Hockey Thoughts

A hockey writer named Elliotte Friedman writes a regular column about the NHL; he's an insider, and seems to know enough people to get the good stories, which makes for interesting reading. Through last season, the column was called 30 Thoughts, a title I never gave much consideration to, until this season,when it became 31 Thoughts. Oh! The number of teams in the league! It seems so obvious in hindsight. (In my defense, it's not like he comes up with one point per team every time.)

The Bruins' season started two weeks ago, and it started without Patrice Bergeron, who was listed as day-to-day after tweaking something in training camp. They only called it a lower-body injury, and I was hoping that, since they played their first game and immediately had three days off, he would be in game two. But no, he still isn't back, and although he was practicing with the team this week, it was wearing the red, no-contact jersey, which did not make it at all likely that he would pop back in to a game right away.....

David Backes was also out for the start of the season, though honestly his absence concerned me far less (sorry, David). First they said he was just ill, then that it was diverticulitis, so ugh. It seemed he could be out for a while.

And then Noel Acciari broke his finger, and is out for six weeks.

And then Adam McQuaid went down in the last game, after blocking a shot.

And then Ryan Spooner tore his groin, out four to six weeks.

And then Tuukka was injured in practice this week, because of course he was. Concussion, after he got run over (on the ice, that is, not by a car or anything.)

This is not the start I was hoping they would have. I was not too hopeful before last night's game. And then they surprised me! In a good way, I mean.

I turned the radio on, after leaving the gym, and it was a few minutes into the game, no score. Vancouver scored, boo. Boston scored, yay! And to my surprise, Bergeron was playing! And by the sound of it, playing well!

About halfway home (it's a short drive), there was a fight, and the Bruins ended up with a five-minute power play. As I pulled into the driveway, they scored again! So I was happy as I turned off the game, gathered my things, and went inside to turn the TV on.

Where I saw that they had just scored again! For the non-hockey fans, if a team scores on a regular, two-minute power play, the rest of the penalty is cancelled, but with the majors, you get all five minutes no matter what happens. Getting two goals on one isn't super-common, I don't think, but clearly it happens.

And so does getting three! Though the Bruins haven't done it since 1998, apparently, so really not common, but very welcome. So that was 4-1.

In the second period, it became 5-1, so when I tell you that over a very short span of time, it went to 5-3, you can understand why I was concerned. But they won in the end, 6-3, and so I can be mostly positive about it. Not completely, as Krejci didn't finish the game, so he may be injured, and McQuaid definitely is: he's out for 8 weeks with a broken leg. I wonder if he'll keep blocking shots like that when he returns?

But if Bergeron can keep playing, and bringing everyone else's play up (he had three assists and a goal), I'll be happy about that.

Meanwhile, I watched the latest episode of Behind the B, and while it had to touch on some of the recent losses, there were a few golden moments that show why I enjoy the behind-the-scenes so much:

• Since some of the players are mic'd on the ice, we got to hear David Krejci and David Pastrnak talking to each other, between plays, in Czech.
• And an opposing player called Marchand "big nose"!
• Then, in the touching moment, Jake DeBrusk gave his first-NHL-goal puck to his grandmother. Everyone together: awwww!