It's been awhile, but...

We had a decent winning streak going on for awhile there, didn't we? And boy, oh boy was it hockey worth watching. Tim Thomas was absolutely stellar in our Western Conference swing (and our first game back, too, but I'll touch on that later), and even though our offense was sort of lacking, we made up for it in other ways. And then, we came back home...and this happened...



And then this happened...



And then, oh yeah...this happened...



Since when did we have a rivalry with Dallas? Well, either way, in the words of Tim Thomas, they must have been looking at the wrong score card, if they thought that they could come into the Garden and play that kind of game. I was pleased with Shawn Thornton, going out there and doing his job like he does every night. And I was also pleased with Shane Hnidy, which is a surprise, because he really went to bat for the rest of the guys, too. I was absolutely blown away by Andrew Ference. That open-ice hit on Ott? Was a thing of beauty. And the fight it caused with Avery (because obviously, Ott couldn't handle it on his own...) was also amazing. Ference scored some serious bonus points with me last night.

However, I was ecstatic when Marc Savard pummeled Avery and beat the ever-loving out of him. Marc Savard is one of the best all around players that I have seen in my hockey watching life, and this just proves it even more. A skill player like Marc Savard, a playmaker, a finesse player, a solid, All Star guy like that, going to the defense of Milan Lucic, who is known for breaking glass with checks? That just shows how united this team is. We stick up from each other, bruisers to All Stars. And that, my friends, is why I love them like I do.

Lost in the shuffle, however, was the actual score and goal tending. Sturm found his way back into our good graces with a pair of goals, which he needed direly, because he was beginning to get snake bitten, like he has the past couple of seasons. Bergeron got another 'front of the net' goal, but a goal doesn't have to be a stunner to do what it needs to do. And if it takes a couple garbage goals to get him back to the way he was before? Then so be it. Kessel showed, once again, that he's an elite player, and hopefully a contender for All Star status this season, and Stuart started off his scoring for the season, being only the second defenseman to do so on the team.

And then, there's Tim Thomas. Easily the best goaltender in the league for the month of October, he showed once again, with a flurry of 21 shots in the second period alone, why he's our number one. And I give props to Manny Fernandez for handling it the way he did, also. He congratulated Thomas, looking like a champ the whole time. It's good to see that he accepts the backup role for what it is.

Team unity, ladies and gentlemen.

The moral of the story is: you mess with one bear? You get the whole pack on your case. Beware of Bear is not just a play on words. It's the way we play our game, and I love it.

Last night and tonight...

Okay, so...the home opener? The way everyone stood and cheered for Patrice Bergeron warmed my heart right to the center. I wish I'd been there, because you would have been able to hear me screaming all the way in China.

Welcome home, boys.

Last night...was a solid 60 minute effort. But if figures that one of those, our best game of the season so far, would be solved in the penalty shot contest known as a shoot out. Shootouts are pretty much the devil, I'd like to think. Seriously, though? The only criticism I can pull from last night's game is...we need to capitalize on those power play chances. We had eight power plays, and one power play goal. Speaking of which...Phil Kessel is pretty much the king right now. But that's beside the point.

Tonight, we're in Buffalo. All we need to do is bring the same effort we brought last night, and we have a huge chance to win this one.

Ah, they didn't let me down.

Kessel, Phil Kessel, whut...

I love it when they listen to me. Last night was a solid 60 minutes of effort, and I really have nothing to complain about. Manny Fernandez wasn't tested too often, but all but a couple of times, he came up big, which is important to the future of the team, at least this season. I'm only hoping that he can keep it up. Oh. And Marc Savard and Michael Ryder? Do I need to say it again? In case I do...YEAR OF THE SAVARD! Just in case you forgot. 9 points in 4 games. Oh, Marc.

PJ Axelsson was out last night, but you 'trade talkers,' this does not mean he's on the trading block. He had muscle spasms, folks. Claude said it himself. He'll be back tomorrow, and helping us out, just like he always does. I'd love, someday, for him to get the recognition he deserves. But that's probably not going to happen.

We come back to the Garden 2-1-1. All in all, a pretty good start to what I perceive to be a pretty good season. Tomorrow, we play the Pens, which will, no doubt, be a challenge. But I have a feeling that if we put together an effort like we did against the Sens last night, we'll be okay.

Trades of favorites are not fun things.

I had a clever writeup about Saturday's game in my head and the fact that Marc Savard tried to singlehandedly bring us back from a 4-1 deficit to win (by the way, I believe I mentioned that this year was the year of the Savard. I wasn't joking). I was going to throw it together, but then I saw this.

Boston, MA - Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today that the club has traded defenseman Andrew Alberts to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for forward Ned Lukacevic and a fourth round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Well if that's not the most fun way to start the day. Hearing one of your favorite players has traded...to the team that's the very reason he's being traded is...not a fun thing.

I, for one, will miss you like crazy.

Well that sucks royally. We couldn't have, you know, kept him and traded Manny Fernandez (who, by the way, is pretty much the entire reason we couldn't manage to win that game on Saturday)? That would have made more sense than this. Even Claude seems baffled:

"There was a time where after he made a few mistakes, that would push him out for the rest of the game," Julien said. "I thought he'd been doing a great job of bouncing back and finishing strong. That was a positive."

*sighs deeply* Oh, and wait, the good news just keeps a'coming. Get this:

Claude Julien said Chuck Kobasew would be sidelined for three weeks, dating back to last Thursday's game when he suffered a fractured right ankle.

No word on whether Kobasew has been placed on long-term injured reserve. To be eligible for LTIR, a player must be unfit to play for 10 games and 24 calendar days. If the Bruins placed Kobasew on LTIR, the earliest he'd be eligible to play would be Nov. 1 against Dallas.

Oh Chuck. You seriously can never catch a break as far as injury goes, can you? If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm just glad that PC has a pretty decent tolerance for injured players. At least I thought he did. I say again, oh Chuck. This is a relatively depressing post. So, I won't even get into the 4-3 loss against the Wild, other than to say that Marc Savard rocks, Michael Ryder owns my soul, PJ Axelsson remains an underrated leader, Manny Fernandez sucks, Phil Kessel is great and and Patrice Bergeron is back to full form.

Before I close this, however, I have a little tidbit from another Bruins blogger that I'd like to share (WickedBruinsFan, if you'd like me to take this down, just ask and I'd be more than happy to).

"At the end of practice I saw Dennis Wideman go over to the door and get the attention of the equipment manager. He talked to him for a minute, returned to the ice skating alone at center and shot a puck, then grabbed his extra stick and was the first one to leave the ice. Wideman is never first to leave after practices. That was the point I knew Alberts was traded or at least something had happened. Wideman and Alberts are close, often riding to practices together."

That kills me. Just slays me. If I hadn't been broken up about this before, that would have done it. I'll definitely miss him.

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?