Courtesy of AP

By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

The NHL sure has some odd scheduling tendencies, particularly in seasons condensed to accommodate the Olympic break. The Bruins are currently in the midst of a four-day layoff sandwiched between home games with Toronto, making the long-awaited “Kessel-mania” an extended doubleheader. Even stranger is the fact that the B’s hadn’t faced the Leafs–a division rival–in the first two months of the season, but face them three times in a 14-day span in December and three more times in the final month of the season.

Personal nitpicking of the schedule aside, I found Saturday night’s game to be both satisfying and thoroughly entertaining. The 7-2 score was perfectly lopsided–though it was even better at 7-0 before Toronto mustered two late goals. It was fitting that Kessel’s ex-setup man, Marc Savard, finished with a hat trick after inking a 7-year bargain of an extension ($28.5 mil). It was nice to see Johnny Boychuk snag his first NHL goal.

In terms of Kessel’s performance–while one game certainly doesn’t even come close to putting the trade into perspective–the Bruins have to feel good about themselves after shoving #81 around to the tune of zero points and a -3 rating. At the very least, the blowout gave us some temporary fulfillment after longing for his scoring prowess through the early season droughts.

The game also diverted our attention from Friday night’s Montreal massacre, which I won’t linger on too much because of the team’s otherwise strong play in recent weeks. Some of the abominable play was fluky–Hunwick and Morris both whiffed on passes that led to Canadiens’ goals. The power play remains an issue, as the Bruins unacceptably wasted two 5-on-3 chances, and remain in the bottom five in the NHL with a 17.1% conversion rate.

But the game didn’t worry me too much overall–the Canadiens were facing heightened pressure on the night of their centennial celebration and came out with bite that the Bruins, probably somewhat distracted by Kessel’s upcoming return the next night, couldn’t match. Interestingly enough, the Bruins themselves seem to come out with the most bite when revenge is on the docket–along with the blowout of the Leafs, they shattered the ‘Canes by an identical score of 7-2.

Looking ahead to Thursday night’s game, I’m not expecting any 7-0 leads. The Leafs–I’m sorry to say–are on the rise, having played strongly in recent weeks with three wins (by three goals each) in the past four games. Kessel will play better now that he has a game in front of his old fans under his belt, and may even come out with some vengeance–before you disregard that statement, consider that he got in his first NHL “fight” last week against Columbus in response to a cross-check from defenseman Kris Russell (you can even see the angry little guy snarl around the 15-16 second mark).
Other thoughts:

-Wasn’t last year the centennial season for Les Habitantes? Enough with the celebrations already. Seems like the folks in Montreal are focusing on the past as a diversion from the worrisome state of affairs in the present–though, to their credit, the Habs really got up for the game on Friday. I’ve always liked Mike Cammalleri as a player, and I can’t say he bothers me much yet as a Canadien, despite his three goals on the night. It’s almost a little disappointing to see him and BC boy Brian Gionta on the Habs these days and not Kovalev and Komisarek, our favorite villains of recent years.

-That’s the best I’ve seen from Carey Price against the B’s since the first four games of the 2008-09 playoff series when he was being touted oh-so-wrongfully as a prodigy, sensation, next coming of Patrick Roy, etc. etc.

-I was happy to see Matt Hunwick sit out Saturday night, and even happier to see Boychuk’s first NHL goal. Hunwick has definitely showed symptoms of the sophomore slump; perhaps we laid expectations too high for him coming into the season. I predicted 40 points for him, but at this rate, he’ll be lucky to get 20 if he can even stay on the roster all season.

-Paging David Krejci…

Popularity: 4% [?]