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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Moving on from the wreckage of last spring


Nothing will ever change the all-time choke job that the Boston Bruins had last spring against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Being up 3-0 in a series and 3-0 in Game 7 and somehow losing is unprecedented stuff so there's nothing left to say.

Thankfully, it's a new season and while we'll never forget what happened, it's time to move on since this is a new team.

Last night's 3-0 win in Philadelphia by the Bruins was a nice first step in putting that nightmare on the backburner. It was the first time the teams had met since then.

The story of the game was Bruins goalie Tim Thomas since he stopped 41 shots for his NHL-leading fifth shutout of the season.

It also ended a bad skid (four losses in its last five games) for Boston (13-8-2) against a quality team in Philly (15-7-4), who they could very well see again in the 2011 playoffs.

Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring (first time in six games the Bruins had done that) with a power play goal at 5:40 in the first period. After Milan Lucic's backhander was stopped by Sergei Bobrovsky (29 saves) it popped out to Bergeron, who fired it before the Flyers goaltender could fully react in time.

Even sweeter than that was Tyler Seguin's goal less than ten minutes later which gave Boston a 2-0 lead. He collected a nice feed from Michael Ryder and roofed it, his fifth of the season and a good sign for the youngster who has been ice cold lately. Brad Marchand also assisted on the goal.

Flyers goon Jody Shelley squared off with Shawn Thornton late in the first period.

Philadelphia clearly got frustrated as Thomas repeatedly made absurd stops on them. He also stopped a penalty shot by Scott Hartnell in the second period. Andrew Ference tripped Hartnell but he still got a shot off. On his penalty shot, Hartnell seemed to run out of room and could only muster a weak backhander that was smothered by Thomas.

Lucic put it away with 1:48 left in the third period as he scored an empty-netter from David Krejci.

Good news for the Bs today as they reportedly traded Marco Sturm for a conditional pick to the Los Angeles Kings. It will be a fifth round pick but could go as high as second depending on how Sturm does. The deal is dependant on him passing a physical.

Boston hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at the TD Garden. Steven Stamkos and Tampa Bay beat the Bruins in Florida right before Thanksgiving so Boston will need to play better to get two points.

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