BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 11: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins after the game celebrating his hat trick against the Ottawa Senators at the TD Garden on January 11, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
The scoring began 3:33 into the game as Brad Marchand's hard forecheck caused a rushed play by the Sens defense, a lucky bounce off of Mike Fisher's stick, and Patrice Bergeron in the perfect spot to take the puck and quickly roof it over Brian Elliott. That was Bergeron's 11th goal of the season. Later in the first period, Blake Wheeler had his stick on the ice and put the puck in the back of the net from a sweet Tyler Seguin pass. That was Wheeler's 10th goal of the season.
In the second period, 2:50 into the period, Bergeron scored his second goal of the game, his 12th goal of the season. Just after the Bruins killed a penalty, Bergeron made another nice defensive play at the Bruins blue line, raced down the ice with Wheeler, tried to pass to Wheeler but it was blocked by an Ottawa defenseman, both Bergeron and Wheeler whacked at it but it looked like Bergeron knocked it into the net. Later in the period, Brad Marchand scored his 8th goal of the season as his attempted pass went off an Ottawa defenseman's skate and into the net. Everyone thought Bergeron knocked it into the net for a hat trick so the hats came raining down onto the ice. But after review you could see it clearly went off an Ottawa defenseman's skate. Later, Tyler Seguin would make it 5-0 with his 7th goal of the season on a wicked wrist shot from the slot.
In the third period, Ottawa replaced goalie Elliott with Mike Brodeur (no relation to Devils' Martin Brodeur). This period it took 5:04 for Bergeron to score a goal and what a shot he took on Brodeur as he roofed another one and it found the corner over Brodeur short-side. This goal made it officially Bergeron's first NHL hat trick and some more hats came raining down onto the ice. It was Bergeron's 13th goal of the season.
During the game there were a few bouts, as during any blow out sometimes fights occur because of frustration. In the second period, Nathan Horton had a quick fight with Jesse Winchester after they exchanged some shoves. Shawn Thornton also took on Matt Carkner in the second period which was a heavyweight exchange by both guys. Carkner landed more shots on Thornton but props to Thornton for hanging in there and landing a good punch of his own. Carkner got the decision in that one. In the third period, Carkner went after Daniel Paille after Paille bumped him (I talk more about this fight down below).
A NESN video with the replays of the three fights and the Boston crowd doing the wave.
Tim Thomas is now 19-4-6, with a 1.77 GAA, a .946 save percentage, and 6 shutouts.
Some notes from the game:
In playing in tonight's game, Mark Recchi moves ahead of Bruins legend Ray Bourque in the NHL's all-time games-played list with his 1,613th game.
Nathan Horton and Adam McQuaid returned to the Bruins lineup.
This is just speculation on my part, I have no idea if this is true or not but I'm thinking that McQuaid possibly had a hand injury from his fight with Travis Moen that kept him out of the lineup in Pittsburgh. There were a few times in tonight's game where it looked like Chris Neil and Zack Smith wanted to have a go with McQuaid but nothing happened. McQuaid could have been told not to fight. Again, this is just speculation on my part.
Bergeron and McQuaid were both a +4. Bergeron with 3 goals on 4 shots. David Krejci finished the game with two assists. Both Seguin and Marchand had a goal and an assist each.
Punk of the game goes to Senators Matt Carkner with his basically instigating a fight with non-fighter Daniel Paille. Behind the Senators net Paille came in and gave Carkner a little bump that Carkner didn't like so he gave Paille a few shoves and then grabbed him and forced him to drop the gloves. I'm not sure how Carkner didn't get an instigator penalty there. Congrats Carkner you took out your frustrations on a non-fighter. You don't earn respect around the league by doing stuff like that. This was similar to Chris Neil's instigating a fight with Dennis Seidenberg at the end of a game when they played in Ottawa earlier in the season. I'm hoping Carkner gets sent a message, in the way of a fist to the face the next time these two teams meet, which isn't until February 18th at Ottawa. This was Paille's first career fighting major.
If he wasn't considered for the Frank J. Selke Trophy before, Patrice Bergeron should definitely be considered for it this season. Just watch this game again and focus on Bergeron, he made numerous nice plays in all three zones.
Courtesy of NESN and Stanley Cup of Chowder, the Bruins are 6-2-1 when Shawn Thornton fights this season.
Onto the next one
The Bruins next game is on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers at Boston. It's a 7pm EST game. Tonight the Flyers beat the Sabres 5-2.
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