Welcome to the newest hub of hockey fandom in Boston. If it’s Bruins, it belongs.

And it’s a 6-1 final as the Bruins crush the Canadiens 6-1 at The Garden. Brother Joe was at the Garden and should have a write-up later today.

Other links:
- Video highlights of last night’s game.

- Saku Koivu puts Montreal on the board. (We’re about sign off; we’ll catch up in the morning).

- 4-0. Details: see below.

- Sturm! Sturm! Sturm! Boston closes out the first with a flurry, capitalizing on every inch Carey Price will give them. Heading into the first break, Boston leads 3-0.

- Closing in one the end of the first period, the fourth line strikes again as Stephane ‘Old’ Yelle pots his 2nd of the season. The Bruins continue to get help from all lines this period as well as a sturdy (so far) Manny Fernandez.

- Shawn Thornton strikes at 2:31 of the first period! Boston 1, Montreal 0.

I (Matt) will be following the action via radio as best as I can while grading papers. Brother Joe is at the Garden tonight and should have a full report later this evening,

Kudos to the hardworking guys at Hub Hockey for spearheading the Vote for Thomas campaign across the internets. The website they set up - found at this site is a one-stop TT shopping spot, features some great video and an obvious passion for the Bruins No. 1.

As I write, I’ve voted 25 times tonight (would more but wow that site is slow on the reload) and Thomas is in third place.

Keep voting!

Photo: Property of Getty Images

Boston went after a hot Ryan Miller early at the Garden tonight, taking a convincing 3-1 win over Buffalo and pulling into a 8-3-3 deadlock with the Sabres in the Northeast division. Some collected thoughts from tonight’s win:

- Great to see the B’s no worse for the wear after last Saturday’s physical tilt with Dallas and the ensuing break. They looked fresh and, aside from some momentary lapses, played a disciplined, confident 60 minutes of hockey. Looking better and better.

- The play of Patrice Bergeron in the defensive zone. I’m OK with Patrice being a defensive specialist as long as his offense continues to mature. Tonight he roamed the d-zone to perfection, taking away pucks, playing the body, generating opportunities from nothing. Great to see him maturing.

- Kobesaw!

- Manny Fernandez. Little doubt that the No. 1 gig belongs to TT the Bear, so it’s good that Julien let Manny have a few reps tonight. It seemed like every other shot was square to his chest, but considering the persistent Buffalo offense, that’s still alot of contact. Do we love him? Nope. But we do appreciate him this evening.

-Role players. The B’s are leaving little doubt that every member of this squad has bought into Coach Julien’s system. The Thornton’s, Axelsson’s, et. al are doing what they need to do and getting better at it every game. Barring injury, this is a team that is learning a tremendous amount about itself and is liking what it sees.

Matt, of herewegobruins.com, as Rene Rancourt on Halloween:

(photo by AP & Boston Herald)

Well let me tell you something.  A lot of people I talk to tomorrow will ask me how the Bruins did tonight and I will happily tell them they won 1-0 in overtime.  “1-0, that must have been a drag”, they will respond.  Well folks I haven’t seen a more exciting scoreless 60 minutes of hockey in a long time.  The Bruins were able to get back to their hard working ways and keep pace with a speedy Edmonton Oilers team.

The back and forth play of this game was a blast to watch and both teams truly deserved to win or at least gain a point out of this match, although I do think the Bruins took full control at some points.  Also nothing like a great veteran goalie duel between Tim Thomas and Dwayne Roloson.  Roloson had 34 stops, while Thomas turned away 27 as both goalies were able to keep the opposing team off the score sheet in regulation time.  Another honorable mention here goes to Phil Kessel.  Although he didn’t score, this is probably one of if not the best complete 3-zone game from him of his career.  Back-checked, fore-checked, let the puck fly off his stick for a few shots, not to mention a nifty little toe-drag move that baffled an Oilers D-man.  Kudos to Kessel and looking forward to seeing him progress as the season wears on.

It’s pretty late so I’m making this a short one, especially seeing they are playing again in less than 24 hours.  Overall great effort by both teams, both deserved to come out with some points but in the end I believe the right team took the victory.  In the end result, the Bruins get their second win in a row and improve to 4-2-3 on the young season while Edmonton drops to 4-4-0.

Finally, I’m going to try out a new thing here at the end of my post-game blogs.  Nothing special just another variation of the 3-star system and Fluto’s “Stick Salute & Sin Bin”.  Here it goes!

The Hero: Tim Thomas.  The guy stood on his head, plain and simple.  Look for this game to be another stepping stone into proving yet again he’s our #1 guy.

The Goat: Michael Ryder.  Such a hard choice for me, as this was a terrible game to start handing out these awards.  No Bruin really deserved this but I will hand it to Ryder for the sole reason he had a few glittering opportunities to score and didn’t, and well scoring IS the reason we gave him the big pay day.

Big game from the big man in a nailbiter tonight at The Garden, as the Bruins skated away with 5-4 (regulation!) win over the Atlanta Thrashers. More later from Joe D. who was at the game. Box score below.

15:03		Jason Williams (Power Play) Assists: Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen	1	0
19:49		Mathieu Schneider (Power Play) Assists: Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov	2	0
2ND PERIOD			ATL	BOS
3:37		Stephane Yelle Assists: Shawn Thornton	2	1
5:57		Milan Lucic Assists: Michael Ryder, Marc Savard	2	2
10:04		Ilya Kovalchuk (Power Play) Assists: Mathieu Schneider, Ron Hainsey	3	2
14:22		David Krejci (Power Play) Assists: Milan Lucic, Dennis Wideman	3	3
3RD PERIOD			ATL	BOS
5:08		Milan Lucic (Power Play) Assists: Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference	3	4
7:22		Slava Kozlov Assists: Colby Armstrong, Marty Reasoner	4	4
18:19		Milan Lucic Assists: Marc Savard	4	5

From the Sports Guy’s latest:

 Reason No. 949: Gary Bettman
I thought about buying the NHL Package on DirecTV last week so I could have breakup sex with the Bruins for a year. The cost? $169! Really, Gary? That’s how you treat your “mostly blue-collar fans who can’t afford good seats for games anymore,” the ones you’ve already insulted 300 times over? I continue to think [NBA Commissioner David] Stern planted Bettman to sabotage the NHL, and no one can tell me different.

From today’s Globe:

As Chara spoke, he sat in his locker-room stall, drenched in sweat. Assistant coach Craig Ramsay passed by, giving the captain a quizzical look.

“That’s your day off?” asked Ramsay.

“It is. Believe it or not, I feel much better now, actually,” said Chara, still breathing heavily.

No matter how much work the Bruins do these days, they can’t seem to get a win. So, they work harder.

 We can take that as good and bad news heading into tonight’s home tilt against Toronto. Anxious energy has never looked good on the Bruins this early in the season, but in small stretches (read: last year’s playoff burst vs. Montreal) the team has harnessed immediacy and turned it into results and lessons learned. Phil Kessel (6 goals, 6 games) still seems steamed about last year’s post-season benchings; Marc Savard has turned the ’soft’ chip on his shoulder into an impressively balanced attack, dishing out almost as mnay helpers (4) as he’s put in himself (5). Krejci and Ryder are doing what they need to do - chipping in, establishing roles, growing into the expectations placed on them.

Toronto skates in tonight an unremarkable 1-2-3, having suffered the same slings and arrows of phony overtime in this modern NHL. I say the Bruins wrap this one up tidily, 3-1, or else enter a Promethean shootout without end.

Matt: Bruins, 3-1

Anyone else here the echo last night at HSBC arena?
Here’s Fluto’s take on the latest shootout to slay the Bruins.

Sure, this might not be brand new, but after last night’s OTL, it’s got me grinning ear to ear:

“Besides the Packers, my favorite teams are the Red Sox, the Lakers and the Boston Bruins,” says Lil’ Wayne, via his ESPN Blog.

Amazing.