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Without question the Boston Bruins have been an inspiring story thus far in the NHL season that is quickly approaching the half way mark.
Coming into the season no one really knew what to expect from the Bruins who last year snuck into the playoffs before falling to the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round.
Heading into the season question marks hung over such players as forward Michael Ryder who was coming off a disappointing 14-goal season with the Canadiens. Questions were also being pointed at third year forward Phil Kessel who some believed wasn’t developing at a quick enough rate.
Both these players along with the goaltending tandem of Manny Fernandez and Tim Thomas have risen to the challenge and beyond as they tied a record last Sunday when they beat the Atlanta Thrashers 2-1 and thus extending their winning streak to eight games.
Boston, who last accomplished this feat back in 1992/93, got a stellar performance from goalie Manny Fernandez who came into the season with questions to answer after missing part of the season last year with a knee injury.
“He was outstanding,” Bruins coach Claude Julien commented about his goalies play. “He had a couple of saves late in the game that definitely made the difference.”
Scoring the winning goal late in the third was Ryder who ripped a pass from Dave Krejci into the net. With the win, Boston who started the season 2-2-3, jumped into a tie with the San Jose Sharks for first place overall.
Also scoring was Kessel who earlier strung together an impressive 18 game point streak that has him on pace for a breakout 50 goal season.
“They worked hard out there,” Kessel said of the Thrashers who lost all three games to Boston in the season series while being outscored 18-10.
Boston has now had Atlanta’s number dating back to December 29, 2007 as Boston has gone 5-0 since that time.
With an eight game winning streak, Boston knows that teams will now be gunning hard for them every chance they get.
“We have to understand that we’re no longer under the radar,” said veteran Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward. “We’re not going to sneak up on anybody.”
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