Tonight might be the first game of the Bruins season, but the weather outside sure doesn’t feel like it is hockey season. The past couple of days in Boston have been 80 degrees or more. It certainly doesn’t feel like October, but the calendar says it is and the Bruins schedule says the same thing. I am getting settled in with some nice Chinese food to munch on and some adult beverages.
Pre-Game Show: Kathryn Tappen is the new in-studio host, taking over duties from Eric Frede. Tappen is joined by Mike Milbury and Barry Pederson. Milbury is holding a very big highlighter. Unless my HD television is making the highlighter seem bigger than it really is. Isn’t it weird how hockey players seem to age/change/look different over the off-season? First blunder of the season goes to Pederson for saying, “Pierre Bergeron.” Milbury said if Marc Savard is a -19 again, coach Claude Julien will be balder than he already his. Andrew Ference is being interviewed by Rob Simpson. Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley have now joined us from Dallas to talk about the goaltenders. They are wearing gold ties. If it wasn’t unseasonably warm around here, I may be wearing a Bruins jersey instead of a tank top.
Simpson also interviewed captain Zdeno Chara prior to the game. Bergeron and Murray have the A’s.
Time for the 2007-2008 Bruins season to open!
Starters: Fernandez, Bergeron, Sturm, Kobasew, Ward, Chara.
First: The Bruins started the game off on the right skate, putting some pressure in the Stars’ offensive zone. Then Sturm got shaken up on a play along the boards 30 seconds into the game. Kessel has the first on goal for the Bruins after making a couple of shifts around the defender. Stuart and Winchester get into a little shoving match in front of the Dallas bench. Fernandez sees his first shot of the game and makes a nice arm save on it. Bruins went back the other way with a shot, capitalizing on the turnover. Schaefer was trying for a scoring chance, maintaining some nice puck possession behind the Dallas net, and was hit by a Stars player and into the referee. I think referee Rob Shick took the brunt of that check. There is some kind of delay in the game, but the announcers have yet to key the fans in as to what it was about. Oh Brickley fills us in and says the referee was making sure he could stay in the game. Back to game action again. Nice hit by Ference on Lehtinen in the corner. Bergeron got a shot on Turco, and going the other way, Chara had a huge hit on Miettinen. Fernandez had another save. Lucic is playing his first shift now according to Edwards. Lucic had his first NHL hit too, if the statisticians count it. Bruins skate in just a hair offside, and we are at our first TV timeout of the season.
TV Timeout Thoughts: Bruins are so far controlling the game, and are being noticeably more physical than they were last season. The game has a good flow and it looks like all of the Bruins are settled into Julien’s new coaching system.
Simpson offers congratulations to Lucic, who has his parents in attendance, on his first NHL game. And another TV timeout gives me a chance to check on the Red Sox, who are in between innings. Savard almost set Murray up for a good scoring chance, but Murray was being pushed off-balance past the goal. Fernandez makes an arm save on a shot from Modano. Dallas fans brought my attention back to the screen as the Starts seemed to be generating a little noise in the Bruins’ end. And that noise leads to a goal scored by the Stars’ Lundqvist at 15:19. (-1 Chara, Ward, Krejci, Kessel, Axelsson.) Ference gets a tripping penalty and Hagman gets a high-sticking penalty at 15:39. Teams are skating 4-on-4. There’s a penalty being called on the Bruins, this time on Sturm for slashing at 16:47. Dallas will have the power play for the remaining couple of minutes of the period. Penalty troubles keep coming for the Bruins, and this time Savard gets the delay of game penalty at 18:12. This gives the Stars a two-man advantage. The penalty killers out there are Ference, Alberts and Bergeron. Morrow got another scoring chance on the power play on a tip-shot, that was cleared by Bergeron to set up Sturm who was coming out of the penalty box for a shot high over Turco’s net. The Stars are on a 5-on-4 advantage now. Kobasew’s stick broke when he blocked a shot. Modano had a shot late in the period, that was deflected off Fernandez and into the netting. Dallas outshot the Bruins 8-6 in the period.
Ward was interviewed during intermission. His right eye looks a little bit better than it did during the pre-season game last weekend. Peter Chiarelli is up in the broadcast booth with Edwards. Chiarelli says Chara might be more comfortable playing the left side, where he’s playing tonight. Regarding Lucic, he needs minutes to continue to develop, and missed a couple of checks in the first period. Brett Hull is now being interviewed by Simpson now. Milbury is a funny guy. And it sounds like Brickley is having Dunkin Donuts coffee withdrawals. I have been there with iced coffee withdrawals, and buying an iced coffee was the first thing I did when I landed back in Boston last Saturday, even before I had my suitcase.
Second: Bergeron had a chance down low. Bruins seem to be running around a little bit. Alberts blocked a shot by Boucher and is limping a tad. And then Alberts missed his coverage on Hagman, who was able to skate in front of Fernandez and deke him out, slipping the puck on his glove side at 2:41. (-1 Alberts, Ference, Axelsson, Krejci, Kessel.) Thornton is trying to give the Bruins a spark by dropping the gloves with Fedoruk on the next face-off. Thornton lands a couple of shots, and taking a few. Hopefully that lights a fire under the Bruins collective shorts. You can see where Fedoruk landed the punch as Thornton has a bruise already showing on the side of his left eye. Winchester and Lucic are now fighting on the next face-off. This is Lucic’s first NHL fight. Lucic’s knuckles are bleeding, but he faired very well for his first fight. Thornton’s fight was at 2:44 and Lucic’s fight was at 2:45. Now that I am caught up on penalty times, Halpern is getting a penalty for tripping at 4:01. Thornton went to the dressing room, no doubt to get some cuts and bruises looked at. We get to see how the Bruins look on the power play for the first time tonight. Stars have no trouble clearing the puck out of their zone while killing the penalty. Bruins get set up a little bit and Ward got a shot on Turco. Dallas clears the zone again, and Bruins come back with with Schaefer getting a shot on and Turco making a glove save. Turco made one more save before the penalty was killed off. Kessel gets dumped along the boards by Niskanen. (It’s handy having the game notes rosters printed out for easy referencing on spelling opposing team’s players’ names.) Sturm gets taken out at the Bruins blue line and Morrow scores to make it 3-0 Dallas at 8:49. (-1 Bergeron, Sturm, Kobasew, Alberts, Ference.) The best scoring chance of the period game from Savard setting up Murray for a shot from the slot that went over the net. I’m starting to wonder if the Bruins practiced with bigger nets or something during training camp because there have been many shots that went either wide or high during this game. Kobasew was all alone in front of Turco for a scoring chance, but missed the puck. Dallas gets a too many men on the ice penalty at 16:20. Chara shot the puck from the point, that had some life down low, but was tipped wide. Murray had a chance. Savard’s shot goes wide. Bruins have good position in the Stars’ zone and are maintaining possession. Bergeron was set up for a one-timer that was either stopped by Turco or went wide. Then Bergeron gets the puck back at the side of the net off a pass from Schaefer and puts the puck past Turco at 17:59! The assists went to Schaefer (his first point as a Bruin) and Savard. The Bruins are on the board and are still losing 3-1! But at least they’re on the board! Krejci just had a nice scoring attempt in front. Ward has a shot blocked in the few remaining seconds of the period.
Third: I got me an adult beverage for this period. Savard let a rocket of a shot go… wide. Fernandez made a save. Krejci tried to set up Kessel, but it only sent Kessel running into Turco. Thornton will be getting a tripping penalty at 2:59. Just when I was about to say the Bruins have killed off all their penalties tonight, Zubov scores on an one-timer from the point at 3:39. 4-1 Stars lead now. Allen just had his helmet knocked off on a check. Fernandez makes a save, and some Bruins and Stars join the crease festivities with a little pushing and shoving. Schaefer hit the post. Nice work along the boards by Savard and Allen to keep the puck in the Stars zone a little longer than it would have been. Fernandez looks less than sharp this period. I finally noticed Metropolit for first time in the game. I guess that’s what you get when you center Lucic and Thornton, who both had five minute majors for fighting in the second period. Axelsson got a shot and Turco made the glove save. Bruins will be going on the power play after the commercial break. Fedoruk got a hooking penalty at 15:11. Stars cleared the puck out of the zone. Ward, Ference, Kessel, Sturm and Krejci are the second power play unit on the ice. And the penalty is killed off. Kessel draws a hooking penalty on Robidas at 17:29. There is 1:30 left in the game. And now the Bruins’ opener is now over. The Bruins had 25 shots and the Stars had 17. Fernandez had 14 saves on the 18 shots.
Good thing there isn’t much time to dwell on this 4-1 loss as the Bruins will travel to Phoenix immediately after this game to take on the Coyotes tomorrow night.
WBF View: I liked what changes I got to see in the team. They do need a little more work, but this is only one game of an 82 game season. The Bruins started the game off with confidence and then somewhere throughout the game the confidence seemed to dwindle, even in Fernandez. Then again, Fernandez did suffer a knee injury last season and had surgery, so he gets a little margin right now. I’m sure we’ll see Thomas in between the pipes for tomorrow’s game, as well as some faces in the line-up that were scratched tonight.
