The University of Maine student newspaper since 1875
About Us
Contact Us
Staff
Donate
home
News
Opinion
Style
Sports
Archives
Print Edition
Last updated: Wednesday, May 9, 10:51 a.m.
Sports

Boston gets off to a great ten win start

By Eric Gullickson
Posted on Nov. 17, 2003, at 12:00 a.m.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the National Hockey League season is hitting full swing and the best teams in the league are coming out blazing.

The Boston Bruins are one of those teams. In their 80th NHL season, they are leading the Northeast Division by five points. But as amazing as that may be, the Bruins are the best team in the NHL. They have been flying high and are undefeated in their last five games (4-0-1). The Bruins have been able to accomplish this standing with the help of some familiar faces and some not so familiar ones.

Like every season for the past few years, captain Joey Thorton is leading the way for the Bruins with 18 points in 17 games, putting him 10th in scoring in the NHL. Bruins Brian Rolston, Glen Murray and Sergei Samsonov are also doing well through the first 17 games. Each is averaging nearly one point per game, which is going to be tough to beat if they can keep it up for the full 82 game season. Along with their normal stars, the Bruins have found surprising stats from some unfamiliar places.

Mike Knuble has stepped up to be second on the team in scoring. Over the past few seasons, he has become a goal scoring force for the B’s. Another pleasant surprise for the Bruins has been rookie Patrice Bergeron. The 18-year-old is sixth on the team in scoring and has scored some big goals in crucial games so far. He is predicted to be the next Boston great.

The biggest question the Bruins had coming into this season was between the pipes. They no longer have Lord Byron and goaltending last season proved to be their greatest flaw. However, one of their former minor league goaltenders has stepped up to take the top spot in net over former all-star Felix Potvin. Andrew Raycroft is 6-2-1 this season. Raycroft has an amazing 1.78 goals against average, which is fourth in the NHL, and a respectable .938 save percentage. If the goaltending remains solid, this is going to be the team to beat come March and April.

The Bruins have a few days off until a Wednesday meeting with the Atlanta Thrashers. Coming off a heroic overtime win against Vancouver, they can use a victory to keep up their confidence going into games against the Capitals and Flyers, the other perennial power in the eastern conference, this weekend.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2003, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

«
»