Bruins Nation

He's baaaaack! Tim Thomas is back to old self again. Since his injury TT hadn't been playing like his dominant self, until Thursday night, when he stopped all 31 pucks sent in his direction. He had some help from his usual defense, and a new face. Defenseman Shane Hnidy was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks for struggling wingman Brandon Bochenski. This trade makes complete sense from both team's perspective. Anaheim has Niedermayer now and doesn't need Hnidy, meanwhile, Boston has two injured defensemen and need a reliable veteran. It is a little ironic, however, that this trade comes days after my "Bochenski's Story" post.

Anyway, the Bruins and Capitals both played a very intense hockey game that ended in a shutout. All who were at the Garden, which includes myself, knew this game would be intense after just three minutes. 2:38 into the first period, Milan Lucic and John Erskine squared off. Erskine got a lot of big punches in while Lucic only got in a couple wild ones before being taken down. Everybody loses every now and then. The first goal of the game came 13:35 into the second period, when after killing a penalty, Marc Savard put in the rebound from his own shot. In the middle of the third period, a high stick that injured Lucic (who was later found out to be fine) led to a 5 on 3 Bruins advantage. While the Bruins were passing the puck around, a Capitals defenseman slid into Olie Kolzig, leaving the net open. Chara saw it and sent the puck into the net. The Bruins held on to win 2-0. Tim Thomas was the first star, Chara the second, and Metropolit, who had 2 assists, was the third star.

• A funny occurence at the game on Thursday was the trivia guy getting the question wrong. The guy put on the jumbotron that Glen Murray led the team in goals with 14, when in fact it's Chuck Kobasew who leads the team.