Halfway Through The Season Series Vs. Sabres, B's Are Unbeaten (4-0) After Last Night's 2-0 Shutout

 

    With the borderline AHL club that the Sabres (12-27-7) are rolling out there this season, it truthfully doesn't take much to beat them. Still, give the Bruins (26-12-6) credit for staying focused while they play the worst team in the league. Last night at the KeyBank Center, Boston blanked Buffalo 2-0 for their fifth straight win thanks to 32 saves by goaltender Tuukka Rask (11-4-2) who earned his first shutout of the season and the 51st of his NHL career. Thanks to a scheduling quirk in a year that's full of them, this was the first of three straight games between the Bruins and Sabres while Boston will also play these bums five times in their next seven contests. Haha what a gift as they try to lock up a playoff spot and move up in the East Division: the B's are now only four points behind the Capitals (29-13-4) and Islanders (29-13-4) plus just three points behind the Penguins (29-14-3) with two games in hand against all of those clubs.

    As you can probably conclude from the final score, this contest was pretty cut and dry. Boston scored a goal in the first period and a goal in the second period and that's more than they needed to beat a punchless group that went 0-for-6 on the power play. Left wing Brad Marchand gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with a sweet backhander at 8:06 of the first period. Sabres goaltender Dustin Tokarski (39 saves, 2-6-2) left a juicy rebound then Marchand was able to swoop in and finish a backhander top shelf. Right wing David Pastrnak and defenseman Mike Reilly had the assists on Marchand's team-leading 24th goal of the season. 

    Defenseman Connor Clifton's goal at 3:03 of the second period was a classic goal allowed by an awful team. His shot from the point squeaked through Tokarski's five-hole and then for good measure, he kicked it with his skate which gave it just enough momentum to get over the goal line. It was the first goal of the season for the former Quinnipiac star, assisted by left wing Sean Kuraly and center Curtis Lazar (playing in his first game back in Buffalo). After a day off today, these teams return to the ice in Western NY tomorrow night (7, NESN) followed by a back-to-back on Friday (7, NESN). The Bruins are 4-0 against the Sabres with four matchups left this season and needless to say, those are eight easy points that they need to grab like their lives depend on it.

Lightning Help Bruins Hit Rock Bottom For 2011-12

The Boston Bruins have been handing out two-goal leads to start games like they were candy on Halloween. Tonight, they thought why not take it a step further as they were down 3-0 at 4:31 and 4-0 at 15:38 of the first period.

By rolling 6-1, the Tampa Bay Lightning (32-30-7) helped push the B's (40-26-03) over the cliff at the Tampa Bay Times Forum and they didn't forget to pour gasoline over the tire fire that is the Black and gold.

It's the first time since October, the month that shall not be spoken about, that Boston has lost three games in a row. The worst part was that this prideful team simply laid down from beginning to end, against an average opponent.

Marty Turco (8 saves) got the start but he was yanked after allowing three goals, one of which was completely preventable and his fault. Tim Thomas (3 saves) came in for almost two periods but he wasn't much better as he allowed two goals. Turco returned in the third period and he had the honor of allowing Steven Stamkos' 50th goal of the season (second time he's done that in his career, 51 in '09-'10).

Tom Pyatt (8th of the season) kicked off the scoring (no pun intended) by knocking the puck off his skate. It was called no-goal on the ice but somehow the league officials in Toronto thought it was a goal so it was reversed. Things only got worse as Turco fumbled a puck right to Nate Thompson (9th of the season) then former BC star Ryan Shannon (4th of the season) skated in on a breakaway.

Tampa Bay scored its fourth goal-the most Boston has allowed in a period this season-when Victor Hedman (4th of the season) put one over Thomas' shoulder. The only semblance of pride exhibited by the B's in that frame was from Shawn Thornton, as usual, who beat the hell out of Mike Commodore.

Did I mention that Boston had two shots (really) in the first? Stamkos' received a gift from Thomas in the form of his 49th goal in the second period. Stamkos flipped it on net, with no power and Thomas fall over the line and couldn't stop it.

Jordan Caron (7th of the season) prevented the shutout for Dustin Tokarski (33 saves) when he tipped in a shot by Johnny Boychuk in the third period.

The Lightning come to TD Garden in two weeks, maybe by then the Bruins will have woken up. Either that or they'll no longer be in first in the Northeast Division so they'll be on the fringe of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Boston ends this torturous trip (0-2 so far, 3 goals scored, 11 goals allowed) on Thursday against the Panthers. The Bruins are 2-1 against Florida so far this season although they haven't played them in nearly two months.

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