Lucic's contacts help him make contact with the puck in win
Posted 8:15 PM ET | Comments 0
It was a night of firsts at the Garden on Saturday night. The first multi-power play goal game for the Bruins, Stephane Yelle scored his first point as a Bruins, Shawn Thornton record his first point of the season with an assist on Yelle’s goal, Milan Lucic recorded his first career hat trick tonight – getting four points(the extra point for assisting David Krechji score a goal in the second period) and most importantly, the Bruins won their first home game of the season – beating the Atlanta Thrashers 5-4.
Lucic’s hat trick was the first one made by a Bruin since Phil Kessel got his in October, 2007 in Los Angeles. You can wonder all you want on how Lucic, who started slow this season, did it. One idea could be of his latest way of seeing things. Tonight was the second night he wore contacts while on the ice. Lucic told reporters that his teammates were mentioning how he squints a lot and figured he’d try it. He compared it to “…going from an old TV to HD” and maybe this could help his performance the rest of the season. If it’s not the contacts, Shawn Thornton is hoping it wasn’t because he bought him dinner the night before. Hopefully for Thornton’s checkbook, Lucic isn’t superstitious.
Shawn Thornton said they weren’t happy with their start in last night’s game and that was the topic of discussion in-between periods. There was some sloppy play during the first period and they left the ice they were down 2-0. But in the second period, “…we got hungry for the puck and that’s why we got chances to score”, according to Milan Lucic. It was a visibly different team on the ice during the second period.
Manny Fernandez, who was in the goal on Saturday night, said “The first period was a tough one and we saw it slip away…. The effort was to get back to what makes us successful – we’re doing it and sometimes we’re over doing it.” Not that it’s a bad thing.
Coach Claude Julien was much happier with the turn out of this game after Thursday night’s debacle. “It was a big game we needed from him to get the win,” he said praising Lucic’s performance. Julien made mention of how Lucic has been getting better after the slow start and he’s moving up in the team when it comes to playing time. Julien also thanked the fans for acknowledging Lucic’s hat trick – which helped the team and gave them a rest while the staff cleaned up the ice.
The Bruins start a three game Western Canada tour this week and look for the Bruins to be back in the Garden on November 1st against former Vogue intern, Sean Avery and the Dallas North Stars. And we’ll be there keeping you up to date on what happens on the ice![img][/img][img]
Lucic’s hat trick was the first one made by a Bruin since Phil Kessel got his in October, 2007 in Los Angeles. You can wonder all you want on how Lucic, who started slow this season, did it. One idea could be of his latest way of seeing things. Tonight was the second night he wore contacts while on the ice. Lucic told reporters that his teammates were mentioning how he squints a lot and figured he’d try it. He compared it to “…going from an old TV to HD” and maybe this could help his performance the rest of the season. If it’s not the contacts, Shawn Thornton is hoping it wasn’t because he bought him dinner the night before. Hopefully for Thornton’s checkbook, Lucic isn’t superstitious.
Shawn Thornton said they weren’t happy with their start in last night’s game and that was the topic of discussion in-between periods. There was some sloppy play during the first period and they left the ice they were down 2-0. But in the second period, “…we got hungry for the puck and that’s why we got chances to score”, according to Milan Lucic. It was a visibly different team on the ice during the second period.
Manny Fernandez, who was in the goal on Saturday night, said “The first period was a tough one and we saw it slip away…. The effort was to get back to what makes us successful – we’re doing it and sometimes we’re over doing it.” Not that it’s a bad thing.
Coach Claude Julien was much happier with the turn out of this game after Thursday night’s debacle. “It was a big game we needed from him to get the win,” he said praising Lucic’s performance. Julien made mention of how Lucic has been getting better after the slow start and he’s moving up in the team when it comes to playing time. Julien also thanked the fans for acknowledging Lucic’s hat trick – which helped the team and gave them a rest while the staff cleaned up the ice.
The Bruins start a three game Western Canada tour this week and look for the Bruins to be back in the Garden on November 1st against former Vogue intern, Sean Avery and the Dallas North Stars. And we’ll be there keeping you up to date on what happens on the ice![img][/img][img]