Bruins Nation

The snow came tumbling down, as did the Bruins winning streak. I was one of 9 (no really, the Garden was empty) fans who trekked to TD Banknorth Garden despite the blizzard coming down. Yes it took 2 and a half hours, but I never let Bruins tickets go to waste. When the Garden is sold out, the games are amazing to watch. The atmosphere is great. When the games are empty, it's also a lot of fun. I had a Bruins game all to myself. Anyway, the Bruins were kind of flat. Sloppy defense and lazy playmaking led to Brodeur and the guys in front of him beating the Bruins. I guess if there is anyone to hand Auld his first loss as a Bruin, it's Martin Brodeur.

In the first period, Milan Lucic beat up David Clarkson. It was sort of an even fight to the right of the Bruins net when Milan Lucic landed a huge punch. Out of sympathy the refs ended the fight there.

Nothing happened until the middle of the second period when Brian Gionta beat Andrew Ference on the outside. Gionta skated all the way to the net to score on Auld. Then just a few minutes later on a New Jersey power play, Langenbrunner scored on a hard shot. He just found an open lane and took it. There was a glimpse of hope when the Bruins started playing aggressive in the third. On the power play Marc Savard scored, but then the Bruins mustered all of four shots. Losing in the third period the Bruins shot only 5 shots. A real poor effort. New Jersey put the game away when Zdeno Chara, who has been handling the puck very poorly as of late, gave away the puck in the Bruins zone with an empty net. The Devils put the puck in net easily and the Devils won 3-1.