Honestly, How are the Panthers Still in the NHL?

I won't waste your time for too long talking about a 4-1 Bruins laugher over the Panthers at TD Garden. David Krejci scored a hat trick for Boston (39-17-5) and Chad Johnson made 23 of the easiest saves in his life. Florida (23-32-7) is now 0-4 against the B's this season, with one more chance to get something in the win column on Sunday (not likely).

The Bruins needed a game like this to take their mind off of the impending trade deadline. So far, they surpisingly haven't made any moves. All we know is that they scratched Loui Eriksson with a mysterious injury and Jordan Caron was in the lineup (on the 3rd line no less). Hmmmmm. Caron doubled his point production with his first assist of the season (he has one goal) so I'm thinking maybe they can flip him for Sidney Crosby or at least Evgeni Malkin.

Tim Thomas (35 saves) can still make highlight reel saves but behind a team that has given up, it's hard to tell how good he can be these days. Oh and the Panthers traded for Roberto Luongo this afternoon so good luck with that guys! Krejci tallied his 14th goal of the season at 7:29 of the first period. He simply stole the puck behind Florida's goal then came around and beat Thomas.

Iginla put the B's up 2-0 at 11:01 on Thomas' juicy rebound. His 19th goal of the season was assisted by Caron (who took the initial shot) and Chris Kelly. Krys Barch appeared to be the only Panther to give a shit about anything. He fought Milan Lucic in the first and Shawn Thornton in the second so props to him.

Krejci found himself all alone in the slot, again, and he sniped it over Thomas' shoulder with 48 seconds left in the second for a commanding 3-0 lead. Kevan Miller had the lone assist.

Congrats to Florida though for avoiding the shutout (something that Boston hasn't done to them in 2013-14). Brian Campbell's weak backhander somehow deflected off Matt Bartkowski's stick and in the net at 12:47 of the third. No problem, Krejci notched his third career regular season hat trick (don't forget two in the playoffs as well) on an empty-netter.

This is the worst week of the season thanks to the schedule makers having Boston play Washington and Florida twice apiece. The Capitals (29-23-10) won 4-2 at the Garden on Saturday so naturally they come right back here on Thursday (7, NESN). After that, the B's hit the Sunshine State for spring training, I mean games at Tampa Bay on Saturday and Florida on Sunday. At least the Lightning are a good and exciting team despite their recent struggles.

UPDATE 3/5: So far, all the B's have done is claim defenseman Corey Potter off waivers from Edmonton. In 16 games this season, he has five assists and 21 penalty minutes. He was a fourth round pick of the Rangers in 2003 and he went to Michigan State (like Torey Krug). He's a Lansing, MI native.

The Bruins made one other move: they traded for Flyers defenseman Andrej Meszaros. He's 28 and a former first round pick that has five goals and 12 assists in 38 games this season. He's left-handed which they like but the knock on him is that he's injury prone and soft despite his good size (6 foot 2, 223 pounds). He's Slovakian and has played on the last three Olympic teams with Zdeno Chara so there is that. Granted all he cost was a third-round pick.

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