There are stinkbombs, which happen from time to time in the grueling regular season of any sport, and then there is the brontosaurus turd distributed by the Boston Bruins tonight in Buffalo.
Playing a team that they had already beaten twice this season, that had basically nothing to play for, the B's (33-17-2) flatlined as they lost 6-0 to the Sabres (23-24-6) at the First Niagara Center.
It was Boston's worst loss since March 6, 2008 (8-2 vs. Toronto) and the first time this season that they lost by more than three goals.
I'm going to keep this brief since I could care less about Buffalo and there were really no highlights for Boston besides a couple nasty fights from Shawn Thornton and Adam McQuaid.
The Sabres scored twice in each period, forcing Claude Julien to yank Tuukka Rask (7 saves) after the third goal-early in the second. Tim Thomas (16 saves) didn't fare much better as he also allowed three goals.
Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller (15-15-3) made 36 saves for his third shutout of this forgettable season for Captain America.
Jason Pominville led Buffalo with two goals, Ville Leino and Andrej Sekera had two assists apiece, Tyler Ennis had a goal and an assist while Christian Ehrhoff, Patrick Kaleta and Drew Stafford had the other tallies.
The Bruins got robbed of a Milan Lucic goal in the first that would have tied it at 1 when the referees said Rich Peverley interfered with Miller. It was as bad a call as you'll ever see (even the NBC Sports announcers admitted that) but Boston never regained its composure after that so no excuses.
These teams meet three more times, so expect many more brawls, starting with the next matchup two weeks from Friday back in Buffalo.
Boston fell to 5-6-1 in its last 12 games. They haven't won two in a row since January 10 and 12. We all expect them to rebound at some point but it will be tough since Nathan Horton is still out with a concussion and David Krejci is scoreless in his past four contests despite Julien moving him all around.
The Bruins have a few days to get after it in practice before they host Nashville on Saturday afternoon (another damn 1 p.m. start, they suck in those). Then the Rangers come to town on Valentine's Day before Boston heads out on a six-game road trip from Feb. 15-25. Odds are that's when any trade deadline (Feb. 27) deals will go down since it will give new players time to adjust while they can focus more on building chemistry on the road, where there are less distractions.
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