- Strong game for Bergeron Patrice Bergeron had an excellent game for the B's, despite spending most of the night skating on Tyler Seguin's wing, something Bergeron hasn't done with any regularity in a while. Bergeron's tenacious forechecking directly led to the Bruins' first goal, and his puck pressure caused a couple of other Wild turnovers in the game as well.
- Can't blame Tuukka It seems like Tuukka Rask can't catch any breaks this season: whenever he plays well, the team in front of him generally lets him down, and that was the case last night. Rask certainly deserved a better fate than suffering his eighth loss of the year, but that's not much consolation. The Finn had no time to get set on Cal Clutterbuck's game-winnner, and simply got beaten by a slick backhander from Martin Havlat on the Wild's first goal. While he must be frustrated, Rask seems to have gotten a little of his swagger back with the win in Toronto. Let's hope that continues and that Rask gets at least a spot start or two in the next couple of weeks.
- Vintage Theodore José Théodore is already reviled in these parts for his playoff performances in 2002 and 2004, when he led underdog Montreal Canadiens teams to first-round playoff upsets of the Bruins. With his win last night, the Québecois netminder improved to 8-0-1 in his last nine starts against the B's. There must be something about playing in or facing Boston that Théodore likes: he also went 4-0-0, won the Best Goaltender award, was named a Tournament All-Star and led Team Canada to the gold medal in the 1996 world junior tournament held in...you guessed it: Boston.
The Bad
- Savard's turnover Simply an inexcusable play both at that point in the hockey game and from that point in the defensive zone. I understand what Savard was trying to do: his line needed to get off the ice, and he was trying to flip the puck into the neutral zone to facilitate a line change. However, if a player is going to use the center of his own zone to clear the puck, that puck MUST get out of the offensive zone. If the clearing attempt is flubbed or whiffed on even slightly, it's going to cause serious problems, as was made quite clear last night. Had Savard elected to make the safe play and go up the boards instead, the turnover would have been slightly less harmful. An inexcusable play from a player who usually takes great care of the puck. I'm not concerned about Savard's confidence; I'm glad Claude Julien sat him down. He sent a clear message with that benching: everyone's held accountable for poor decision making, not just rookies like Tyler Seguin.
- First line goes missing again It was good to see the first line of Milan Lucic, Savard and Nathan Horton carry over the momentum they earned from Monday's win in Toronto. What's that you say? They finished the night with no points and were a combined minus-five? Oh. Never mind then.
- Power play needs help At this point, I don't know if it's a matter of strategy or personnel, but something needs to be done to fix this woebegone Bruins power play. The B's haven't scored a power play goal in their last ten chances, making the power play more of a momentum killer than a weapon. Julien attempted a bit of a shift later in the game by putting Zdeno Chara in front of the net, but I don't like that for two reasons: you miss his booming shot from the point and Chara is far too valuable to this team to be hurt taking a shot off the leg or ankle during the power play. Changes need to be made to the power play, and quickly. The B's looked more dangerous last night shorthanded than they did with the man advantage.
The Rest
- Obscure fact time! The Wild have never lost to the Bruins in Boston. They're now 6-0-0 at the TD Garden, and 9-2-0 against the Bruins all-time.
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