Bruins Nation

The Tampa Bay Lightning have Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, and Brad Richards, yet they are in last place. Now if you're a John Tortorella fan, I'm sorry, but I'm about to throw him under the bus. He's got three of the fifteen best forwards in the league and yet he can't win. He used to be able to win; hell he won the Stanley Cup four years back, but now his team is in last place in the Eastern Conference and the Lightning should start to look for a new head coach.

Anyway, the game was great if you're a Bruins fan. The Bruins had no trouble getting the puck past Holmqvist. All three Lightning goals were on little mistakes by Bruins players. Saturday night's game had 2 short-handed goals, 3 power play goals, and 3 even stregnth goals.

In the first period, the Bruins looked a litle rusty out of the gate. On the power play, a slip on the ice led to a turnover. Lecevalier had the puck on the other side of the ice shorthanded and fed the puck perfectly to Darche. Darche scored and the Bruins were down 1-0. The Bruins power play unit made up for their mistake later in the period. Fourteen minutes in on the power play, Milan Lucic shot the puck hard and into the net. It was a good job by Lucic recognizing that Holmqvist has been struggling and the Bruins should take as many shots as possible.

Tied 1-1, the Bruins took the lead early in the second when Mark Stuart's drive in traffic went in. Later in the period, the Lightning tied the game on a controversial goal. Brad Richards made a beautiful pass to a streaking Michel Ouellet. Ouellet recieved the puck and tipped it in while barreling into Alex Auld. After review, the goal was allowed. With the game tied, it was up to the bruins power play to once againt break the tie. With under two minutes left in the second period, on a Bruins 5 on 3 power play, Zdeno Chara's drive was saved by Holmqvist. the BRuins had three guys stationed near the goal on the drive and Glen Murray was the one who came up with the rebound. Murray put the puck in the net and the Bruins had the lead 3-2.

Murray struck again 17 seconds into the third period. Marc Savard stole the puck deep in the Lightning zone and passed to Murray. Glen Murray shot the puck in and the Bruins were up 4-2. The Bruins defense, for the rest of the period, played perfectly. Both in the defensive zone and the nuetral zone, the Bruins did a great job not letting Tampa have the puck for any extended period of time. In the third period, the Lightning were only able to take 3 shots. With 2:17 left in the game, on a Tampa Bay power play, A shot just barely trickled by Alex Auld. It was a big mistake by Auld, who played a great game besides for the one mistake, and it almost allowed the Lightning to comeback. The game became tense when Glen Murray was called for holding with a minute and a half left. The Bruins penalty kill came through though! With a little over a minute left, Glen Metropolit stole the puck and started skating down the ice. THe Lightning defenseman who skated back hooked Metro over and over again, but metro was still able to tip back the puck. PJ Axelsson was there and slapped the puck into the net. If Tommy Heinson was calling the game, Metro would have gotten 100 Tommy points for his effort. (Yes, even I have started watching Celtics games. They are the Detroit Red Wings of basketball and are very fun to watch.)

So the Bruins won 5-3 and finished the road trip 4-0-1. The next three Bruins games are at home against Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta. The trade deadline is tomorrow at 3, so stay tuned for any news on trades.