Bruins Nation

Real awful stuff throughout most of the game is what I saw. I don't know how anyne can take any positives out of Thursday night's game. THe fans knew it too. The people walking out of the Garden looked pretty disgusted at the play of the Bruins. It's a rivalry game. A big one! The players showed up to play briefly in the second period, but besides for that the ice was covered with Habs domination. One could make the argument that the globe writer covering the game made that Montreal had been in Boston for 3 days while the Bruins had been in Boston for 9 hours, but I don't buy it. It was really just a poor game.

The defense crumbled in the first period. They left Tuuka out to dry. I hate throwing the rookie under the bus, but Tuuka Rask also had a very poor game in net. This game would have ended 2-0 or 2-1 with the Bruins winning had Thomas been in net. Rask just is not aggressive enough to play in the NHL. He needs more Providence experience. He needs to leave the net more, and attack the shots. He's leaving to much of the net open by playing so close in. You can't win when your defense and goalie don't show up.

The first period was all Montreal. Very sloppy defense led to three Canadiens goals. Two of them were very save-able. Jeremy Reich tried to fire up the team by looking for a guy to fight. A couple Habs pussies (I mean players) just skated away from Reich but Francis Bouillon decided to take on Reich. What happened next shocked me! Reich got in some good punches toward the beginning, but Bouillon managed to get Reich into a very bad position and pummeled him. When Reich recovered Bouillon tackled him to the ice. It was the first time I've ever seen Jeremy Reich lose a fight.

In the second period the Bruins came out of the locker room on fire. They switched up their game to put more pressure on the oposing puck carrier and it worked. Montreal managed only 3 shots in the entire period. The Bruins got two pucks past Price in this period. The first one was a power play drive by Denis Wideman that was redirected into the net by Phil Kessel. The other one was a great play by Marc Savard to find PJ Axelsson on the other side of the net, who easily tipped in the puck. Marc Savard recorded an assist and now has a 12 game point streak. The Bruins had the momentum going into the third period, but they didn't use it. They held back. There was no urgency to score. That lack of intensity led to Mathieu Dandenault having an easy shot to put the Habs ahead by two. Once again, Tuuka should have had it.

The Bruins need to put this one behind them as they head north of the border to play Toronto. Alex Auld will be in net. The Bruins got the 6 foot 5 inch goalie from Phoenix just a few days ago. Aaron Ward will also be back from injury tonight to help out the struggling defense. GO BRUINS!