THE BOSTON BRUINS opened their NHL season a week ago with a lackluster 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild. This came after a disappointing pre-season where the B’s went 2-6-1, and with the opening-night loss in St. Paul, the death knell was beginning to sound before the team was barely out of the gate. How could a team that lost its top scorer (Bill Guerin), its top goaltender (Byron Dafoe), and its top defenseman (Kyle McLaren) hope to compete when these departures were not significantly addressed?

With the exhibition schedule complete, most fans of the Black & Gold saw their worst fears confirmed. It was going to be a loo-oo-ng season, and the pasting the team got in Minnesota — a squad only in its third year of existence and one that most prognosticators picked to finish near the bottom of the standings this season— along with the prospect of five more road games before the Bruins even returned to home ice, had the potential boo-birds already warming up their lungs for the home opener October 24.

But a funny thing happened as Boston continued its brutal opening road trip and New England slept — the team flourished. After Thursday night’s hard-earned 3-3 tie in Calgary, the Bruins are 2-1-1. Not only that, but Minnesota has yet to lose, and has in fact showed itself to be one of the biggest surprises of the NHL thus far, having gone 3-0-1 and collecting victories over Florida and previously unbeaten Dallas, along with a tie in St. Louis. Hey, the Wild may even be good.

But the Bruins’ start is no less startling. It’s beginning to come into focus that Boston’s loss in Minnesota’s home opener was almost to be expected in a situation where a talented team is opening its season at home. Even more astonishing was the Bruins’ visit to Denver, where they beat an Avalanche team that many pre-season previews picked to haul away the silver chalice next June. In that game, goaltender John Grahame, who had been victimized in St. Paul just three nights earlier, got another surprise start and stymied Colorado for the last 53 minutes of the game in capturing a 2-1 victory. Sergei Samsonov scored with half a second left in regulation for the Bruins’ game-winner, a situation not unlike the kind of losses the Black & Gold regularly suffered themselves in recent years. It was a shocking victory for a Bruins team whose obituary and "told-ya-so’s" were already being prepared.

Two nights later, while only die-hard Bruins fans stayed up for and tuned in to the 10:30 EST start in Vancouver, the visitors again beat a solid team, this time whipping the Canucks, 6-3. For the third straight game, Boston spotted the home team an early lead, but continued to come back, erasing deficits of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-2 before scoring four unanswered tallies to cash in the late-night victory.

Finally, Thursday night saw the B’s face the dreaded second half of back-to-back road tilts, but despite blowing a 3-2 lead with 19 seconds left in the second period, the team still got a critical point as it wound up this season-opening trip to the far reaches of the Western Conference. It’s obviously very early, but at 2-1-1, Boston already is off to a better start than last year’s Stanley Cup finalists (Detroit and Carolina), division mates Montreal and Toronto, as well as San Jose and the payroll-busting Rangers.

This kind of start was hardly to be expected by the nay-sayers and doom-seers who claim to support the team. And while there are definitely still problems looming (too many penalties, an average of three goals given up a game, and sometimes-suspect goaltending), it’s still cause for optimism for the team’s loyal fandom. Even better, the team’s impressive start has come without significant goal-scoring contributions from Brian Rolston (0-0=0, -6 plus/minus rating) and Joe Thornton (only one empty-net goal), both of whom will no doubt heat up as the season progresses. Instead, the offensive firepower has been generated by guys like Bryan Berard (36 career goals), Mike Knuble (50), Jonathan Girard (four), and P.J. Axelsson (40), along with the usual suspects (Glen Murray has three goals in the four games, Samsonov two).

Grahame, before he re-aggravated a shoulder injury, seemed to be settling down after the opening-night debacle, but his day-to-day status opens the door for Steve Shields to get his opportunity to shine, and he has thus far done an adequate job. After Dafoe was not re-signed to a free-agent contract, the goaltending situation was a certifiable question mark for Boston’s fortunes, but after the five-goal outburst surrendered at Minnesota, the goaltending tandem has averaged just two goals a game since, a trend that will win a lot of games if it continues.

Over the weekend, the Bruins will wrap up the trip in Edmonton (Saturday) and Toronto (Monday) before returning to FleetCenter ice for the home opener on Thursday. Prior to this road trip, the home opener, which will feature the retiring of B’s legend Terry O’Reilly’s #24 in pre-game ceremonies, was the only guaranteed sellout of the season. With the way the Bruins have played to kick off the season — especially in light of the absences of Guerin, Dafoe, and McLaren — perhaps there is enough hope and promise to lead the Bruins’ faithful back to the big arena on Causeway Street on a regular basis.

With the Celtics still in pre-season mode and the Patriots enjoying a bye week, the only other game in town is soccer, where the Revolution, like their Razor’s Edge brethren, have improbably advanced to the championship game of their sport. There is no better story for the MLS this year than the turnaround of the Revs, who on August 18 were in last place in the Eastern Division with a sorry record of 7-14-1. There was little reason to hope. Suddenly, faced with the prospect of any potential playoff shot resting on the prospect of not losing one of its remaining six games — including three on the road against playoff teams — the Revolution went 5-0-1 to not only qualify for the post-season, but to actually win the division with a less-than-sparkling 12-14-2. As division champ, the Revs got home-field advantage for both rounds of the playoffs and made the best of it, taking a pair of 2-0 wins at home against Chicago in the quarterfinals, then bookending a 1-0 victory at Columbus with two Gillette Stadium ties. The road victory at Columbus was accomplished despite playing a man down for nearly the entire game, as midfielder Jay Heaps was ejected early on.

Since that fateful August 18 home loss to Chicago, the Revs have given up just seven goals in 12 matches while blanking the competition in seven of those. Through a fortuitous break, this year’s MLS Championship game was awarded in the pre-season to Foxborough and its new stadium, and therefore the Revolution will have a significant home-field advantage when they take the field against the LA Galaxy — a team that went 16-9-3 in the regular season to win the Western Division handily — on Sunday (ABC, 1:30 p.m.).

I too am a bit lucky to have the Revolution playing on their home turf for the championship game, as it turns out that I am actually a season-ticket holder for the Revs this season. Prior to the completion of the new stadium, I assumed that my only opportunity to see games in the magnificent edifice would be soccer matches, since the Patriots’ season-ticket waiting list hovers around 50,000. Therefore, with three other fellows I went in on a pair of very reasonably priced season tickets, and the four of us took turns throughout the season using the seats. In our pre-season ticket draft lottery, with my first two choices I selected the May 11 game that christened the stadium, plus the MLS Championship game, on the long-shot hope that the Revolution might be a participant. When the locals got off to such a dismal start, my roll of the dice to see the title game seemed to be a wasted one, and I prepared for the prospect of seeing two teams for whom I cared not a whit play for the MLS Cup. Lo and behold, the season-ending miracle occurred, and here are the Revs, with a backing Sunday of perhaps 50,000 strong, ready to do battle with the evil forces from the West Coast. I’m out of the prediction business, but I’m obviously hopeful that the Kraft family, which owns the Revs as well as the Pats, will see another beautiful day dawn on Sunday.

Speaking of the West Coast, the World Series participants are at the ready as each of the California franchises looks to claim its first championship. As I mentioned in an earlier column (http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/sportingeye/documents/02480488.htm), there is no way that I’m rooting for a team that includes the likes of Barry Bonds, Kenny Lofton, and Jeff Kent. Sorry, I just won’t. The first two are evil incarnate, and the third is a liar and a show off. And I’m not alone in this belief, either. Respected Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jeff Pearlman outlined his distaste for Bonds and Lofton in a recent online column, and you can find that at the following address — just be sure to come back here when you’re done — http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/jeff_pearlman/news/2002/10/14/nlcs_lofton/index.html.

Rooting for these Giants in this instance — despite the fact that Bonds has never been to the Fall Classic despite his gaudy statistics — is like rooting for the Nebraska or University of Miami football teams in the ’90s, or the Yankees in the late ’70s, or the Dallas Cowboys anytime. Yes, perhaps the fans of the teams are deserving of a celebration, and there are probably a lot of players and folks working for the organization who are also worthy of a championship ring. Nonetheless, I cannot bear to see athletes of dubious character rewarded in any way, shape, or form. Otherwise, it justifies their behavior, and sustains that belligerent attitude. I want to see them suffer instead, and maybe, just maybe, come to some moral conclusion that their behavior needs to be improved before they can reach the pinnacle of success. Naive? Sure. I’ll admit it. I don’t care, though. Just as I cannot in my heart root for hockey’s Eric Lindros, football’s Ray Lewis, and basketball’s Latrell Sprewell, so too will I never give my support to the likes of Bonds and Lofton. I back those of upstanding character and those who value sportsmanship and respect for one’s fellow man (even if they do represent the media), and the aforementioned villains most certainly do not.

I have absolutely no problem rooting for the gritty Angels, who embody all that is right about sports (except for the fans’ annoying Thunderstix). You don’t have to root for ’em, but I truly can’t imagine a more deserving champion than Mike Scioscia’s band of cast-offs, overachievers, and flat-out players.

Angels versus Devils. As in life, you make your choice.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com