bruins 6 - st. louis 3

The Bruins rolled into St. Louis last night and rolled right over the Blues.

The match was hard-fought, and saw the Blues tying it at 2-2, and 3-3 before the Bruins finally broke it open in the third period. The difference could be the result of the Bruins' years of incompetance / draft picks finally coming to fruition. Which is to say, given another couple of years, the Blues may be as competitive as the Bruins this season -- all the key elements are there.

Blake Wheeler had an impressive night, scoring twice in the first 5 minutes (one, a highlight-of-the-season thus far, where he stickhandled through four Blues players to score shorthanded), and David Krejci continued his impressive play with three assists on the night.

Michael Ryder scored the go-ahead goal on a beautiful cross-ice pass from Axelsson, and Dennis Wideman and Marc Savard rounded out the scoring for the Black, White and Gold.

With the win, Manny Fernandez improves to 11-1-1, giving Coach Julien good reason to keep returning The MF to the nets instead of Tim Thomas. We Bruins faithful hope that when Thomas does get another start he continues his dominant play from earlier this season. The ideal situation would be two strong goaltenders pushing each other toward excellence (think 1989-90 Bruins, with the Reggie Lemelin and Andy Moog combo), rather than consuming each other like distinct cancers (think 2007-8 Senators with Ray Emery and Martin Gerber).

Of Note: Phil Kessel's point streak is now at 18 games; Patrice Bergeron's outlook after receiving another concussion this weekend looks better than expected, and the Bruins' training staff is optimistic; the Bruins are off to their best start since the 1929-30 seaon.