At the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon, we were treated to a pair of hockey teams that are going in opposite directions. Boston (16-3-3) beat Philadelphia (11-14-1) 3-0 as Tuukka Rask (12-2-3) made 23 saves for his 13th career shutout and second this season. He hadn't beaten the Flyers since the 2010 playoffs and we all remember how that ended so I'm sure it felt good to get this personal footnote out of the way. Truthfully, he really wasn't tested at all. It had to be one of the easiest NHL shutouts in his career.
Since Philly had dreams of a Stanley Cup run (however misguided those were), you have to think that something big is coming down the pike soon if they keep this crappy play up. They lost their third straight game and it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'll either fire head coach Peter Laviolette or trade one of their underachieving big names (Hartnell or Briere come to mind).
If you boiled it down, this game basically had two exciting parts. Granted one of those was when the B's poured in all three of their goals in 2:18 during the second period. The other instance was when Shawn Thornton fought Zac Rinaldo and dropped him I might add.
Tyler Seguin continued to heat up as he scored his eighth goal of the season, on the power play no less, from Milan Lucic and David Krejci at 11:53. Lucic used his backhand to throw it across the crease and Seguin ripped a one-timer before Ilya Bryzgalov (25 saves) had much of a chance to react. Chris Kelly got out of his slump with his second goal of the season, thanks to Jordan Caron's assist from the side of the goal (in his first game with the B's this season) at 13:28. Rich Peverley had the second assist as Boston's third line cashed in a goal they desperately needed. When Daniel Paille scored 43 seconds later, the rout was on. All but the first line had goals for the B's, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton had the assists on Paille's fourth goal of the season-a sweet backhander after he got behind Philly's lazy defense.
These teams play twice more, the next one is March 30 in Philadelphia so it's not hard to picture the Flyers that take the ice that night looking much different. Boston needed this win since the upcoming week is brutal: five games in seven days including a pair of back-to-backs. Woof. Up next, they'll be at Ottawa (13-8-4, 3rd in Northeast Division) on Monday night (7:30 p.m., NESN). The Bruins beat the Senators 2-1 in overtime (on Patrice Bergeron's winner) February 28 at the Garden.
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