Game 43: Bruins 7, Flyers 5

Well that was a crazy game, eh? Good to see the Bruins actually win a wild one this time.

The Good

• Marchand continues to impress Brad Marchand is quickly becoming one of my favorite players on this Bruins team. The effort is there from the youngster night in and night out, and he's now making his presence felt on the scoreboard as well. His wicked wrist shot beat Brian Boucher cleanly midway through the third period to tie the game for the Bruins, and his intense forecheck on Matt Carle led directly to Steven Kampfer's game-winner, a play that won't show up on the scoresheet. Marchand's been the most consistent Bruin this season (along with Tim Thomas), and it's going to be hard for the coaching staff to keep him on the third or fourth line if he keeps playing as he has been.
• Same can be said for Kampfer He continues to impress as well. I liked the hit he threw on Scott Hartnell in the third period, though in the immediate aftermath I was a bit concerned that he took himself too far out of position to make the hit. Kampfer's shown an offensive touch that the Bruin blueline has sorely lacked since the departures of Big Money Wides and Matt Hunwick. His willingness to rush the puck, jump into the offense and take shots has proven to be a huge boost to the B's defense corps. Even though Mark Stuart is getting healthy, there may be no place for him right now: Kampfer and Adam McQuaid deserve to stay in the lineup.
• Signs of life from the power play The much-maligned Bruin power play went 1-for-5 last night, with the one goal coming from Zdeno Chara on a first period 5-on-3. The B's showed some signs of life with the man advantage last night, moving the puck very well and appearing to have some confidence again. The team as a whole recorded 11 shots on the five power plays, a pretty good number considering how abysmal the power play has been recently. SIGNS OF LIFE.
• Bergeron remains on a tear Patrice Bergeron now has points in five straight games and six of his last seven. He's recorded a point in all but one of the B's games in 2011, and has 11 points this month. He's actually got a multi-point game streak going too, as he's recorded two or more points in four games in a row.

The Bad

• Too many odd-man rushes It's almost like the B's were letting Philly have an odd-man rush every few minutes to make sure Tim Thomas stayed awake. Way too many sloppy changes and blown assignments in this one last night. It seemed like the Flyers had either a breakway, a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2 every two or three minutes of game action last night. They cashed in on a couple of them, but the B's really dodged a bullet. They can't keep letting teams get a guy behind their defense. It's an area of concern, and one that got exposed big time last night.
• SHOOT THE PUCK! There was a period of time last night in the second period when it seemed like the Bruins had two or three odd-man rushes of their own in a row, but they didn't get a shot off. I know that with a 2-on-1, it's common practice to wait it out, make the goalie think "shot" then slip the puck to one's teammate for an easy tap-in, but the key to making that work is to make the goalie think "shot." And how does one do that? BY SHOOTING.

The Rest

• A lot of weird goals in last night's game. Mark Recchi's goal came on a wild bounce off of the glass. Scott Hartnell's goal seemed like it was batted in from behind the goal line. Nikolai Zherdev's breakaway goal probably could have been called offside. Brad Marchand's tying goal probably shouldn't have happened, as Johnny Boychuk (I think it was him) threw the puck off of the glass in an attempt to clear it, and the puck hit the glass then the bottom of the netting then came back onto the ice. And finally, Kampfer's game-winner just seemed like a weird goal: Brian Boucher never moved, almost like he thought it was going well-wide. Just a weird game overall.
• The Bruins have performed pretty well so far against the East's "elite" teams: they're now 2-0-1 against the Flyers, 2-0-0 against the Penguins, 2-1-0 against the Lightning and 3-1-0 against the Capitals. Another date with the Pens looms on Saturday afternoon at the Garden, after which the B's won't see Crosby, Malkin and Co. until March 5.

Attaboy: A tie between Marchand and Kampfer. Both deserve it with their stellar play both last night and over the course of the last few games.

Providence Shuttle: I'll give it to Boucher. That Kampfer goal is one he probably should have stopped.