(My Sportsbook) - Many prognosticators picked the Bruins to experience a major tumble in the standings after losing both Bill Guerin and Byron Dafoe this summer. And if Boston was to prove the doubters wrong, at least temporarily, it faced a stern test early on with a six-game road trip to begin the regular season.

Well, so far, so good.

Robbie Ftorek's club finished up the franchise-record opening trek with a 4-1 victory in Toronto Monday night, and headed home with a 4-1-1 record under its belt. After starting things with a humbling 5-1 loss to Minnesota, the B's sandwiched victories in Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto around a tie with the Calgary Flames.

"It feels nice that we can finish the road trip off the way we did," Ftorek, who earned his 200th coaching win, told the Boston Globe. "We started off a little shaky and then the guys really put it together and played well throughout the rest of the road trip."

Boston controlled the match very early on, taking a 1-0 lead courtesy of Jozef Stumpel's tally 1:06 in. The Leafs' Mats Sundin knotted things with a power- play goal later in the opening frame, but the Bruins responded with three scores in the final seven minutes of the second to essentially put things away.

Two of those tallies came a mere 17 seconds apart. Glen Murray made it 2-1 at 13:36 of the second, and Hal Gill notched his first marker of the season at 13:53 to make it a two-goal cushion.

"Starting on the road was great," Murray said. "A lot of people are saying we won't even make the playoffs. I think we took that to heart. We wanted to have a great start. We're missing a couple of guys that we had last year. We wanted to prove to everybody around the league that we are for real."

Goaltender Steve Shields, obtained from Anaheim this summer, put forth a much- needed performance with 33 saves. The veteran, who is trying to re-establish his netminding reputation in Beantown, had started just one previous game this year, but was pressed into duty because of an injury to John Grahame.

The Bruins were also without wingers Sergei Samsonov and Martin Lapointe, out with wrist and foot injuries, respectively. Samsonov is day-to-day and could return for Thursday's home opener against Ottawa at the FleetCenter. Lapointe, meanwhile, is expected to be sidelined for at least six weeks with the broken left foot.

UP NEXT

After welcoming the Senators on Thursday, the B's host Atlanta two nights later. In all, Boston plays four of its next five matches on home ice.