Posted by Gayle Simone, Sun Staff

When the Bruins headed out West for their season opening five-game roadtrip; not too many people thought they would come home with a winning record - but guess what ... they did.

The Black and Gold will open up at home on the 18th with a 3-2-0 record.

Opening up with a 4-1 loss against Dallas on Oct. 5 had some thinking the Bruins were not going to fair well on the rest of the trip - but that's probably because no one (besides me and a few other die hard hockey fans) actually watched the game.

Dallas got extremely lucky on the first two goals and Marty Turco played outstanding in net for the Stars. The other two goals for Dallas were complete defensive breakdowns and can not be blamed completely on Manny Fernandez.

It wasn't a bad game persay; the Bruins just happened to run into some bad luck and a very solid goaltender.

From Dallas, the Bs took on Phoenix the very next night with Tim Thomas getting the start in net; Boston prevailed 3-1 for their first win of the young season- next stop Anaheim for a date with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Ducks.

Thomas was again in net and the Black and Gold struck first with a Chuck Kobasew goal just 1:05 into the game.

Unfortunately, the Bruins couldn't hold the lead and ended up losing 2-1. Still, not too shabby for the young Bruins team. One factor to keep in mind is Marc Savard missed his first game since the 2003-04 season due to a groin strain.

The next game was extremely entertaining if you like to see a lot of scoring (14 goals) with the Bruins coming out on top of the 8-6 tilt against Los Angeles.

Phil Kessel in his sophomore campaign notched his first NHL hat trick; rookie Milan Lucic got his first career NHL goal; Savard returned to the ice after missing one game and had 5 points (goal, 4 assists) to show just how important he is to Boston's offense.

Unfortunately, with all of the offense, the Black and Gold apparently forgot they had to play on both sides of the ice and completely left Fernandez to tend to the Kings himself- resulting in him giving up 6 goals.

The Bs final stop on the roadtrip took the team to San Jose where they met Joe Thorton and the Sharks.

Marco Sturm returned to the HP Pavillion for the first time since the November trade that brought him to Boston two-years ago. He made good work of being back with two assists.

Patrice Bergeron put the Bs on the board first and showed exactly why he plays with a soccer ball- he kicked the puck to himself before lifting it up over a sprawling Evgeni Nabokov.

The 1-0 lead would stand until just over 38 seconds left in the game when Milan Michalek took a pass from Joe Thornton to tie the game.

The tie did not last long, 26 seconds to be exact. Aaron Ward beat Nabokov for the game winner as he caught a jumping Sturm in his arms before they fell to the ice.

Thomas made 26 saves to earn his second win of the season.

Some observations of the Bs first five games of the season:

***Both power play units for Boston showed to be successful recording six goals. Savard showed how important he in quarterbacking the first unit earning four power play assists and one goal.

***Julien has stuck with his lines early in the season showing he has faith in his decisions and his teams. With the exception of moving Lucic up to the third line with Kessel and David Krejci and PJ Axelsson being moved to foruth-line duty with Shawn Thornton and Glen Metropolit. Consistency - so far, so good.

***The offense the team wants from Bergeron and Savard seems to be moving along so far. Bergy has three goals and two assists for five points in the clubs first five games; while Savvy has a goal and six assists for seven points in only four games played. The club as a whole recorded 14 goals in the five game trip.

***The youngsters are making some noise as well. Along with his first career hat trick, Kessel has five points in five games; Lucic has two points but more importantly has shown his strength on the ice by getting into two fights.

***The team showed up to play every single game and for 60 minutes. The defense - as long as they don't forget to play it - seems to be more solid than some of the skeptics thought.

***Thomas is fighting for the right to say he is the No. 1 netminder on this team going 2-1 in his three games played with a 1.34 GAA and .957 SV percentage. Manny on the other hand in his two starts comes home to Boston with 1-1-0 record; 5.00 GAA and .796 SV percentage. Again the numbers to me although accurate, do not portray the type of goalie Manny is - he did play the Kings game when the defensive side of the Bruins never showed up. Manny gave up 10 goals in his first two starts; while Thomas gave up four.

My guess is Thomas will get the start for the home opener this Thursday night when the Black and Gold take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Starting Manny in front of an already shakey fan base may not be the best decision for Claude Julien.

I still think this team is going to suprise a lot of opponents and fans. Did anyone think (besides me) that the Bruins would return from the five-game roadtrip with a winning record? Has your view of the team changed?