When I am commissioner of the NHL, I will create the rule that the Boston Bruins must have a home-and-home series with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks, every season. These Original 6 matchups (to go with the normal Bruins-Rangers, Bruins-Canadiens and Bruins-Maple Leafs) are too juicy to pass up, the fans of these storied franchises deserve those games.
Rant aside, I knew that Boston's (13-7-1) 10-game winning streak would come to an end at some point but since it finally happened, I can't complain much about this afternoon's 3-2 shootout loss to Detroit (13-7-1) at TD Garden.
Todd Bertuzzi had the winning goal in the shootout after teammate Pavel Datsyuk scored earlier and Nathan Horton tied it with Boston's last shot.
It was a hell of a game, really entertaining with superior puck movement, physical play and top notch goaltending, what more can you ask for? Unfortunately, unlike last season where they played twice, this was the only meeting between the B's and Wings in the regular season. You know what that means, they'll just have to meet in June for the Stanley Cup Finals.
Boston outshot Detroit 43-31 and that wasn't misleading as the Bruins dominated play for long stretches of time. The problem was that Red Wings goaltender and former UMaine star Jimmy Howard (41 saves) was on for most of the game and Detroit had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 that Boston had to rally from.
Tuukka Rask (29 saves; 3-3-1) made somewhat of a surprise start but as usual, he acquitted himself well.
After some significant pressure on Howard in the first period, Detroit skated against the tilted ice and Valtteri Filppula (5th of the season) gave them a 1-0 lead at 12:43 after some nice passing from Henrik Zetterberg and Ian White. Filppula tipped in Zetterberg's centering pass from the half boards, Rask didn't have much of a chance to stop it from in close.
Daniel Paille (3rd of the season) tied it at 4:05 of the second period after some great forechecking and a pass from behind the net that came from Horton.
Loyal NHL fans know that Datsyuk is a magician with the puck and he lived up to that moniker with a silly goal just 35 seconds after Paille scored. It was so fast, that the Bruins PA guy hadn't finished announcing Paille's goal. Datsyuk's sixth of the season was assisted by his linemates Bertuzzi and Johan Franzen.
Thanks to a bad giveaway by Zetterberg in his own zone, Patrice Bergeron (5th of the season) pounced on a loose puck and whipped it by Howard at 7:52 in the third period.
Both teams had chances to win it later in the third period and a crazy overtime session. Filppula put a shot over from like a foot outside Boston's net while Zdeno Chara blasted a slap shot that skittered inches wide and Howard stuffed Horton from in close.
With points in 11 straight games, Boston will look to start another winning streak tomorrow night as they host the Winnipeg Jets. I will be in attendance (my first game of 2011-12) and I expect Tim Thomas to get the start. Additionally, I think the B's will get back in the win column and score some more goals against one of the Eastern Conference's worst squads.
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