I think the shootouts are getting a little old, as well as giving other Eastern Conference opponents an extra point. The Bruins have really struggled sealing the deal on 60 minute efforts. The Bruins defeated the Ottawa Senators last night at the TD Garden 4-3 in a shootout, but it never should have gotten to that point.
Tim Thomas made his first start between the pipes in six games since his alleged hand injury which personally I’m still not 100% sold on, but I’m not going to dwell on it. The Senators scored on their first shot less than five minutes into the game when Derek Morris failed the carry the puck out of his own end; Milan Michalek knocked the puck away from Morris, who then fed Daniel Alfredsson, who snapped one top corner over Tim Thomas’ left shoulder. I was really disappointed and annoyed with the fans as they immediately started chanting, “WE WANT TUUKKA!” How quickly the fans forget that Tim Thomas has been the backbone and MVP of the Bruins for the last 4-5 seasons and won the Vezina Trophy last season. Tuukka Rask has only about 15-20 games of NHL experience under his belt; granted, he has started off a very nice NHL career, but now the fans forget about Thomas. I really can’t put too much stock into those fans because most of them weren’t even Bruins fans last season. In my opinion, the Garden is slowly becoming Fenway Park and it’s quite annoying.
Ottawa went up 2-0 on the powerplay as Patrice Bergeron took a Filip Kuba slapshot off the foot and was down on the ice in pain and pretty much out of the play, and Daniel Alfredsson made a nice feed from behind the net to Milan Michalek, who buried it short side on Thomas. I totally missed the goal because I was watching Bergeron trying to get up. He was then helped off the ice by Derek Morris and Marco Sturm. Bergeron took two more shifts in the period and barely lasted 15 seconds, immediately limping to the bench and heading down into the tunnel before returning for the 2nd and 3rd periods. Mark Recchi nearly cut the lead in half as he had a wide open net, but Alfredsson dove and knocked the puck away as Recchi was about to pounce on it. The Bruins went into the room down 2, but looked really good for the most part.
The Bruins got a powerplay right off the bat in the 2nd period and coverted! Dennis Wideman carried the puck up the ice and fed Mark Recchi, who then sent David Krejci in on goal; Krejci backhanded it top shelf past Brian Elliott cutting the lead in half. It was Krejci’s first goal at home this season, and the goal brought back nice memories of what Krejci did a lot of last season. The Bruins then tied it on another powerplay goal as Michael Ryder took the pass from Zdeno Chara, skated up the faceoff dot on the off wing, and snapped it home glove side on Elliott. It was a textbook Michael Ryder goal, and his seventh of the season. The Bruins really need to get him going again. Timmy Thomas got stronger as the game went on and made a number of key saves, and I didn’t hear too many idiotic Bruins fans yelling for Tuukka. Thomas kept the game deadlocked at 2 apiece after 2 periods.
The Bruins took the lead for the first time on another powerplay goal as Dennis Wideman fired a wristshot from the blueline that deflected off of a Senator or two and into the net. It was Wideman’s first goal since October 3rd, which translates to 21 games; not bad for $3.9M, huh? I couldn’t believe that Wideman scored. Claude Julien must have given him a map as an early Christmas present. That should have been been the game winner, but this is the 2009-2010 Boston Bruins that I’m talking about. Ottawa pulled Brian Elliott with under 2 minutes to play and the Bruins missed a number of open nets as Derek Morris, Mark Recchi, Blake Wheeler, and Marc Savard each failed to put the nail in the coffin. After an offsides call, Jason Spezza won a faceoff just outside of the Ottawa zone back to Alexandre Picard, who sent Milan Michalek down the left wing, and Michalek wristed a very weak shot that trickled through Tim Thomas’ legs with 18.2 seconds remaining. Zdeno Chara nearly saved the goal but was unable to. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. They gave another Eastern Conference opponent, nevermind division rival, an extra point. It was one of the worst goals I have ever seen allowed, and I swore that if the Bruins had lost that game, you wouldn’t see Tim Thomas for another two weeks. The game went to overtime and then eventually to yet another shootout, and after both teams remained scoreless for 3 shooters a piece, Michael Ryder, Boston’s 4th shooter, wristed one top shelf to put Boston up 1-0, leaving the game on Mike Fisher’s stick. Fisher was denied by Thomas as he went to the backhand. Thomas went crazy after the win and deservedly so, but it never should have come down to that. I can’t imagine Claude Julien was all that impressed, but a win is a win!
The Line Combinations were as follows…
- Blake Wheeler-Marc Savard-Byron Bitz
- Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
- Vladimir Sobotka-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
- Daniel Paille-Steve Begin-Shawn Thornton
- Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
- Dennis Wideman-Andrew Ference
- Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick
Scoring Summary…
- OTT: Daniel Alfredsson assisted by Milan Michalek
- OTT: Milan Michalek assisted by Daniel Alfredsson and Alexandre Picard (PPG)
- BOS: David Krejci assisted by Dennis Wideman and Mark Recchi (PPG)
- BOS: Michael Ryder assisted by Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard (PPG)
- BOS: Dennis Wideman assisted by Blake Wheeler and David Krejci (PPG)
- OTT: Milan Michalek assisted by Jason Spezza and Alexandre Picard
Bruins Goal Videos…
- Krejci - Adam Sandler dancing in Billy Madison
- Ryder - Bill Murray’s celebration after a strike in Kingpin
- Wideman - Ricky Bobby celebrating in Talladega Nights
Warmup Music…
- Jay-Z feat. Lil Wayne - “One Republic”
- The Game - “Superman”
- Shop Boyz - “Party Like A Rockstar”
- Flo Rida - “Low”
- Eminem - “Lose Yourself”
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