Feb 24, 2013; Sunrise, FL, USA; Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) bobbles the puck during the third period against the Florida Panthers at the BB
Quote of the night: “Wow, I haven’t seen New Englanders tear through the deep south this bad since the days of Sherman!”
The Bruins played one of their best games of the season tonight. We also got to see the best single goal scored for the Bruins since Shawn Thornton‘s penalty shot last season against the Winnipeg Jets. (Perhaps scoring amazing goals on Southeast Division teams is just something the Bruins do very well.) For those who haven’t seen this: Take it all in folks. I think Jack Edward’s shamelessly biased opinion does this play far more justice than I could. The Bruins handily defeated the Panthers 4-1. They are now 11-2-2 and climbing back up to take their rightful place as the leader of the Northeast Division and the Eastern Conference.
February 24, 2013
Boston Bruins vs Florida Panthers (Boston @ BB&T Center)
Final Score: Boston Bruins 4 – Florida Panthers 1
Three Stars of the Game:
Third: Jacob Markstrom (FLA), Second: Zdeno Chara , First: Tuukka Rask
Causeway Crowd’s Three Stars:
Third Star:(TIE) Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille. (From Matt)”Kelly scored his first goal of the season today but he did much more then that. As always Kelly was a beast on the penalty kill. He is one of the main guys Claude Julien wants out there on the kill and is a big reason why the Bruins have killed 21 straight penalties. Kelly probably won’t score an easier goal then he did in his life then the one he scored Sunday. But it doesn’t matter because it was a goal and hopefully it will spark his confidence.” Paille gets to share the third star for his multi point game this evening. His assist on the Kelly goal, and his own short handed, empty net goal in the third period.
“That’s something that we’re trying to thrive on all year and we’re doing that night in and night out so far,” offered Paille. “One thing we want to do is not take it for granted. We’re being patient and positioned well. The rest of the year should be all right if we play like that.” Kelly and Paille (in my opinion) are the two most under appreciated Bruins on the roster. These men have paid their dues and work hard in their respective lines to bring consistant victories to the team.
Second Star: Zdeno Chara. (From Aidan)”The captain stepped up and impressed everyone with his amazing spin-o-rama goal. The sleeping giant has awoken, and Chara made sure that the momentum stayed in Boston’s favour during this game by helping the Bruins go up 2-0, and yes the Panthers got a goal on a bad rebound scramble, but the Bruins did take off from there finishing 4-1.”(From Matt)”Chara definitely showed that he isn’t just a defensive player, but he showed that he can have some moves on the offensive side of things. Big Z arguably had the best goal of the season for the Bruins. He spun around, dangled a couple defenders, brought the puck to his back hand and snuck it by Markstrom for the goal. A great goal that will definitely be remembered for the rest of his career.” No argument there. Jack Edwards mentioned that this goal will be on the highlight reel that will be played upon Chara’s retirement.
First Star: Tuukka Rask: The ‘Flying Finn’ made sure the Panthers could never really get into this game tonight.(From Matt)”Tuukka had an outstanding performance against the Panthers stopping 34 shots. And even the goal that he let in was not a very noteworthy goal. Rask has played the last three games and picked up the win in each. He is definitely one of the top goaltenders in the league and he has proved it thus far this season.(From Aidan)”Tuukka stopped 34 of 35 shots, continuing his amazing goal tending streak for the season. Bringing his GAA down even farther (it was 1.87 before the game). He played his best game so far this season topping the performance during the 1-0 shutout against the Leafs.”
Tuukka Time has now been imposed on all the clocks in Florida. The Bruins