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.

Thomas snubbed...business as usual, isn't it?

I ask you. What in the world is it going to take to get Tim Thomas recognized in this league? Snubbed on the All Star ballot in favor of both Brodeur and DiPietro? Both of whom are injured and have been for the past couple days, at least? Bergeron, Chara and Savard are all on there, which is great, because they all deserve a shot to go (again in Savard and Chara's cases), but come on.

Tim Thomas is the backbone of a Bruins team which is just starting to come out of the doghouse. Clearly, in order to get recognized the way he deserves to be, Tim Thomas has to defeat the giant monkey man and save the ninth dimension, making it back in time to make a stellar save, in order to be recognized the way he should. Poor guy is constantly overlooked. If he happens to get de-snubbed (I'm making words, here) when they realize that two of their guys are injured? I implore all of you. Vote for Tim Thomas for the All Star Game.

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.

Why start a new trend...

...when the old one is working so well? Yeah, we'll go with that. I made a bullet list of things to talk about from last night's game, so...shall we begin? We'll start with the good things.

When you're hot, you're hot.

Marc Savard. What can I say that I haven't already said? Five goals in three games? Talk about starting the season with a streak. His first goal was a thing of beauty. Absolute beauty. But the second? A lucky bounce in Montreal...going our way? That's an insane concept and I'm wondering what in the world happened there. Maybe the ghosts are colorblind and thought that the black and gold jerseys were suddenly bleu, blanc et rouge. Either way, mess up of a ghost or just a genuine lucky bounce in our favor? I quite like it. And when you're hot, the bounces go in your favor, right?

Tough calls beget tough goals.

And the fact that Dennis Wideman cross checked whichever Kostitsyn brother that was, isn't a question, no. But when a ref calls a retaliation? They have to call the initial penalty, too. I don't know what kind of gunk the ref had in his eyes, but...did he miss when Kostitsyn scissor tripped Wideman to the ground? I have a slight Wideman bias, I'll admit, but...I'd feel the same way if roles had been reversed, so...I really think they need to find refs who won't bias either way. That may not exist but it's worth a try, because the refs always seem to have a bias toward the Canadiens when we play them.

The boo birds were flying high last night, as is standard with a Boston/Montreal tilt. Poor Michael Ryder...that must have been rough on him, going back to his old haunt and being pretty much booed to the point of a screw up each time he touched the puck. He did, however, notch an assist, so it was sort of a 'I can still do this' thing for him. Which is good.

Also, what was Tim Thomas thinking?! I don't know whether it was at the end of the third or at some point in OT, but...when he went chasing after the puck like he was walking a dog? Oh Timmy, I love you right to bits, but please don't ever do that again.

No comment on the shootout. It was rough. But we could have had two points if not for that momentary collapse. Keep that in mind next time, boys.

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?