Big Wheel keep on turnin'...

It seemed fitting, sorry.

Rollin' on the river...

Yeah, I had to sort of make that play on words. But seriously? He may have a lot to learn, but this Big Wheel is gonna keep on turnin', for sure. What a game last night. All of the guys played spectacularly-except for that little stretch there where we sort of lost our cool and had to pay for it. It was 55 minutes worth of effort, anyway. And we were rewarded with another win. About damn time.

And now...this is where the Bruins Penalty Box looks to each and every one of you for help. As some of you may already know, there is a Bruins goaltender who is STILL not being recognized, even after winning four of his last five, and allowing no more than two goals in any of those outings. No, I do not mean Manny Fernandez. I mean, of course, Tim Thomas.

And you know you want to, too.

He was somehow looked over yet again, and like many of you, I can't seem to find any reason why. So, this is me getting into the campaign. I know election season is just passed, but...come November 12th, I want whoever passes this blog to cast a couple (or more) votes for Tim Thomas to go to the All Star Game. You all know as well as I do that he was brutally robbed by not being on the ballot. So, put in your write ins, will ya? We need to make sure that he gets there.

What a way to open the season!

A 5-4 win, decided in the final five minutes of play? I'm thinking I love it. Blake Wheeler's first NHL goal, a whole bunch of multiple point games and Tim Thomas looked about as solid as a door made of plutonium. That, my friends in the blogosphere, is what this life long Bruins fan would like to call cause for excitement. Let us go through the finer points, shall we? Phil Kessel started it off by proving my theory that Claude Julien knows what he's talking about. His goal was a thing of beauty, and not just that but it notched Bergy's first assist of the season. Two guys who kind of needed to strike early to avoid being criticized too much, and they did just that. Which was good. Patrice Bergeron was a man on a mission last night, out to prove that he wasn't affected too badly by his season away, and Phil Kessel was out to prove that his lesson was learned when Claude Julien benched him last season. Well, good. Now keep it up. Now, onto my next point.

The kid's got promise, I'd like to think.

FIRST GAME and he scores a beauty of a goal. Welcome to the Bruins, kiddo, because you're gonna be here for a very, very long time.

David Krejci. What on Earth can I say about David Krejci? The boy is amazing. People who thought his impressiveness last season was flukey are going to be proven terribly wrong. A goal and an assist and a whole plethora of chances. What a kid.

Michael Ryder also notched his 100th career goal and his first as a Bruin, which makes me very happy, because I'm one of the few who actually support the decision to grab him up from the UFA list. He's going to flourish on a line with Savard and Axelsson. The three of them line up well together. PJ has the defensive aspect, which lets Marc and Michael go and do their scoring thing. Mark my words: that line's gonna make a splash.

Speaking of Marc Savard...well, here, I'll let this picture do the talking:

Don't hate, guys, you might be as cool as Savvy someday.

A goal and an assist? Yeah, this is the season of the Savard, I can already tell. This pleases me, for sure.

Oh, and let's not forget Tim Thomas. He was all over the place last night. He made those classic Tim Thomas saves that you look at and say HOW IN THE WORLD DID HE DO THAT? He's got skill, yeah, but half the time you wonder what spirit is sitting on his shoulder saying YOU WILL GET THIS PUCK! I love my goalie like you wouldn't believe.

Hard work + team effort = win.

All in all, it was a very impressive effort, with a couple slip ups here and there, but that's to be expected of the first game of the season. It certainly gives us something to look forward to for the rest of the season, doesn't it?