Causeway Crowd’s Three Stars of the Game (Bruins -vs- Lightning)

February 21, 2013; Tampa FL, USA; Boston Bruins right wing

(18) is congratulated by defenseman

(27) and defenseman

(44) after he scored a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at Tampa Times Forum. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Bruins are in the middle of their five game away stretch this season. Last night, the B’s paid a visit to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Black and Gold made a serious attempt to contain the most explosive offense in the NHL and for the most part, they succeeded. The Bruins played to their strength, playing tough defensive minded hockey and they gave Tampa Bay not many opportunities to exploit weakness. The Boston Bruins beat the Lightning 4-2 and have increased their season record to 10-2-2.

February 21st, 2013

Boston Bruins vs Tampa Bay Lightning (Bruins @ Tampa)

Final Score: Boston Bruins 4, Tampa Bay Lightning 2

Three Stars of the Game: Third Star: Patrice Bergeron, Second Star: Teddy Purcell (TB), First Star: Nathan Horton

Causeway Crowd Three Stars of the Game:

Third Star: Patrice Bergeron. (From Matt)”Bergeron scored his third goal of the season in the first period last night.  He also added an assist and another all around great performance for the assistant captain.  Whether it would be facilitating the offense, or killing penalties this guy just does it all and this is why he is my favorite player.  He is a team player who does every little thing right and always gets his job done.” While we may disagree on favorite players, I absolutely agree. #37 is a machine on the PK. How many times has he tied up three or more opposing players and eaten valuable seconds off a clock? He’s the biggest reason why we have the best penalty kill in the NHL (94.4%)

Second Star: Brad Marchand. (From Matt)”The Little Ball of Hate scored his team leading ninth goal of the season last night which ended up being the game winning goal.  Marchand also had an assist on the Bergeron goal, leading him to a multi-point night.  Marchand is arguably one of the hottest players in the league right now scoring four goals in the last five games.  He keeps scoring goals which is a great sign for the Bruins.(From Billy)” Kid is having a season, seems motivated and focused. He’s just a scoring machine and makes so many plays with his legs and hard work. Did you see him out muscle headman and some other Neanderthal defenseman and then set up Bergy for the one timer?”

As a proud owner of a BALL OF HATE jersey,  I’m happy to say that Marchand is my favorite player. He was expected to be more of a supporting player for Tyler Seguin this year, but the opposite has occurred.

First Star: Nathan Horton. (From Billy) “Easy one. His domination of the lightning continued. New saying, Horton: 2 goals, 2 posts, 2 points.” (From Matt) “Nathan Horton opened up the game with a goal just 1:11 seconds into the game and then added a second goal in the third period to put the game out of reach for Tampa. This was Horton’s first multi-goal game in over a year and he was just short of scoring a hat-trick(no Bruin has scored a hat-trick this year).  Horton now has six goals on the season which is second on the team.” In the last moments with an empty net, #18 was two rung posts away from the B’s first hat trick.

A lot of us in the Nation were afraid that after the big concussion last year, Nathan Horton would become another Marc Savard. Thankfully, the hockey gods chose to give him back to us. The Horton that showed up for training camp had more muscle, ink, and a desire to push himself as far as possible. He’s been one of the bright stories for us between seasons and it’s a thrill to see the old clutch master getting to the top of his game again.