Too Little, Too Late

I briefly flashed back to my senior year of high school, lacing up the skates in front of the small but dedicated crowd that filled the rink. I remember getting pumped up for big games, season openers, rivalry matchups. And this afternoon, I thought to myself -- we could've knocked off the team that I'm watching right now.

I'm clearly exaggerating a bit, but the Boston Bruins were nothing short of pathetic to open their 2010-11 campaign. They weren't getting pressure offensively and their defense was collapsing play after play. After three breakaways, several more point-black chances, and killing off a few penalties, the Phoenix Coyotes found themselves dominating Boston and taking a 4-0 lead to the locker room after two.

And then there was light. A few rays of hope shined through what was an abysmal start to the season for the B's. They peppered the Phoenix goal and had some high-percentage scoring chances. Newcomer Nathan Horton notched two goals to make it just a two-goal game with over half a period to go. Blake Wheeler had a great chance to slice that deficit in half with plenty of time remaining, but his slot wrister was turned aside by Ilya Bryzgalov, who had a phenomenal day between the pipes for the 'Yotes. After tacking on an empty-netter, Phoenix wrote a 5-2 victory into the books.

Tuukka Rask played a solid game for the Bruins, being relied on for several huge stops, including two breakaway saves. The goals that he did give up were, for the most part, past his control. Defensively, the Bruins looked very shaky -- a stark contrast to their ultra-defensive team last season that earned a playoff spot despite being the second-worst goal-scoring team in the NHL. It really just looked like it took the B's 40 minutes to get their feet wet. The third period was promising, so hopefully they can carry that over into tomorrow. They'll be right back to work at 10 AM ET -- 4:00 PM in Prague -- in an effort to earn a split against Phoenix in this opening two-game journey.