Bruins Nation

It's these types of losses that sting. When everyone watching knows that the Bruins are the better team, but still lose. There is no doubt in my mind that if Bergeron and Murray, or ward and Alberts were in the game, that this would be a Bruins win. They were unavailable though. Blown opportunities (I'm talking about you Marco Sturm) and a very tired team in the third period led to the Bruins 5th straight loss.

One good sight in this game was the play of Brandon Bochenski, who did not shy away from shooting after being given a chance to play next to Savard. He hit the post early in the first period, but that was as close as he came. Under six minutes into the game, Tim Thomas saved a blast but then the rebound was put in by Rod Brind-Amor. A little later, Marc Savard got the puck while shorthanded and skated up the ice toward the net. The puck got caught in a defenseman's stick and squirted loose. Chuck Kobasew was right there, though, and shot in the puck, tying the game. Kobasew's second SH goal of the season. Carolina did answer. Right off a faceoff win, Mike Commodores drive scored. Tim Thomas didn't even see it.

In the second period, Carolina did something that I've never seen. They scored on a shorthanded penalty shot. That means that while on a Bruins power play, Carolina had a breakaway that was illegally stopped by Wideman. larose was awarded a penalty shot. He skated down the ice, deked and then shot a backhanded shot over Thomas and into the net. Right as this happened, Boston College beat Michigan State 24-21 in the Champs Sports Bowl

51 seconds into the third period, Marc Savard stole the puck and then passed to Axelsson, whose slap shot got the puck into the net. 3 minutes later, A carolina shot got by the defense and was put in by Eric Staal. A few seconds later, the Bruins answered when Phil Kessel, without the puck, instinctively went to the net. Meanwhile Milan Lucic got the puck and passed it to Kessel, who easily tipped it in. That wa the end of the scoring that this game saw. A few minutes after Kessel's goal, Commodore injured Axelsson with a check against the boards. Stuart came over and picked a fight with Commodore. Stuart was given a game misconduct (bullshit rule, everyone in the NHL hates it) and thus the defense was down to 5 guys (2 of them being AHL players that saw very little ice time). Both Chara (32 minutes) and wideman (33 minutes) were forced to play way too many minutes and were very tired at the end of the game. On top of that, Axelsson is now another injured Bruin (no timeline is currently available). Hopefully it is not a serious injury.

With Last night's loss, and both Montreal and Buffalo winning, the Bruins are now 4th in the division (7th in the conference). Coming up tonight and Monday is a home and home with the Atlanta Thrashers. The Bruins need two wins to finish out 2007. Tim Thomas did play well, but he's given up 11 goals in 3 games. It wouldn't surprise me if Auld was given the nod tonight.