Bruins Nation

Much Better! After suffering through a miserable game against Carolina on Tuesday, Bruins Nation got to see their team, the Boston Bruins, defeat the very hot Pittsburgh Penguins. The steel city hockey players have been doing very well, despite not having Crosby or Fleury. The Bruins have been playing .500 hockey. The Bruins, however, were able to steel a win from Pittsburgh. The win featured really great defense, which is especially impressive considering Aaron Ward left the game when the butt of a stick caught him in the throat. In the end, Wideman played 30 minutes, Chara played 29, Ference played 24, Hnidy played 18, and Stuart, who Claude Julien criticized after the game, played only 8 minutes. A really good job in the defensive zone and in the nuetral zone by these guys led to the Penguins only taking 21 shots. Tim Thomas saved 20 of them.

In the first period, with just about seven minutes left, Milan Lucic did a great job forcing a turnover in the Penguins zone. Glen Metropolit came up with the puck and got a shot off. Petteri Nokelainen, who replaced the injured Chuck Kobasew on the second line, retrieved the rebound and shot the puck into the net. Two minutes later, jeremy Reich did a great job staying with the puck in the offensive zone. He managed to swat the puck towards the front of the net. Vladimir Sobotka was there and tipped it in, getting his first NHL goal and putting the Bruins up 2-0.

The Bruins stayed tough the rest of the game, but could not get the puck by Ty Conklin. The Penguins showed some life when Evgeni Malkin, who has been leading the team in every category since Crosby left, shot the puck off the post and in. The Pittsburgh crowd got into then, only to see their team not able to complete the comeback (sort of like what the Garden crowd saw on Tuesday), and the Bruins won 2-1.

One last thing worth mentioning about this game is the incredible play of the bruins penalty kill. Led by the now healthy PJ Axelsson, the Bruins killed off every Penguins power play, and there were quite a few. The Bruins need to stay more disciplined.

The Bruins are now 1-0-0 on their five game road trip.