Bruins Top Canes Again, 4-2

by Cory Lavalette on Dec 29, 2008 9:12 AM EST

It was an eerily similar outcome to the previous matchup between the Bruins and Canes, with Carolina holding their own against the East's best team for the majority of the game only to allow the go-ahead goal in the third period and come out on the wrong end of a 4-2 decision.

The Canes got goals from Matt Cullen and Anton Babchuk, but the top two lines failed to score. For Boston, Marc Savard stole the puck from Rod Brind'Amour and fed Michael Ryder for the go-ahead goal in the third, and Blake Wheeler notched two second-period markers for the Bruins. Chuck Kobasew finished the scoring with an empty-netter.

The good:

Cam Ward was again good in net, further cementing his status as the team's No. 1 goalie.

Tuomo Ruutu had a game-high eight hits.

The team was 41-21 in the faceoff circle. All four centers won at least 61 percent of their draws.

The players on the bottom two lines have picked up their play, especially Chad LaRose and Patrick Eaves.

Babchuk's slapshot goal was an absolute blast and he looks like he's developing more confidence in the offensive end.

The Bruins heaped praise on the Canes, and the energy the team is playing with lately is the best it's been for a prolonged stretch this season.

The bad:

Brind'Amour was minus-3 and his turnover of the deciding goal was a costly error.

Ray Whitney went without a shot and was minus-2. When the combination of him and Brind'Amour isn't scoring, it's proven to be a liability.

While it's nice to compete with the Bruins — clearly the conference's best team right now — coming away with zero points in two games against them doesn't do Carolina any good in the standings.

Carolina next plays New Year's Eve, hosting division rival Atlanta at 8 p.m.

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Chad LaRose is definitely always the unsung hero of this team. When he does well, he gets praise. When he is put on the 4th line and not given many minutes he is said to be “nothing but a 4th line player anyway”. He is one of the hardest working players on this team, I can’t say that about all the big wheels on this team.

I thought Cam Ward played a great game considering it was Boston who has some of the highest scoring games in the NHL. Yes they got his high glove side, but that’s going to happen to all goalies, he made up for it with his other saves.

We played a decent game considering it was a hot Bruins team, but we failed to capitilize on some scoring chances that would have won us this game.

The 2 biggest failures of this team was Brindy and Whitney(too many bad turnovers).

We’ll give Staal a pass since he had a 6’9" defenseman hovering over him the entire game. Kudos to Walker for standing up for Staal in a Cole fashion kind of way, Staal needs that now.

A better team from Carolina played this game as opposed to the team that showed up in Atlanta.

The hour glass bottle is desending upon us, we need to score, score, score or say goodbye to this season—-AGAIN.

As always…Go Canes!

by Caron on Dec 29, 2008 10:36 AM EST reply actions

i couldnt agree more with you Caron. LaRose is one of the most exciting players on the ice every night. Brindy needs to get dropped to 3rd line. But the thing about that is we would really miss all his Face Off wins. Maybe a demotion would work tho…

by blacklisted on Dec 29, 2008 11:11 AM EST reply actions