At this rate, the Bruins may never lose again.
It's been 38 days since the Bruins' last regulation loss, but it seemed that their run of ridiculousness was bound to end with a meeting against the East-best Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins, 7-0-1 in their last eight home contests, are widely considered Boston's biggest competition within the conference in this still youthful season, and most pundits aren't afraid to open their mouths to remind fans that "Boston wouldn't have made it to the Stanley Cup if Crosby and Malkin were in the Penguins' line-up!"
Well, the only necessary counterargument was on display tonight, and was he ever. Call it another night at the office as
Tim Thomas, Boston's rock (strike that, Boston's boulder) in the crease, was simply on fire. Receiving three goals of support thanks to second period tallies from
Greg Campbell and
Benoit Pouliot along with a
Tyler Seguin power-play marker 67 seconds into the third frame, it was more than enough for Boston's juggernaut in net, who stopped 45 of 46 en route to his 10th straight victory.
Becoming the first B's goaltender to win ten straight since
Andy Moog's run back in March of '93, the 37-year-old masked man held the Pens off the board until
Matt Cooke's sixth goal the campaign almost 11 minutes into the third gave Pittsburgh their only cheer of the night.
While a dazzling night from Thomas undoubtedly stole the show for the B's, it was an elite showing from the Bruins up and down their line-up that proved just why they're -- well -- the elite of the East. Turning in a patented team effort, Boston simply did it all.
They killed off all five of the Penguins' power-plays, including two separate five-on-three's -- one for 70 seconds and the other for a full two minutes -- holding Crosby and Malkin at bay almost entirely. They won key face-off's when they had to, evident by Campbell's second marker of the year that began with a face-off win in the offensive zone. And Boston wasn't shying away from the rough stuff, whether it came in the form of answering the bell from a cheap shot like
Brad Marchand did after his questionable hit on Pittsburgh d-man
Matty Niskanen or when Campbell came to the aid of his goaltender following some over-aggressive antics from
Joe Vitale.
But most importantly, they shut one of the NHL's best offenses down. All. Night. Long.
The Pens' dangerous duo donning No. 71 and 87? Combining for 15 shots on goal in almost 43 minutes of time-on-ice, the two finished the night with zero points. Consider it Boston's way of proving the pundits wrong -- albeit in the regular season -- but tonight was as exciting as regular season hockey gets.
Within the East, the win moves the B's within one point of the Penguins with three games in hand, and improves Boston's league-leading goal differential to a staggering plus-36 on the year. That's 17 goals better than the next closest team, the Detroit Red Wings.
Holy smokes.
Boston's back it tomorrow night in search of their 15th win the last 16 games with their first trip to Winnipeg since New Year's Eve..of 1995.
Follow me on Twitter, shoot me an email at [email protected], or become Facebook friends with the HockeyBuzz Bruins profile for links, interactions, and updates.
*********
KINDLE USERS: Please subscribe to Bruins Buzz; a one-stop feed for all things Bruins related on HockeyBuzz. For more information,
click here.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»