The Bruins shocked the sold out crowd of 17,565 when they scored a powerplay goal! Mark Recchi redirected a Derek Morris wristshot from the blueline. I couldn't believe they finally snapped their powerplay slump of 0 for their last 20. They hadn't recorded a powerplay goal since October 22nd in Philadelphia. The Bruins weren't done scoring on the powerplay as Zdeno Chara one timed a booming slapshot from the blueline, thanks in large part to a beautiful screen by Mark Recchi; Buffalo rookie backup goaltender Jhonas Enroth never saw it coming. Chara raised his arms high in the air and looked up at the rafters screaming, and I'm sure it was a huge relief for Big Z to finally net his first goal of the season. He had a slow start last season as well, as he didn't score a goal until November 6th and yet still wound up with 18 goals, so I'm not concerned with him. The Bruins went into the room up 2-0 with additional thanks to Tuukka Rask; he bailed out both Dennis Wideman and Andrew Ference, both of whom coughed up the puck up in their own end on more than one occasion. I honestly don't know what the Bruins see in Wideman; he is an eyesore in his own end and can't hit the net to save his life. I still can't believe that Peter Chiarelli traded Brad Boyes to St. Louis for Wideman. All Boyes has done since leaving Boston is average between 36-42 goals per season, whereas Wideman gives Bruins fans heart scares while making a healthy $3.9 million per year. Ference on the other hand... Well, he's just having a bad season and is making a lot of poor decisions in his own end.
The Bruins came out and made it a 3 goal game less than 2 minutes into the second period as Steve Begin picked off a Buffalo clearing and found Byron Bitz who faked out Enroth and buried his 2nd goal of the season. My Dad couldn't remember the last time he saw them have a 3 goal lead with him in the building. The lead was short lived, however, as Derek Roy jumped on a Craig Rivet rebound and fired the puck past Tuukka Rask; Rask never saw it as Clarke MacArthur set a great screen in front of the net. During a TV timeout, former Bruins deadweight defenseman Steve Montador was chirping with Shawn Thornton; I'm sure Thornton was telling Montador how much he sucked in his short time in Boston last season. When the puck dropped, they went at it, and it was pretty close until Sugar Shawn was able to rip Montador's helmet off and get in a few good punches to the face as Montador's long hair was covering his eyes. Any true Bruins fan has to love Sugar Shawn! He knows his role and does it well. The Bruins put the nail in the coffin with less than 2 minutes to go in the period as Patrice Bergeron made a great pass down by the goal line to Marco Sturm who one timed glove side past Enroth. It was so good to see Marco get off the shnide. Sturm hadn't scored a goal since the third game of the season versus Anaheim on October 8th. It was so refeshing to see the Bruins go into the room up by 3 after 40 minutes of play.
The third period was another solid period of play; not much offensively going on, but Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves again as he went after Paul Gaustad for elbowing Byron Bitz in the head. Sugar took care of business and taught Gaustad a lesson by getting in a number of good punches to the face. The chipiness didn't end there as Mark Stuart took exception to Jochen Hecht being a little too close to Tuukka Rask towards the end of the game; they both got theirs sticks up high, and Stuart dropped his gloves and gave Hecht a pretty good beatdown. More players were tossed before the next whistle as Boston's Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand and Buffalo's Tim Kennedy and Patrick Kaleta were all given 10 minute misconducts for slashing. The referres knew the game was over and wanted to get anyone out of the game who could make it uglier. Buffalo got a late goal as their 6'8" defenseman manchild Tyler Myers skated the puck to the net and slid a pass across the crease to Jason Pominville. Pominville put it past Rask, but the game was over at that point. The Bruins realistically could have had at least 8 goals as Daniel Paille had a number of good scoring chances, as did Blake Wheeler and Patrice Bergeron. I shouldn't be so greedy and should be happy with seeing 4 goals since I had only seen 4 goals in the previous 3 home games combined.
My section was pretty tame last night, but I need to share a story from up on the Jumbotron. I don't understand why adults always feel the need to make an ass out of themselves to get on the Jumbotron; they only look like idiots, and people laugh at them because they're stupid. One of the cameramen found this big fat dude sitting in a luxury box wearing a bright pink polo shirt, and he was rubbing his manboobs and big belly rather sexually. I'm not sure how many of those beers he had touched in the fridge in the box, but it was so bizzarre. I don't understand why people do that and never will. Remember when the old Boston Garden was there and they didn't have a big screen on the scoreboard, so no one got to act like idiots? It's funny, don't get wrong, but I just don't understand it.
The defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins come to town on Tuesday, led by Sidney Crosby and Billy Guerin. This should be a real test for the B's, and I hope they can live up to the challenge.
The Line Combinations were as follows...
All I can say is that it was the worst music selection ever; they didn't lead off with "Back in Black" for the first time in a very long time. I only recognized 2 songs...
The Line Combinations were as follows...
- Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
- Blake Wheeler-Vladimir Sobotka-Michael Ryder
- Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz
- Daniel Paille-Trent Whitfield-Brad Marchand
- Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
- Dennis Wideman-Matt Hunwick
- Andrew Ference-Mark Stuart
- BOS: Mark Recchi assisted by Zdeno Chara and Derek Morris (PPG)
- BOS: Zdeno Chara assisted by Blake Wheeler (PPG)
- BOS: Byron Bitz assisted by Shawn Thornton and Steve Begin
- BUF: Derek Roy assisted by Clarke MacArthur and Craig Rivet
- BOS: Marco Sturm assisted by Steve Begin and Patrice Bergeron
- BUF: Jason Pominville assisted by Tim Connolly and Tyler Myers
- Recchi: Dancing bear
- Chara: polka dancing scene in European Vacation
- Bitz: champagne popping scene in Wedding Crashers
- Sturm: Peter Griffin from Family Guy dancing shirtless
All I can say is that it was the worst music selection ever; they didn't lead off with "Back in Black" for the first time in a very long time. I only recognized 2 songs...
- Jay-Z feat. Rihanna and Kanye West - "Run This Town"
- Green Day - "Welcome to Paradise"
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