ATLANTA -- Let's not confuse celebration with relief.
Because what was on display in the Boston Bruins' dressing room following their 4-3 shootout victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Thursday night was definitely relief.
But when you've had little in the way of traction and good fortune and, well, precious few wins through the first quarter of this NHL season, you'll take a little relief any time.
Won't you, Claude Julien?
"That goal at the end could have been a killer, but our guys decided we weren't going to let that beat us down and going to find some way to win," the Bruins' head coach said after.
Was it our imagination, or did he begin his postgame news conference with a huge sigh of relief?
"That goal" of which he spoke was a wrist shot by Maxim Afinogenov that eluded netminder Tuukka Rask and tied the game at 3-3 with 41.4 seconds left in the contest.
After leading 2-0 and 3-2, the Bruins could have been excused for having a little déjà vu all over again.
Two games ago, on Saturday, they let a 5-4 lead against Pittsburgh slip away with 0.4 seconds left and then lost early in overtime. They followed that up with a desultory 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders before jetting into Atlanta to start a four-game road trip, one that players had described as being crucial to getting back on track.
The Thrashers, led by captain Ilya Kovalchuk, who added three more points on a goal and two assists to give him 11 points in four games since returning from a broken foot, pushed the Bruins around in overtime and looked poised to complete another gutting of the Bruins. But Rask stood tall in the five-minute 4-on-4 session.
Then the goalie, who wasn't even supposed to start Thursday, shut down all three Thrashers he faced in the shootout to preserve the victory.
"I just thought, you know, we've been losing those games so much in the past that I don't want that to happen again. I was just trying to make sure we got to the shootout, and it's a 50-50 chance to win there, so, you know, good win for us," Rask said.
Tim Thomas was expected to start after Rask had played against the Islanders on Monday, but Julien danced around the topic of Thomas' inability to answer the call Thursday night.
"It's a minor, undisclosed injury. We were better with Tuukka in tonight, and we'll see how it is tomorrow, but it's short-term. It's just one of those situations where we'll leave it as an undisclosed injury," Julien said.
Thomas' misfortune, whatever it was, turned out to be the Bruins' good fortune, as Rask turned aside 16 of 17 shots in the third period and overtime.
It will be interesting to see whether this win turns out to be something approaching long-awaited traction or movement in the right direction for a Bruin team that has sorely underachieved after dominating the Eastern Conference a year ago with 116 points, the most since the 1972 Stanley Cup Bruins.
The team has collected points in five of its past six contests yet has failed to win more than two games in a row all season. In fact, the Bruins have managed to win two in a row just once through their first 21 games.
Still, Julien insisted this squad hasn't hung its collective head and, after missing key components Milan Lucic and Marc Savard for most of the first quarter, is starting to get healthy.
Lucic returned to action Thursday even though a bout of the flu kept him from flying to Atlanta with the team.
He played 14:01 in his first game since Oct. 16, and his physical presence around the net should help a team that has struggled mightily to find the back of the net.
The team's top playmaker, Marc Savard, is on the verge of returning to action as well. He skated with the team for the second time Thursday morning and should rejoin the squad on this road trip. He hasn't played since Oct. 17.
Patrice Bergeron said Thursday's win helps to remind the team that they aren't that far away from being where they want to be.
"It's very important to reinforce, to stick with it and stay in it, and I thought throughout the whole game we did that and we've been doing that," said Bergeron, who provided the only shootout goal the Bruins would need on this night.
"We've stayed pretty positive even though we weren't having the success we were hoping for," he said.
Even the inevitable comes with more than a tinge of sadness, if not regret.
Not from Brendan Shanahan, of course, who knew it was time maybe even before it was time.
The clock starts ticking toward Shanahan's induction into the Hall of Fame now that he has made official what has been expected for weeks now -- that he is putting up the blades for good.
What is it they say about time waiting for no man? It is especially true of power forwards whose greatest attributes were never their legs, even in their prime.
Shanahan knew he wasn't a fit in New Jersey, which is why he left the Devils on the eve of the regular season. There was talk he might give it one more hurrah in Philadelphia or maybe with some other Eastern Conference team, but nothing clicked. Even with the epidemic of injuries to top players, Shanahan couldn't find a fit, so it was time.
Still, whenever the great ones go, there is always a moment's pause to reflect and savor one last time those things that made them great.
With Shanahan, it was the double-edged sword he brought to every game.
He could shoot the puck with the best of them. He always put us in mind of Brett Hull the way he would carve out a space, usually near the left faceoff dot, and wait for the puck, sometimes almost getting on one knee as he ripped a shot at the net.
He found the back of the twine 656 times in his 1,524-game career, 11th all time.
His 109 game winners are fifth all time.
Yet, unlike Hull, Shanahan was just as comfortable dropping the stick (and gloves) to wreak havoc on opposing players with his fists.
"He would take on the biggest, toughest guy," former teammate Steve Yzerman told ESPN.com on Tuesday. Yzerman recalls Shanahan going to opposing teams and calling players out, demanding they fight, if Shanahan thought they had taken liberties with members of the Red Wings.
"It was a great combination. He really added a dimension to our team, a real presence," Yzerman said.
Shanahan is the only player in NHL history to collect 600 or more goals and have 2,000 or more penalty minutes.
The native of Mimico, Ontario, (a town that is part of Toronto now) joined the Wings early in the 1996-97 season, traded from Hartford for Keith Primeau and Paul Coffey. That spring, the Wings would end a 52-year Cup drought with the first of three Cups that Shanahan would win as a Wing. Yzerman and Shanahan spent a decade playing together in Detroit -- the best, happiest part of his career, Yzerman said; Shanahan's too, the longtime Wings captain figures.
"We had a lot of laughs, talked a lot of hockey," Yzerman said.
The goals, along with the 698 assists and the three Stanley Cups and the gold medal and, well, you get the picture, will ensure that Shanahan will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
But Shanahan wasn't just a goal-scoring machine, he was a big personality in a game that sometimes lacks for those kinds of broad-shouldered types.
Thoughtful, quick-witted and well-versed in a variety of topics beyond what lie his stick was and the tendencies of the next goalie down the line, Shanahan was always a go-to guy for the media.
He was tireless in his work outside the arena, too, earning various community awards in his career, including the King Clancy Trophy in 2003 for outstanding community service.
"This is a guy who was larger than life," Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke told ESPN.com.
Shanahan never played for Burke, but the two spent a lot of time in the Boston area in the offseason and have been meeting for years at a local restaurant/bar to shoot the breeze.
"He's kind of a poster boy for what we'd like all our players to be like," Burke said.
Tough, well-spoken, media-savvy, a throwback on the ice but a bit of a renaissance man off the ice.
"Good Irishman," Burke added.
Funny thing about Shanahan, for all the on-ice accomplishments, and there are many, a new generation of hockey fans might think of him more as a "builder" than a player.
During the lockout, Shanahan -- with plenty of help from the NHLPA -- helped organize what became known as the Shanahan Summit, a meeting of the hockey minds, as it were. A number of the issues and recommendations discussed at the event ended up being part of the NHL's rebirth after the lockout ended in the summer of 2005.
Burke was part of that summit, and he said much of what was discussed there "set the stage" for positive changes in the game.
"It's a sad day," Burke said of Shanahan's retirement.
With such a strong personality, there will be much speculation about what Shanahan will do now.
A place with the beleaguered NHLPA? Not likely. Too polarizing a personality. What about a place with the league?
In a curious move, it was the league that announced Shanahan's retirement Tuesday. Generally, the union handles those kinds of announcements when a player isn't still affiliated with a specific team.
It wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Shanahan end up with some role within the New York offices of the league.
And then there's always broadcasting. He's as smooth as silk, so it wouldn't surprise us to see Shanahan pop up on someone's Olympic broadcasts from Vancouver in February.
We found out yesterday when USA Hockey will unveil its 2010 men's Olympic hockey roster. Now, we have a schedule for the rest of the world.
Here is the list of roster announcement dates for the other 11 participating countries in the 2010 men's Olympic hockey tournament, as released by the International Ice Hockey Federation today (in alphabetical order):
United States: Jan. 1 (during Winter Classic broadcast)
By the Jan. 1 deadline, teams will release their 23-man rosters, which will include 20 skaters and three goaltenders. Remember, as ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun reported earlier this year, there are no taxi squads this time around, but if a player from the 23-man roster gets injured between Jan. 1 and the start of the Olympic tournament, he can be replaced up until the eve of the first game on Feb. 16 in Vancouver.
As of today, we're 100 days away from the Opening Ceremonies!
Heading into tonight's Game of the Week (Red Wings-Oilers, 9:30 p.m. ET), here's a look at some facts and figures, courtesy of our Stats & Information gurus.
Stars struggling
Despite averaging a point per game, Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg has scored just one goal in his first 10 games, the lowest total since 2006:
Zetterberg through 10 games (past four seasons):2009: one goal, nine points 2008: eight, 12 2007: seven, 18 2006: two, three
And the slow trend may continue for Zetterberg; he did not score a goal in four games against Edmonton last season.
Who scores first?
• Detroit is 0-2-1 when leading after the first period (3-0-2 when leading after two frames), while Edmonton is a combined 5-0-2 when leading after both intermissions (2-0-1 after first period, 3-0-1 after second).
• Before Tuesday night's game against Vancouver, the Red Wings scored only six goals in the third period (tied for 29th in the league). That all changed after that game, when Detroit scored four goals in the final 20 minutes in a 5-4 win over the Canucks.
More muscle on home ice
The Oilers are one of the more physical teams at home, registering 166 hits (fourth in the league) at Rexall Place. Here are the league leaders in hits at home so far this season:
• The Oilers have also had eight different players receive fighting majors (Zack Stortini has fought four times). The Red Wings have had three fights, all involving Brad May.
Penner's turnaround
Dustin Penner leads the Oilers with 15 points (eight goals, seven assists). It's the best start in his four-year career and matches his October total over his first three seasons. ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun has more on Penner in his weekly column (if you're a Ron Burgundy fan, you'll love this column!). Back to Penner's stats:
Goals: eight in 2006-08; eight in 2009-10 Assists: seven; seven Plus/minus: plus-1; plus-8 Shots on goal: 62; 34
A look at the other games:
Capitals at Thrashers, 7 p.m. ET
The Caps edged the Thrashers 5-4 when the teams met last week. But the big difference between then and now is that the Thrashers lost star Ilya Kovalchuk for at least a month after he broke a bone in his right foot while blocking a shot in Saturday's game against San Jose. At the time of the injury, Kovalchuk was tied for the NHL lead with nine goals and tied for the team lead with 10 points. He has the most goals in team history and the most since the 2001-02 season:
Most goals in Thrashers history Ilya Kovalchuk: 306 Slava Kozlov: 137 Marian Hossa: 108 Dany Heatley: 80
Senators at Lightning, 7 p.m. ET
If Ottawa gets into penalty trouble tonight versus Tampa Bay, it may not matter. The Lightning have struggled on the power play over the past four games, scoring just once in that span:
Worst PP percentage since Oct. 15: Lightning: 6.3 (1-for-16 in that span) Stars: 7.7 Devils: 8.3 Avalanche: 9.5
• Vincent Lecavalier has also been off to a slow start this season, scoring just once in nine games. He has two games left to avoid his fewest goals mark in a season's opening month since 2001, when he went the entire month of October without a goal.
Devils at Bruins, 7 p.m. ET
The Bruins are trying to put together their first winning streak of the season. They are coming off a 4-3 shootout win at Ottawa, when they erased a two-goal deficit with 1:28 remaining in regulation.
Our local puckheads from ESPN's Stats & Information group put together a few thoughts to ponder heading into tonight's Game of the Week (Sharks at Capitals, 7 p.m. ET):
Joe Thornton's playmaking ability has benefited his linemates in recent seasons. Will he do the same for new Shark Dany Heatley?
In his first season with San Jose, Thornton helped Jonathan Cheechoo score 56 goals in 2005-06. (Cheechoo was part of the Heatley trade and is now playing in Ottawa.) When he was with Boston in 2001-02, Thornton helped Glen Murray score 35 goals in 73 games after Murray had scored 18 goals in the previous season.
So far, Heatley has five goals and five assists in six games with the Sharks.
Jose, can you see?
There are 29 active goalies who have played at least 25 games in October. Jose Theodore's career 2.94 goals-against average in the month ranks 23rd among those netminders.
Still, Theodore is off to a decent start. Although his 1-2-2 record may be more an indication of the Washington Capitals' overall play, Theodore has a decent 2.65 goals-against average. His overall performance has been a surprise to some critics who speculated the former Hart Trophy winner would be supplanted by Semyon Varlamov.
Then, there's Ovie ...
Alex Ovechkin is off to a torrid start, averaging 2 points in his first six games. He's on pace for 68 goals and 164 points. No player has reached 68 goals since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 (69). The 164-point plateau was last passed by Wayne Gretzky in 1988-89 (168).
If any player can pull off the feat, it seems Ovechkin can.
Here's a look at his numbers through seven games with his goals, assists and points:
The Sharks-Capitals matchup features some of the league's highest goal and point producers from recent seasons:
Most goals since 2005-06
Alex Ovechkin (Capitals), 224 Ilya Kovalchuk (Thrashers), 194
Dany Heatley (Senators, Sharks), 185 Jarome Iginla (Flames), 161
Most points since 2005-06:
Alex Ovechkin (Capitals), 432
Joe Thornton (Bruins, Sharks), 431 Sidney Crosby (Penguins), 402
Dany Heatley (Senators, Sharks), 372
Going Green
Since the start of 2007-08, Capitals defenseman Mike Green has scored 50 goals. The next-highest-scoring defenseman during that span is Zdeno Chara with 36.
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