Game 5: Bruins 4, Capitals 1

The Good

• Power play finally shows some power: AT LAST! The power play moved out of "the Bad," and did so in a big way. The B's exploded for three power play goals last night against a previously-perfect Caps penalty kill. The power play looked much crisper, much more confident and much more dangerous than it had at any point in the first four games. Moving Mark Recchi up to the point proved to be a big boost to the PP unit. Kudos to assistant coach Geoff Ward, who apparently worked tirelessly on the power play in practice.
• Brad Marchand: Laid his body out in front of an Alexander Ovechkin one-timer, one he ended up taking squarely on the leg. It takes a lot of courage to slide in front of a slapshot, and even more guts to step in front of one of Ovechkin's. Marchand limped off the ice and down the tunnel, but later returned to the ice. According to Naoko Funayama, he's not on the ice this morning, however, indicating that the leg could still be sore.
• Bergeron chips in: I personally thought Patrice Bergeron had played very well in the first four games; the points just weren't there. Last night, however, the points WERE there, as Bergeron assisted on Michael Ryder's power play goal and gave Jordan Caron a beautiful pass on the rookie's second goal of the season. As far as CSNNE's Joe Haggerty is concerned, Bergeron was the best player on the ice last night, and I don't disagree.
• Ho hum, production continues: Tim Thomas and Nathan Horton continue to produce like clockwork; Thomas was stellar again save for his mishap with Jason Chimera, while Horton scored again and now has four goals and three assists in five games.
• Jordan Caron: Another goal and another all-around terrific effort from the rookie. He won battles on the boards and played a physical and tough game again, something fans are coming to expect from the youngster. Watching him out there so far, it's sometimes easy to forget that the kid's just a rookie. Right now he's making a case to be here for the long haul, even after Marc Savard and Marco Sturm return.
  

The Bad

• Tyler is no Rancourt: I know it was for charity, but really? Why? Yikes. Tyler's performance was the first thing my mother said to me about the game this morning: "He was awful." And she tells no lies.
• O-vechkin: The Caps star had a rough couple of games against the B's. He had 13 shots in the two games, but was a combined -3 and had no points. He drew a couple of penalties with his speed and stickhandling last night, but other than that wasn't much of a threat.
• D'oh! I'm reaching here, but save for his mental blunder, Thomas would have had his second shutout of the season last night. Stickhandling has never been Thomas' strong suit, but remember Tim, the guys in the opposite colored sweaters from you play for the OTHER team.

The Rest

• I had to listen to some of the game on 98.5 The Sports Hub with Dave Goucher and Bob Beers last night due to working late, and even on the radio it seemed like the game had the atmosphere of a late season or playoff game. This suspicion was confirmed when I got to watch the end of the game on NESN, as the crowd was extremely loud, cheering with every rush, every check and even every battle won on the half-wall. I know that it being the home opener had something to do with it, but I can't help but feel local puck fans were ravenous for hockey to come back, especially with the way last season ended. If last night was any indication (and I know it's early), the fans should have plenty to cheer about this year.
• How to tell when hockey is becoming relevant again: when columnists like Tony Massarotti, Steve Buckley and Bob Ryan start writing about the B's. All three must have taken breaks from writing about LeBron James' lunch or who the Red Sox should sign to actually see what that newfangled game of hockey is all about. Stick to the Sox, Patriots and Celtics, guys, and leave the hockey writing to Dupont, Shinzawa, Harris, Conroy and Co.

Attaboy: Thomas and Horton can share it. They've both been huge thus far.
Providence shuttle: Tyler. On the plus side, he should be pretty familiar with tour buses at this point.

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.