Manny being Manny....

.....well, in the words of punk rockers Social Distortion, "I was wrong..."
The Manny we saw tonight was the Manny we've seen since he's been in Boston. I thought for sure we'd see a guy, not as good as he was in Minny, but not as bad as he's been here. "I was wro-ong, self destruction got me again, I was wrooong..." He's healthy now, so we have to assume (pray) that's it's just rust. Because the alternative, that he's just lost his game somewhere between here and St. Paul is too depressing to consider. The Bruins played a much better defensive game against the Wild than in their opener against the Av's. But this time came away with a one goal loss, instead of a one goal win. The obvious difference in this is, Timmy Thomas started Thursday, and played well enough to keep his mates in it. Tonight, Manny Fernandez started, and gave up at least two (possibly three, depending how tough of a grader you are. I call it two), soft goals. You just can not do that in the NHL. On the road. Against a pretty good team.

Other than the Manny debacle, the boys looked decent. Although, I'm not sure where the physical game has disappeared to? Not nearly enough banging, but other wise a good effort. Everyone seems to buying in to the "go to the net with the puck" mantra. Lots of chances because of just that.
And I can't decide if I'm more pleased to see Savard shooting the puck (2G in the game, 3 on the year) or to see Kessell score again (2G in 2GP). Savard shooting the puck opens up the rest of his linemates for some of his patented soft passes. And Kessell is shooting the puck like we all knew he could. Tremendously quick release on that kid.

A guy not to be over looked tonight for the Black & Gold is Stephan Yelle. He was a shot blocking machine on the PK, and is a great steadying influence.

And for all the grief he gets, Andrew Ference had another solid game on the blue line. Nothing spectacular, but that's a good thing, because the only spectacular plays he makes are bad ones. Aron Ward also settled down nicely tonight, and was more the steady vet that we expect.

In the mixed bag department, Wheeler had another good offensive night in his return to the State Of Hockey. But he was victimized on the Wild's 4th goal, not picking up Belanger going to the net. Rookie mistake by a rookie. I can live with that, as longas he learns from it, which I believe he will.
As much as I love Lucic (as a player, settle down), he had an "uneven" game again. Got himself a few decent chances, but eitehr couldn't handle the puck cleanly, or took WAY too long to get a shot off.

Anyway, it's nearly 1AM, and I'm watching the Sox.....sounds like a good time to wrap up the blog. Catch ya later.
Go B's-Kynch