Boston Bruins (23-10-2, 48 points) vs. Buffalo Sabers (9-23-2, 21 points)
TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
December 21st, 2013, 7:00PM
Call it what you will, but Thursday night's 4-2 loss to Buffalo was demoralizing. Coming into the night, the Sabers had scored just 7 1st period goals all season long while winning 3 straight games just once all season. They were and still are the worst team in hockey and yet over the course of a near 18 minute span, they turned a 2-1 Boston lead into a 4-2 loss for the Big Bag Bruins. Tell me how that does not sting.
Now the Bruins did not necessarily play badly during that 5 minute stretch in which goals 3 and 4 for the Sabers were scored as for the majority of the 3rd period they dominated play out shooting their division rivals 15-5 in the frame. However if you felt the need to blame somebody for both those goals that somebody would in both cases be 27 year old Bruins goaltender, Chad Johnson. The streaky goaltender has already played more games this season than he did in his previous 3 seasons combined. However, after failing to come through for his team in key situations Bruins fans may be forced to ask the question, is Johnson necessarily the answer to the question, who should back up Tuukka Rask?
But he is not the only question mark on this Bruins roster going into the second half of Boston's first home and home set of the season. Over the past month or so, the injury report has been constantly growing as the Bruins defense alone has been ripped apart more than any other facet of the team. By the end of Thursday's game, 3 Bruins who without injury would have been on the ice were not even present on the bench. D-Men Dougie Hamilton, Kevin Millar and Adam McQuaid have all been missing for the past few weeks with an assortment of injuries ranging from a lower body ailment for Hamilton to a concussion suffered by young call-up Kevin Millar.
As a result of these injuries, the Bruins have been forced to call up a wide array of young AHL starters including but not limited to, David Warsofski, Matt Fraser and Nick Johnson. One byproduct of that infusion of young men into this lineup is the fact that the existing Bruin's veterans are forced to truly stand up which is not necessarily a bad thing. Zedeno Chara has already shouldered 200+ minutes of ice time in the month of December while others like Jarome Iginla and Milan Lucic have stepped up the physical play and rocked anyone who has tried to go after their near teenage teammates.
This kind of peace of mind that can be brought about upon a player whose teammates are taking punches for their sake and yet what definitely feels even better is a strong, dominant win.
When the Bruins and Sabers square off this evening, they will have a chance not only to beat a weak Sabers team but beat them up.
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