More photos » by Mary Schwalm - AP

about 1 month ago: Boston Bruins' Milan Lucic (17) and Carolina Hurricanes' Jay Harrison (44) exchanges punches during a fight in the second period of an NHL hockey game at TD Garden in Boston, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

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     Anybody who saw the 09-10 "season opener" will tell you the Bruins didn't show up.  Well Saturdays game against the Hurricanes was the polar opposite of the team we all saw Thursday night.  The Bruins dominated all 3 zones of the ice for the full 60 minutes, and walked out of the Garden with a 7-2 thumping of the Hurricanes.  The 1st period certainly carried over the intensity from the 7 game war that these same two teams played last May, with the Hurricanes and the Bruins playing very physical.  But at 4:06 of the first the Bruins took the lead, and never looked back.  With the B's on a powerplay Derek Morris blasted a shot from the blue line that Cam Ward kicked out, Michael Ryder made an attempt at the rebound before Marc Savard buried it to give the Bruins the 1-0 lead.  The Bruins would add two more goals in the first by Michael Ryder and Blake Wheeler to make it a 3-0 lead.  Once the 1st period horn sounded the B's held a 21-7 shot advantage, were up 3-0, and Carolina was in disarray having used their timeout after the Bruins third goal.

     The 2nd period went much like the 1st did.  The Bruins continued to hammer the Hurricanes at every turn.  Marco Sturm cashes in on a feed from Marc Savard to make it 4-0 Bruins at 10:37 of the period, much to the delight of the Garden faithful that was the end of Cam Ward for the evening.  From the onset of the game Ward looked very uncomfortable in the net.  He was giving up huge rebounds and was clearly off his game from the opening puck drop.  Roughly 2 minutes later the Bruins welcomed Micahel Leighton to the 09-10 season by pumping another powerplay goal past him.  This time it was courtesy of Dennis Wideman and a nice cycle of puck movement by the Bruins.  Carolina finally got on the board with about 5 minutes left in the period when Scott "bleeping" Walker tips home an Aaron Ward shot from the blue line.  The Bruins kept the foot on the gas and made it 6-1 about 2 and a half minutes later.  Andrew Alberts, who looked awful on defense and equally as awful when he dropped the gloves gift wrapped a turn over to Steve Begin, who then fed it to Shawn Thornton for the goal.  In the final minute of the period things got very chippy.  Jay Harrison of the Hurricanes did his best to rally his bench when he dropped the gloves.  Too bad for him it was Milan Lucic who answered the bell for the Bruins, when this fight was over Harrison was a bloody mess and the crowd was roaring.  Before the teams headed to the locker rooms there was another dust up with Zdeno Chara and Tom Kostopolous, with Chara certainly imposing his will on Kostopolous. Lots of penalties here with Chara and Kostopolous getting roughing double minor and game misconduct penalties. At the end of 2 the Bruins held a 6-1 lead.

     The third period was certainly more even sided than the 1st two.  At 2:41 Eric Staal made it 6-2 with a power play goal on a wrister that beat Tim Thomas.  About 6 minutes later Matt Hunwick got into the action with a goal of his own off a beautiful cross ice pass from Marco Sturm, I was pretty sure I heard Jack Edwards use the tic-tac-goal for this one.  Just to round out the game there was another fight with about 11 minutes left.  Andrew Alberts laid a pretty heavy cross check to Marco Sturm late in the 2nd, so when Shawn Thornton asked him to tango in the third the veteran defenseman knew he should answer the call.  Thornton hammered him much like the Bruins hammered the Hurricanes in the game.  The game ends with the final of 7-2, the Bruins really dominated from beginning to end in this one. 

     Now every cup of chowder needs certain ingredients to make it just right, in my opinion that is salt and pepper,a nd oyster crackers.  So my 3 stars of the night will be named in that fashion.

Salt- Marc Savard, a goal and two assists, very strong in all 3 zones tonight.

Pepper- Steve Begin, was a physical force all night, and added 2 helpers.

Crackers- Marco Sturm, scored a goal while riding shot gun with Savard and Lucic, was all over the ice tonight.