Bruins Kick Off 2nd Half With Impressive Road Win, 5-2 Over Islanders

After what felt like about a month off (for the NHL All-Star break), the Bruins were finally back in action tonight on Long Island. Boston (26-16-7) dropped the Islanders (32-15-1) 5-2 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to improve to 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. In fact, the B's have earned points in 12 of their last 13 contests. Tonight's win evened the season series at one and the only way that Boston will ever see that dump again is if they meet in the playoffs. Boston hosts New York next Saturday at TD Garden, the finale of the three-game season series.

Boston certainly didn't start like a team that hadn't played a game in over a week as they got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period. Reilly Smith scored his 10th goal of the season at 13:59, a tip-in on a beautiful pass by Milan Lucic. David Krejci had the second assist on that one. 2:10 later, Patrice Bergeron scored a power play goal when New York gave him way too much time and space. Boston's lone All-Star knew what to do, snapping a low shot past Jaroslav Halak (28 saves). Dougie Hamilton and Smith assisted on Bergeron's 12th goal of the season.

The Islanders showed why they have been the top team in the Eastern Conference as they dominated zone time in the second period and were rewarded with not one but two goals to tie it up. Superstar John Tavares cut it to 2-1 at 8:25 after dumping the puck in on Tuukka Rask (season-high 43 saves including a save of the year nominee with the paddle of his stick), the rebound came right to him and he was able to slide it in for his team-leading 23rd goal of the season. Goon Cal Clutterbuck and Travis Hamonic got the assists but honestly, they didn't do anything. New York made it 2-2 at 15:12 when Johnny Boychuk's blast was deflected by Michael Grabner in front of Rask. Tavares had the other assist on Grabner's fifth goal of the season.

Earlier in the season, if they blew a two-goal lead like that, the Bruins would have been toast. This showed the progress that they have made as they stayed calm and benefitted from a fluky goal of their own with less than four seconds left in the second period. Halak cleared the puck right to Kevan Miller at the blueline and he alertly threw it on net, ending in his second goal of the season.

Boston would not relinquish another two-goal advantage as Torey Krug scored right away, 1:45 into the third for his 10th goal of the season (4-2 Bruins). Smith and Lucic had the assists on Krug's shot through traffic that deflected off an Islander. The Isles outshot the B's 14-6 in the final frame but it didn't matter since Lucic clinched it with an empty-netter at 17:54 from Krejci and Zdeno Chara. Would you believe that it was Lucic's 10th goal of the season as well?

The B's take on the struggling Kings (21-15-12) on Saturday night (7, NESN) at the Garden. It should be another highly-entertaining, playoff-like game.

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The Bruins are ready for the playoffs (please don't let lightning strike me for saying that)

One of Bruins coach Claude Julien's most annoying habits is overplaying his fourth line. There's nothing he enjoys more than giving too much ice time to guys with plenty of heart but limited skills. It's one thing to do that in the regular season which is a marathon but when you get to the playoffs, you have to ride your big guns that got you there.

With that said, it was ironic that last night, Boston's fourth line of Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille carried the team as they beat the New York Islanders 3-2 at TD Garden.

Campbell (assist) and Thornton had goals while Paille had an assist. They brought energy to a team that was mostly biding their time until the playoffs start (likely in a week).

The win brought a couple nice milestones as the Bruins (45-24-11) went over 100 points (currently 101) while Thornton reached 10 goals for the first time in his career. Boston is still in third place in the Eastern Conference but they're only two points behind Philadelphia (both have two games left).

For the Islanders (30-38-12), rookie Michael Grabner had a pair of goals: shorthanded and on the power-play but the erratic play of Winthrop's own Rick DiPietro (30 saves) sealed another loss in a NHL lottery bound season.

Tim Thomas made 30 saves in the win, improving to 34-11-9.

Thornton gave Boston a 1-0 lead as he scored with 0.1 seconds left in the first period. It was his first game back since getting 40 stitches against the Blackhawks last week. Paille and Campbell assisted with Thornton cleaning up a rebound in front of DiPietro (who sported an old school mask) and beating the clock.

Grabner tied it up with the power-play snipe (his 32nd overall) at 3:24 of the second period from Blake Comeau and DiPietro.

Dennis Seidenberg put the Bs up 2-1 at 7:51 of the second period with a blast from the point. Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley assisted.

Campbell made it 3-1 just over a minute later with his 13th goal of the season. Adam McQuaid and Tomas Kaberle assisted on Campbell's shot that DiPietro would probably like to have back. It wasn't a strong shot but it snuck under DiPietro's pads.

Grabner kept it interesting with his shorthanded tally at 14:26 of the second period. Josh Bailey and Ty Wishart assisted as Grabner was first to the puck and raced in alone on a breakaway before roofing it over Thomas with a backhander.

After a couple days off, the Bruins host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon in their regular season home finale and then wrap up the regular season on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.

The lineups will be shuffled with Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Mark Recchi, etc. all more than deserving of some rest before the playoffs start.

The Bruins are ready for the playoffs (please don't let lightning strike me for saying that)

One of Bruins coach Claude Julien's most annoying habits is overplaying his fourth line. There's nothing he enjoys more than giving too much ice time to guys with plenty of heart but limited skills. It's one thing to do that in the regular season which is a marathon but when you get to the playoffs, you have to ride your big guns that got you there.

With that said, it was ironic that last night, Boston's fourth line of Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille carried the team as they beat the New York Islanders 3-2 at TD Garden.

Campbell (assist) and Thornton had goals while Paille had an assist. They brought energy to a team that was mostly biding their time until the playoffs start (likely in a week).

The win brought a couple nice milestones as the Bruins (45-24-11) went over 100 points (currently 101) while Thornton reached 10 goals for the first time in his career. Boston is still in third place in the Eastern Conference but they're only two points behind Philadelphia (both have two games left).

For the Islanders (30-38-12), rookie Michael Grabner had a pair of goals: shorthanded and on the power-play but the erratic play of Winthrop's own Rick DiPietro (30 saves) sealed another loss in a NHL lottery bound season.

Tim Thomas made 30 saves in the win, improving to 34-11-9.

Thornton gave Boston a 1-0 lead as he scored with 0.1 seconds left in the first period. It was his first game back since getting 40 stitches against the Blackhawks last week. Paille and Campbell assisted with Thornton cleaning up a rebound in front of DiPietro (who sported an old school mask) and beating the clock.

Grabner tied it up with the power-play snipe (his 32nd overall) at 3:24 of the second period from Blake Comeau and DiPietro.

Dennis Seidenberg put the Bs up 2-1 at 7:51 of the second period with a blast from the point. Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley assisted.

Campbell made it 3-1 just over a minute later with his 13th goal of the season. Adam McQuaid and Tomas Kaberle assisted on Campbell's shot that DiPietro would probably like to have back. It wasn't a strong shot but it snuck under DiPietro's pads.

Grabner kept it interesting with his shorthanded tally at 14:26 of the second period. Josh Bailey and Ty Wishart assisted as Grabner was first to the puck and raced in alone on a breakaway before roofing it over Thomas with a backhander.

After a couple days off, the Bruins host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon in their regular season home finale and then wrap up the regular season on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey.

The lineups will be shuffled with Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Mark Recchi, etc. all more than deserving of some rest before the playoffs start.

Bruins lose fourth straight, the world is ending

Last night, the Boston Bruins experienced the rare trap game in the NHL and as expected, they did not respond well.

For the second straight night, they held a 2-0 lead but for the second consecutive game they blew it (first two times they've done that all season) as they lost 4-2 to the host New York Islanders at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Boston (38-21-9) has now lost a season-high four games and even that is misleading since they've been playing bad for longer than that. They didn't really deserve to win the last few games on their last road trip but they ended up on top.

For whatever reason, now the hockey Gods are not smiling on this woeful franchise.

Nathan Horton stayed hot with his 20th goal of the season at 16:29 of the first period. Milan Lucic and David Krejci assisted on the goal that Horton finished with a backhander to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Things looked good when the power-play shook off the cobwebs and scored its first goal since February 18 when Zdeno Chara scored at 13:02 of the second period (his 12th of the season). Krejci and Tomas Kaberle assisted on Big Z's goal.

From there New York goaltender Al Montoya (26 saves) kept Boston scoreless.

The turning point happened with two seconds left in the second period as Matt Moulson scored his 29th of the season for the Islanders (27-32-10). It wasn't pretty as Moulson stuffed it past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (38 saves) but it counted with assists to John Tavares and P.A. Parenteau.

I was texting with a buddy at that point and we were already predicting the Bruins' demise. He said they'd lose in a shootout, luckily for us they didn't drag it out that long.

Rookie Michael Grabner scored his 28th of the season at 1:58 to tie it up (from Kyle Okposo and Milan Jurcina). Defenseman Jack Hillen potted the game-winner at 5:58 (from Radek Martinek and Okposo). The meltdown wasn't complete without the rare empty-netter awarded when Patrice Bergeron hauled down Parenteau with 10 seconds left.

The good news is that the Bruins have the weekend to recover before three more games on the road (Columbus, Nashville, Toronto). Boston visits the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. I'd say Columbus is not very good (which is a true statement) but anybody is capable of giving the Bruins trouble at the moment. The Bruins have to wake up, starting now.