WILMINGTON, Mass. — The long wait is almost over.
After excursions to Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic, not to mention New Jersey and the District of Columbia, the Bruins finally play their first home game of the season on Thursday when they welcome Washington to the Garden.
"It's been a long time," said Bruins forward Nathan Horton. "There's a lot of excitement coming into that game. It's going to be a blast. I'm excited. I think everyone else is excited too to finally get home and play in front of our fans."
It will be Horton's first regular-season game in Boston as a Bruin since arriving from Florida in trade this summer, but he's already got an idea what's in store for him on Thursday.
"It's Boston, everyone is going to be ready — the fans, our guys, everyone that's involved," said Horton. "It's going to be a great game. I definitely want to come home. It makes everything better when you're playing in front of your own fans. They're cheering for you and you get that extra edge."
There is a danger of trying to do too much to please that crowd and lose sight of task at hand.
"There's always that temptation to put on a show for the fans, give them their money's worth" said Milan Lucic. "But here in Boston, they just want to see a hard-hitting team go out there and play hard, play an in-your-face type of game. That's the way we've been playing so far, so if we just keep that up I know they're going to be happy and cheering the whole night.
"For us, it's an important game because it's the home opener," added Lucic. "But I think the biggest thing is we shouldn't change a thing. We should just keep playing the way we've been playing and the results will take care of themselves."
The results have certainly been there, as the Bruins have won three straight, including an impressive 3-1 win over these same Capitals in Washington on Tuesday.
"I don't know if I can guarantee anything here," said Bruins coach Claude Julien after Wednesday's practice at Ristuccia Arena. "But the one thing we have to do here as a team is understand that our game shouldn't change [Thursday] because we're at home. And if it does, then we're going to get ourselves in trouble.
"What's gotten us success has been the way we've worked hard together as a group," added Julien. "We've stuck with the things we believe in, and if we decide [Thursday] that we're going to go out and be cute for our home fans we're going to get away from what we call our identity and what we've accomplished so far. [Thursday] is going to be a tough game because you've got one of the better teams in the league coming in with revenge on their mind. And you've got us making sure that our focus is in the proper place to play a real good game against a real good team and not let the home ice get us away from what we've accomplished so far."
In addition to having emotions running high because it's the home opener, there should also be some extra intensity in this matchup as it's the back end of a home-and-home series.
"I think it's not a bad thing," said Julien. "It kind of creates a bit of a rivalry. There's something that carries over from the last game into the next one. When you're a team like the Washington Capitals — they won a Presidents' Trophy last year — there's some pride there. They got beat at home and they're coming [Thursday] with one thing in mind and that's revenge. It's going to make for a real exciting game. It's up to us to make sure we're up to the task and we're ready to play our game and hopefully win that one as well."
Back-to-back games against the same opponent have become somewhat of a rarity in the days of the 30-team NHL, but the players appreciate the chance to build up a little animosity in the regular season by seeing the same opponent again so quickly.
"It's nice when you don't play a team very often if you get them back to back," said Horton. "Things can get a bit nasty and you just try to have fun with it and hopefully take the two points."
