Bruins Nation

What a fantastic game! Boston just made Toronto its b*tch. The Bruins traveled to Toronto, a division rival, and destroyed them twice. A 3-1 win and then a 4-1. So bow down Toronto.

I'm giving you a fair warning. This is going to be a long post. There are a lot of good things to write about. I would highly recommend you read the entire post though, it's going to be a good one.

The Bruins last night were an injured team, I thought it would hurt us, but our guys are in great shape, more minutes didn't phase any of them at all. Last night York was still injured, PJ Axelsson had the flu and didn't play, and Paul Mara got injured in the second period, leaving the Bruins with only five defenders for most of the game. Even with the Bruins injuries the Bruins played amazing. Led by Thomas, Chara, and the Bruins penalty kill, the Bruins walked all over Toronto.

While watching the first period I was skeptical as to whether things were going to go well. Toronto came hard and fast. Maple Leafs players were throwing hits everywhere and the Bruins really couldn't get anything going on offense. Tim Thomas had some huge saves though and the first period ended 0-0.

Now it was the BRuins turn to start a period with some fire, and for the Bruins it paid off. Six minutes into the second period Andrew Alberts got the puck and passed it across the red line to Shean Donovon. Donovon then skated up the left side of the ice towards the goal and shot a beautiful shot right in the top right hand corner of the goal. Andrew Raycroft could do nothing about Donovon's first goal as a Bruin.

Later in the period Paul Mara was checked against the board and inujured what looked to be his hip. He wouldn't return, leaving the Bruins with only 5 defenders.

A few minutes later, Toronto scored on a very iffy goal. A shot was saved by Thomas and bounced off of a Toronto skate and into the goal. The ref originally said the Toronto player kicked the puck into the goal but then after further review the NHL video replay guys overuled the ref, saying that it was an accidental kick, and Lewis sure made the ref know that he had been overuled. Thomas should have had his first shut-out of the season. It was subtle, but definitely a kick. The second period ended tied 1-1.

Two minutes into the third period, Wayne Primeau went into the penalty box for hooking. 19 seconds later, Andrew Alberts went into the penalty box for high sticking. Toronto, the team with the number 5 powerplay in the NHL, had a 5 on 3 advantage for 1 minute and 41 seconds. Zdeno Chara and Brad Stuart were out on the ice the entire penalty kill. And yes, the BRuins killed off the entire penalty. This was all the momentum the Bruins needed. Chara and Stuart did a fantastic job that was accompanied by Tim Thomas making a bunch of nice saves.

A minute after the Bruins killed of the penalty, Petr Tenkrat had the puck in the Maple Leafs zone. He passed it across the ice to a wide open Glen Murray who shot the puck right past Raycroft, giving the Bruins the lead. Murray had a wide open shot because of two reasons. One: Glen Murray, prior to crossing the blue line, beat the Mpale Leafs player trying to cover him, and two: Marc Savard succesfully pulled Hal Gil (yes, that Hal Gil) out of Murray's way. THe goal was a true team effort.

Ten minutes later, Toronto's top defender MCcabe hurt himself after he tripped on the ice, that lead to Marco Sturm having a wide open shot on net. Sturm put the shot right past Raycroft, sealing the win for Boston. Brad Boyes would later get an empty net goal and the Bruins won 4-1.

Tim Thomas was amazing. He won the game for the Bruins. Toronto took 46 shots and Thomas stopped 45 of them. Thomas had 45 saves. All of them were clutch and all of them were great. Also the Bruins are now at .500 for the first time all season. Yes, overtime losses do count as losses and now the Bruins are 11-11. If the Bruins beat Tampa Bay tomorrow, we will be above .500 for the first time this season.

One last thing, the Bruins completely shut down Darcy Tucker. He actually is all talk. He picked a fight with the Bruins on Saturday and got his ass kicked by the great Paul Mara, and then he talked trash to the papers and got owned in last night's game. By the way, I think I'm just going to stick with "the great Paul Mara" 'cause I can't think of a good nickname.