The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Sorry to make this such a Boston-centric day, but I just found that Bruins/Penguins game to be terribly fascinating.

Phil Kessel’s name is one you’re hearing a lot this season (at least from what I’ve seen), but I think when Claude Julien benched him for being a lazy, mediocre scorer back in last year’s playoffs, it lit a fire under his ass. Since returning from that stay in the press box, Kess has played like a madman. Three goals in his last three games in the playoffs, and five in five so far this season. He’s blocked shots more than he has in years past too. We might actually be seeing Phil Kessel developing into an all-around player.

I think this year though, the reason he’s scoring so many goals, and some are far greasier than I’m used to seeing from Kess, is that he’s just shooting constantly. He’s averaging four shots a game so far this year, which, while not a huge number, is a step up from the 2.6 he was putting on goal per night last year.

So yeah, Kessel scored tonight for the Bruins in their home opener (no joke, the circus kept them out of TD Banknorth Garden until tonight) against the Pens, and it was just a rocket. Boston has to love the production it’s gotten from this kid. He just seems remarkably confident, which I’m not sure was always the case last year.

But despite the best efforts of Kessel and the rest of the Bruins, who really did a very good job controlling the game (and I was shocked to see the Penguins had put 32 shots on net), the Boston boys lost their homecoming 2-1 in a shootout.

The Pens’ goal, which had come earlier in the game, was actually the result of a fresh-out-of-the-box rebound try from a streaking Miro Satan on an initial shot from Geno Malkin during a 2-on-1. The second Bruins defenseman was just a little late getting back and the seeing-eye shot found its way past Tim Thomas, who was just fantastic tonight, as was Dany Sabourin (I know, right?).

For the Pens, it must be one of the first full games Malkin and Sid Crosby have played on a line together, not that you’d know it from watching them play. It was just a gorgeous thing to watch tonight. I understand the argument for breaking up your best players to spread the scoring around, but Crosby and Malkin have undeniable chemistry and Michel Therrien would be silly to do anything to mess with it right now. Goals are surprisingly hard to come by for the Pens (just 18 in seven games) and I’d be inclined to believe that Crosby and Malkin can help that number a bit.

For the record, by the way, Kessel scored the lone Bruins goal in the shootout as well.

Elsewhere…

Dallas 2, New York Rangers 1

A lot was made about Sean Avery’s return to Madison Square Garden, where he wasn’t exactly Pete Popular. Well he barely factored into the game. No shots, no PIM and an even +/- in 13:55. That was worth the feature on NHL.tv. Marcus Naslund of all people scored for the Rangers who, shock of shocks, are losing when the Voros line doesn’t produce. I wonder who could have seen that coming. Brenden Morrow’s goal for Dallas? You’re gonna want to look that one up.

Montreal 3, Florida 1

This game was a lot closer than it sounds, seems like it should have been, and deserved to be. Florida played with surprising pluck (judging from the bits and pieces I saw during the other two games I was watching) but the Habs are just so good. There’s really no stopping them from coming out of the East.

Colorado 4, Los Angeles 3

This was a hell of a hockey game, but not such a good night for Jason LaBarbera. If you’re a goalie and you have a worse night than Petr Budaj, you had a baaaaaaaaaaaaad night. Drew Doughty scored his first NHL goal for the Kings to cut the lead to one, but Budaj was solid down the stretch. And Budaj is finally improving. Now you only need four goals to win a game with him behind you.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 1:40 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.