The Bruins improved their current winning streak to four on Thursday night, defeating the Capitals, 4-1, in their home opener after spending three weeks away from TD Garden (click here for the recap). The captain, who picked up one of the team's four goals on Capitals goalie Semyon Varlamov, may have summed up the team's post-game feeling the best. 

"The best way to give [the home crowd] something back," Zdeno Chara said, "is by winning the game."

With the win, the Bruins swept their two-game clash with the reigning Presidents' Trophy winner in impressive fashion. Goals from Michael Ryder, Jordan Caron, Nathan Horton, and Chara sent the fans home happy, while another standout effort from Tim Thomas (one goal allowed on 39 shots), helped the 36-year-old netminder pick up his fourth straight win. 

But enough about goaltending. As many a writer learned on Thursday, writing about Thomas and Tuukka Rask might be a little trickier than one would think based on a clever little joke the netminders played on the media. 

Here's the hat trick of storylines stemming from a memorable home opener:

FOUR BOSTON

The Bruins played perhaps their most impressive hockey of the season on Thursday. No line displayed gaping holes, special teams were outstanding, ample turnovers were created in the neutral zone and Thomas stood on his head for 60 minutes.

Naturally, it would be unrealistic to expect the type of goaltending the team has gotten recently to last for the entire season. There were, however, traits displayed on Thursday night that the Bruins can continue to build on. The turnovers created, the sound passing (the passes Tyler Seguin and Ryder have sent each other's way have been a great example of the trust Ryder, among others, has in the rookie), and the high energy from Gregory Campbell's line all served as examples. 

The Bruins came out strong in the second period, with the fourth line setting up shop in the offensive zone the early minutes. With as many Bruins having as good of games as they did, it's easy for those who didn't show up on the scoring sheet to go unnoticed, but Shawn Thornton had one of the better games of anybody on the ice on Thursday. Additionally, Campbell has worked very well in centering Thornton and Brad Marchand. Having such a strong fourth line speaks not only to the team's offensive depth, but their difficulty to play against. 

"That’s as good as I think we’ve seen our fourth line here in the years that I’ve been here as far as what they do, I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to start these guys," Claude Julien said following the game. "They’re reliable enough that if the other team puts their top line in, they know, and what’s good about them is that they don’t question what they’re going to do. They put pucks in deep and they’re going to work and they work hard and they seem to be in sync with the fore-check, but they seem to set the stage and the tempo for the game early on."

POWER UP

The most apparent negative of the Bruins' three-game winning streak entering Thursday night was the power play. One too many passes, a few goals too little. The B's entered their home opener 1-for-15 on the man advantage on the season and hadn't scored on the man advantage in their last 11 power plays. 

That changed in the first period. And then again in the second period… and once more in the third. Michael Ryder, Nathan Horton, and Zdeno Chara all picked up power play goals as the team went a very impressive 3-for-4 on the power play against a perfect Capitals penalty kill that had allowed just south of one goal on 25 penalties entering the game. 

The Bruins had spent Wednesday's practice working on the power play, and it came as a bit of a surprise early on in practice that Matt Hunwick, a power play fixture in the beginning of the season, was not among those working with either the No. 1 or second unit. It was the same Thursday, as Hunwick didn't get any time on the power play and the team gave more time to Mark Recchi at the point. Julien noted that having guys like Recchi and Patrice Bergeron on the blueline were big reason's for the power play's success. 

"We’ve thrown a lot of guys in there. Our backend, at the beginning, were more shooters. We weren’t necessarily shooting the puck. But we just decided to put some of those guys back there and then see if it would settle things down a little bit. [Bergeron] is very comfortable back there, and [Recchi] has played there before," Julien said. "So having them back there just kind of settled things a little bit.

"If you want a power play to be successful, you’ve got to find people that can kind of be quarterbacks and control things back there and I thought both those guys did a good job tonight. We didn’t know how it was going to turn out; it was something that we needed to try because of what had happened in the past. Tonight it worked well for us."

PAILLE OR NAY? 

Much like Thomas has been rewarded with starts for his outstanding play, the lines haven't seen shaking up since the second game of the season. It's no coincidence that both the lines that you currently see and the B's four-game win streak share an Oct. 10 birthday. 

The moves made after the team's season-opening 5-2 loss to the Coyotes consisted of Danielle Paille sitting, Jordan Caron dressing and skating on the second line, and Mark Recchi jumping down to the third line to play with Tyler Seguin and Michael Ryder. The team's been on fire since, and the Bruins don't appear ready to mess with success. 

Paille has now sat in four straight games, a season after playing 76 games between the Bruins and Sabres (he actually was a scratch in four straight games last season, all with the Sabres). Having played in just one of the first five games, it's unlikely he'll reach the 76-game mark this season or get back onto the third line he played on in the opener anytime soon. 

Additionally, the fourth line has been so strong that the Bruins can afford to ride the success of the likes of Brad Marchand until they feel it's appropriate to skate Paille. It may just have to be an exercise in patience for the former 20th overall pick.