Bruins beat, batter Canes

BOSTON -- The Carolina Hurricanes were beaten in their season-opener.

In their second game, the Canes were bowed, bloodied and beaten.

The Boston Bruins, who talked of redemption before Saturday's game, played with a vengeance in a 7-2 rout of the Hurricanes at the TD Garden.

Talk about blood on the ice. The Canes' Eric Staal took a puck in the side of the head midway the second period. Defenseman Jay Harrison left later in the period with a nasty gash on his forehead after a fight with Bruins tough guy Milan Lucic. Scott Walker took a stick across the nose. Niclas Wallin's chin was bleeding after the game.

Even worse for the Canes, forward Erik Cole suffered an apparent leg injury late in the game after a collision with Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman. Cole was helped from the ice, and Canes coach Paul Maurice not sure about the severity of the injury after the game.

"It wasn't very good for us," Staal said. "We need to use this as a wake-up call and respond accordingly. We need to get better in all areas of the game."

Staal said he needed 15 to 20 stitches near his right ear after being hit by a tumbling puck in front of the Bruins' goal. He returned in the third period and scored the Canes' second goal, unassisted on a power play, but it was too late by then, and things had turned decidedly ugly on the ice.

"Yeah, sticks were high," Staal said. "Obviously a lot of fights, and that's what happens when you have two teams that competed hard last year and had hard playoff battles.

"There were a lot of things that seemed needless in that game, but that's hockey. They got the better of us tonight."

The Bruins were seething over a lackluster 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals in their opener Thursday at the Garden.

Then there was the matter of losing to the Canes in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season as the No. 1 seed in the East.

"We knew they'd be [mad] after the loss to Washington," said Canes defenseman Andrew Alberts, who slugged it out with the Bruins' Shawn Thornton. "They came out flying from the drop of the puck.

"We were on our heels. They got some goals right away. Things got out of hand, and they kept scoring."

The Bruins had four power-play goals, jumping to a 3-0 lead after the first period -- unloading 21 shots on Canes goalie cam Ward -- and pushing it to 6-1 after two as Ward took a seat on the bench.

Walker did manage Carolina's first goal of the season at 15:21 of the second period, and even that had a stranger-than-fiction twist to it.

In the playoffs, it was Walker slugging Boston defenseman Aaron Ward in Game 5 that had Bruins fans in an uproar. Walker then scored the overtime winner in Game 7, and Ward was traded to the Canes in the offseason.

The first goal this season: Walker redirecting a shot by Ward.

But the Bruins had too much of everything this night. Marc Savard had a goal and two assists as seven different Boston players scored and five had multiple-point games. Tim Thomas had 25 saves in net, and the Bruins won most of the fights in a game that had 30 penalties.

"We didn't come ready to play. It's as simple as that," Alberts said. "We got outplayed in all facets of the game."

Asked what disturbed him the most about the game, Maurice was succinct.

"Just the first 60 minutes," he said.

And all the fights and nastiness?

"Good old-time hockey game," Maurice said.

A brutal one that left the Hurricanes 0-2 and limping home.