A nice tune-up for the Winter Classic.

That was a nice tuneup to the much anticipated Winter Classic! The Bruins shutout the Atlanta Thrashers Wednesday night at the TD Garden 4-0 behind Tuukka Rask’s second shutout of the season. Going into this game, I was a little worried that the Bruins wouldn’t be totally ready for this game because I figured their heads would be preoccupied on Friday.

I was really shocked to see Atlanta netminder Ondrej Pavelec lead Atlanta onto the ice for the pregame warmup since he was lifted just last Wednesday after allowing 3 goals on 10 shots in the Bruins' 6-4 win. I didn’t think that would happen again. The Bruins jumped on the board first just over six minutes into the contest as Sugar Shawn Thornton fired the puck around the wall, then Matt Hunwick jumped up into the play and fluttered a wristshot which Byron Bitz creatively redirected through his own legs and past Pavelec to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Boston then struck again as rookie phenom Evander Kane was called for a 2 minute minor for highsticking Johnny Boychuk (it should have been 4 minutes since Boychuk was cut); the Bruins converted again as Marco Sturm picked up the garbage on the rebound of a Marc Savard booming slapshot from about eight feet out that rang off the post, and Sturm tucked in it to make it 2-0. They weren’t done as Steve Begin redirected a Derek Morris one timer from the point; the puck went off Stevie B’s leg and in the net. The referees reviewed it, I'm not sure why, but the Bruins took a 3-0 lead, and for the second time in a week, that was the night for Ondrej Pavelec as his career stats versus Boston read as follows: 16 minutes, 6 goals allowed on 20 shots. That is not good. After one period, the B’s had a nice 3-0 lead.

The Bruins kept up the strong play in the second period as they continued to dominate Atlanta, especially sniper and potential future Bruin Ilya Kovalchuk. To be honest, I didn’t even notice him out there on the ice at all. I know I saw him in warmups, but he wasn’t a scoring threat all night as Zdeno Chara did a real nice job shutting him down. I really want Kovalchuk here in Boston; I’ve always loved him, and I believe a tandem of Savard and Kovalchuk would be the best 1-2 combo in Boston since Cam Neely and Adam Oates. The B’s added to their lead just as a powerplay expired when Blake Wheeler made a great individual effort to get the puck to Mark Recchi, who slid a nice pass across the top the crease to Patrice Bergeron, and Bergeron slapped it into the back of the net to make it 4-0. Earlier in the day, Patrice had been named to the Team Canada Olympic team. I was real happy for Bergy, and he’s come such a long way after sustaining a pair of career threatening head injuries over the past two years. In other Winter Olympic news, David Krejci, Zdeno Chara and Marco Sturm will also be representing their countries as Krejci will be playing for the Czech Republic, Chara for Slovakia, and Sturm will captain the Germany team (I believe he’s the only NHL German-born player going to Vancouver). Tim Thomas will find out tomorrow if he will be named to the USA Olympic team; I’d say he’s a lock, and although he definitely won’t start over Ryan Miller, the fact that he should be going is such a good story for Timmy.

The Bruins won the game 4-0, and like I said earlier, it was a really nice tuneup for the Winter Classic which promises to be absolutely epic and unforgettable. I have an amazing seat for this event; I’m about 30 rows off the field on the third base side with the Bruins coming at me twice. I can’t wait for this, and last night I purchased my official Winter Classic program since I wanted to avoid all the chaos at Fenway and not worry about lugging it around with me. My next blog promises to cover every angle of the Classic, from my first beer early in the morning with all my friends, to the pregame ceremonies, to the puck drop, to the last horn. I’ve never been so excited to go to Fenway. Currently, the forecast is calling for cloudy skies, a high of 36 and a few sprinkles…whatever, I think I can handle it!

The Line Combinations were as follows…

• Steve Begin-Marc Savard-Marco Sturm
• Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder
• Daniel Paille-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
• Shawn Thornton-Vladimir Sobotka-Byron Bitz

• Dennis Wideman-Zdeno Chara
• Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk
• Matt Hunwick-Derek Morris

Scoring Summary…

• BOS: Byron Bitz assisted by Shawn Thornton and Matt Hunwick
• BOS: Marco Sturm assisted by Dennis Wideman and Marc Savard (PPG)
• BOS: Steve Begin assisted by Derek Morris and Marc Savard
• BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Blake Wheeler and Mark Recchi

Bruins Goal Videos…

• Bitz: Batman celebrating after beating up the villains
• Sturm: John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing in Pulp Fiction
• Begin: Three Stooges dancing
• Bergeron: Champagne popping scene in Wedding Crashers

Warmup Music…

• Jay-Z feat. Lil Wayne - “One Republic”
• Shop Boyz - “Party Like A Rock Star”
• Flo Rida - “Low”
• Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kanye West - “Run This Town”

The game that Vladimir Sobotka became a Boston Bruin.

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