What the hell is going on out there?

I laid low after going to the Bruins' 4-3 overtime loss to the Capitals on Saturday. I was going to blog about it, but why bother? My internet-related apathy was not good karma apparently as the Flyers came into the Garden last night and dominated the Bruins, 4-2.

Like Saturday, there's really not much to say about Boston (42-13-9) at the moment. They've lost eight of their last eleven games and after looking like they recovered with the two blowout wins last week, it's back to square one.

The NHL trading deadline is this afternoon at 3 p.m. and it's anybody's guess whether the wet-behind-the-ears B's will be buyers or if they'll keep the team as it's currently constructed.

If the last few weeks have shown anything, it's that the Bruins need some kind of spark. This is a club that will have a home-ice advantage in the playoffs, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the Capitals, Devils and Flyers will all be tough outs in their own rights.

Patrice Bergeron (who's been playing really well lately) gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first period last night with a power play goal. His seventh strike of the year was assisted by Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard.

Philly (34-18-10) tied it up in the second when Scottie Upshall scored an unassisted goal.

The Flyers wrapped it up with three straight goals in the third period. Two Simon Gagne tallies, were sandwiched around one by former Bruin Mike Knuble.

Stephane Yelle scored a garbage-time goal on the power play for the B's but I don't think even Yelle's kids have him on their fantasy teams, so it was utterly meaningless.

Philadelphia goaltender Antero Niittymaki (15-5-5) made 22 saves for the win. Bruins goalie Manny Fernandez (14-5-3) was not as sharp, with 22 saves in the loss.

One of the worst teams in the NHL, the Phoenix Coyotes, travel to Boston tomorrow night for what should be a must-win for the B's.

All I want for Christmas is for Patrice Bergeron to be healthy

Once the most promising young talent on the Boston Bruins, Patrice Bergeron's career was put in jeopardy last fall after a cheap-shot by the Flyers' Randy Jones. Bergeron missed the rest of the season and playoffs after the severe concussion and it wasn't until training camp this season that he fully returned to the ice.

He came into yesterday's game against the Hurricanes with four goals and 14 assists. His goal-scoring tough has clearly not been the same but Bergeron was slowly returning to the player he had been for a few seasons.

The B's (23-5-4) beat the Hurricanes (15-13-5), 4-2, at the Garden but unfortunately the lasting image from the game was Bergeron laying face down on the ice once again.

In the second period, he got hurt on a collision with a Carolina defenseman and it took him a few minutes to recover (possibly regain consciousness?) and get off the ice with help from teammates and the trainers.

It did not look good at first glance and with his concussion history, let's just hope that Bergeron somehow didn't get another serious head injury.

With Bergeron probably out for the near future and Marco Sturm recently placed on IR, the Bruins' injury list grows by the day. Aaron Ward and Andrew Ferrance are also out yet the team keeps winning.

Joni Pitkanen (Rod Brind'Amour, Joe Corvo) scored a power play goal at 4:50 of the first to give the Hurricanes an early 1-0 lead.

Marc Savard (Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic) tied it up with his 10th of the season in the second period.

3:54 into the third, David Krejci (Vladimir Sobotka, Shane Hnidy) put the B's up for good with a goal, his 12th of the season. Eight minutes later, tough guy Shawn Thornton (2nd of the year) gave Boston a 3-1 lead.

With less than five minutes left, Ray Whitney scored from Brind'Amour and Scott Walker but Stephane Yelle put in an empty-netter with three seconds left.

The Bruins have now won their last 13 home games. Goaltender Manny Fernandez made 32 saves and improved his record to 10-2-1.

Boston travels to St. Louis tonight for a rare Sunday night contest.

Bruins snap 12-game losing streak to Canadiens

In a game they had no business winning (getting home at 3 a.m. from Chicago yesterday morning), the Boston Bruins (10-3-3) continued to defy logic this season as they handed the Montreal Canadiens (9-3-2) a 6-1 beating at the Garden.

Montreal is a good team and they had been waiting in Boston the night before while Boston went to a shootout to beat another quality team in Chicago.

The Bruins current win streak moved to five games while they broke a 12-game regular season losing streak to the Canadiens.

It was over early as Boston blitzed Montreal with three first period goals. One of the biggest surprises of the Bruins' season so far has been the play of its fourth line. The B's have more depth than almost any other NHL team.

This was on display as tough guy Shawn Thornton scored his first of the season off an assist from Stephane Yelle just 2:31 into the game.

Yelle scored his second of the season with three minutes left in the period. Thornton and Chuck Kobasew (who just returned from a broken leg) had the assists.

Marco Sturm (fifth of the season) scored a power play goal with seven seconds left. The assists were from Marc Savard and Michael Ryder.

3:44 into the second, Sturm added another power play strike, from Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara.

Montreal finally woke up as Saku Koivu scored with help from Alex Tanguay.

Boston put it away in the third as Milan Lucic (5th of the season; from Phil Kessel) and Yelle (from Kobasew and Aaron Ward) made the B's lead 6-1.

In between those goals, Lucic took care of the only other thing Boston had to do: he beat the hell out of Canadiens enforcer Mike Komisarek, who had a great series against the Bruins in last spring's playoffs.

Canadiens goalie Carey Price still looks like a fraud as he made 25 stops but gave up all six goals. Bruins backup goalie Manny Fernandez had his second good game in a row (which is a great sign since he's one of the team's biggest question marks) with 27 saves.

The first-place Bruins travel to the Northeast's top team, the New York Rangers tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden.