Bruins Nation

A fun game to watch, even though this one didn't go our way. Our defense played very well, Hannu Toivonen was amazing, and our offense put in its worst performance of the season. It also didn't help that the Bruins managed to accumulate 46 penalty minutes. Ottawa had ten power plays, and even though the Bruins managed to kill off nine of them, it definitely did not help always being man down.

Instead of summarizing each period, I'm goin got go a different route and just summarize the gme in one enormous paragraph.

Even though the Bruins played pretty well, Ottawa played sound hockey. They came out firing and Hannu Toivonen, who had 36 saves, was the only thing that managed to stop Ottawa. Chris Phillips scored the first goal for Ottawa with 2 and half left in the first. Phillips had a wide open shot after Toivonen got caught up and the Bruins defense were finishing a long shift. The Bruins lost Paul Mara for the second period after he beat up Schubert for thorwing a cheap shot. Dany Heatley scored for Ottawa late in the second when Hannu Toivonen couldn't hang on to the puck. Hannu played a fantastic game that was just one slip-up. Anyway, late in the second, the Bruins lost Andrew Alberts for the game when he was penalized for boarding. Marc Savard then argued and got penalized, but for some reason, the refs gave Marc Savard 2 minutes and then Alberts another ten. The third period yielded nothing for the Bruins and an empty net goal by Dany Heatley gave the Bruins a 3-0 loss.

I cannot say it enough, Hannu Toivonen played his best game of the season. He was stopping everything last night. Two Ottawa goals weren't his fault and the third one was just a fluke. Also, because of penalties, the Bruins were really short-staffed on defense, that and the fact that Lewis was still upset with Jurcina, meant that Brad Stuart and Zdeno Chara had to put in some huge minutes. Chara totalled over 33 while Stuart had something in the high twenties. One last post-game fact worth mentioning is that the Bruins really did not have one good scoring opportunity. Late in the third peirod, the Bruins weren't even setting up plays, they would cross the blueline and then immediately take a shot on goal that would go wide.

So everyone on the Bruins except Chara and Kessel have the week off. Next game is a rematch against Ottawa next Saturday. Maybe the week off will be just what the Bruins need to put together some more win streaks like the ones we saw in November and December.