Bruins continue hot start, more Rondo reaction

The Boston Bruins continued their hot start to begin the shortened season with a 5-3 win in Carolina against the Hurricanes Monday night. David Krejci scored with less than two minutes remaining in regulation off of a beautiful feed from Dougie Hamilton to put the Bruins on top, and then Tyler Seguin added an empty netter to seal the win.

With the Bruins playing four games in six days, backup goaltender Anton Khudobin got his first start of the year and played quite well, finishing with 29 saves. The team is back in action tonight when they host the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden.

Dougie Hamilton to become full-time NHL’er with Bruins– Fluto Shinzawa in his notebook has general manager Peter Chiareli’s announcement that the rookie defenseman will be staying in the NHL all year, which was no surprise to anyone.

Bruins weather storm– Stephen Harris has the Bruins staying tough, after giving up 2-0 and 3-1 leads, to defeat Carolina on the road.

Khudobin strong in winning effort– Joe Haggerty looks at the Bruins goaltender’s performance, who provided solid goaltending giving starter Tuukka Rask a night off.

More of the same as David Krejci’s line comes up big– DJ Bean has the line of Krejci-Seguin-Nathan Horton providing most of the offense Monday night.

The Rajon Rondo story continues to dominate the airwaves and internet, with people fairly split on what to think. Some people feel the team might actually be better without the star point guard, while others feel this is a good time for Danny Ainge to “blow” the team up and make a deal for the future. It seems Doc Rivers wants and feels like he can make a run with the players he has now, but ultimately Ainge, the GM, will have the final say. Most reports say not to expect a major trade.

Personally, the Celtics may actually be a more likable team now. Many people were turned off by Rondo’s attitude and prefer to see the “grit and balls”, “bar fight” mentality from Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Co. The team may even be a better regular season team without Rondo (the stats back it up), but it’s very hard to see the team being able to win a seven game playoff series against some of the dominant teams in the East. Even without Rondo, it will still be an interesting team to watch the rest of the season to see how Garnett and Pierce respond, and how the team fairs without their point guard.

Here are a few more stories, which weren’t noted yesterday:

Time for the Celtics to trade Paul Pierce– Kirk Minihane says it’s time to trade the Celtics long-time captain.

Rondo’s injury hits hard– Jackie MacMullan with a must-read first hand account of her experience on Sunday at the Garden.

Rondo debate rages on– Tony Massarotti gives his thoughts on the situation.

Rajon Rondo and the Celtics’ reality– Chad Finn says the rest of the season won’t be as fun without Rondo as it would have been with him.