Even When They Sleepwalk Through Much of a Game Now, The B's Still Manage To Post a Shutout

You know that we have it pretty good these days when all we can do (at least when it comes to the Bruins) is complain about the lack of beauty in a win. Haha yes tonight's 1-0 shutout of the pseudo-AHL Devils (25-33-8) at the Garden was far from an instant classic but if the Celtics have taught us anything during their thus far very disappointing season, you have to enjoy the wins no matter how they come. Boston (39-17-9) has the third most points in the NHL thanks to a ridiculous 16-game point streak (12-0-4). Along those lines, goaltender Tuukka Rask (14-0-3) has been similarly brilliant since his last regulation loss-the day before Christmas Eve at Carolina.

It only made perfect sense that after a pair of truly thrilling regular season games vs. San Jose (38-19-8) and Tampa Bay (50-12-4) earlier in the week-both 4-1 victories for the Black and Gold-that they would lack that same infectious spirit they had showed against the iron of the league when the rudderless Devils came to town. Nevermind that New Jersey had played the night before or that leading scorer Kyle Palmieri was sidelined with a lower-body injury, this was going to be two points for the home team almost no matter what happened. It helped that Boston stepped on their throat right away as Brad Marchand scored a power-play goal 2:37 into the first period. His 27th goal of the season was assisted by Patrice Bergeron (now tied with Wayne Cashman for 6th place on the Bruins' all-time scoring list with 793 points) and Jake DeBrusk. Marchand has 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists) in his past 13 games, Bergeron has 15 points (5 goals, 10 assists) in his last 13 and DeBrusk has 13 points (7 goals, 6 assists) in his last nine games.

You would have thought it would be a blowout as Marchand got hooked by defenseman Damon Severson on a breakaway and earned a penalty shot less than five minutes later but New Jersey rookie goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (29 saves, 6-6-0) made the save. Marchand fell to 4-for-7 (which is still a pretty solid conversion rate) on penalty shots in the league. Rask probably hasn't recorded many easier shutouts in his life: he was only forced to make 20 saves and only a few of them were reasonably tough for his third shutout of the season and 44th of his career. Boston's penalty kill went 2-for-2 and New Jersey only managed 10 total over the final two periods so you can see how there was very little to talk about other than the result and a couple of interesting statistics.

Bruins fans (or hockey fans in general) should get a much more compelling product on Tuesday (7, NESN) as the Hurricanes (36-23-6) come to the Garden. Carolina has also been on an insane run as they have reached third-place in the Metropolitan Division, only three points behind both the Islanders (37-20-7) and Capitals (37-21-7). They have won their last five games in a row after a 4-3 overtime victory in Florida (28-25-11) earlier this evening. Speaking of the Panthers, they will be here on Thursday (7, NESN) followed by the hapless Senators (22-38-5) on Saturday night (7, NESN) who are the worst team in the NHL and just fired their head coach/bad horror movie villain Guy Boucher. Right now, everything is coming up Bruins and I have to say that I absolutely love it.

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