The Boston Bruins steamroller shows no signs of slowing down in November of 2011.
With a 6-0 blowout of the Islanders (5-9-3) tonight at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the B's (11-7-0) won their eighth straight game. During this perfect November (8-0-0), Boston has scored 6+ goals in five of the contests. In total, they've outscored their opponents 42-14 during this stretch.
This means that Boston is on its longest winning streak since three years ago (10 in a row). Tim Thomas (23 saves; 8-4-0) posted his second shutout of the season and 28th of his career, putting him third on the Bruins all-time list.
In picking up their second win in less than two weeks against New York (12-2 combined scores), the Bruins are now officially the NHL's hottest team as the Rangers lost 4-0 to Montreal this evening, snapping an eight-game winning streak of their own.
This was all about two periods: the first and the third. Boston quickly took control with three goals in the first then they ran up the score with three goals in the last 10 minutes.
Neither Rick DiPietro (10 saves), the pride of Winthrop, MA nor Anders Nilsson (14 saves) stood much of a chance in goal for the Islanders as 10 Bruins recorded points. DiPietro didn't get hurt which is a miracle for him but he only lasted one period; Nilsson was called on for his first NHL duty in the second and third.
Patrice Bergeron began the barrage with a goal (his fourth of the season) at 7:08 from Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand. Can we agree that is one of the best lines in the NHL right now? Good. Seguin laid out a sweet backhand feed that Bergeron slammed in from close to the New York goal.
Nathan Horton's power play goal (his sixth of the season) at 12:24 was officially unassisted but DiPietro deserves some credit for giving it right to him with a pathetic Martin Brodeur clearing attempt impression.
Chris Kelly (sixth of the season) ended the first with an unassisted snipe at 18:45.
If you slept through the second period, you didn't miss anything. The third period was when the action continued. At 10:25, Andrew Ference picked up his first goal of the season with a screened shot from the point, Joe Corvo and Kelly had the assists.
Kelly got his second of the night at 12:54 with a classic Chris Kelly goal. He was parked right in front of the goal and his first shot was stuffed on the line but he stuck with it and was rewarded. Milan Lucic and Horton assisted on that one.
Zdeno Chara (second of the season) had the final goal and it was probably my favorite as the Captain roofed it over Nilsson at 18:15 with assists to Marchand and Gregory Campbell.
Tonight was the start of a three-game road trip for the Bruins and it figures to get much tougher with stops in Montreal (Monday) and Buffalo (Wednesday) remaining, the other two real contenders in the Northeast Division (sorry Toronto and Ottawa). Losing 2-1 and 4-2 against the Canadiens at the end of October served as the kick in the ass that Boston desperately needed, they haven't lost since then.
The B's have found their game and it's time to go to the Bell Centre to throttle their most intense rival.
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