4-3 BRUINS CAN'T STOP THAT RAGING AVALANCHE

The Avs have been looking good this year. They dropped that Joe Sakic loser, and now they're doing better than last year, at least. As for the Bruins? They still haven't gotten back on their feet aside from that one game against those season-ending chumps, and those 8 or so minutes + one shootout against the Islanders. Well, yesterday sure wasn't much of an improvement.

Pregame:

Got to the Gahden early, with about half an hour before the game. Sauntered my way up to Cornelius's seats (Cheers, mate) and sat down. I got antsy, and so went for a beer. 20 minutes or so of random hockey blabbering at my fiance later and the lights dimmed. I thought to myself, "game recap's on me today, better take some pictures!" and whipped out my phone. I took a blurry-as-hell photo of the B's lining up for the anthem, and then forgot about it. But enough about me, let's get to the game.

Part 1:

The Bruins came out hard. They looked great for the first few minutes, getting several nice shots off that Mr. Anderson managed to deflect away safely. The Avs manage to take it into our zone once or twice, but don't start much of anything. Then Matty Hunwick hooks, and the Bruins go on the penalty kill. "Well," I think, "At least it--" and then Hejduk puts in a wrister that Tuukka doesn't do much against.

1-0 Falling Snows

Puck drops, the announcer starts announcing the goal, and all of a sudden Hannan puts another one on the board. Luckily, it was the end of anything interesting in the first. The Bruins played softly while the Avalanche allowed few scoring opportunities.

2-0 Crashing Mountains

At some point, Anderson manages to trip up a Bruin behind the net. Bruins do nothing with the ensuing power play. Then the period ends.

I head for a new set of beers, and get ready for the second period, nervous but hopeful.

Part 2

The Bruins come out mediocre. I can't say they came out like a bat out of hell, or some other strange analogy, as they really didn't. The two teams played some back and forth puck-ball for a while. Finally, getting a good rush on, they manage a hard shot on Anderson from the blue line. Bergeron ends up with the puck behind the net after the rebound and, as he's wont to do, dishes it out to Old Man Recchi in the left circle. Recchi does what he does.

2-1, starting to look up.

More back-and-forth, and a quick pass forward sends Ryder on a rush. He sends it in front of the goal, where Wheeler, who just skated past the two Colorado defenders, is just waiting for it. Anderson thinks the shot's coming from Ryder at the boards, leaving about 22.5 square feet of net for Wheeler to backhand the puck into. Light the lamp, Zombie Nation.

2-2. Back to the beginning.

The game's half over now, and we're right back where we started. Then Chara gets called for interference.

Power play goal, Marek Svatos, 3-2, vomit.

A few minutes later, Svatos is nice enough to get caught tripping, giving us our fourth power play of the game. While the Bruins watch, Galiardi takes the puck out of the Avs' zone and up the boards. Three Blackshirts converge on him, two of them taking him down while Ryder goes for the puck. With the Bruins doing their best imitation of the 08-09 Rangers' power play, Galiardi gets back up, frees himself (and the puck) enough to send the puck over to David Jones, who is already behind the two defenders (kindly hanging out behind Galiardi still). Breakaway, goal, vomit.

4-2 Avalanche.

The second plays out, with a stunned crowd surrounding the ice.

Part 3:

This time the Bruins were a bit fired up. No more stupid penalties, no more stupid mistakes. Too bad we were already down 4-2 and weren't playing the Islanders. 6+ minutes in, a few deflected shots lead to a backhand by Ryder that nobody saw coming, especially Anderson. Hope creeps back in.

4-3, 2/3 of a period left!

Sadly, that was the last interesting thing to happen, short of the Bruins icing the puck while trying to pull Rask, and then Lucic getting a roughing penalty after the final buzzer. Dejected fans stroll out, I head home, plenty of day left, plenty of time to spend the rest of Columbus day growing my larynx back.

So what now? Well, the B's got the day off today. Instead of practicing, they got to enjoy a lovely 50 degree rainy day in our fine city of Boston. Next they head out on the road to face Dallas on Friday. Let's hope this homestand has knocked some sense into our Black and Gold friends. They'll need to really find their energy if they want any hope of competing this year.

Think towards the future though. There are plenty of games left, and April is far away. This is only the beginning. And, as always,

GO BRUINS!