Prague: A Tale of Two Games

The last of the NHL Premiere games went on Sunday and in Prague, it was a tale of two different games, as the Phoenix Coyotes and Boston Bruins split their opening series to start the 2011 season.  The Coyotes out-hustled and outworked the Bruins in the opening on Saturday, beating them decisively, 5-2.  In the second game, it was a much different Coyotes team that showed very little hustle and couldn't break through a tougher Bruins defense, as the team from Boston emerged with a 3-0 victory.

In the opening game, the statistics really didn't tell the whole story of the game.  Ilya Bryzgalov made 40 saves, but wasn't necessarily challenged as many times as you would have thought in the game.  The defense in front of him allowed plenty of shots through, but they were very straight-forward, especially in the first two periods of the game.  Radim Vrbata scored a pair of goals in the victory, to help lead the way, while Ed Jovanovski did his part from the back end, adding a pair of assists as well.  The Bruins did take advantage of a loose 3rd period, with Nathan Horton scoring both goals in his regular season debut for Boston, in a losing cause.

In the second game, it really felt like night and day compared to the opening game.  The Boston Bruins controlled the pace and really kept the Coyotes limited to fewer chances and less breakouts, making the job on their goaltender, Tim Thomas, that much easier.  Thomas made 29 saves to record a shutout in his first game of the season, also adding an assist for a 5-point game.  You can't complain about that, can you?  Nathan Horton reappears in the blog, picking up a goal and an assist in the game, while David Krejci picked up a pair of assists as well in the win.  This was the Bruins team that everyone has been raving about and expecting to win the Northeast Division this year.

Let's see how this series panned out for the draft, shall we?

Boston Bruins				Phoenix Coyotes
Tuukka Rask, G	Derek	0		Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D	Clayton	1
Zdeno Chara, D	Jani	1		Derek Morris, D	Dale C.	0
Marc Savard, F	Larry	0		Lee Stempniak, F	Derek	0
Nathan Horton, F	Peter	4		Ilya Bryzgalov, G	Jani	2
Tim Thomas, G	Peter	5		Keith Yandle, D	Kristy & Don	0
Milan Lucic, F	Ryan	2		Wojtek Wolski, F	Neil	0
Patrice Bergeron, F	Stuart	0		Ed Jovanovski, D	Neil	2
Dennis Seidenberg, D	Stuart	0		Scottie Upshall, F	Ryan	1
David Krejci, F	Wayne	3		Shane Doan, F	Stuart	0
Tyler Seguin, F	Wayne	1		Ray Whitney, F	Wayne	1

Obviously, the more impressive side of the ledger belongs to the Bruins, who picked up points in both games. Peter has to be a pretty happy camper, because he had the two biggest Bruins in the series, picking up 9 points between the two players, Horton and Thomas.  Wayne also enjoyed some success in Prague, picking up 5 points from three players, while Ryan and Jani had 3 points from two players as well.  This series looked to be a scoring success in the end.

Now, how will the travel and the slightly more condensed schedule suit these two teams for the rest of the season?