The Bruins whipped a lackluster Senators team 4-0. Tim Thomas stopped all 29 shots he faced, for his second straight shutout, and third in six games.
David Krejci opened the scoring in the first. After the puck was dumped in, the Senators were trying to push it out. Milan Lucic put some pressure on, but it was basically an unforced error that led to the puck going right to Krejci, who buried it behind Brian Elliott.
The second period was where most of the action was. The Senators looked to have tied the game, as Daniel Alfredsson beat Thomas, but it was ruled that Mike Fisher was in the crease. There wasn't much argument from the Senators on the play. At 12:26 of the second, Brad Marchand drew a tripping penalty on Zach Smith. On the ensuing power play, Dennis Seidenberg got it out of the zone to Mark Recchi who had a full head of steam, and hit Tyler Seguin in stride, who smoked Mike Campoli and tapped the pass in the net for a 2-0 lead.
There was an amazing sequence with 2 minutes left in the period. Nathan Horton came out of the box, received a pass and had a breakaway, where he was robbed by Elliott. The Senators turned that into a 3 on 2 rush, but Zdeno Chara broke it up and tipped it out to Krejci, who in turn found a streaking Milan Lucic. Looch got by the defense and scored on the breakaway for a 3-0 lead. Jack Edwards had either a heart attack or an orgasm during this sequence. Possibly both.
In the third period, Jordan Caron got his 3rd NHL goal after being sprung on a breakout by Patrice Bergeron at 9:03 of the period. Caron split two Senators, one of whom was Alfredsson, who all but gave up on the play after Caron got by him. At 4-0, the Senators all but waved the white flag.
With 2 minutes to go, Chris Neil got in a scrum near the net with Dennis Seidenberg. With little warning, Neil dropped the gloves and started throwing punches. Seidenberg, not known for his pugilism, hung in there with the jackass Lucic's punching bag goon, taking some punches, throwing a couple, and getting an early shower. Neil got an extra two for roughing, and the Bruins closed out the W on a low-key power play.
Notes:
- The game was seldom in doubt, but had it been, the officiating would have been a story. It was indisputably awful. Jarkko Ruutu twice got away with blatant penalties that led to a man in a white jersey getting penalized. Matt Carkner clocked Blake Wheeler with a straight right during a scrum and Wheeler went to the box for slashing.
- Tim Thomas has a 130:37 scoreless streak. Apart from a brief flurry in the first, however, he didn't have to make a lot of hard saves.
- Seidenberg blocked 6 shots and Adam McQuaid 5. If you're wondering why I didn't describe many of Ottawa's scoring chances in detail, those two are big reasons why.
- Boston had 8 odd man rush opportunities in this one, with 2 turning into goals. For a defense-first team like the Senators, that was absurd. A lot of that was great skating and puck movement by the Bruins, but the Senators were leaving an uncharacteristic amount of open space in the middle of the ice.
- Seguin's speed created a number of scoring opportunities. He didn't get a star (Thomas was first, Krejci second and Seidenberg third), but quite easily could have. He had one goal and created several other opportunities.
- Scoring balance remains impressive; every line save for the checking line scored a goal. And Brad Marchand had a number of opportunities. Marchand played a very impressive game, for that matter and looked a couple of times like he was about to score his first NHL goal.
- For more on this one, check out our pals at Silver Seven.