Game 3: Bruins 4, Devils 1

The Good

• Tim Thomas: It was only natural that Thomas got the nod in goal tonight, as he earned the right with last week's shutout of the Phoenix Coyotes. Thomas didn't disappoint, allowing just one goal while making 31 saves, some of the highlight reel variety. The goal he allowed was more the fault of his defenseman failing to pick up Dainius Zubrus at the top of the crease as opposed to Thomas himself making a mistake. The starting goaltending job was essentially handed to Tuukka Rask by many pundits before the season began, but early on Thomas appears to be doing his best to make Claude Julien lose a little sleep at night. If he continues to play like this, goaltending will likely become the biggest hot-button issue for the B's (if it isn't already).
• Jordan Caron's first goal: The rookie impressed many during training camp, and managed to stick with the big club through their European excursion. While he was scratched in the team's first game of the season, he made his NHL debut in the B's 3-0 win over the Coyotes last weekend, and played pretty well. Caron was dressed again in tonight's game, and, again, didn't disappoint. He scored his first career goal nearly six minutes into the second period, a goal that tied the score at 1 and jump-started the B's. Caron's goal was indicative of one of his better attributes: his willingness to go to the "dirty areas" of the ice and put in work. Caron parked himself in the slot in front of Martin Brodeur, and was there to bang home a big rebound. (Video of Caron's goal here, thanks to dafoomie.)
• Krejci's wrist: There was some concern going into the season that David Krejci would need some time to shake the rust off of his injured wrist; that he wasn't going to be able to perform all of his stickhandling and passing magic right away. So far, however, Krejci looks excellent, and was a wizard with the puck again in tonight's game. His beautiful flip-pass to Milan Lucic was his fourth assist this season, giving him a total of four points in three games. Krejci protected the puck beautifully all night, at times seeming to dare Jersey players to try to take it from him. Yes, it's early, but Krejci's injury appears to have healed nicely, and he looks to be in midseason form.
• Fourth line: The fourth line of Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell and Brad Marchand was excellent again tonight. Usually, a coach wants his fourth line to play responsible hockey and to make hustle plays and wear down the opposing defensemen with physical play; if the fourth line can chip in some offense, that's just icing on the cake. The B's got that icing last night when Thornton scored the third goal of the game on a great pass from Campbell. Marchand took a silly kneeing penalty that put the B's down two men, but other than that the fourth line was very effective, cycling the puck, finishing their checks and grinding out good shift after good shift.

The Bad

• Hunwick still looks shaky: It seems like many B's fans were quick to blame Matt Hunwick's troubles of last year on Big Money Wides, his defense partner and constant scapegoat. After all, Hunwick had performed terrifically during the '08-'09 season, and few people expected such a regression. However, even though the "W" half of the "H & W Comedy Show," as my friend termed the Hunwick-Wideman pairing last year, is gone, Hunwick continues to make shaky play after shaky play. "Bad" might be a little harsh here, more like "troubling;" Hunwick wasn't awful, but he made his fair share of headscratching plays and turnovers. The young defenseman is a great talent, but needs to tighten up his game and play more consistently.
• Martin Brodeur: His team's four goals allowed can't all be placed squarely on the future Hall of Famer's shoulders, but he certainly didn't help matters. Michael Ryder's wrist shot was a laser that Brodeur was helpless to stop, while Lucic's goal came from a sublime Krejci pass. However, the Caron goal came as a result of a "juicy rebound" and Thornton's goal came when Brodeur badly misread Campbell's intentions behind the net (though in fairness to Brodeur, Campbell did make a great play). Brodeur looked shaky throughout the night, seemingly out of position many times. The only reason the game wasn't 5-1 or 6-1 was because Brodeur made a number of huge stops to bail himself out. It's early, but he certainly hasn't set the world aflame so far.
• Still no "power:" The power play remains an issue. The B's had a couple of good looks on the man advantage, but were unable to convert. All in all, they had just four shots on three power plays. It's hard to find fault with a 4-1 win, but the power play still needs work.

The Rest

• It remains to be seen whether or not Tyler Seguin remains with the B's for the rest of the season, but so far it seems like he's doing little to suggest he should be sent back to juniors. While Mike Milbury may not think Seguin will be an "impact player" this year, he's made his presence felt in the B's past two games, scoring his first goal in the B's second game against Phoenix and assisting on Ryder's strike last night. It seems that at this point, Seguin would have to be a detriment to the team for him to be sent back to juniors; he doesn't have much left to prove there, and won't really improve his game playing against junior competition. The thought here is that he will remain with the B's this year, and will get better with each game.
• I'm going to write about the whole road-trip experience in a separate article to be posted on the main site, but I was hugely disappointed with the Jersey crowd. The arena was beautiful, the transit to and from NYC was very easy and the whole trip was a really fun time, but the crowd was absolutely terrible. The arena wasn't even close to half-full, and seemed to have an atmosphere more appropriate for a wake or a library than that of a hockey game. I know the Devils haven't gotten off to the greatest start, but it's sad to see the fans not come out and support the team. Where's Puddy when you need him?

Attaboy: Caron...gotta give it to him when he nets his first career goal, right?

Providence shuttle: The entire pro-Devils crowd at the Prudential Center tonight. It'd probably only take 5 or 6 Megabuses to get them all up there too, but more on that later.