GOLDEN POINTS: Boston Bruins vs New Jersey Devils

Bruins 2 - Devils 1

Boston goals: Horton (3)
Devils goals: Clarkson (4)

If you are tuning into a hockey game for the first time, I strongly suggest avoiding any Bruins/Devils matchups.  While I find the defensive games entertaining, I'm probably in the minority here.  While it lacked in goals, there was some great physical play (56 total hits!), a fight, great saves (54 total shots), and an UFS...Unidentified Flying Snack.  After one of the longer shootouts I've seen, the Gnat comes in on his first shootout attempt and burries it.

• So I jinxed it.  Blame it all on me.  The Bruins let up their first power play goal of the season.  DAMNIT.  I knocked on wood so I really thought that allowed me to discuss their perfection on the penalty kill.  They only let up one goal in 5 tries though, still not too shabby!
• It is very encouraging to see Horton start the season the way he has.  After not having him playing at 100% for the past year, you forget what that first line can look like when all three are at their best.  His goal here was a perfect example of the chemistry between Lucic, Krejci and himself.  He seems to be in position to have a big year!  We're all pulling for you, Smiley!
• Rask continues to have a strong year in net.  He's got dollah dollah dollah bills on his mind.  If he keeps this up, the B's are going to have to pay him some good money.  He's worth it though.  He also stoned the Devils in the shootout, waiting long enough until Marchand was able to put one home.
• Let's fast forward to the shoot out.  I really hope it wasn't a B's fan that threw <insert snack> onto the ice during the shootout.  That crap pisses me off.  Luckily Seguin scored again on the redo.  I hope they found the douchebag and gave him a lifetime ban from the Garden.  There are only 2 situations things get thrown on the: 1) Hat trick and 2) playoff victory and the towel goes onto the ice.... and if you are in Detroit 3) an octopus.

Next Up: Buffalo Sabres  #ThursdayNightFights

I'm excited for the first division game of the year.  The B's embarrassed the Sabres many times last year, especially when their lack of response to the Lucic-Miller incident.  And then the embarrassing fight the next time they played.

Golden Points: Boston vs New Jersey

Bruins 4 - Devils 3 OT


Imagine how good the Bruins would be if they played a full 60 minutes the way they played the first 20 of this game!  If it wasn't for one of the greatest goaltenders to ever hold a waffle and a paddle, the Bruins would've been up 4 or 5 to zip at the end of one.  The first, third and overtime period of the game was well played by the B's.  Unfortunately, in the second period, they did not come out to play and the Devils took advantage of that.  We need a full 60 minutes!

Julien may have struck gold with the new line of Lucic - Krejci - Seguin.  Hot and cold Krejci blew up tonight with a hat trick (the third being the game winner in OT) and Seguin snapped a 10 game scoring drought with one of his own in the 1st.  The crazy thing is that both Krejci and Seguin should both have another goal each, but Brodeur made two RIDICULOUS saves on both of them.  If you haven't seen them, go to NHL.com and watch them.  Unbelievable.  I hate the Devils, but you gotta respect Brodeur.

After the B's go up 2 - 0 in the first, the Devils score 3 unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead.  The first goal was Joe Corvo's fault, big surprise there.  He blindly threw the puck to the middle of the ice where it was intercepted by Kovalchuk.  Seidenberg finds himself in a 2 v 1 situation with Parise and Kovalchuk.  I don't care who's on defense, I don't like those odds.  Parise buries it (another American I would LOVE the Bruins to target in the offseason).  The second goal was a bit unlucky.  Seidenberg stepped in front of the shot and turned his skate to block the puck...only to have him accidentally kick the puck to a wide open Patrick Elias who had a wide open net to shoot at.  The third goal by Clarkson was on Thomas.  Somehow Clarkson snuck a wrap around through Thomas.  That's one Timmy would like back.

I was initially worried when I first saw Zanon hit the ice.  Not because of his skills, but simply because he was wearing number 6.  I had these horrible flashbacks of Wideman fumbling to keep the puck in the zone, whiffing on shots and passes.  Let go of the past man!!  I was really impressed with Zanon's game.  He blocked a bunch of shots, but more importantly adds some more toughness to the defense with a team high 3 hits.  I was much more comfortable with his game than Corov's.  I'm sorry, Joe, but I think you're going to be the odd man out when Boychuk returns.  Actually, I'm not sorry...you've stunk this season.

The power play still needs work.  They went 0-fer again, 0 for 3.  Two of those opportunities came in the third period with the game tied 3-3.  Even though we got the win in OT, it'd be nice to see the power play have a killer instinct.  With the game on the line, the boys can step up and put one in the net.  I just don't have that confidence.  My  health can't afford for this team to be as wretched on the power play as they were during last season's playoffs.

It was a good win altogether.  Man, that'll be one hell of a first round if we draw them!

Next up:  Rolston gets to face his old team as the B's take on the Islanders at the Gahden.  Andrew Ference was injured during the game and didn't return to the ice and he also did not skate at practice, so Mike Mottau could also see the ice in a game against his former team.

Golden Points: Game 36 vs New Jersey

Happy New Year's, Puckheads!!  With the new year comes a renewed urge to blog more and continue blowing sunshine up this teams...butt.

Remember the beginning of November, coming off a horrible October the Bruins blew Toronto, NYI, and Buffalo out of the water?  They scored a "ridiculous" 30 goals in 5 games.  Remember?  I kept telling myself "ride it out, baby!! We'll never EVER be able keep this up!".  God I was wrong, dead wrong.  Another 6 goals...

Anyways I digress which I know is a rarity with me.

Bruins 6 - Devils 1

Last nights game was a whoopin'.  But we've seen many of those lately.  Historically, B's vs Devils was a Claude Julien special with a little extra Claude Julien on the side.  Two teams with great goaltending and a defense first mindset always resulted in a very good, very physical, low scoring, playoff type game.  Only problem last night is that only one team decided to buy into any of that.  Brodeur looked like an AHL call up and the Devils skaters looked like a JV squad.  If you rewatch the highlights of the Bruins goals, NJ defenders get caught puck watching leaving some B's players WIDE OPEN for a shot.  They wanted NO part of the B's.

The Devils did get the first goal of the game on the power play.  And for that I think we should bench Timmy for 5 games.  Unacceptable.  How do you think the team is going to improve on their already league leading goals against average with you letting in a single goal?  Wait, nevermind... it did.  Alright fine you can play.  But I'd still sit you tonight in favor of Tuukka.  You need to have enough energy to pump Luongo's tires when he comes to town this weekend.

The Bruins D did a great job the entire night.  This was one of those games where it looked like Thomas could see everything come at him and no one was getting anywhere near him.  Most shots were from the outside and you didn't catch Thomas flailing around at all.  Good job, D. 

I was really happy to see Krejci AND Horton get on the scoresheet.  If I had to nitpick, the 1st line needs to play better.  They are playing good, but not great.  The #1 line on one of the best teams in the NHL needs to be scary.  I'd fear the 2nd line over this one at the moment, but if and when this line gets going, this team will be even scarier.

And I need to mention Bergie.  He scored two goals with one of them being an absolute beauty on a break away.  I'm pretty sure Brodeur is STILL looking for his jockstrap.  I could go on about how good Bergie is, but I really wanted to mention NHL 36.  It's a show that follows a player around for 36 hours before a game, and the one that aired last night followed Bergeron.  I thought it was really well done and makes you like that guy even that much more.  I highly recommend watching it, I believe it's replaying this weekend.  Set your DVR people!!!


Tonight we have the Flames.  I'm actually nervous about this game.  It's a Western Conference team that's in the bottom half of the conference.  Claude needs to try and keep his team from looking ahead to the HUGE game this Saturday (STANLEY CUP REMATCH!!!).  But seriously, Saturday is going to be awesome.

8 Golden Points: Game 16 vs Devils

Bruins 4 - Devils 3

8 Golden Points:

1.  The Bruins winning ways continue as the once 3-7 B's have now won 6 in a row and have improved to 9-7!!  They are still "last" in the division as of this morning, but they have at least 2 games in hand and are only 4 points behind the division leaders (Toronto and Buffalo).

2. Unlike the past 5 games, the Bruins had to win a close and tough one.  This game was very physical from early on with a combined 55 hits.  We saw Chara get flattened, a rare sighting and we also saw Krejci pancake a Devils player... also a rare sighting.  The Devils seemed to have controlled most of the play in the beginning, but Boston seemed to have the best actual scoring opportunities.  Usually a Bruins-Devils game can be relatively boring as both teams play a defensiveminded game, but there were spurts the other night where the play opened up a bit and you had both goalies needing to make some really nice saves.

3. This was a really solid game for the fourth line.  Campbell had one of his best games of the young season, causing the turnover for Kelly's goal and adding his second assist of the night for Thornton's goal.  I was very disappointed in Jack and Brick again.  Caron's touch pass between the legs to set up Thornton's goal was absolutely beautiful and the barely touched on it.  It's nice to see Thornton get rewarded offensively.  He does so much for this team that I think everyone can agree you get a little extra excited when you see Thornton pot one.

4. Pepe Le Pouliot threw a mean change-up at Hedberg and completely fooled him.  As usual I was getting frustrated with how Pouliot was playing.  He seems to spend more time picking himself up off the ice than actually doing something productive.  But I will give credit where credit is due.  He was in the right place and the right time and although I've faced slow pitch softball pitches that have moved faster, he managed to score the game winning goal. 

5. As he has been all year, Bergeron played like a beast.  Unfortunately Marchand didn't score, but Bergie made one of the prettiest passes I've seen.  After gaining the offensive zone, Bergie circled back towards the blue line waiting for others to join the attack.  Along the wall, he did a quick spin move and played a perfect backhand pass to the Gnat.  Unfortunately, Hedberg made a really nice save or that would've been a top play.

6. Brad Marchand took a very stupid roughing penalty in the 2nd penalty that resulted in Julien putting him in a time out.  He was forced to miss his next few shifts while he thought about his actions.  Minus 1.  Right off the opening draw in the 3rd period, the B's executed the same play we saw Lucic make a few games ago: the left wing floats to the outside like they are going to go along the boards, then with a burst of speed cut through the middle inbetween the two defensemen.  This time it was Marchy and he buried his half breakaway, making up for his mistake.  Plus 1.  YEAHH!!

7. It was a bit of a frustrating night for Nathan Horton.  His first couple chances in the slot he took WAAAYY too long to let his shot go.  Later in the game he got ROBBED by Hedberg.  Even though he lifted the puck Hedberg still made a great save.  You'd like to see Horton hit the water bottle on that one.  After not lifting the puck enough, Horton had a great chance to take the lead again shortly after, lifting the puck too high and crushing the cross bar.  Just one of those nights for Horty...

8.  Even though a total of 7 goals were scored this game, I thought both goaltenders made some really nice saves.  Hedberg made 37 overall (Marchand and Horton both getting robbed) and Timmy made 30.  Thomas the Bruins may have caught a break as Kovalchuk did not play in this game.  But the Devils can't complain, we didn't have Paille.  They are practically the same player...

Next up: Tonight vs Columbus Blue Jackets (3-13-1)