That's More Like It

After defeating the Leafs 2-1 yesterday in Toronto, the Bruins wrapped up
their grueling five-game road trip with an impressive 3-0-2 record. 

The Boston Bruins are beginning to hit their stride.

By coming from behind to defeat Toronto 2-1 at the Air Canada Center yesterday, the Black and Gold wrapped up their taxing five game road trip with an impressive 3-0-2 record, gaining eight of a possible ten points against some of the league's hottest teams. As a result, the Bruins find themselves back on top in the Northeast Division with an overall record of 21-11-6.

After opening the trip way back on Dec. 23 with a 3-2 victory over Florida in a shootout, the Bruins made it two in a row when they came back in epic fashion to defeat Tampa Bay 4-3 on Dec. 28. In a high-paced, back and forth affair, Mark Recchi netted the game winner with just 19.7 seconds left in regulation.

Despite going winless on the next two legs of the trip, Boston found a way to gain two of a possible four points by losing in a shootout. First, it was Atlanta over the B's 3-2 on Dec. 30. Then, on New Year's day the Bruins dropped a wildly entertaining, yet defensively infuriating 7-6 decision to the Buffalo Sabres (the Bruins blew leads of 3-1, 4-2 and 6-5).

Exhibiting little confidence in goaltender Tuukka Rask, Bruins coach Claude Julien elected to yank the backup after just one period. The move was so surprising because, even though he stopped just 13 of 16 shots and appeared to be "fighting" the puck, Rask left the game with Boston still leading 4-3.

In addition, despite leading the league in goals against average (1.80), save percentage (.945) and shutouts (5), Tim Thomas was in desperate need of a breather. In a senseless example of player management, Julien not only started Thomas on back-to-back nights against Tampa Bay and Atlanta just days earlier but also decided to throw him back into the fire against Buffalo after just twenty minutes of play.

Can't the guy get a day off? I know he's the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy again this year but he'll be completely worn out by the playoffs if Julien keeps riding him like this. Thomas has a 18-4-5 record. That means he's played in 27 of a possible 38 games, not including mop-up duty. There's a fine line between riding the hot hand and overworking a guy.

However, the Bruins did accomplish something remarkable that day. With goals from Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg, Zdeno Chara and rookie Steve Kampfer, the Bruins registered four goals by four different defenseman for the first time in team history.

In a fitting end to the trip, Julien finally showed faith in Rask by putting him between the pipes against Toronto last night.

Tuukka delivered.

Much like he did all of last season, Rask backstapped the Bruins to a 2-1 victory, registering 36 saves along the way over Phil Kessel and the Leafs. This was an encouraging sign on two accounts. First, by Julien showing faith in Rask despite his poor showing in Buffalo. And second, Rask bouncing back to regain the stellar form we've all grown accustomed too, despite finding his starts in goal few and far between this season.

If the Bruins are going to make a deep run at the Cup this season, they'll surely need to lean on both goalies. And with Rask playing well again, Tuukka and Thomas might be back on top as the NHL's best goaltending tandem.