Bruins Win Three Straight: Time To Bear-Down For The Road Ahead

The Big Bad Bruins paid a visit to the Broad Street Bullies tonight in the City of Brotherly Love.And while it wasn’t the slug-fest as it once was back in the 70’s, Boston still won their third straight over the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1.

Michael Ryder lit the lamp for the first time in five games, while David Krejci and Dennis Wideman each notched a goal and an assist, respectively—Wideman with the game-winner.

Each game, we hear more and more about the Bruins fourth line of Bitz, Yelle, and Thornton. (My cousin likes to call them Bitz-Blitz-Gritz. I think this should stick) Although they didn’t make it on the box score tonight, their production and presence are not to go unnoticed.

It’s seems to be a case of "sometimes you don’t notice it when you see it, but you’ll notice it when you don’t."  The trio do all the things to win games, whether they hit the twine or not—they fore-check, back check, finishing checks, shoot the puck, and collapse the net.

Byron Bitz tallied over 14-minutes on ice-time, a season high. Thornton was one second off his season high with 14:14 and Stephan Yelle registered 15:28, his highest TOI since January 19.

Tim Thomas picked up his 23rd win of the season tonight as well, stopping 25 of 26 shots—a few of them sure to make the highlight reels.

The victory over the Flyers tonight was just another stepping-stone for the Bruins, as they have an exhausting schedule ahead of them this month. This marked just the first of six games that the Black and Gold will play in 10 days, and the first set of back-to-back away games.

(Feb.13 at NJ—Feb. 14 at Nashville and Feb. 21 at Florida—Feb. 22 at Tampa Bay)

The Bruins immediately head north of the border tonight, as they gear-up for the Northeast Division rivals, Ottawa Senators. The Sens are dead-last in goals-per-game in the league and are currently on a three-game losing skid.

We could see an appearance from a strange face between the pipes tomorrow night. Manny Fernandez was back at practice yesterday and was finally backed on the bench tonight after missing the previous four games with an injury. Or was it “soreness”?

Tim Thomas has started in four games during the past eight days—and the workhorse that he has been—starting another wouldn’t be an issue, but the fact that it’s a back-to-back away game may lean towards Manny.

Nonetheless, it should be a favorable matchup for either net minder tomorrow night against the underachieving Senators.

Although February is the shortest month of the year with 28 days, the Bruins play in 14, and eight of those on the road. Time to bear-down for a long month ahead.