Bruins-Penguins Recap

To sum up the Bruins marquee game yesterday against the Pittsburgh Penguins in one word; brutal. Tim Thomas started in net, playing in his 9^th straight game, and for those who scolded Claude Julien for not resting the fatigue stricken 37 year old, he definatley got some rest after being pulled after the first period. The Penguins drew blood first when Aaron Asham scooped up a rebound from a deflected shot and easilt put it past Thomas. The Penguins kept the afternoon rush on when five minutes later Matt Niskanen fired a long shot from near the blue line and it slipped by the ailing Thomas again. This would be the second time in two games the Bruins have fell into a 2-0 deficit in the first period. Like the Washington game, the Bruins started to play Bruins hockey, as their physicality and speed started to fight back against Pittsburgh. Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara expressed their frustration on two Pittsburgh skaters, and just like that Pittsburgh had a 5-on-3 with a 2 goal lead. The 5-on-3 advantage allowed Pittsburgh to show off their wonderful chemistry, setting up a beautiful passing triangle that led to an easy third goal. Finally, minutes later, the horific first period came to an end. The second period started off fast as David Krecji, who’s been thriving with the addition of his new linemate Tyler Seguin, put on the jets and put the puck in the top right corner of the net to cut the Penguins lead back to two. The Bruins look like they have life, but then the Penguins, winners of 9 straight games, tally up their fourth goal resulting from another series of beautiful passes that left Kris Kunitz wide open and Marty Turco had no chance. Turco, the 36 year old free agent picked up last week to replace the injured Tuuka Rask, made a dazzling save on Evgeni Malkin where he tumbled and twirled and pulled off an amazing pad stacking save which saved the Bruins from a 4 goal deficit. Then, only a minute later, Milan Lucic does his best Cam Neely impression and sets up David Krejci for his second goal of the game. We might have a chance, right? Wrong, after a scoreless drought that went into the third period, the Penguins poured icing on the cake as Pascal Dupuis flies by a tired Milan Lucic for a backhanded goal with four minutes left in the game putting the Penguins up 5-2, and it would stay that way. 

Not only did the Bruins get spanked by a team named after an arctic animal, but the already injury plagued team lost even more players to injury. Max Suave, Adam McQuaid, and more importantly Patrice Bergeron left the game due to injury, leaving each Bruin on the bench plenty of arm room. I’ll put up an update on each player’s injury before Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay.