Bedeviled!

It's a new season in Boston, and while hopes were not high, there were certainly expectations of some improvement. "With the addition of Saku Koivu, improved performance from Andy McDonald, and an improved defense," GM Joshua Anderson said, "we don't expect to necessarily be contenders, but we think we will be a playoff team. We just have to not hurt ourselves on the ice with stupid penalties."

Immediate evidence of that was in the form of Bill Guerin, sitting the game as part of a one-game suspension leveled in the preseason. Andreas Lindstrom was to fill in for Guerin in a one-time appearance at right wing, in an effort to get some scoring in the offense.

Yeah... not so much.

The absence of Guerin in the season opener against the Devils, couple with several stupid penalties and a complete collapse of the defense at the end of the first period, gutted the goodwill of the season start. The offense completely failed to produce any meager attempt at something coherent, taking only nineteen shots on goal in the game.

Scott Balan started things off in typical Bruins fashion, taking an elbowing misconduct only a minute-thirty into the game. The Devils offense ramped up after that, with Kristian Huselius scoring at 07:36. The Devils then just exploded at the end of the period, as Mathieu Biron scored at 17:26, Boyd Devereaux at 18:51, and David Legwand at 19:23 to end the eriod up 4-0. The Bruins managed a measley four shots on net in the period.

Fired up by Robbie Ftorek at the intermission, Keith Tkachuk scored at 01:25 of the second - unlike last year, when he waited until more than a month into the season to score. Alas, it would be the last offensive positive for the Bruins, and Jason Blake returned the favor less than thirty seconds later to return the four goal edge. The Bruins racked up two more penalties in the period as well, contributing to an eight to six shot differential.

For good measure, Radek Dvorak added a slop time power play goal at 18:25 of the third to drive the dagger in. Defensively, the Bruins were a mess, as the frustration was evident - drawing five penalties by five different players.

"Just pure slop," GM Anderson summarized it as. The Devils swept the game stars, obviously, and though an impressive 17,565 were in attendance... they went home unhappy.

The Bruins travel to Florida for their next attempt to get in the win column.