With a noon start on the day after Thanksgiving, one had to expect this one to be a little slow in the early going. That's exactly what happened, but both teams began to pick up their play as the game went on, and the Bruins, overall, played a pretty good game, powered by some offense from "the Glens". In some ways, it almost seemed like they stole a win in this game, as the Islanders hit the post with the net wide open at least twice, and Glen Metropolit's goal, which proved to be the game winner, was a shot that Rick DiPietro will stop most of the time. But hey, a win is a win, and it just so happened to be the B's first over the Islanders in regulation since before the Lockout.
Overall, Tim Thomas played well again. The goal that Mike Sillinger scored on him was perfect, there isn't a goalie in the league who would have stopped it. Other than that, he was consistent, making big saves when necessary. He did, however, give up a few pretty bad rebounds that led to wide open nets for Islander forwards. Thankfully for the Bruins, the Isles failed to capitalize on these mistakes, and Thomas emerged with another victory.
Milan Lucic got rocked early on by Bryan Berard on a hit that was clean but somewhat questionable. There was nothing dirty about the intent, just that the follow through was a little high. Lucic played another shift after the hit, and actually created a pretty good scoring chance, but never returned and isn't playing tomorrow. To take his place, the B's called up Vladimir Sobotka from Providence, who will make his NHL debut tonight.
It's also a good sign to see Glen Murray continue to find the net, as he now has 6 points in his last 4 games. The B's have won 3 of those 4, and need Murray to stay hot, especially in the absence of Patrice Bergeron.
With these two teams meeting again in about an hour, it'll be interesting to see if there is any carryover from yesterday afternoon. The game got chippy at times, but players seemed to hold back due to the tightness of the game. I don't know of any outstanding animosity between the teams, but playing 2 games in two nights can probably create some pretty quick. Hopefully, the B's can get a win tonight, and go into Philly on a roll on Monday.
GOALS
Boston- Glen Murray (4), Glen Metropolit (4)
New York- Mike Sillinger (3)
SAVES
Boston- Tim Thomas, 25 saves on 26 shots
New York- Rick DiPietro, 23 saves on 25 shots
NEXT GAME: Saturday, November 24 @ NY Islanders, 7:00 PM EST
I'm a 20 year old kid from Dorchester, MA, who one day hopes to be a sportswriter for a big time newspaper, and figure this is a good place to start. I'm in college at Suffolk in downtown Boston now, and it's awesome. I love all sports, with the Bruins and Red Sox being my favorite teams, thought I'm also a big Patriots and Celtics fan. I think it's ridiculous how no one in this town cares about the Bruins anymore. I like college sports too, no particular teams, especially any big bowl games and March Madness. I hate fairweather fans, especially everyone who jumped on the Sox bandwagon in 2004. The "pink hats" and "OMG Varitek's so hot!!" drive me crazy, just like anyone else who's a real baseball fan. Pick a team, know the players, stay loyal and be a real fan- in good times and in bad.
