Published October 12, 2010
After this weekend’s mixed performance in Prague, WBUR Bruinblogger Ric Duarte looks ahead to the 2011 season. Last week, Ric explained the most significant changes to this year’s lineup. –AP
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Boston's Tyler Seguin, right, shoots to score past Ilya Bryzgalov of the Phoenix Coyotes during a game in Prague on Sunday. Boston won 3-0. (Petr David Josek/AP)
The Bruins finished their European vacation looking like the team from last year, with no cohesion and a real knack for making the average goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov in this case, look like the second coming of Georges Vezina.
In the season opener Saturday in Prague, the Bruins gave up three clean breakaways, one of which the Phoenix Coyotes scored on. They had no fight for the puck. They let Phoenix pretty much have their way. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
On Sunday, from the opening faceoff, you had to ask, Who are these guys? They fore-checked, they back-checked, they took care of the puck in their own end and created quality scoring chances that were non-existent in the game on Saturday.
Tim Thomas seemed to be back in Vezina form after his off-season hip surgery and posted his 18th career shutout. Eighteen-year rookie Tyler Seguin notched his first National Hockey League goal on a breakaway setup with an oh-so-nice backhand flip pass from Michael Ryder, and everything was right with the Bruins as they shut out the Coyotes 3-0.
The seven-hour plane ride back home surely must have been much more pleasant than the previous night’s sleep — when they slept through the first two periods of Saturday’s opener.
Inconsistency! I used that word many times last season, as the B’s would win one with a good performance and then lie down like dogs in the next.
This again raises more questions than answers for this hockey club. Can they score goals at a clip that won’t leave them at the bottom of the league again? Can the goaltending tandem of Tuukka Rask and Thomas keep them in games long enough to find that key goal they will need to produce wins? Will Coach Claude Julien discipline his players with decreased ice time — or will he continue playing four lines, getting no results?
Back on American soil, the Bruins are resting and trying to recover from jet lag. The team resumes play Saturday in New Jersey, when the Bruins take on Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils — a team they have lost to in five of the past eight games, scoring just eight goals in total.
The Bruins play the Washington Capitals on Oct. 19 ahead of the home opener at the Garden against those same Capitals on Oct. 21. Once they get back to the regular North American hockey schedule, we will be able to gauge what we do have with the 2010-2011 edition of the Boston Bruins.