The 2010-11 Bruins bore a striking resemblance to the 2009-10 edition in the first two periods of Saturday's season opener against Phoenix in Prague, largely in the way their offense failed to strike with any scoring blows against the Coyotes.
But the Bruins did show signs of better things to come in the third. New addition Nathan Horton lived up to his billing as the kind of deft finisher the club has lacked of late. He scored twice in the final frame to pull Boston back into it, but the Bruins had dug too deep a hole and fell by a final count of 5-2 before 15,299 fans at O2 Arena.
"I thought we were kind of flat at the beginning," said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, who signed a seven-year extension with the club just hours before the game. "We couldn't get anything going, and when we did get chances, we preferred passing instead of shooting. Maybe we were a little bit nervous, too. We were forcing some plays, which is totally uncharacteristic for our team. We just have to play our style, be more relaxed and try to force our game plan on the opponent."
Horton provided the silver lining for what began as a very cloudy day for the Bruins. His first goal was a perfectly placed wrister to the top left corner of the net from the high slot, while he snuck in the second inside the near right post with a low shot.
Both goals showed that special knack that elite scorers have to finish off chances, and the Bruins should be seeing Horton's name on the scoresheet often this season.
Unfortunately for Boston, Phoenix forward Radim Vrbata has a decent scoring touch of his own. The Czech native thrilled the home folks in Prague as he collected a pair of goals and an assist for the Coyotes.
He opened the scoring when he batted in a hip-high rebound out of midair at the right post after Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick lost track of him. Vrbata also added the clincher with an empty-netter for the final goal.
In between, he helped set up Eric Belanger's back-breaking power-play goal with just 16.5 seconds left in the second to make it 4-0.
That came after a costly Daniel Paille turnover gave Scottie Upshall a clean breakaway, and Upshall buried the chance for Phoenix's third goal. Taylor Pyatt also scored for the Coyotes when he gained inside position on Dennis Seidenberg and chipped a rebound up over Tuukka Rask.
Rask (32 saves) couldn't be faulted on most of the Phoenix goals, as he was given little support in the first two periods. The Hunwick-Seidenberg pairing was especially troublesome, with turnovers and blown coverages giving Phoenix way too many chances before they were split up late in the game. Hunwick finished a team-worst minus-3, while Seidenberg was a minus-1.
In addition to Horton, there were several other notable Bruins debuts in this one. Highly-touted prospect Tyler Seguin played his first regular-season game in the NHL, and the 18-year-old held his own for the most part.
He did finish a minus-2, but he also had four shots and nearly set up Mark Recchi for a power-play goal. He played 14:56 overall, skating on a line with Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder. Wheeler lived up to his offseason promise to shoot more as he led the Bruins with five shots.
Getting shots wasn't the problem for the Bruins, who held a 42-37 edge in that category. It was getting anything past Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov that caused the club fits. Bryzgalov earned third-star honors behind first-star Vrbata and second-star Horton for his 40-save effort.
Horton made the biggest impact for the Bruins, but fourth-line center Greg Campbell, who came to Boston from Florida in the same trade this summer, almost made his presence felt in his first game as a Bruin.
Campbell provided some energy with a pair of hits and dropped his gloves with Vern Fiddler in the third for Boston's first bout of the year. Campbell played 12:51 in the game, but saw just 30 seconds on the penalty kill. That was largely because he was in the box for one of the two minors Boston took. He will be a key penalty killer for the Bruins this year.
Chara led the Bruins in short-handed time at 1:42, and led everyone in ice-time with 26:41. The seven-year extension he signed before then game doesn't kick in until after the season, but he's already earning his money with a big effort before many friends and family from neighboring Slovakia. He led the Bruins with four hits and three blocked shots and picked up an assist on Horton's second goal.
After a rough start, the Bruins created some positives to build off with their third-period showing. And they won't have to wait long to try to continue that momentum, as they get a rematch with the Coyotes in the second half of their Prague series on Sunday (10 a.m. ET).
