INSIDE HOCKEY

BOSTON – The Bruins made sure that Phil Kessel’s first game against his old club was one to remember—or in Kessel’s case one to forget.

A few days after he signed a seven-year contract extension, Marc Savard was rewarded once again on the ice, as his hat trick led the Bruins to a 7-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in front of a sold out crowd at the TD Garden.

The last Bruin to record a hat trick was from Kessel himself, when he did it on April 12th of this year against the New York Islanders.

“None of the goals were pretty, that’s for sure,” said Savard on his third career hat trick. “It’s a big win though, we got embarrassed the other night and we kind of took it back here.”

“He had a good night tonight with three goals,” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien. “We all know the situation as what has been the main topic the last few days with Phil coming back, and I think our players wanted to show they were ready to go.”

The boys wearing the Black and Gold were ready to go indeed, especially after their 5-1 beat down against the Montreal Canadiens Friday night.

It took a pregame speech from the Bruins coach to get the team going, and they responded to that quite well.

“Yeah I guess it got us fired up,” said Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron who had two assists. “We all knew before this game that we needed to bounce back. Last night was embarrassing and especially in front of our fans. We needed a big effort and we got it.”

“One thing we had to do was to redeem ourselves from last night,” noted Julien. “As bad as we were last night, we had to turn the page. We also have to understand that you have to do something about it.

“It would have been totally unacceptable for us to come out tonight and not be ready to play.”

Along with Savard and Bergeron, two other Bruins had multiple point nights—Byron Bitz and Marco Sturm. That alone should tell you how the team responded through their effort.

And Johnny Boychuk, who was called up yesterday from Providence (after being sent down earlier in the week) scored his first career goal in the third period, on a one-timer many goaltenders would have trouble stopping.

“Well it was a great pass from David [Krejci], and basically I tried to shoot it as hard as possible,” Boychuk said on his first career goal. “Even last time when we played it was almost the exact same thing that happened and you know it was a great heads up play by Krejci.”

Boychuk, who replaced Matt Hunwick in the lineup, made a good impression out on the ice to say the least after being called up.

“What a great way to come back into the lineup and get some confidence with things like that,” said Julien. “ I thought he played well tonight.

“I don’t know too many goaltenders who would have stopped that shot to be honest. It was a rocket. It was a great pass and he stepped right into it.”

Kessel’s Return

While the game was centered on Kessel’s return, the Bruins did their job, and Kessel did not have much say in the game, or during postgame.

Who would blame him though? The Leafs were badly outplayed, and Kessel himself only had two shots on net, and was a -3 on the night.

“Obviously we knew they are going to come out hard,” said Kessel. “They did that and we just didn’t match that.

As expected, he was also the subject of boo’s and taunts of “Kessel” from the Bruins faithful Saturday night.

But like many players would, Kessel didn’t use that as an excuse on how he and his team performed.

“You hear it but it doesn’t get to you,” Kessel said. “I just didn’t have a good game tonight. I have got to be better.”

Kessel and the Leafs have a chance to redeem themselves against the Bruins Thursday night when they once again step on the TD Garden ice. Before that, they return home to the Air Canada Centre for two games against Atlanta on Monday and the Islanders on Wednesday.

The Bruins however, don’t play another game until Thursday.

Also check out Brian Fluharty's photo gallery, and postgame video from the game.