Things went bad right from the start as Zdeno Chara and Aaron Ward were caught sleeping with 4:41 left in the first period. Niskanen passed it over to Joel Lundqvist who fired it past new Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez to put Dallas on the board. Twenty seconds later Andrew Ference tripped up Niklas Hagman who proceeded to chop Andrew with a high stick to earn a double minor. Unfortunately the Bruins never even got to enjoy a power play as one minute later Marco Sturm was called for slashing to put the Bruins down 4-3. Just as the Bruins got back to full strength, Marc Savard flipped the puck out of bounds for a delay of game penalty. The Bruins went into the break down 1-0 with Savard still in the box.
The Bruins managed to kill off the rest of the penalty but once again their loafing cost them 2:41 into the second period. An errant puck managed to get right through the entire team right to a streaking Hagman who buried it to make it 2-0. Almost immediately after play resumed, new Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton and rookie teenager Milan Lucic jumped Todd Fedoruk and Brad Winchester to earn fighting majors. The Bruins caught a break when Jeff Halpern went off for tripping four minutes into the period but Marty Turco robbed new Bruin Peter Schaefer on their best chance. Things looked bleak when Brendan Morrow took a Zubov past and fired a slapshot past Fernandez 8:49 into the second period. It was almost a 4 goal game but Fernandez robbed Lundqvist point blank. The Bruins got a glimmer of hope when Dallas took a too many men penalty sixteen minutes into the period but Turco robbed Glen Murray on the initial powerplay attempt. Then Savard caught the Dallas defense asleep as he passed it to Schaefer who saw a wide open Patrice Bergeron who scored to cut the lead to two with two minutes left in the period. The score remained 3-1 going into the third and Bruins fans had a bit of hope for a comeback.
That hope was dashed pretty quickly in the third period. Three minutes into the period Thornton was sent to the penalty box for tripping. Sure enough, 3:39 into the third period Morrow fired off a slapshot that went off Zubov's stick and in for the dagger to make it 4-1 Dallas. The final chance the Bruins had was when Phil Kessel found PJ Axelsson streaking only to be robbed by Turco with fifteen minutes left in the third. Fedoruk went off for hooking but the Bruins couldn't capitalize then Stephane Robidas went off for hooking almost as soon as Fedoruk was out of the box. Once again the Bruins couldn't capitalize and the game ended 4-1 Dallas.
Reaction:
The Stars were one of the three teams in the West to finish with 100 points last season despite losing to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round. Fact is they're far and away better talent wise than the Bruins right now. The key word is right now because the Bruins are a young team. Lucic is only 19 while Bergeron just turned 22. David Krejci is 21 and Kessel is still 20. They have other guys in Providence that are young such as Vladimir Sobotka so they're going to take their lumps this year for sure....but lookout down the road. Getting smashed by Dallas in Dallas is not the way to open the season but its only one game and there's 81 more to go. Like mentioned earlier, the key to the game was getting back in it down 3-1 only to give up the back breaker just 3:39 into the third. Going 1 for 5 on the power play didn't help either. The real downfall of the game is the defense looked like it was standing still on some of the goals by Dallas. Julien is a defensive minded coach so hopefully he can work on that. All in all its not the way you want the season to open but its over now. The Bruins look to bounce back tomorrow night when they travel to Phoenix to take on the hapless Coyotes in Jobing.com Arena.
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