Tonight, I predicted a 5-3 Bruins victory, but I was wrong. It was a 4-2 Bruins victory.Jassen Cullimore's knee injury doesn't seem to be all that serious, and he was wearing a brace at the time, which no doubt helped him out. So that's good news. Cory Stillman didn't play either, but Kreps was back in.
Rostislav Olesz was the Cats' healthy scratch tonight. Said DeBoer, "We're 17 games in, and I haven't seen enough yet. This is the next step to getting him to where we need him to be. I'm a big believer in giving an opportunity and then putting you on notice. This is the next step. This is the only tool a coach really has. He has to be better for us. He's a nice kid and a smart player. But we need more than that. We don't have the luxury to wait for guys like that for 15, 20 games. We just don't." DeBoer also said that, at least for now, the Nathan Horton experiment at center is over.
Anyway, Boston's a great team, and they're a physical team. Boston's a fun team. And tonight, it was "Ode to Slap Shot" night -- the movie -- so it was fitting that there was a fight. Midway through the second, Milan Lucic hit Michael Frolik and Nick Boynton immediately came to Frolik's defense. Lucic's a big guy, though, and it was a pretty decisive victory for the young Bruin while Boynton's face got cut up a bit.
Tonight's Panthers looked like a team that knew they were outmatched, and they responded as such. After an early Bruins goal on a Phil Kessel breakaway, David Booth shot in and fired a wrister so fast off the post that they had to review the shot to confirm that the post that it hit was in the back of the net. That was the end of the Panthers' competitiveness, though.
Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins not long after, redirecting a shot by Matt Hunwick past Tomas Vokoun, and then it pretty much went down hill from there.
In the second, the puck came up the boards to Keith Ballard, and Ballard fell forward while winding up to shoot the puck. The fall led to a 3-on-1 for Boston, Noah Welch being the Panthers' defenseman. Welch played the pass, and when it came across, he blocked the shot. Unfortunately, the puck bounced off Welch right to David Krejci who scored an easy goal. Soon after, a Bruins power play yielded a goal from Marc Savard, and the Panthers were done like dinner.
They fought back and Ville Peltonen picked up a goal off a rebound. It was his first of the season, by the way.
Peltonen actually had 16:51 tonight in ice time. 16:12 for Frolik. On the flipside, Wade Belak had 2:53, while Anthony Stewart had 7:10. Bryan McCabe had 28 minutes, which led the team, and Nathan Horton led the forwards with 18:31.
During the intermissions, I was listening to the Amerks game as they were hosting the Manchester Monarchs. Down 2-0, I tuned in just in time to hear David Brine score his first of the year. And then only a couple minutes later, Dan Collins scored -- with Brine picking up an assist. Eventually, the Brine goal was changed and credited to Collins, so it's a two-goal night for Dan.
Chris Beckford-Tseu had been pulled in the first after giving up two goals on eighteen shots, and Shantz held his own, allowing only one on nineteen shots as the Monarchs scored in the third, then iced it with an empty-netter at the end.
So if you came looking for good news, I'm sorry to disappoint you. In the end, it's just another tough night for the Panthers and their affiliate in Rochester. Both teams dropping their games, 4-2.
No comments:
Post a Comment