The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

The Bruins hadn’t beaten Washington yet this season in their prior two meetings and, in fact, had scored only two goals while allowing an appalling five(!). So the much-anticipated tilt between the two titans of the Eastern Conference, which was to be played in Boston for the first time this season, seemed kinda important.

Not just for the, y’know, points and whatever, but also to prove that Boston could, in fact, have a good offensive game against Washington. In the two earlier games, the Bruins scored once despite 34 shots on goal and then saw Tim Thomas outdueled (by Jose Theodore of all people) and the offense outgunned.

Boston, surprisingly, started nervily. Washington drew a power play just seven seconds into the game and Mike Green bombed one just one second after it expired to give the Caps a 1-0 lead. Shawn Thornton’s nasty backhander at 9:26 that tied the game seemed to catch everyone in the building by surprise, including the aforementioned Theodore, but Michael Nylander put the Caps up again just before the end of the period. Marc Savard eventually leveled with a power play goal midway through the second on a gorgeous feed from the returning Patrice Bergeron, who did not look out of place on David Krejci’s wing.

And Krejci? He bounced the overtime game-winner in off a defenseman’s leg.

So I guess that settles the whole “Boston can’t beat Washington” thing. Sure, they still can’t stop Green or Alex Semin, who assisted on the former’s goal, but at least they have that pesky Alex Ovechkin situation squared away. Apparently the key is to hook him in such a way that he falls awkwardly into the boards and has to go to the dressing room to get his shoulder looked at, as Zdeno Chara did tonight. After that, Ovie looked flustered and had little impact on the game. He was relatively silent (for Ovie) save for a secondary assist on the Green goal and had only one shot all night at even strength, that in overtime.

The Bruins have now failed to beat only two of their opponents this year: the Wild, to whom they’ve somehow lost twice, and the Rangers (somehow), to whom they lost in a shootout in their only meeting.

The ultimate test, of course, comes two weeks from tonight, when they host the only other truly great team in the league: San Jose. They’ll beat San Jose. I don’t doubt that.

Elsewhere…

New York Rangers 3, Carolina 2

Friggin’ Hurricanes. How do you lose to the Rangers when they DON’T play Lundqvist? Christ, you’re killing me. Lauri Korpikoski had a goal? Really? LAURI KORPIKOSKI? Show some self-respect, Cam Ward. Unconscionable.

Columbus 3, Detroit 2 (OT)

And that’s why Detroit isn’t a truly great team. Chris Osgood. You can’t be a Cup contender this year with Chris Osgood as your goalie. Ya just can’t. Oh yeah, and Rick Nash? Hattie. No big deal. How bad would the Jackets be without him? I think that’s his second overtime game-winner to cap a hat trick this year. He may have done it against Dallas in October. Either way, I don’t care enough to be looking into it.

New Jersey 4, Ottawa 1

Yeah I cannot believe it. Not the Devils’ win. I could believe that the Senators lost to a Junior Mite B team from Kelowna. I meant how good New Jersey is without Brodeur. It’s crazy.

Tampa Bay 5, Montreal 3

Now I bet they really want Lecavalier. Goal and an assist for Vinny tonight. Eight shots too. And hows about Marty St Louis as the secret trade bait every team should want but no one is bringing up? He’s awesome. I’d trade for him tomorrow.

Florida 3, Philadelphia 2

I had no interest in this game until I picked Florida to win on that ESPN Streak for the Ca$h. I think the Panthers had like 3 percent of the vote when I picked them. Me and the rest of that 3 percent: feelin’ good about ourselves and lovin’ David Booth.

Minnesota 6, Toronto 1

You know things are bad when the Wild are hangin’ a touchdown on you. Memo to TML: Do not start Justin Pogge under any circumstances. Ever. Six goals on 21 shots. Jesus Christ.

Dallas 2, Atlanta 0

I was gonna say something about how Dallas really seems to be putting it together lately. But then again they only beat Atlanta, so who cares?

San Jose 3, Colorado 0

Evgeni Nabokov plays a lot and we all know that, but at what point do you think his heart just explodes in his chest and he collapses and someone in the Sharks front office just goes, “God damn we should’ve rested him against an awful team like Colorado.” Jesus, I think the Worcester Sharks’ backup goalie could handle whatever was presented by the likes of Cody McLeod and Brett Clark.

Buffalo 10, Edmonton 2

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Remind me to send Drew Stafford a fruit basket. By the way, Buffalo’s Dan Paille pulls out the stat of the night (maybe the year) by somehow going minus-1.

Anaheim 7, Phoenix 3

Two of my least favorite hockey players, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, had two points each. Nuts to this game.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 1:44 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.