Fight Night in Boston

I have no idea what got into the Boston Bruins last night. A team that usually exhibits little heart got into three fights vs. the Dallas Stars in the first four seconds of the game at the TD Garden.

You can have NHL Center Ice (which I do not) and you can watch every NHL game this season but I doubt you'll ever see a more exciting or crazy period than the first. I've never seen anything like it (and probably never will again) as the Bs had four fights and jumped ahead 4-0 before they eventually held on for a 6-4 win.

For two teams that only play once or twice a season, it's hard to believe that the bitter feelings from two seasons ago could carry over to last night but that looked to be the case. The teams had a similar shitshow game in October 2008 in Boston.

As the game began, Gregory Campbell took on goon Steve Ott (most penalties in the league) one second into the action. Campbell took a beating and received a nasty gash on his face/nose but he returned soon after that cause hey, he's a hockey player.

One second later, Shawn Thornton fought Krys Barch with Thornton scoring the takedown. Finally, two seconds later Adam McQuaid absolutely blew up Brian Sutherby in a quick, Jersey Shore style brawl.

Oh and Andrew Ference one-punched Adam Burish ("one shot kid!") a few minutes later to complete the crazy beginning. Today, Burish went on IR.

Not only did the Bruins (30-15-7) beat the Stars (30-17-5) physically but they almost ran them out of the rink. Milan Lucic (his 21st of the season) scored 35 seconds into the game from David Krejci and Nathan Horton.

Then Patrice Bergeron put in a pair of goals (18th and 19th), from Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi both times. Former Bruins goaltender Andrew Raycroft was pulled after Bergeron's first goal, giving him a night's work of 1:20 (haha!).

Thornton put Boston ahead 4-0 late in the first period with a snipe that admittedly, Keri Lehtonen (29 saves) should have had but he probably thought he had a quiet night on the bench ahead of him. Daniel Paille and Zdeno Chara assisted on Thornton's eighth of the season.

Dallas began to wake up in the second period as Karlis Skrastins scored from Burish.

The Stars cut it to 4-3 in the third period as Brendan Morrow (short-handed) and Brad Richards showed why they each are over 20 goals this season.

This would have been an epic collapse for the Bruins (something which they specialize in) but thankfully, Tuukka Rask (30 saves; 5-10-1) made enough stops and Tyler Seguin broke his 10-game scoreless streak.

Again it was a soft one from Lehtonen but who cares? Seguin has been scuffling for a while now and seeing him get his eighth of the season (from Michael Ryder and Blake Weeler) at 5:31 was great.

Marchand capped it off with an empty-netter at 17:40 from Bergeron (who missed a hat trick bid) and Recchi. Their on fire line combined for nine points in the game.

The only bad news coming out of the game was that Paille was suspended four games after his dirty, Matt Cooke-esque hit. It's a fair punishment but don't get me started on how Cooke got off the hook last season.

I am going to Bruins-San Jose Sharks tomorrow afternoon at the TD Garden. I know there will be a letdown from last night but hopefully the Bs can send Joe Thornton and the Sharks home without any points.