The Bruins' new season began yesterday, and with it, the chance to erase the memories of last year's terrible collapse.In all honesty, you could say that about nearly every new season for the B's.
But this year, the promise and expectations are pretty high for the Bruins, and most insiders and fans expect them to be a solid contender in the East.
After yesterday's listless and lethargic 5-2 loss to a very quick and determined Coyotes team, the B's looked solid, alright, as solid and mobile as Prague Castle.
Today, however, the Bruins came out with more energy and edge and looked like the team they need to be to find success this year.
A start in net for a white-helmeted Tim Thomas gave the club a different feel than they had yesterday, but the biggest difference was that the Bruins were skating with the Coyotes' players, whereas yesterday they looked at pains to merely keep up.
Today's game was a complete turnaround. The Bruins came out faster than they had yesterday (or in any pre-season game I saw), and pretty much dictated the play through the game.
The result was a 3-0 shutout win for Thomas, featuring a great wrist-shot from (an energized) Milan Lucic, a beeeeautiful breakaway goal by young wunderkind Tyler Seguin (see photo above, just before the Aliens finished designing Seguin).
The B's now have roughly a week to get back to North America and de-Euro-fy themselves, which means no coalition governments or accepting topless women in public.
Of Note: I still don't understand why Danielle Paille is on the Bruins, and the blatant giveaway that led to a goal in yesterday's game just confirms my confusion; very strange to see a number 11 wheeling around on the penalty kill - it's Gregory Campbell wearing number 11, but I will always associate 11 with PJ Axelsson; I really like Tuukka Rask and think he's a great goalie, but I also think Thomas is the better, more reliable goalie (and he's far better handling the puck);
