But on Friday night, they realized that potential and gave a complete effort throughout. They did the little things and it paid off in a 3-0 win.
Here are my three stars:
Marc Savard (two goals)
Tim Thomas (27 saves, shutout)
Patrice Bergeron (goal, assist)
Honorable mention: Michael Ryder (assist; great work along the boards and lots of hustle)
So the Bruins are off to Phoenix, where they will be lucky to have 5,000 fans in attendance at Jobing.com Arena. Phoenix is no pushover this season, though, so the B's will need their "A" game again.
Thanks for reading, and hope you check in Saturday night for Bruins-Coyotes.
End of game, Bruins win 3-0: Finally, a complete game by the Bruins. Thomas was back to Vezina Trophy Thomas with a 27-save shutout and Marc Savard looked like the premiere center he is. Oh, by the way, the Bruins got a power-play goal, too, and killed off three Dallas power plays. Maybe now we can say that the Bruins season is officially underway!
Third period, 1:20, Bruins 3-0: Andy Brickley made a good point about Andrew Ference. He really has had his best game. If he can step up, this defense will really benefit. As Bri just texted me, they have the capability to be one of the deepest blue lines in the NHL if everyone is 100 percent.
Third period, 5:46, Bruins 3-0: Another great effort by the Bruins on that last PK. Thomas made a huge save on Neal and Savard poked the puck out at one point. This is the desire Julien has been wanting.
Third period, 9:18, Bruins 3-0: The Stars are on their second power play. They are 0-for-1.
Third period, 9:34, Bruins 3-0: Liking the play of Johhny Boychuk again. Have a feeling this kid could be a keeper. "Manchuk" is what my friend Brian Ferraro calls him.
Third period, 11:08, Bruins 3-0: Bruins are still holding on to the lead here. It is nice to see the Bruins first three lines playing better on a night when the fourth line hasn't been as good. That fourth line has been their best line all season, so it deserves a break.
Third period, 18:00, Bruins 3-0: The third period is underway here. The Bruins killed off Thornton's penalty and Thornton actually broke in alone out of the box but was stopped by Turco.
Second intermission, Bruins 3-0: We mentioned Bergeron (7-for-11) and his faceoff success. Well, David Krejci is looking good there as well. as he is 7-for-10. This has definitely been a big difference maker in the game.
Marc Savard has 199 career goals now and the hat-trick would give him 200.
End of second period, Bruins 3-0: Just to follow-up, Shawn Thornton will be in the box for 1:06 to start the third period. Questionable hooking call on Thornton as Ribiero did a great acting job to draw the whistle. The Bruins actually had three good chances to start the penalty kill but Turco made the stops.
Another great period, and the Bruins are really controlling the faceoff dots. One of their faceoff wins wins — by Bergeron — led to a goal when Bergeron went to the net after the faceoff and took the give-and-go from Stuart.
Second period, 0:54.5, Bruins 3-0: The Bruins are short-handed here in final minute.
Second period, 3:08, Bruins 3-0: Need to point out that this is by far Bergeron's and Ryder's best games yet. Bergeron has been great on faceoffs and has two points. Ryder is plugging along the boards and creating space. He has an assist.
Second period, 8:04, Bruins 3-0: The Stars just regained some life as they started to swirl around the Bruins net, but as Jack Edwards said, the Bruins "bent but didn't break". That is especially true for Matt Hunwick, who was everywhere and blocked a James Neal shot. Great shift by Hunwick.
Second period, 12:01, Bruins 3-0: Marc Savard just got his second lamp-lighter of the night. Michael Ryder and Patrice Bergeron had the helpers. Savard is really sensing the game tonight and his vision is in effect. If he could shoot more, I think it would benefit him and the Bruins so much. Opponents always think pass first with him.
Second period, 16:25, Bruins 2-0: Patrice Bergeron gets the goal. Stuart and Recchi with the assists. Recchi is now the NHL's active assist leader (899) and active points leader with 1,445 points.
Second period, 16:34, Bruins 1-0: Wrote a feature on the Stars at NESN.com on Thursday, and "J. Neal," a poster, posted this about James Neal:
"James
Neal comes from the same hood in Oshawa that Terry O'Reilly came from.
James Grandfather coached Terry when he played at a young age in the
CYO league for St. Gertrudes…James played there too. Good Irish
Catholics."
Bruins fans have to appreciate that!
Recchi just hit Grossman with a blast and Grossman is headed off bleeding.
Second period, 18:53, Bruins 1-0: We're underway here in the second period. Dallas had an early chance on a James Neal wrap-around but Thomas was there for the save.
First Intermission, Bruins 1-0: I must also note the goal-saving play by Mark Stuart late in the first period. Stuart was right where he should be in front of Tim Thomas and swatted away a rebound before Loui Eriksson could get to it. Again, a great period by the Bruins. Let's hope they can build on it.
End of first period, Bruins 1-0: That had to be the best period the Bruins have played since the 7-2 win over the Hurricanes Oct. 3. That also ironically was the last time the the Bruins scored a power-play goal, which they finally did tonight when Savard scored with 6:28 left in the period. Give mad props to Ryder's board work on that tally. Also, it was huge they came out with the lead there. Worked too hard to give up a late goal.
First period, 5:10, Bruins 1-0: Savard gets the power-play goal with Sturm and Chara getting the assists. Wow! The power play actually works!
First period, 6:57: Bruins are about to go on the power play, compliments of old friend Mike Ribiero, who high-sticked Marc Savard.
First period, 9:17: Again, the Bruins much more like they're on the same page tonight. Passes have been crisp and they're sensing where their linemates will be.
First period, 9:45: Savard was working some magic there and almost caught Turco on the wrap-around.
First period, 11:15: The Bruins were cycling the puck well in the offensive zone there and look a bit more in sync tonight. Fast period so far.
First period, 16:34: The Bruins killed off the high-sticking call to Bergeron. Penalty kill looked better there.
First period, 19:42: We're underway here, and the Bruins are already short-handed, 18 ticks in.
8:26 p.m. ET: We're almost ready for game time in Dallas. Lineups look the same for the Bruins. We'll update the Stars if there are any changes.
Of note, Dallas center Brad Richards has a point in every game this season. He has nine points in five games with three goals and six assists.
New Stars head coach and former AHL teammate of Claude Julien, Marc Crawford, had nothing but praise for the Bruins earlier today. Here's what he told The Boston Globe:
"They had such a great season last year. The thing that jumps out at
you when you look at the Bruins' team is all the offensive depth. Every
line has the ability to score. Every line has the ability to forecheck.
Every line has some pretty good speed on it. You've got to be prepared
to deal with their depth. Watching them last year, they were one of my
favorite teams because they played with such speed and such tempo. I
thought it was their depth. They overwhelmed teams at times. I know
they don't have [Phil] Kessel this year, so that's a little bit of a
change. But they still have a lot of offensive weapons over there. On
defense, when you can throw out Zdeno Chara for 30 minutes of any game,
you know you'll be pretty safe for those 30 minutes. They have a very
good complementary group of defensemen. And of course Tim Thomas had a
great season last year. They're good in every aspect."
That sounds like the Bruins team we've grown to know, but the question is, will they be on the ice in Dallas?
Noticed that NESN rink-side reporter Naoko Funayama seems to have a cold. Naoko was still kind enough to send us the lines from the morning skate today. Thanks, Naoko, and get better!
We're almost ready for faceoff. Until then….
Noon: Greetings!
The Bruins (2-3-0) and Stars (2-0-3) are set to face off Friday night, and we'll be live blogging throughout the game, so be sure to check back as the game approaches.
The Bruins had their morning skate in Dallas on Friday morning, and according to NESN's Naoko Funayama, Tim Thomas was first off the ice and will get the start in net. Thomas will be making his first start since Oct. 8, when he and the Bruins were throttled by the Ducks in a 6-1 rout. Thomas hasn't had the best start to the season, going 1-2-0 with a 4.00 GAA and .868 save percentage, but as he told the media Thursday, he doesn't believe he has been as bad as the stats indicate.
“The numbers are a little bit distorted. I didn’t feel as bad as the numbers look in the two games that we lost,” said Thomas, who said he didn’t read anything into Tuukka Rask making back-to-back starts. “I haven’t felt really bad, but I’ve just got bad results. It is what it is. I haven’t seen too many goals allowed by us where you’d say ‘Oh, the goalie is struggling.’
“Look at the patterns over the years," he continued. "The other goaltender has usually played a lot because I haven’t always played that great at the beginning. I don’t like to get that label. Last year, my stats were good, but the team wasn’t winning. During the lockout year, I had five shutouts in my first 10 games. You can’t say that’s the way it is every year.”
Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, considering their salary cap issues, the Bruins have yet to recall anyone from Providence for this two-game roadie and will go with the lineup below. Hopefully, for their sake, no one gets hurt or there will be some double-shifting going on.
Forwards
Marco Sturm-Marc Savard-Michael Ryder
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Blake Wheeler
Mark Recchi-Patrice Bergeron-Chuck Kobasew
Shawn Thornton-Steve Begin-Byron Bitz
Defensemen
Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
Mark Stuart-Andrew Ference
Matt Hunwick-Johnny Boychuk
Goaltenders
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Mike Heika of the Dallas News is reporting that Jere Lehtinen will not play for the Stars and Aaron Gagnon has been recalled to take his spot. The lines are a bit uncertain, but here’s what they looked like last game, and we’ll slot Gagne into Lehtinen’s slot.
Forwards
James Neal-Brad Richards-Louis Eriksson
Brendan Morrow-Mike Ribeiro-Jamie Benn
Brian Sutherby-Tom Wandell-Fabian Brunnstrom
Krystopher Barch-Toby Petersen-Aaron Gagnon
Defensemen
Niklas Grossman-Stephane Robidas
Karlis Skrastins-Trevor Daley
Jeff Woywitka-Matt Niskanen
Goaltenders
Marty Turco
Alex Auld
