Confusion reigns as Hurricanes hit

Despite a calm, sunny day in Boston, there were Hurricane warnings, as the once powerful Carolina club came to town looking to re-establish itself as a front running in the title hunt.

Even worse, somewhere between the back lockerroom and the ice, the Boston Bruins forgot they had new lineups set to play... and chaos ensued. Of course, that's to be expected when a Bruin finds itself facing a Hurricane.

With Andrew Raycroft out for a few more games, and the offense sputtering until its outburst against a fumbling Detroit Red Wings, the Boston coaching staff assembled a total mismatch of lines to see what would happen. When the puck fell, though, the same old lines were on the ice - and found the same result as other nights.

The red light was dimmed for most of the first period, until Jeff Woywitka finally made it spin with approximately four minutes to play, for his first goal of the season. John Grahame put the puck in his pants to prevent Woywitka from saving it for all time. Allegedly, Grahame flushed it down the toilet during the first intermission, though the team's explanation of the janitor call during the break was that "Tkachuk had mexican for dinner".

Andy McDonald evened the game a minute later as he went top corner on Jose Theodore. Bill Guerin and Richard Jackman took credit for the assist.

The first period was also marred by two ugly fights, which saw Marian Cisar and Matt Walker battle to a draw, and Sean Brown lose to Gordie Dwyer. Many in the Boston crowd were stunned to see Sean Brown go down easier than a drunk sorority sister, but Dwyer had his hand raised when the scrum ended.

The second period was the eye of the action, as the Canes piled on three goals to go up 4-1. Mike Fisher, Cory Stillman, and Shane Doan all postered John Grahame on their goals. Tim Connolly earned the bad boy of the period award as he was sent to sit twice, for charging and elbowing, respectively.

The offensive onslaught continued in the third as Jeff Friesen sent Grahame to the showers on his twenty-third of the season. With Raycroft sidelined, Roman Malek saw his first action of the season... and promptly allowed Kyle Wellwood the sixth goal of the night. Further complicating matters was the ejection of Sean Brown for his second fight of the night, which was another loss, this time to Jay McKee.

Martin Havlat added a reason to cheer for the 15,266 in the home crowd, but that was the end of the scoring output for the night. Grahame fell to 3-6-0 with nineteen saves on twenty-four shots, and Malek saved six of seven in his debut.

The Bruins will regroup to see what the hell can possibly go wrong next.