself, "Here we go again. WTF?" The Avalanche tallied 37 seconds later as defenseman Scott Hannan picked up the long rebound that Tuukka failed to control, burying it into the empty net; the close to sell-out crowd was not at all amused whatsoever. I really can't figure out what is wrong with them other than the fact that the special teams absolutely suck! I think Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli missed the boat on resigning both checking line and penalty killing specialists, PJ Axelsson and Stephane Yelle, to short money. PJ and old Yeller were dynamite on the PK; right now, Julien is sending players out there to kill penalties as they learn on the job. Their powerplay is abysmal as they're 4 for 29 on the man advantage, and half the time they spend their powerplay chasing the puck as its cleared into their defensive zone. "Puck moving defenseman" Derek Morris has showed me nothing thus far and is not living up to that 3.3 millon dollar contract; thanks, Chiarelli!

The B's showed a little bit of spunk in the second period as the ancient Mark Recchi recorded his first goal of the season after taking the feed from Patrice Bergeron behind the net and one timing it low to the stick side from the left faceoff circle. Just over 2 minutes later, the Bruins tied it as Blake Wheeler redirected the centering pass from Michael Ryder into the back of the net. I was saying to myself, "It looks as though the Bruins have woken up and we have control of this game..." Yeah, not so much. The Bruins were quick to get lazy as they failed to kill off yet another penalty as Marek Svatos roofed one home in the slot to give Colorado a 3-2 lead. Just before the end of the second, Andrew Ference had a serious brain fart as he skated over to the boards to help Matt Hunwick and Steve Begin when his man, David Jones, was able to walk in all alone on Tuukka Rask and put it top shelf. I haven't been impressed with Ference at all so far this season, and anyone who knows me well enough knows that he's my boy. I know he's coming off of an injury plagued year, not to mention the entire NHL hates his guts as well as do probably most of the teammates for being a rat and getting Paul Kelly fired from the NHLPA. Ference honestly has looked lost out there and seems to miss a lot of passes that go back to the blueline, which in turn makes the team skate out of the zone and regroup. The Bruins went into the room in the same position as they did at the end of the first, down by 2.

The Bruins tried clawing back into it as Michael Ryder backhanded his 2nd goal of the season to cut the deficit to 1. The Bruins couldn't get much else going throughout the 3rd as they were real sloppy breaking out of their own zone. I was getting really annoyed as they couldn't keep the puck deep in the Colorado end in the final 2 minutes of the game, which would have enabled Tuukka Rask to leave the net for the extra attacker; they didn't get Rask off until just under a minute remained in the game. If I can take anything positive out of this game, it was the play of Johnny Boychuk who got a shot to play as Dennis Wideman missed his first game of the season with an ailing shoulder injury. Boychuk was very involved in all 3 aspects of the game: offensively, defensively, and physically. He laid out a number of thunderous hits, one of which led to the Wheeler goal. He crushed David Koci into the boards which led to the Bruins breaking out of their zone.

The B's are off on the road for their first roadtrip of the season; it's a short two-gamer as they go to Dallas and Phoenix. They return home on the 21st as Nashville comes to town. I really wished the Bruins had started out the season on the road this season because it gives them a chance to gel and get to know one another off the ice and become more team oriented...I don't know, that's just my own personal opinion.

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
• Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Andrew Ference-Mark Stuart
• Matt Hunwick-Johnny Boychuk

Scoring summary...

• COL: Milan Hejduk assisted by Matt Duchene and Kyle Quncey (PPG)
• COL: Scott Hannan assisted by Ryan O'Reilly and David Jones
• BOS: Mark Recchi assisted by Chuck Kobasew and Patrice Bergeron
• BOS: Blake Wheeler assisted by David Krejci and Michael Ryder
• COL: Marek Svatos assisted by Wojtek Wolski and Brett Clark (PPG)
• COL: David Jones assisted by T.J Galliardi (SHG)
• BOS: Michael Ryder assisted by Milan Lucic and David Krejci

Bruins goal videos...

• Recchi - Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze in the Saturday Night Live Chippendales skit
• Wheeler - 3 Stooges dancing
• Ryder - Wedding Crashers champagne popping scene

Warmup Music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Rise Against - "Savior"
• Saliva - "Ladies and Gentlemen"
• Metallica - "Ride the Lightning"

They pulled that one out of their ass!

WOW! In all capital letters. I cannot believe what the Bruins were able to pull off on Saturday night against arguably the worst team in the National Hockey League. The Bruins pulled off the unthinkable as they overcame a 3 goal deficit with less than 10 minutes to play to pull out a come from behind 4-3 shootout victory over the New York Islanders. The first surprise-but-not-really-surprise was seeing Tuukka Rask lead the Bruins out onto the ice for pregame warmup, which indicated that he would get the start between the pipes. I had been curious to see if Claude Julien would make this move since he indicated that Rask would have to wait his turn due to his work ethic, or lack thereof, in practice. Tim Thomas, however, needed a seat on the bench; I know it's only been three games, but Thomas needed to take a step back.

Tuukka stood on his head in the first period as the Bruins were shorthanded for a good portion of the first period; he made 16 saves, including many pivotal ones, on the man advantage. The Bruins showed more signs of team unity as Islanders leftwinger Sean Bergenheim checked Marc Savard head first into the boards; right after Savard took the hit, Andrew Ference went after Bergenheim and started whaling away as Islander defenseman Radek Martinek jumped in. Martinek never got third man in, which really confused me. Ference was only penalized with a 2 minute minor for roughing. The Bruins and Islanders went into the room scoreless after 1.

The Islanders got on the board first as Jon Sim took the feed from Kyle Okposo in the slot and wristed one right past Tuukka Rask. The Islanders weren't done as Radek Martinek took the feed from 2009 #1 overall pick John Tavares, waited a few seconds for Rask to commit, and put it off the crossbar and in right over Tuukka's stick. The Islanders finished off the second period scoring as former Boston University Terrier Freddy Meyer sent a pass up the boards to John Tavares and Tavares snapped it off top shelf with a very impressive snapshot to make it 3-0. The Bruins were rightfully booed off the ice in the second period. Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman was injured in the second period and never returned, forcing the Bruins to roll out a 5 man defenseman unit, leaving the door open for Johnny Boychuk to get his chance.

The Bruins came out for the third period on just about a whole 2 minute powerplay but failed to generate anything, which is a very concerning matter this early in the season. To my knowledge, they have only four powerplay goals on the season and they all came in the same game, last Saturday versus Carolina. With 8 minutes left in regulation, Marc Savard broke up the shutout by firing a wrist shot from the right face off dot and locating it top shelf to put the Bruins on the board. I was so disgusted with their play thus far that I didn't even get out of my seat to stand and clap. I just rolled my eyes and looked to the ceiling and said "THANK GOD!" The last thing I wanted to do was see the Bruins get shutout by the Islanders. The Bruins made things more interesting as Byron Bitz brought the crowd to its feet as he made an incredible individual effort by stickhandling through a crowd while doing a pair of wet and backhanded one through the legs of goalie Dwayne Roloson to close the gap to 1. But the Bruins weren't done! Blake Wheeler threw one back to the left point to Matt Hunwick, and Hunwick waited a few seconds before firing a floating wristshot that had eyes as it went top corner to tie the game at 3, bringing the Garden crowd to its feet!

The Bruins and Islanders battled through an up and down overtime before it led to a shootout. The Bruins, as the home team, elected to shoot first. Blake Wheeler went in on Roloson and faked him out on a nice goal. The Islanders sent Rob Schremp out; he barely scored as Tuukka Rask kind of forced the puck into the net to tie the shootout at 1. Patrice Bergeron and Richard Park were both denied before Marc Savard, who has typically lacked success in previous shootout opportunities, backhanded a goal home. The game was in the hands of Kyle Okposo to try to tie the shootout and force a sudden death shootout, but Tuukka came up with a great save and raised his hands to the air in celebration. It was 2 points, but 2 impressive points!

I was thinking of leaving early since the Bruins didn't really play the first 52 minutes, but the two kids that I sat next to kept me there. In the first period, the kid next to me started singing "Goodbye Horses," which is from Silence of the Lambs during the Buffalo Bill dancing scene. The fact that someone was singing that song absolutely impressed me, which engaged us into a great Silence of the Lambs discussion. The kid said he wanted to do the Buffalo Bill dance the next time the camera man came to our section to get on the Jumbotron. I told him he should tuck in his dick, and he looked at me, replied, "Automatic, Dude!" and slapped me five. Another funny thing about him was that he and his buddy are the founders of www.pleasesellthebruins.com, and they recognized me because I am apparently on their website wearing my infamous "Worst Management in Sports....it's called Bruins" t-shirt. They were so excited to meet me that it got me a free beer. They said I was a cult hero and were also aware of my 2006 Boston Globe business section article, the article in which Jacobs and Sinden insisted that all my quotes were pulled or else the Globe would lose their advertising rights in the Garden. They said Jacobs tried sueing them for their website, but everything was copyrighted and linked, and there was no slander. They did, however, share a great story about how they were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the parking garage underneath the Garden and they ran around putting PleaseSellTheBruins bumper stickers on as many cars as they could. These boys were the only entertainment I had till the Bruins' epic comeback!

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Blake Wheeler- David Krejci- Michael Ryder
• Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
• Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick

Scoring Summary...

• NYI: Jon Sim assisted by Rob Shremp and Kyle Okposo (PPG)
• NYI: Radek Martinek assisted by Mark Streit and John Tavares
• NYI: John Tavares assisted by Freddy Meyer
• BOS: Marc Savard assisted by Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara
• BOS: Byron Bitz assisted by Steve Begin and Matt Hunwick
• BOS: Matt Hunwick assisted by Andrew Ference and Blake Wheeler

Bruins goal videos...

• Savard - Dancing bear
• Bitz - Wedding Crashers popping the champage scene
• Hunwick - Napoleon Dynamite dancing scene

Warmup Music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• POD - "Boom"
• Drowning Pool - "Bodies"
• Nirvana - "Breed"

20 minutes of hockey won't win you a lot of hockey games.

Is it time to panic yet? What is going on with the Bruins? Three games into the season and I'm already starting to get annoyed. The Bruins completely laid an egg versus the Anaheim Ducks two nights ago at the TD Garden. It looked as though they were building off of their strong 7-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes when they came out flying in the first period and had 19 shots on a goal, and quality shots at that. What they ended up with was a 6-1 loss. The Bruins lost by 3 or more goals only once at home throughout the entire season last year; they've managed to do it twice already at home this season.

The Bruins jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Marco Sturm came streaking down the left side and took the feed from Marc Savard, blasting a slapshot five hole on Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller. It was Sturmy's 2nd goal of the season. The Bruins could have easily had 4 goals in the first period, but thanks to Jonas Hiller (who may I add is on all three of my fantasy hockey teams) it remained a 1 goal game. Hiller stood on his head and wound up with 33 saves on the night.

The Bruins came out for the second period not ready to compete with highflying Ducks. They got a little too undisciplined for my liking as Matt Hunwick and Marco Sturm received 2 minute minor penalties, giving Anaheim a 5 on 3 powerplay for 1 minute and 20 seconds; that didn't work out too well as the Finnish Flash, Teemu Selanne, potted 2 goals in 82 seconds of each other. For the first goal, Selanne took a half-slapper just inside the blueline and put it through Tim Thomas' legs as Anaheim power forward Ryan Getzlaf set a nice screen. A little under a minute and a half later, Selanne took the feed in from Saku Koivu, waited for Thomas to go down and start flopping around, and roofed a bankhand top shelf; that totally killed the mood for me. The ugliness continued as young sniper Corey Perry absolutely danced around Matt Hunwick and forced Thomas to try to come out his crease a little bit to cut down the angle. Perry had everyone fooled and he finally snapped it top shelf which led to me screaming at Hunwick for getting absolutely burned. At that point I was more than annoyed with what was going on out there on the ice.

The third period was just as pathetic as the second as the Ducks continued to pour it on. James Wisniewski sent an outlet pass to underachieving enigma Evgeny Artyukhin, and Artyuhkin blew right past Matt Hunwick and snapped a low wrist shot five hole on Thomas. Artyukhin is an absolute beast and has a good 70 pounds on Hunwick, so Hunwick was definetely outmatched, but I will be very curious to see if Claude Julien dresses Johnny Boychuk, our 7th defenseman, tonight against the New York Islanders. Hunwick had a really tough game; he's young and he may need a seat on the 9th floor with assistant coach and former NHL defenseman Doug Houda to try and figure out what he's doing wrong. Don't get wrong, I'm a big Hunwick fan, but I know he had kind of a shaky camp and he may just need a game or two off. Boychuk has a one way contract which means that he can't be sent down, so it's not doing him much good just sitting up in the press box every night; after all, he was the leading scorer among AHL defenseman last season.

Back to the game... Sophomore sensation Bobby Ryan made it a 5-1 game as he redirected a Scott Niedermayer wrist shot from the blueline. That pretty much chased the Garden faithful out of the building and to the bars to catch the start of the Red Sox playoff game. Corey Perry finished off the scoring as he was sent away on a shorthanded breakaway and took a shot that Thomas originally stopped with his chest, but the puck pinballed back off Perry's head and into the back of the net; that was my cue to get out of there. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Tuukka Rask make his season debut between the pipes tonight versus the Islanders, Thomas has let in some really bad goals and may need a breather, especially since this season's NHL schedule is hectic with all the games bunched up together due to the three week long Olympic break in February, so Thomas will need more rest then usual. The Bruins powerplay tonight was absolutely horrible; they went 0/6 and it was so bad that when they had two powerplays in the third period, Claude Julien had the 4th line of the powerplay in to send a strong message to our top forwards.

I really don't have any funny stories from inside the Garden, but when I was crossing the street after the game, I saw these college kids walking down the sidewalk and one of the kids put one of those large bright orange traffic detour barrels over his friend's head and the barrel went down to his knees; the kid had no idea where he was going, and he was walking into buildings and parking meters...you have to love student nights at the Garden!

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
• Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
• Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick

Scoring Summary...

• BOS: Marco Sturm assisted by Dennis Wideman and Marc Savard
• ANA: Teemu Selanne assisted by Scott Niedermayer (PPG)
• ANA: Teemu Selanne assisted by Corey Perry and Saku Koivu (PPG)
• ANA: Corey Perry assisted by James Wisniewski
• ANA: Evgeny Artyukhin assisted by Joffrey Lupol and James Wisniewski
• ANA: Bobby Ryan assisted by Scott Niedermayer
• ANA: Corey Perry assisted by Joffrey Lupol (SHG)

Bruins goal video...

• Sturm - Carlton Banks of The Fresh Prince dancing

Warmup music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Disturbed - "Indestructible"
• Linkin Park - "Give It Up"
• Rise Against - "Savior"

Much better!

Well, that was much better! That's the team I remember driving 40 minutes to see 41 times last season. The Bruins came out with a much more spirited effort last night versus the Carolina Hurricanes. You know the Hurricanes, right? They're team that knocked us out of the second round last season. The Bruins got off to a lightning fast start, scoring on their first powerplay as Marc Savard took the feed from Michael Ryder and buried it into the back of the net. It was so nice to see them convert right off the bat on the powerplay since their powerplay on Thursday was absolutely horrible. The Bruins weren't done in the first period; Michael Ryder tallied a powerplay goal of his own as he wristed the puck past Cam Ward off of a rebound of a Zdeno Chara wrist shot from the blueline. And they weren't done; just 26 seconds after Ryder's goal, Blake Wheeler redirected a Steve Begin pass off his stick and then off his skate that went top corner over Cam Ward's left shoulder. The Hurricanes challenged the goal, but to no avail; Wheeler scored a good goal, and there was no direct kicking motion, so it was all good. The Bruins had more shots in the first period last night than they did in the entire home opener; I think Claude Julien got through to them.

The scoring barrage continued in the second as Marco Sturm hooked up with Marc Savard for the first time in the 2009-2010 campaign. Savvy was behind the net and centered a pass into the slot, and Sturm one-timed it past Cam Ward, officially ending Ward's night. The Bruins kept pouring it on as Dennis Wideman made it a 5-0 game, scoring on a one time slapshot from the left faceoff circle. The villian of the playoffs last season, Scott Walker, broke up the shutout as he redirected former Bruin Aaron Ward's half slapper from the point; coincidentally, Ward was the one who got punched in the face by Walker during Game 5 last season. The Bruins were quick to respond as our tough guy, Shawn Thornton, redirected a Steve Begin pass from the corner through the legs of backup goaltender Michael Leighton to make it 6-1 Bruins. There was a bit of frustration boiling from the Carolina side as I noticed Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason gave David Krejci a little bit of a push after the whistle for no apparent reason. This led to a little meeting of the minds; no punches, just words exchanged. When the puck dropped Milan Lucic checked Jay Harrison, a rookie Carolina defenseman, and for whatever reason, Harrison wanted to go with Lucic...Big mistake. Lucic literally rearranged Harrison's face and he got at least 5 good punches to the face, including his right eye. I could see blood splattered all over the ice and Harrison left the ice looking like he had a leading role in Saving Private Ryan. The puck dropped after the Lucic fight and former Bruin deadweight defenseman and Boston College trash, Andrew Alberts, crosschecked Marco Sturm headfirst into the boards. Since Sturm is coming off an injury riddled season, including a serious concussion, the Bruins came together as one and stood up for him. Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara led the charge. Chara tossed former Montreal Canadian Tom Kostopolus around like a ragdoll, but that's nothing new with Kostopolus. Alberts recieved a nice little beating, but he had it coming. The score remained 6-1 after 2.

The third period was another solid 20 minutes of hockey despite Eric Staal making it a 6-2 game as he beat Tim Thomas shortside coming down the left side. I must give Staal props because he came back to play after receiving 25 stitches in the face after getting hit in the face by a Joe Corvo slapshot. Garden favorite Shawn Thornton still felt as though he needed to take care of some unfinished business as he took it upon himself to take care of Andrew Alberts for his cheapshot on Sturm, and Thornton gave Alberts a serious beating. What Alberts had done really upset me because he was teammates with Sturm for at least 2 seasons, and he still hit Sturm headfirst into the boards despite his knowledge of Sturm's concussion history. I was on my feet and jumping up and down like an idiot, screaming in praise for Thornton as he gave Alberts a beating. Matt Hunwick finished off the scoring as he pinched in down low on the powerplay, took the cross rink pass from Savard, and one timed it top shelf. The Bruins won the game, they won the fights, and definitely had something to build on as the tough Anaheim Ducks come to town on Thursday.

I was also very lucky enough to be there for the Bruins dedication to Fred Cusick during the first TV timeout of the second period. Fred Cusick passed away on September 15, 2009 at the age of 92. Fred was the voice of the Bruins for nearly 60 seasons, if I recall correctly. I grew up listening to Cusick on NESN as he teamed up with Derek Sanderson and Dave Shea as an amazing broadcast team, much better than having to listen to the walking orgasm, Jack Edwards, our current play by play momo on NESN (not having to listen to Jack 41 times a year is a major perk to having season tickets). They framed a microphone in Cusick's honor and it is displayed under the Bruins broadcast booth.

My section was pretty tame for the most part, nothing exciting really, but when I went to the bathroom after the first period there was a Montreal fan in there and any hockey fan knows what that can lead to. The entire jam-packed bathroom all started to chant "ASSHOLE!" at him for a good 2 minutes straight. I then got the "you're gay, you're gay, you're gay, you're gay" song going, which was a huge hit! For those of you who are unaware, when Montreal comes to town, the fans bring their homemade Stanley Cups and flags and sing "olé, olé, olé, olé" which is actually a soccer song, but they don't know any better. The Bruins fans in years past have responded with "you're gay, you're gay, you're gay, you're gay." Another fan yelled out, "Why were the Kostitsyn sisters sent down to the AHL?" Montreal brothers Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn were just recently summoned to the minor leagues and refused to report, and consequently are facing a fine and a suspension.

The line combinations were as follows...

• Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
• Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
• Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick

Scoring summary...

• BOS: Marc Savard assisted by Derek Morris and Michael Ryder (PPG)
• BOS: Michael Ryder assisted by Zdeno Chara and Derek Morris (PPG)
• BOS: Blake Wheeler assisted by Milan Lucic and Steve Begin
• BOS: Marco Sturm assisted by Marc Savard
• BOS: Dennis Wideman assisted by Mark Recchi and Patrice Bergeron (PPG)
• CAR: Scott Walker assisted by Aaron Ward and Sergei Samsonov
• BOS: Shawn Thornton assisted by Steve Begin
• CAR: Eric Staal (unassisted)
• BOS: Matt Hunwick assisted by Marco Sturm and Marc Savard (PPG)

Bruins goal videos...

• Savard - the dancing Bruin
• Ryder - 3 Stooges dancing
• Wheeler - John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing in Pulp Fiction
• Sturm - Wedding Crashers scene popping the champagne bottles
• Wideman - Polka dancing scene from the European Vacation
• Thornton - Talladega Nights scene where Ricky Bobby celebrates after a win
• Hunwick - Rodney Dangerfield dancing in Caddyshack

Warmup music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Twisted Sister - "I Want to Rock" (ROCK!)
• Nirvana - "Breed"
• Rush - "Limewire"

Opening Night: I waited all summer for THAT?!

It had been 140 days since Scott Walker had broken so many hearts in Bruins country with his series-clincher, overtime game-winning goal on May 14, 2009. The Bruins left the Garden that night with a bad taste in their mouth and hungry for more, and last night was the first of many steps toward reaching their goal.

The Bruins took on a very tough Eastern Conference opponent last night in the Washington Capitals, led by Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and high-scoring defenseman Mike Green. The Bruins kicked off the 2009-2010 season by hosting a "Fanfest," which was a unique way for Bruins fans to enjoy free t-shirts, a chance to win some cool prizes, and good music, not to mention good conversation with other Bruins fans. This event took place in front of the Garden right next to the players' parking lot. The Bruins were also nice enough to have the Vezina Trophy, the Norris Trophy, the Jack Adams award and the Jennings award displayed, giving the fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the trophies and have their picture taken with them (as I was lucky enough to do). I was also fortunate enough to win an autographed Patrice Bergeron picture in a Bruins roullette game.

The turnstiles to get into the arena opened up at 6pm, and I went to get my traditional pregame $7 Bud Light draft from my favorite vendor Rob. You guys will get to know Rob in later blog entries; he's quite the character and is good for a memorable quotes just about every night. After I got my beer, I headed to my traditional spot for warmups in the front row in the aisle between loge 13 and 14. The boys took the ice for the pre-game warmup at 6:30 and looked energized and ready to roll...I think they wasted all their energy during warmup.

The Bruins were introduced individually in numerical order from the Zamboni entrance along with pyrotechnics. Once the Bruins were introduced, Rene Rancourt got the crowd fired up with his stirring rendition of the National Anthem. The B's got off to a pretty quick start; they carried the tempo for the first half of the first period but failed to keep it up for the rest of the game. The Capitals drew first blood on the powerplay when Brooks Laich pounced on a rebound off a bad bounce off the boards; Tim Thomas was on the opposite side of the crease when Laich was able to backhand it past Thomas. The boys went into the room only down a goal after the first period, which I was ok with as the Bruins really hadn't played together as a whole since the playoffs, so I had to cut them a little slack. The Bruins came back out and played one of their most sluggish periods that I could remember; they couldn't generate any scoring chances whatsoever and gave Jose Theodore a very easy night between the pipes. Alex Ovechkin doubled the lead when he received a one touch pass from Alexander Semin and snapped it in right past Timmy Thomas who had come out of his crease a little to cut down the angle, but it's tough to fool Ovechkin.

I have noticed over the years that the Bruins typically have been a sluggish third period team, and they certainly lived up to that last night. The Bruins began the third period down a man as Zdeno Chara started off the period in the penalty box. Brooks Laich scored his second powerplay goal of the night 16 seconds into the third period; a little over 2 minutes later, Alex Ovechkin took the backhand pass from Worcester boy Tom Poti and buried his second goal of the night and that officially sucked all the life out of the Garden. Patrice Bergeron tried to spark the crowd with a breakaway goal just before the midway point of the third period, but it was too little, too late. The Bruins dug their own grave in this one; they were dreadful on the powerplay, going a 0/5 with very little scoring chances that I can remember. I understand it was opening night so I will cut them some slack. I expect a much better effort tomorrow night versus the Carolina Hurricanes...One can only hope that some way, some how Scott Walker gets his due!

I also wanted to share a few tidbits from my section. I had these two obnoxious women next to me who were clearly bandwagons and had no clue about anything. Neither woman would shut up and they kept yelling, "The Bruins need more practice" when the B's were in their offensive zone and didn't score (heaven forbid!). They also kept yelling, "Come on Bruins, get a goal!" I got into a semi-heated argument with one of them because she insisted the Bruins played Washington in the playoffs last season, and it took other fans to keep on vouching for me that it really was Carolina before she finally shut up. One other funny moment; a fan on the Jumbotron had a sign saying "Bruins Rule!" so a fan a few rows down from me yelled out "O'Doyle Rules!" Any of you Billy Madison fans out there can totally appreciate the humor behind that.

The line combinations were as follows...

• Milan Lucic-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
• Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
• Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
• Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick

Scoring summary...

• WSH: Brooks Laich (PPG) assisted by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom
• WSH: Alex Ovechkin assisted by Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin
• WSH: Brooks Laich (PPG) assisted by Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin
• WSH: Alex Ovechkin assisted by Tom Poti and Brooks Laich
• BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Steve Begin and Mark Stuart

The Bruins goal video...

• Bergeron - Napoleon Dynamite dancing

Warmup music...

• AC/DC - "Back in Black"
• Disturbed - "Indestructable"
• The Offspring - Some song I've never heard of (sorry)
• Rage Against the Machine - "Sleep Now In The Fire"