Tim Thomas Shines With 5-0 Record As Boston Bruins Shutout Toronto Maple Leafs

The Boston Bruins face the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden before they head on the road.

Toronto has had a great start, amassing a 5-2-1 record in their first eight games of the young 2010-2011 season.  Although they started with a 4-0-0 record, they have lost three of their last four games.

The Bruins, on the other hand, had a somewhat better season thus far.  With tonight being just their seventh game of the season, they are going into this matchup 4-2-0 with the losses to Tuukka Rask in the net and all four wins going to Tim Thomas.  This should not be read into it too much as both losses were not just at the hands of Rask, but at the hands of sub-par play of the Bruins squad.

Former Bruin, Phil Kessel makes his seventh appearance against Boston, but the sniper had only earned one assist against his former team.  From past games, it is clear the Bruins want to make sure that Kessel's success in the Black and Gold will not go against them in the Blue and White.

First Period

The Leafs tried to use their speed against the Bruins but Boston was up to the task. Boston's defense was up to the task limiting just eight shots on Thomas and the Bruins got 11 at Jonas Gustavsson.

Only one goal was scored in the opening frame, and that was by Bruins center, Patrice Bergeron.  Bergeron finally got his first tally of the season with a power play goal.  The puck was cycled via Horton to Chara at the left point.  Chara quickly passed it to a wide open Bergeron at the top of the right face off circle who made no mistake to one time it past Gustavsson glove side with just 41 seconds left of the period.  The goal is also Bergeron's 100th career goal.  1-0 Bruins.

Second Period

Through out the game, Kessel was being showered down with boos by the Boston faithful who felt shunned by him when he asked to be traded in a team that was ripe to make a legitimate run at The Cup.  With more money in his pocket, the Bruins lost a key offensive weapon.  The Bruins did make the postseason, but they clearly missed Kessel's talents.

With the trade, they acquired Tyler Seguin with the second overall 2010 draft.  Seguin got his first goal in Boston with a missed rolling puck as he thought he was going to shoot, but it got to Dennis Seidenberg at the blue line.  Seidenberg then quickly got it to Seguin, who was just inside the right face off and ripped one low glove side.  2-0 Bruins.

Third Period

With the two goal lead, Boston was in defense mode, but made numerous attempts at the Toronto net with Gustavsson not letting another goal past him.

The Bruins lined up from board to board, limiting the Leafs any time in the Bruins zone. What shots did get to Thomas were handled very well, and he had to make a few spectacular saves to maintain the shutout.

Boston is now 5-2-0 with Thomas earning a stingy 0.60 GAA along with the equally stingy 5-0 record so far.

The keys to the win for the Bruins were a combination of the lines collapsing on the net when the Leafs were attacking, and limiting Toronto's efforts to get a decent rebound. Thomas, in turn, made some key saves and limited the rebounds to keep the Leafs from capitalizing on too many second chances.  This especially shows after Thomas only faced 20 shots on goal.

Next up are the Bruins visiting Canada's national capital city team to take on Chara's former team of four seasons, the Ottawa Senators at the Scotiabank Place on Saturday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. EST.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean"