Well...now that the NHL All Star break is finished (Team Lidstrom Beat Team Staal by an 11-10 final with Tim Thomas stopping 11 of 15 shots faced for Team Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara getting a pair of assists for Team Staal), the Bruins are back in action.After holding off the all-star host Carolina Hurricanes at RBC Center on Tuesday night by a 3-2 final, the Bruins headed back north for their first home game of the 2nd half of the season, hosting the Pacific Division leading Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
Interestingly, Dallas came into Thursday night's game in a similar position as the Bruins- leading their divisions and 3rd overall in their respective conferences.
However, it didn't even take five seconds into the game for things to get physical, with Stars enforcer Steve Ott whaling away on Gregory Campbell literally the second the puck dropped. The Bruins retaliated by sending Shawn Thornton after Dallas forward Krys Barch and Adam McQuaid after Brian Sutherby less than 5 seconds later.
As much as I love my XM, I gotta tell you it isn't the same listening to this transpire on the radio as it would be on NESN hi-def. Ah well, c'est la vie.
Anywhoo, this would be one of those classic instances of the Rodney Dangerfield line about going to the fights and a hockey game broke out. This one largely went to Bruins way, however, getting out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, half of those coming from Patrice Bergeron's stick.
Dallas would get on the board in the 2nd with a Karlas Skrastins tally, but that would be secondary to Danny Paille's shot to the head of Dallas' Raymond Sawada. The hit resulted in a match penalty and immediate ejection from the game for Paille and the NHL will no doubt be revisiting this one.
Despite the deep hole, the momentum seemed to be shifting the Stars' way at the opening of the 2nd when they got a shorthanded tally from Brenden Morrow to cut the lead in half 45 seconds in and Brad Richards would make it a 1-goal game with an even strength goal less than 3 minutes later. However, Tyler Seguin would give the B's some insurance with a goal 2 minutes later and Brad Marchand would put it away for good with an empty-netter with just under 2 and a half minutes left in regulation in the 3rd.
No Tim Thomas tonight- he got the night off after his 24 save performance in Carolina Tuesday and Tukka Rask stepped in making 30 saves on 33 shots faced on Thursday night. As for Dallas, Andrew Raycroft was pulled after facing only 2 shots (with zero saves, no less) and Kari Lehtonen ended up stopping 29 of 32 shots faced.
According to Yahoo! Sports, there were 141 penalty minutes dished out by the officials the last time the Dallas Stars were in the Garden (11/1/2008). Tonight, there were a mere 91 minutes.
The Bruins next game is at home against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday afternoon- 1PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific.
NBA- Don't get me wrong; I'm thrilled with the outcome of Sunday's 109-96 win against the Lakers at the Staples Center, but let's not start planning the parade routes just yet.
Still, all in all a pretty good West Coast swing for the C's. Despite falling into a 45-54 halftime deficit in Sacramento, the C's were able to come back in the second half and win by a final of 95-90 against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Ray Allen led scoring with 22 points, while Rajon Rondo had 17 points and 10 assists.
The Celtics next game in on Friday night at Dallas at 8PM Eastern time on ESPN.
NFL- If you missed the Pro Bowl, you didn't miss much; the NFC won by a 55-41 margin. Having said that, I'm glad the contest is back in Hawaii for some reason.
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