Starting 2012 With Quota: Bruins Beat Devils 6-1

Well, you all know how much I love bullet points, so guess what format this recap is going to be in.

That game was fantastic. The Bruins clearly grabbed everything they've worked on for the last few days, utilized their few days off, and ran with it. Despite a slightly sluggish start, they quickly snapped into their old selves after that first Devils goal. A few minutes later, as soon as the puck went to Andrew Ference wide open at the point, you could practically read that it was going in the back of the net, despite having to careen in off Gregory Campbell's skate first.

And then they made quota, and made Martin Brodeur look like the ancient, decrepit goalie that he is, and made Tim Thomas look like the smiley badass that he is, and all was well.

So here, click this thing and check out some slightly drunken good/bad/ugly bulletpoints.

The Good:

• Patrice Bergeron. What a guy. Two goals and an NHL 36 debut, which I hear was pretty great. He took two shots on goal and both went in. Great work. Even greater was the way he undressed Brodeur in that one breakaway. Lord. There is a joke in here about NHL 36 and undressing himself like that (thanks, Doug) but I will leave that for the comments.
• Shawn Thornton. The quiet man had a goal and a fight, ending up "the easy part" away from a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Is it me, or has he scored on Brodeur a few times in the last few years? Either way, awesome.
• Passing. Specifically David Krejci's to Nathan Horton for that second goal, but really the entire team was fantastic at it tonight -- they found the open ice, the open man, repeatedly. All of it was good.
• Gregory Campbell's face. Every time he scores, this man makes excellent faces, and the only good thing about the nationally broadcast games is that they are more likely to show that sort of silliness than NESN is. Boo.
• Johnny Boychuk, quietly a +3. He looked great on the power play, as well.

The Bad:

• I was distracted for most of this game by a guy who was sitting next to me who decided to tell me a story about how he, a Cardinals fan, was at a bar in 2004 before game 4, and his wife was sick so he decided at the last minute not to go to game 4 of the WORLD SERIES and gave his ticket to a guy in a Boston University sweatshirt outside the bar he was at. Yeeeah, old guy, my school is awesome. But STOP DISTRACTING ME.
• Versus NBC Sports Network games are not shown on NHL Gamecenter Live. This is lame and should be fixed, especially for those of us without cable who live out-of-market and pay for Gamecenter to avoid getting cable.
• Man Adam Larsson is overhyped. Dude was a -4 tonight. I mean, good on you, baby swede, for being drafted so high but that is sort of terrible.

The Ugly:

• Martin Brodeur needs to retire. That's all I've got.

Gamethread quote of the night goes to Corny for his St. Patrice prayer. Oh and by the way, that St. Patrice graphic is NOT in fact a Days of Y'Orr special; it originated on Tumblr. Regardless:

"and yea, he said,

for I am the one, and in all ends of the ice
I am the offense and the defense
I am the faceoff and the finish
And he came down from the point

and he saw that it was good."

Goodnight, folks; more beer and THE FLAMES OF CAL AND GARY tomorrow. Let's beat them 6-1 so iggy can get his 500th, yeah?