Panthers Get Lucky

It's been said before, and it bears repeating: The shootout just ain't worth it. Yeah, I got sour grapes after last night's shootout loss to the Panthers. The Bruins pretty much dominated the game, and Florida just sat back while Vokoun did all of the work. The overtime session was dominated by the Bruins, and then the shootout came and Cory Stillman (he still plays?) stuffed a weak one past Thomas. It's just lame how a team that dominates a game, but runs into a hot goalie, can end up on the short end in the point column. This game should have ended in a tie and each team receiving one point. But since the NHL thinks the "untapped market" of the mid-latitude/southern USA needs to see "a winner", they've decided to tack this onto the game. The shootout needs to go the way of the FoxTrax puck. And ya know what else is irritating about the shootout? The fact that after each one, everyone has to listen to everyone whine about how they like/hate the shootout.
random crap

• Tim Thomas made yet another "holy shit!" save in the first period. Tim's game in the past few weeks has been really slutty, something like a GAA of 0.98 in the past 8 games. You know who else has been playing ridiculous goal this season so far? Ryan Miller of Buffalo. US-born goaltenders for the win!
• While I'm whining about the shootout - too many dekes by Bergeron & Wheeler. They both ran out of room. Chara should have skated to within 10' of Vokoun and blasted one, nevermind trying to do any moves.
• Speaking of Wheels, he's starting to get on my shit list. He seems to be becoming a little bit of a selfish player, skating with his head down and not looking around for his linemates. I'd rather the Bruins kept Savard than Wheeler.
  
• Minnesota first suggested it over a week ago, and I now agree. The Brad Marchand experiment had ended; send the pest back down to Providence and maybe bring him up next year.
• No fights in the section last night, nothing to really take note of, though there were some pre-teens who just discovered the f-word and were pretty vocal about it. It was like they each had received, just that afternoon, a Fisher-Price "My first f-bomb pull-string talking doll" or something.
  
• More problems last night with the line changes. Minnesota was pretty upset by the Dave Lewis-ery going on at the B's bench. Another too-many-men penalty, plus the game against the Pens featured some poor line changes.