Are you kdding me... Ray Whitney?

Tim Thomas left us last night with this quote… "I'm not saying we didn't try [to hit Whitney]," said Thomas. "I'm just mad one guy beat us, that one guy was able to win the game. Whether that's my fault, or everyone's fault . . . it's more of an anger situation."

The first goal, was due to poor defense, the second goal was a combination of poor defense and poor goal tending. The third goal was just plain SOFT and after watching the replay at some point today, Thomas should issue a rebuttal to his statement that says…..

“Hey I have never been a starting goalie, and I have never been expected to play as many games as I have this season. The blame should go on the coaching staff and the management for not getting a real goalie, like Andrew Raycroft….. Oh wait we had him didn’t we.”

I will tell you, after watching the first few minutes of last nights game, I thought we where going to see the Bruins hand the Canes another loss. The line of Bergeron, Boyes and Kessel was flying, they nearly scored on their first shift, and at one point held the puck in the Canes end cycling for over two minutes, allowing the Canes to clear the puck, only after generating four shots (one off the post, so I guess three shots) and needing a change themselves due to exhaustion. I have not seen that much dominance from a Boston line in a long time and was actually excited to see what they would do next.

Well what they did next was nothing, they did play well throughout the game, but they could not find the back of the net, not for a lack of chances, they just could not catch a break. This line was one of two bright spots last night, the other being the new comer Brian Bochenski, and his pair of goals, giving him three goals in his first two games as a Bruin. Neither of Bochenski’s goals where very pretty they where the type of goal that a true goal scorer gets, the puck lands on his stick and he shoots it. Does he pick a corner, deke the goalie? No he gets the puck and he puts it in the back of the net. I saw flashes of Glenn Murray in the kid last night, just being a solid guy in the slot, who if you get him the puck will put it in the net.

Speaking of Muzz, he decided to give it a go last night bad groin and all. Muzz nearly put Boston ahead in the first when he ripped a puck through Cam Ward, only for Brent Hedican to scoop up just prior to it crossing the goal line. What a rocket that shot was, classic Muzz, crossed the blue line and ripped it. Muzz’s groin was evident late in the third with the Canes up 4-1, Lewis got smart and sat Muzz down to rest his groin. Then Lewis got stupid again and put him back out there for a last ditch effort on the power play. Why the hell would you sit a guy with a muscle injury let his body start to cool down and then put him back out there? We will be lucky if we do not hear today that Muzz’s groin injury has gotten worse.

The powerless play sucked last night, and continues to spiral downward, hoping someday to meet the penalty kill (which did much better last night and actually showed a little spunk.) at the bottom of the NHL standings. At one point the Hurricanes had two shots on goal to our 0 and this was during a Bruins power play. Of course this was on the fourth power play of the night and the Bruins where already 0-3 with a measly 4 shots. Not sure what Lewis was thinking last night (well I am not sure what he is thinking any night for that matter) but why would you put Marco Strum, who just came back from a thumping to his noggin, on the power play? At least it was not PJ Axelson, but come on. Was he not watching how Bergeron, Boyes, Kessel combination was playing? Why not toss them out there on the power play for a chance or two and see what happens? It is the little things like this that are keeping the team down, Lewis is all about riding the hot hand in net (not that we have one) but he is not thinking that way with his forwards, at least not on a consistent basis.
Hannu better get the start Saturday, Thomas surely has not earned his fourth in a row.