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.