Finally, after the longest yet shortest offseason in Bruins history, hockey found its way back to Boston.
Sure, it wasn't the heart-in-your-throat type of hockey B's fans became accustomed to over a two month stretch of unforgettable playoff hockey that ended with the end of a 39-year drought, but a relieving feeling overcame the fans that filed into the TD Garden one at a time. Hockey was back, and with a banner set to raise in just under two weeks, the excitement around the club is increasingly palpable. Taking to the ice for their first home preseason game of the campaign, and first hockey played at Boston's barn since June 13's 4-1 drubbing of the Vancouver Canucks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup, it was a contest that saw B's cornerstones
Zdeno Chara and last year's most valuable everything
Tim Thomas make their 2011-12 debuts.
But on a night where hockey and its stars returned to action in the Hub thanks to a visit from the New York Islanders, the warm fuzzy feelings didn't last long. After all, the Bruins were coming off a Wednesday night loss in Ottawa that left the Black and Gold thoroughly outmatched, out-muscled, and out-worked by a feisty Sens club. A non-Bruin-esque showing that left B's bench-boss
Claude Julien a little miffed. "We really looked like a tired team and it showed," Julien said in reference to Wednesday's loss. "We were static moving the puck, they were on us and we weren’t able to make many plays."
Something the Boston coach was happy to not see repeated on home-ice. "Big difference tonight," Julien noted after the game. "We were moving our feet and filling the lanes and the puck was moving well."
Yet, it wasn't a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination. Falling behind early when New York's
Dylan Reese fired a slap-shot through Thomas just 67 tics into the first period, the B's found themselves behind the eight ball even further when Reese scored
another goal late in the first period to make it 2-0 in favor of the Isles. Seeming paving the way for disaster with Thomas' tame first period of just four stops on six shots faced along with Boston's continued inability to score on the power-play -- finishing the period 0-for-3 -- it was a night that seemed primed for disappointment in rainy Boston.
That was until a furious second period. In a period that was thoroughly one-sided in favor of the Bruins, Boston's relentless attack came at a back-peddling Isles defense with an unforgiving ferocity that Boston-born
Rick DiPietro simply couldn't stave off forever. Finally finding the back of the net when
David Krejci scored a power-play goal off a
Milan Lucic rebound, Boston took advantage of the ice-tilt when
Patrice Bergeron rifled a feed from
Brad Marchand into the back of the cage just 64 seconds later.
"Coming out in the second period we definitely skated better and we were just more aggressive," Boston's
Dennis Seidenberg said after the win, "We were cycling the puck, getting pucks to the net and that resulted in goals."Crashing the net without care with each rush up ice, Boston's dominant 11-shot second period was quickly negated when a late period goal by New York's
Trevor Frischmon broke the stalemate and gave the Isles lead after 40 minutes of play.
Giving the Islanders their second lead of the night, and third goal against Thomas on just 10 shots total, the luck ended for the Isles with the departure of DiPietro from the crease in favor of back-up
Anders Nilsson.
First it was Seidenberg who scored with a back-door creep-in goal on the man-advantage. Then came Marchand's first of the preseason off a great tic-tac-toe sequence between the B's agitator and linemates Bergeron and
Rich Peverley. Bruins defensemen
Johnny Boychuk would extend the lead to two behind a seeing-eye slapper from the point. And the topper came with Peverley's impossible-angle goal from practically behind the Islander net.
All of this on just 14 shots, giving Boston a 6-3 victory and Nilsson a puke-worthy .714 save-percentage.
David Krejci on New York's DiBenedetto: "I don't even know who he is."
With the game out of the reach and the B's just waiting for the clock to trickle down to 0.0, B's top-liner
David Krejci came in with a big hit on an Islander along the boards. Tossing the New York skater down to the ice, the soft-spoken Czech was greeted with anything but a hug from
Justin DiBenedetto. Wrapped up by the 23-year-old Islander, Krejci did his best to cover up, refusing to drop the gloves and engage with the far more combative DiBenedetto, who's racked up 107 minutes in penalties in 118 games at the AHL level.
But as both were escorted off the ice, each handed a fighting major while DiBenedetto picked up an extra 14 minutes between instigators and a misconduct, Krejci's major left the crafty play-maker with a bit of a bee in his bonnet.
"I had my helmet on and my gloves fell, a jump from behind. That was it. He fell on me. Didn’t have a chance," The never short on confidence Krejci said after the game, "I don’t want to fight in the first preseason game. Come on, it’s the first game back I want to get my timing. I don’t even know who the guy is to tell you the truth."
Finishing the night with a goal in just under 18 minutes of time-on-ice, the leading scorer from the 2011 playoffs remained adamant that he didn't know who DiBendetto, a player with zero games of NHL experience, was. "I don’t know who that kid is but obviously he’s battling for a spot on the roster, I understand that. I don’t want to comment on that. I don’t think I’ve ever played against him before so we’ll see what happens."
Never a dull quote from the man dubbed 'Krej.'
Rich Peverley: Boston's secret weapon?
It's never wise to invest too much of your heart or beliefs into the preseason, you can't help but be satisfied with the play of Boston winger
Rich Peverley. Skating on the Bruins' second line with Bergeron and Marchand, a spot that was reserved for the now retired
Mark Recchi, the 29-year-old Peverley made a resounding first impression by way of a four-point effort.
"I think Rich Peverley brought some speed to that line and I think they’ll enjoy that," a satisfied Julien said. "And that’s not to disrespect what Recchi brought because he brought some other things and gave that line some grit. [Peverley] just gives the element of maybe a little bit more speed and obviously he felt comfortable with those guys."
Scoring Boston's final goal and adding three helpers, Peverley's speed and underrated chemistry with alternate captain
Patrice Bergeron has left the Guelph, Ont. native with some serious potential for a crack on Boston's top-six.
"He's got that speed and that intelligence on the ice so I guess that makes things easier," Bergeron said of Peverley. "We were just executing and just reacting and playing with instincts and when you do that, you know it makes the job easy for everyone on the ice."
While it's only fair to assume that other B's skaters such as
Benoit Pouliot and
Tyler Seguin will get their chance on the Bergeron line, it's a spot that seems ripe for Peverley's taking.
Bruins continue to trim roster, send 14 down
Following the game, the B's announced that the training camp roster continued to shrink with the demotion of 14 skaters from the NHL roster.
Heading to Providence?
Andrew Bodnarchuk,
Ryan Button,
Marc Cantin,
Carter Camper,
Craig Cunningham,
Josh Hennessy,
Kirk MacDonald,
Nathan McIver,
Kevan Miller and
Jamie Tardif.
Meanwhile, prospects
Dougie Hamilton,
Jared Knight,
Alexander Khokhlachev, and
Ryan Spooner will return to their respective Ontario Hockey League clubs.
The move also kills any chance of Knight or Spooner making the NHL club for a nine-game trial run, a la
Milan Lucic circa 2007.
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