Tim Thomas: "bête noire" of the Senators no longer. It took the unerring work of captain Daniel Alfredsson to bring down Tim Thomas and get him off the ice after allowing 3 goals on nine shots. True, the Bruins were coming back from a road trip, but then again, the Sens are still on their road trip. The difference is that they benefitted from the fresh legs of Daniel Alfedsson and Filip Kuba, the latter returning to the line-up today.



Alfredsson was magical, finding the lanes and the seams to repeatedly put the puck on goal and past the Boston goalie. Yanking Thomas didn't help as substitute Tuukka Rask was beaten by Alfie again to complete the hat trick barely three minutes after stepping in. Also instrumental was Alex Kovalev who opened the scoring, and was robbed by Rask in the third when he got a breakaway. Mike Fisher picked up no less than three assists on the game, and Kuba chipped in with two assists of his own. Another key was the activated defense who came down for shots on goal and to put some traffic in front of the goalie.

Weird stuff

Weird is the linesman who got in Chris Phillips' way and allowed a breakaway for Boston's David Krejci, which was beautifully saved by Brian Elliott. Weirder is the turnaround at the other end where the linesman got in the way of the Boston defense and allowed Jonathan Cheechoo in by himself. Cheechoo made no mistake and buried his 5th of the season.

And is it fate that gives a dizzy spell to starter Mike Brodeur and allows Brian Elliott to face Thomas again? I'm glad Elliott got that chip off his shoulder.