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"
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