WickedBruinsFan's Blog

The Bruins host the Florida Panthers in an extremely rare Friday night home game. This is the first meeting between these two teams this season. The Panthers played last night in New Jersey and lost 3-1. Their overall record is 7-10-1 and are 3-2-0 in their last five games.

The Bruins have a hard time beating the Panthers. The Bruins' record against the Panthers is 22-24-6-3. The Bruins are 9-13-4-2 lifetime in Boston against the Panthers. The Bruins' last home victory against the Panthers was on November 3, 2005. Let's home they break that streak with a win tonight. The game is on NESN.

Goalies: Projected starting goalies in bold.
FLORIDA: Tomas Vokoun (4-9-0, 2.93 GAA, .913 SV%), Craig Anderson (3-1-1, 2.08 GAA, .940 SV%)
BOSTON: Tim Thomas (7-2-3, 1.78 GAA, .944 SV%), Manny Fernandez (5-1-1, 2.55 GAA, .910 SV%)

Who's Hot: Marc Savard continues his point streak. Savard's point streak has reached only 4 games, but the most impressive thing is he has 9 points in those 4 games.

Who's Not:With a team currently undefeated in November, it's hard to pick a Bruin who isn't performing. The easiest way to go is who hasn't scored a goal yet. P.J. Axelsson, Shane Hnidy and Aaron Ward are the regulars.

Injuries: Andrew Ference, fractured right leg, out indefinitely... Marco Sturm, upper body injury, no timetable.

Recalled: I should make mention of this for the Matt Lashoff fans out there (hi there!), Lashoff was recalled yesterday.

This One Time: This one time during the 2005-2006 hockey season, I went to a Florida Panthers practice in Boston. As the equipment guys were bringing the bags out after practice, they left the truck wide open while they went inside to retrieve more. I remember joking that I should steal Roberto Luongo's equipment so he wouldn't be able to play and beat the Bruins. But my plan was spoiled and I instead made sure the equipment stayed in the truck. One of the Bruins' equipment managers was helping, as often the host team does, and thanked me for my efforts. My compensation would be a hockey stick of my choice at a later time. Fast forward to a Bruins practice that same season. I saw the equipment manager again and requested a Nick Boynton stick if he could manage. He went inside and a few minutes later came out with the stick already autographed by Boynton. The irony in that story is amusing now.

That leads me to why I have been looking forward to this game since Boynton was traded from Phoenix to Florida at the draft this year. It is the first time in two years I'll see Boynton play in person. For some reason this is bigger than Joe Thornton's first visit back to Boston. Boynton was a special player to me, and by his career, I can see just how long I have come as a fan.

To see a NHL career progress focusing on one player is something special and limited. I was there for so many different milestones in his career... when he was drafted, when he played his first NHL game, and when he scored his first NHL goal. There are other smaller milestones that mean almost as much to me because nobody else has those memories.

So if anybody is wondering, that's why Boynton is special. I'll be rooting for the Bruins tonight and hope they continue their unbeaten record in November, but I'll also be focusing a little on Boynton too. Go Bruins!