BRUINS LIVE: Edmonton at Boston

Nugent-Hopkins (93) and Hall are two young
players leading the Oilers charge. (Getty)

Tonight's game features the team with the third-best point total in the league against one tied with the 26th.

Ok.  That's conceivable since the Bruins won the Cup last year and the Oilers have been a perennial doormat.  However, it's Edmonton that comes into tonight's game with 20 points at 9-3-2, while Boston is just 6-7-0 for 12 points.

While Boston is still near the bottom of the NHL, the fact they only trail the lofty Oilers by eight points shows they've at least gotten back in it.  They've now won three straight and seem to have their stride back.

On the other hand, Edmonton has been in stride since day one.  They've gotten some unexpected great goaltending out of 38-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin, while 25-year-old second year, and future in the crease, Devan Dubnyk has played well also.  The Oilers are just 24th in offense, but first in defense with a 1.5 GAA.

The key tonight for Boston will be out hitting Edmonton and rattling starting goalie Dubnyk early.  In general, the Eastern Conference tends to be more rough-and-tumble, while the West is more skating.  The Oilers have a lot of young forwards, including the last two overall draft picks, and the key will be for Boston to bring their "Big, Bad Bruins" mentality and enforce their game.

STARTING GOALTENDERS

Edmonton - Devan Dubnyk (2-3-0, 2.19 GAA, 0.930 SV%)
Boston - Tuukka Rask (1-3-0, 2.53 GAA, 0.910 SV%)

1st Period

Edmonton veteran Ryan Smyth announced the Oilers presence early by rattling the pipe on a fast break during the game's first shift, but the post proved why it's called the "goalie's best friend" as it turned the puck away for Tuukka Rask.  Boston gained momentum after the early lapse with the fourth line of Benoit Pouliot, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton turning up the energy.  The first line followed suit with Milan Lucic feeding it from the boards to Nathan Horton in the slot for a great chance.  Then, Horton found David Krejci cross ice at the far blue line to send him in on a fast break.  Neither chance was  converted, but the Bruins had six scoring chances to the Oilers zero just five minutes in.

Brad Marchand attacked a double team with speed at about 6:20 and the puck got left behind for Tyler Seguin, who flashed the great vision he's seen all year to feed Adam McQuaid on the far side of the net for a one-time tip.  Again, Dubnyk showed why the Oilers have been the most stout team in the league defensively, as he slid across to deny "Quaider."  The game went to its first commercial with the Bruins controlling play.

It came out in the same fashion.  The first line controlled an offensive shift by holding on the puck for 43 straight seconds in the O-zone.  When Horton back handed a dump from the side board to the corner, Krejci took it from there and proved why he's considered a play-making center.  He fed it across ice to the point to an open Johnny Boychuk, who let out a classic Boychuk bomb that exploded through traffic and into the net at 7:11.

Boston kept it going less than two minutes later.  AHL call up Zach Hamill intercepted an errant back handed pass from Edmonton's Ben Eager and quickly found Jordan Caron in the slot, who knocked the puck in off of Dubnyk at 8:55.  Trailing 2-0, the Oilers immediately called timeout to refocus.

Veteran Smyth led the Oilers with two scores. (Getty)

It worked.  Ryan Smyth immediately fed Shawn Horcoff in the center just seconds after play restarted and Rask had to make a great save.  Edmonton kept the pressure on and it was Smyth who eventually tallied the first goal at 12:02.  Smyth and Ales Hemsky strong-armed Boychuk behind the goal for the puck.  Hemsky fed it to the point, where Theo Peckham fired a shot that was redirected in by Smyth, who had cut to the front of the goal.

Then, the Oilers, as NESN's Jack Edwards said, "took a page out of the Bruins book" by scoring only 29 seconds later (something the B's had been doing a lot recently).  Rookie sensation Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (this year's number one overall pick) fired a pass from his own end across the ice to the far blue, where Taylor Hall (last year's number one overall pick) attacked two-on-two.  Nugent-Hopkins followed the play up and Boston was slow on the backcheck when Milan Lucic let "Nuge" go and Hall found him open in the slot for the tying goal.

The rest of the period proved uneventful.  McQuaid sent a nice pass to Hamill at about 13:20 to catch Edmonton on a line change, but Hamill wasn't able to get a great shot off.  The Oilers rattled it around  in near the goal when Eric Belanger blasted one from the top of the circle, but Rask scooped it up.  Edmonton's Peckham took the only penalty of the period at 18:17, but the Oilers sport the league's fourth best penalty kill and the Bruins never set much up.

After the period, Boychuk emphasized the need to key in on the Oilers' young wheels and slow down the rush.  "Especially in the offensive zone there, they have very good forwards that are speedy," he said.  "You have to be used to your surroundings out there."


2nd Period

The last 17 seconds of the Bruins' power play wasted away, but Tyler Seguin's speed got them another one soon after.  Jeff Petry hooked Seguin on a fast break into the offensive end and Boston set up for a power play.  After several good looks, Seguin passed it from the mid-boards to the center point, where Joe Corvo snapped a quick wrister at the goal.  Brad Marchand made a nice play to redirect the shot down and it bounced past Dubnyk for a PP tally at 3:50.

Seguin again continued to, as Edwards described it, "sizzle" when he went in on the attack for a goal at  6:24.  His initial shot seemed to ring a post, but took a quirky bounce when Oilers' defenseman Tom Gilbert tried to clear and it riccocheted off Corey Potter's skate, then stick (I think, maybe it was the other skate) and skipped into the top of the goal.  Seguin got credit and was crashing on Gilbert's clear anyway.

Nathan Horton had a nice chance in the mid slot at 9:10 with Milan Lucic in front, but couldn't find the goal.  Then, Johnny Boychuk looked to send a message to Oilers' star Taylor Hall, but Hall was hooked by Shawn Thornton as the hit unfolded.  Boychuk couldn't get a good piece and Thornton went to the box at 9:29.

The Oilers brought the house on the power play to create several chances.  The Bruins were hamstrung when Adam McQuaid lost his stick and Gregory Campbell gave him his own, which was far shorter and the opposite curve, and left Campbell without one for the the duration of the shorthand.  The B's killed it off, but couldn't clear and Thornton finally iced the puck.  With his guys tired, Head Coach Claude Julien called a timeout at 11:49 and Boston weathered the storm.

There were a few fast breaks after that with Edmonton's Ales Hemsky dancing through Zdeno Chara and the Boston defense for a chance at about 4:45.  The Bruins went the other way a minute later with its first line but the Oilers defense stood strong against the Boston speedsters.   It stood pat again when Jordan Eberle was called for an interference penalty at 16:48.  It was a pretty easy call since he hit Patrice Bergeron, who didn't have the puck, into the referee that made the call!  Boston generated some chances, but couldn't find the back of the net.

The B's closed out the period with a solid shift from the third line of Chris Kelly, Jordan Caron and Zach Hamill.  Adam McQuaid followed up on of their break-in by stepping into a slap shot at the high slot, but couldn't get it through.   The 4-2 score held up as the team's headed to the locker room.

With Boston holding the Oilers in check, Brad Marchand spoke after the period about the need to keep forcing Edmonton to work for their chances.  "We just gotta get the pucks down deep in their end and limit their opportunities," he told NESN's Naoko Funayama.

3rd Period

The teams swapped penalties, as Boston brought the pressure early.  Edmonton's Corey Potter got a stick high on Zach Hamill as he crashed the net and the two ended up in a heap on top of goaltender Devan Dubnyk.  Potter ended up with a two-minute minor for the high stick at just 1:04.  However, Dennis Seidenberg negated the man-advantage a minute later when his stick got caught in an Oiler jersey for a hook.

After the Bruins quick start, Edmonton slowly tilted the ice and went on the man-advantage again at 6:15 when Gregory Campbell headed to the box for a hook on Eric Belanger.  The Oilers didn't score, but moved the puck well on the power play.  The Bruins problems were also compounded when it was announced coming out of the TV commercial to start the power play that assistant captain and tough-nosed defenseman Andrew Ference had left the game with an undisclosed injury and would not return (Claude Julien said after the game that he left in the second period with a lower body injury).

Edmonton again went on the power play when Patrice Bergeron was called for a high stick at 13:25.  "Bergie" went off complaining that he got his stick under Jordan Eberle's and his own stick got him in the head.  The replay showed he was right, but it was Boston's third consecutive "stick" penalty of the period.  Regardless of the call, it was evident by those types of penalties that Boston wasn't keeping up with Edmonton anymore.

The power play proved to be a disaster.  My mom called during this power play and didn't have the game on.   She was happy to hear Boston was winning, but I wasn't happy as I watched the Oilers dominate the  advantage to get back in the game.  As Bergeron's penalty ticked down, Ales Hemsky fed it from the corner across the front of the goal to Eric Belanger on the far side.  Belanger dished it back across to Ryan Smyth, who shoveled it home on the back side of the crease for his second goal of the night.

Corvo played particularly well for Boston. (Getty)

With the Bruins starting to unravel, Cam Barker took an ill-advised penalty at 16:56 when he interfered with Tyler Seguin.  It killed Edmonton's momentum and gave Boston the chance to search for an insurance goal.  They got just that when they passed it around the offensive end and the puck ended up on the stick of Joe Corvo, who had slid down the right boards.  Corvo continued what had been a great game for him by firing a pass across the goal mouth and Milan Lucic redirected it into the open side of the net for a 5-3 lead at 17:13 to register Corvo's third assist of the evening.  It was the first game all season that the Oilers yielded five goals (or more...).

Brad Marchand hit the proverbial nail in the coffin at 17:57.  He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone  and walked in on the left side and sniped a shot into the attic of Dubnyk.  The 6-3 score closed out the game.  The Bruins' Chris Kelly entered his name on the game sheet with a late holding penalty at 18:42, but it was all over by the time that power play started.

Recap

At the start of the year, Boston had to have figured that a stretch against Toronto, Ottawa, the Islanders and Edmonton would yield strong results.  Well, most of those teams have been better than expected and the Bruins have been worse, but they closed out all four games for eight points.  The results have gotten them back to .500 at 7-7-0 and back into the conference with 14 points.

Boston has now scored 24 goals in four November games (all wins).  They scored just 22 in 10 October games and have more points this month (eight) than all of last month (six).

Marchand paced Boston with two goals. (AP)

"We're winning battles and working hard," Tyler Seguin said in the locker room after the game.  "We're playing a full 60 [minutes].  Right now, the main thing is consistency and that's what we're doing."

While the offense has been on fire, the Bruins have also gotten back to form.  I was raised on the theory that the team that scores its fourth goal first, wins the game (and in about two-thirds of games, one team scores four goals and the other does not).  If you don't believe it, look at this season: nine of Boston's 14 games have had one team score at least four, while the other team's scored less.  In a 1-4-0 closing to October, Boston gave up four goals in three of five games (all losses).  In the 4-0-0 start to November, they haven't yielded more than three.

"Guys have done a really good job in these past games of the winning streak," said Tuukka Rask after the game.  "Guys battled hard and blocked shots and took care of rebounds that meant a lot today."

This evening's game was the closet of the four this month.  The Bruins showed a few lapses from time-to-time.  They let Edmonton crawl back from a 2-0 deficit midway through the first period and again left the door open when they unraveled in the third.  However, they recovered each time and showed a resiliency and determination that simply wasn't there in October.

"Tonight was one of those games we started really well," said Coach Claude Julien.  "Then, we started turning the puck over high in our offensive zone and they found a way to score on those.  We have some areas to improve, but I'm glad we found a way to win."

Tonight's W said a lot about the B's.  After winning the Cup in June, this team seemed to have lost the edge that got them there.  They no longer showed the work ethic required for a blue collar team like themselves to succeed.  That's changed since the calendar flipped to November.  They've gotten back to playing Bruins hockey and it's showed by their success on the scoresheets.

Boston will have a big challenge on Saturday as it hosts the Buffalo Sabres at 7 p.m. (EST).  Like Boston, Buffalo is playing well with three straight wins and a 9-5-0 record entering a Friday game with Ottawa.  The two teams were expected to compete for the Northeast Division this season and with Boston back in the fold, this game could be a crucial early-season measuring stick.

Things won't get any easier for the Oilers as they'll go on the road to Detroit tomorrow night for a 7:30 p.m. (EST) puck drop.  This isn't the same old Edmonton team, though.  They were in it throughout tonight and the Bruins recognized that.  "You can definitely see the potential of those guys," Rask said.  "They're really good skaters and good stick handlers.  You gotta keep an eye on them when they're out there, and we did a good job of that tonight."