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"
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