Pre-season: Islanders at Bruins

The Bruins played their second game of the pre-season at the TD Banknorth Garden yesterday, and result (a loss) was the same as the first.

The Bruins' line-up for yesterday's tilt was essentially what it should be this coming Thursday. Tim Thomas was in net, and all of the major players (Chara, Bergeron, Savard, Wideman, Kessel, Ward, Lucic, etc.) were dressed, and played the entire game.

The opposing Islanders are a team slated to do little this season, in the middle of a rebuilding of sorts. Their line-up was essentially intact yesterday, the only exception being Joey MacDonald (yes, that's former Bruins Big Mac in net) starting as goalie instead of Rick Dipietro.

The game was pretty disappointing overall, especially considering that this was the second last game before the regular season starts. The power play looked decent, and scored the only goal. The passing was crisp and chances plentiful. However, offense can't be based only on power plays, and the B's even strength game was mediocre at best. There were really very few good scoring chances generated even by the top lines.

In goal, Thomas looked pretty strong. He gave up two goals, both of which came on Islander power plays. The first goal was scored on a great bit of passing, and there was nothing Thomas could have done. The second was a tricky deflection, one that, again, Thomas really can't be blamed for. He didn't do anything spectacular, but was definitely steady in net.

One player I was focused on yesterday was Blake Wheeler, who still has a pretty good chance of making the team. He played pretty well, though he did take two penalties. He was strong along the boards in battles for the puck, and showed great hockey instincts as well, threading passes and setting up some good breakouts and chances.

I was also keeping an eye on Michael Ryder, waiting for him to show flashes of bein reinvigorated. I didn't see many, but he didn't really play poorly either. He showed some pretty nice offensive moves at times, at one point stickhandling his way into the slot only to misfire on the shot. I'm still confident that he's going to turn it on, but he's done little to silence the doubters.

No one really played poorly yesterday, but the whole team definitely needs improvement. The group still looked a bit out of sync, and with only days until the real games start, they don't have much time to get it together. Today's game (starting right now, actually) will be a telling one, as it's the final tune-up of the pre-season, making it likely that everyone will play regular season-esque shifts.

Hopefully they show some life tonight that was lacking yesterday.

Sums/story of the game from Bruins.com