The Bruins faced the New York Islanders tonight in their first home preseason game. Several players returned to the ice tonight including Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand. One player who was not present on the ice was Nathan Horton. He tells the media that he is ready to go, but the Bruins are just trying to be extra cautious and ease him back into the lineup.
The Bruins ended up winning this game by a score of 6-3. Rich Peverley and Patrice Bergeron each had one goal and two assists. Brad Marchand and David Krejci also added to the scoring. Boston fell behind early trailing the Islanders 2-0. After tying the game at two, New York took the lead again. The Bruins went on to score four consecutive goals and that was where the game was won. Tim Thomas only made 13 saves on 16 shots.
The story of this game was what took place immediately after the final whistle. Boston cut 14 players by sending them down to Providence or back to their junior hockey teams. Some of the cuts included Dougie Hamilton (Boston's first round pick in this year's draft), Alexander Khoklachev, Ryan Spooner, and Jared Knight.
It was Knight that actually started on the first line tonight with David Krejci and Milan Lucic. Benoit Pouliot replaced Knight as the game went on. Pouliot played a solid game even though nothing he did will show up on the stat sheet. He is one of those hard-working grinders that head coach Claude Julien absolutely loves. He is now on the right side of the rivalry. After all of the cuts, the Bruins now have 34 players remaining in camp, with 19 forwards, 11 defensemen, and 4 goaltenders.
Boston's next two preseason games will be against the Montreal Canadiens up in Canada. The first one will take place this Sunday night.
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