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
- 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
- Bergeron: European Vacation polka dancing scene
- AC/DC - "Back in Black"
- Three god awful Rihanna songs of which I don't know the titles; Blake Wheeler probably does.
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