We are in the third year of Vladimir Sobotka's up and down NHL career, and yesterday I think he officially solidified the fact that he can play in the NHL. The Bruins put together their best 60 minute effort of the season as they shut out the Edmonton Oilers 2-0. Tuukka Rask led the boys out onto the ice, signifying that he would be the starting goaltender; Julien decided to give Rask the nod versus Edmonton at home and have Tim Thomas face the highscoring New York Rangers in the away game today. The Bruins were in complete control over Edmonton from start to finish, and Tuukka Rask probably earned the easiest shutout he will ever earn in his NHL career by facing only 19 shots, not many of which were quality shots to say the least. The Oilers had a difficult time even getting the puck through the neutral zone, thanks in large part to Zdeno Chara's strong play. Chara was challenged earlier in the week by coach Claude Julien and Cam Neely that he can play better and he needs to step up his game.
The Bruins and Oilers battled through 2 scoreless periods, but a good chunk of that 40 minutes was dominated by the Bruins. The Oilers were lacking two of their big guns as number 1 defenseman Sheldon Souray and Mike Comrie weren't playing. Souray is on long-term injury reserve with a shoulder injury, and Comrie is battling the swine flu (hopefully Hilary Duff dosen't catch it). The Bruins nearly scored in the last second of the second period, but the buzzer went off right before the puck was shot so it didn't count. The Bruins came into the third hungry, however, and broke the ice less than 3 minutes into the third period. Vladimir Sobotka worked the puck along the boards behind the net for a while before centering a pass to Blake Wheeler, and Wheeler one timed it five hole on Nikolai Khabibulin. The Bruins then added to the lead as Sobotka and Wheeler executed on a gorgeous give and go with Sobotka finishing it off. Like I said to open this blog post, yesterday Vladimir Sobotka became an NHL player; he has always been sort of an enigma. He's been the player that was always good enough to play at the NHL level and would show flashes of brilliance one night, but would be non-existant the next. I think he's the kind of player who needs to be in the lineup every night to gain self confidence.
Yesterday was Halloween, and as I expected, there were so many amazing costumes in the crowd. My personal favorite was Billy Mays. He had on a royal blue button down shirt with the pitch black, slicked back hair and the full black beard; he was also carrying a bottle of OxyClean which they allowed him to bring into the Garden. While waiting for the gates to open, he yelled, "We are gonna clean up the Oilers!" while holding up his OxyClean. Billy Mays was giving the dual thumbs up to the Bruins as they skated by during warmups, and he also pretended to spray down the glass and wipe it with paper towels. Some of the other notable costumes were Hulk Hogan, the Blues Brothers, a pig with H1N1 on his stomach, two little boys as Mario and Luigi, Captain America, Wolverine, Batman & Robin, Superman, an NHL referee wearing sunglasses and carrying a blind stick, a few Burger King Kings, the "Somebody's Watching Me" stack of money from Geico commercials, a dancing banana, some killer B's, a "Vladimir" (he's a guy who is always shown on the jumbotron dancing in a weird hat and blue blazer; they showed both Vladimirs dancing in a split screen), and Jack Edwards (this kid rode the Zamboni between periods and he got a split screen with the real Jack). I heard a pretty funny line yesterday during the game; there was guy sitting behind me with a bad hairpiece and he said, "I'm the uncle you don't leave your kids alone with." I turned around and laughed at him; he knew I enjoyed it.
My next three blogs should be a little more exciting and interesting as the B's host Montreal, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. I can't wait for Thursday night when Hal Gill returns to Boston in a Montreal uniform; Gill made Montreal games so much more enjoyable. I can guarantee some good stories from that game!
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...
- BOS: Blake Wheeler assisted by Daniel Paille and Vladimir Sobotka
- BOS: Vladimir Sobotka assisted by Daniel Paille and Blake Wheeler
Bruins goal video...
- Wheeler: Herman Munster dancing
- Sobotka: Addams family dancing
Warmup music...
- AC/DC - "Back In Black"
- The same three god-awful Rihanna songs from the previous game
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