Bruins Nation

I thought we were going to end the Devils win streak. Especially after that first period I thought that the rest of the league would see how good the Bruins are. But no. The Bruins blew it. A huge lead and they lost it. There were small positives, and the Bruins didn't lose because of the lack of effort, but rather they lost because New Jersey stepped up. Their top line of Gionta, Parise, and Elias along with Martin Brodeur stuck together and beat a good Bruins team.

The first period was all Bruins. 6 minutes in, Chara's drive started the scoring for the Bruins. Then in the middle of the period, Glen Murray had a great interception in the Devils zone and fired off a shot past Brodeur. Things got a little physical after that when Jeremy Reich and Arron Asham started throwing punches. Asham got a few in at the beginning and Reich ended with a couple good counter-attacks. I'll give the edge to Reich, but the argument could be made that it was a draw. Either way it seemed to spark the Bruins even more. A few minutes later, Marc Savard passed the puck across the ice to Denis Wideman in the Devils zone. Wideman took a big slap shot and scored, giving the Bruins a 3-0 lead.

The Devils, as previously mentioned, did come back. Early in the second, Elias tipped in a puck to put the Devils within two. Then later in the period Zach Parise shoved a puck in on the power play to make it a 3-2 game. the Bruins offense was there the entire time though. Marc Savard (who got his point streak up to 11 games with a first period assist) made a couple great plays, but no pucks got by Brodeur. Late in the third, Brookbank's shot from the blue line was deflected into the net by Zach Parise and the game was tied.

Then the Bruins worst nightmare occured. Tim Thomas went down with a lower body injury with under two minutes to play. Tuuka Rask, who was not at all properly warmed up, had to take over in OT.

We all know how that worked out. A shot by Patrick Elias went by Rask and the Devils won. It was a saveable shot, but I don't blame the not-warmed-up rookie for letting it in.

The Bruins are now sixth in the standings. Zdeno Chara played a season high 33:14 last night in New Jersey. We'll see how Claude Julien uses him tonight at the Garden against Montreal.