Bruins Nation

Not a good way to end the home-stand. Five games at home and they go 1-3-1. Bad defense in front of Tim Thomas was the reason this one went south. The offense produced chances, but they just couldn't find the back of the net. Worst of all was the game that Zdeno Chara had. he scored the lone goal but still managed to have -4 on the night (meaning he was on the ice for all four St Louis goals. bad refs contributed to this one too. It was just an all around bad game at the Garden.

The game began with some odd lines for the Bruins. Glen Murray and Aaron Ward were put on IR. Murray suffered a hip flexor injury and will be out for at least a week. Meanwhile Aaron Ward broke his foot at practice (no idea how long he'll be out, but this means that the Bruins are definitely shopping for a defenseman after christmas.) so the lines were:

Sturm-Savard-Kessel
Axelsson-Metropolit-Kobasew
Lucic-Sobotka-Schaefer
Reich-Nokelainen-Thornton

Chara-Wideman
Stuart-Ference
Lashoff-Allen

In the middle of the first period, Stempniak scored when Chara completely screened Tim Thomas. It was an easy shot to save but nobody can make the save when a 6'9" giant is in front of you. In the second period, Milan Lucic beat up Jackman. Jackman had been acting like a Jack-ass and Lucic crushed him. Punch after punch landed until jackman fell to the ice. the refs were awful in the second period, meanwhile, Andy Brickley and jack Edwards were hilarious about it. They were talking on the air about how they thought the refs were on drugs and hallucinating. With 5 minutes left in the second period, Shawn Thornton (back after missing 22 games) got into a long fight with DJ King. They both traded punches until they ran out of gas. This fight sparked St Louis, however, as Boyes a few minutes later scored his 21st of the season. I still support the Wideman for Brad Boyes trade because Wideman has been playing great and because Boyes was really struggling, but he's doing so well this season that it's tough not to shake your head. We still like you Wideman, don't worry.

Anyway, now down two in the third, Wideman's drive on the power play was blocked, but Chara, who was standing right next to the net, tipped it in. A little later while playing 4 on 4, however, Chara completely blew his coverage and Mayers scored on a 2 on 1 odd man rush. Keith Tkachuk scored an empty net goal and the Bruins lost to the Blues 4-1. The Bruins only had 24 hours to rest until going to Pittsburgh for their rematch against the Penguins.