Thomas' performance — along with Boston's second goal, a Marco Sturm tally that was set up by a beautiful cross-ice pass from Marc Savard — have to be two very positive signs for the Bruins as they head home for a game against Atlanta.
The way Thomas stood his ground — and, on many occasions, bailed out his teammates when they made mistakes or allowed odd-man rushes — was reminiscent of the Thomas we have seen for the last two seasons. Thomas was in his zone and he appears to be finding his groove.
The Savard-to-Sturm goal also has to make Bruins fans smile. Savard showed his trademark vision and instinct there to find a streaking Sturm, who was flying down the off-wing on the right side and broke in for the goal. If they can find a chemistry like that, utilizing Savard's passing and vision with Sturm's speed, the Bruins may finally find that coveted dynamic duo for the first line. It is only one goal, but it was nice to see.
Patrice Bergeron scored, as well — but, to be honest, a big play from him is expected now. He is the team's MVP this season.
The Bruins are now in second place, ahead of Ottawa by one point but trailing the first-place Sabres by six points.
Thanks for joining us here at our Bruins Live Blog and happy holidays!
Third period, 1:57, Bruins 2-0: The Senators have pulled Brian Elliot and now have six attackers out there.
Third period, 6:53, Bruins 2-0: Marco Sturm just gave the Bruins what could be an insurance goal as he took a great cross-ice pass from Marc Savard.
Third period, 8:45, Bruins 1-0: Is it me or are the Senators taking some runs at Tim Thomas and rushing the net a little more than the Bruins should be allowing them to?
Time for the Bruins defensemen to start clogging up the middle — and time to throw some bodies around.
Third period, 12:10, Bruins 1-0: Just as he has all season, Patrice Bergeron has come through with a big goal in the final period and the Bruins have a 1-0 lead in what has been a game of inches so far.
With Marc Savard struggling, someone needs to take over the offensive responsibilities and Bergeron stepped up.
But like we said before, the hard work of Byron Bitz really made that goal happen.
Third period, 16:41, Bruins 1-0: As we were saying earlier, Byron Bitz is one hard worker and it paid off there as the Bruins take a 1-0 lead on a Patrice Bergeron goal. The tally was the result of Bitz grinding along the boards behind the net.
Bitz took possession of the puck behind the net and got it to Shawn Thornton, who found a streaking Bergeron for the goal.
Third period, 17:05: Underway in the third period here as the Bruins and Senators try to break a stalemate.
End of second period, 0-0: Still no score after two periods of play in Ottawa. Tim Thomas and Brian Elliot have a good goalies' duel going, but both teams could use some better chances.
The Bruins' power play continues to struggle and is 0-for-3 on the night. Chances are the referees will give some payback calls to the Senators, so the Bruins penalty kill needs to be ready.
Michael Ryder (four shots) is playing better, as is Marc Savard (two shots), but they need to make the chances count. There have not been many second chances, so it is time to follow through and park guys in front.
Second period, 1:27: The Bruins are now 0-for-3 on the power play after failing to score on that last one. If they go on another, they obviously need to find ways to score, but they will also have to be aware of the opportunistic Ottawa penalty killers, who have had some short-handed chances.
Second period, 5:56: The Bruins are going on their third power play of the night. They're 0-for-2 on Monday and are 0-for-10 over their last four games. This is a good chance for the Bruins to get it going.
Second period, 9:26: Byron Bitz is playing well again. The only problem — and this is a team-wide problem right now — is that he can't seem to finish.
If Bitz had the skill set of, say, Marc Savard or Michael Ryder, he'd be riding a nice goal streak right now. Too bad he can't put his hustle into Savard or Ryder right now. I'm sure they're trying, but Savard and Ryder need to create more of their own chances.
Second period, 13:56: Not as much creativity going on for the Bruins in terms of creating scoring chances.
Obviously, Marc Savard is struggling, but a guy like David Krejci could step here. Or Patrice Bergeron.
Second period, 17:10: The Bruins are now 0-for-2 on the power play and they are really struggling down low with converting chances.
Second period, 19:32: Underway in the second period, and the Bruins are on their second power play as Chris Phillips is in the penalty box for interference.
End of first period, 0-0: The Bruins definitely had a better first period than they did in Toronto and they head to the dressing room tied at zero.
Lots of credit has to go to Tim Thomas, as he made some huge saves there. Over his last four periods plus an overtime, he looks far more composed. We'll leave out that shootout in Chicago, but other than that, he is on his game right now.
The problem again was finishing. The Bruins had numerous scoring chances that they didn't convert, and while Brian Elliot looked solid in net for the Senators, the Bruins are making him look better. They just seem to freeze around the net right now. Are the sticks heavy? Are they squeezing them? Whatever it is, they need to figure it out in a hurry!
Congratulations to Mark Recchi on playing in his 1,525th game, moving him into 11th all time.
First period, 5:22: Tim Thomas continues to look solid in net. Meanwhile, Dennis Wideman is not having the best debut after missing the last two games with an undisclosed injury.
Wideman has had a bad habit of making turnovers coming out of the defensive zone all season, and it appears he is still struggling in that department.
Comical move, there, when Marco Sturm had to loan his stick to the stickless Zdeno Chara.
First period, 9:20: Tim Thomas, as we said the other night during a 5-4 shootout loss to the Blackhawks, has had much better positioning lately.
He has come up with three big saves thanks to that positioning. One of the shots he saved was a short-handed bid by Jarkko Ruutu off an rare Patrice Bergeron giveaway.
The Bruins are now 0-for-1 on the power play.
First period, 11:38: Erik Karlsson is in the penalty box and the Bruins are on their first power play.
First period, 13:44: Michael Ryder is back out there for the Bruins, and while we'd like to blame a hurt wrist for him missing a one-timer there from David Krejci, it unfortunately is just another sign that he is struggling to get on one of his famous goal-scoring streaks.
Ryder has only eight goals this season and has been held pointless in his last three games.
First period, 15:43: The line of Blake Wheeler-David Krejci-Michael Ryder is back together for this game. Last season, that line probably had the best chemistry of all the Bruins' forward lines.
Ryder appeared to have hurt his wrist on his first shift and we'll see if he's OK.
First period, 19:52: Underway in Ottawa between the Senators and Bruins. All of Ottawa goalie Brian Elliot's three starts against the Bruins have ended in 4-3 shootout losses.
7:20 p.m.: Almost ready for faceoff in Ottawa for a big divisional tilt between the Senators and Bruins at Scotia Bank Place.
The Bruins have needed the shootout to beat the Senators in their first two meetings, but their last encounter shouldn't have gotten to that point. The Bruins, as a whole, felt that they let a valuable point go to the Senators, when Tim Thomas allowed the game-tying goal with 20 seconds left. Thomas felt horrible but at least made the big saves in overtime and in the shootout.
Thomas and the Bruins will surely love to take two points, but also — unlike last time — they'll try to deny the Sens the extra point in the standings.
It will be interesting to see if Shawn Thornton and Senators tough guy Matt Carkner renew acquaintances. Carkner has been inflicting some serious damage on other NHL enforcers lately, namely one of Thornton's other nemeses, Colton Orr of Toronto.
4 p.m.: The Bruins are in Ottawa for another huge divisional tilt against the Ottawa Senators. The Sens (18-13-4, 40 points) lead the Bruins (16-11-7, 39 points) by a point for second place in the Northeast Division and with a win, the Bruins could leapfrog Ottawa for sole possession of that spot.
If the division-leading Sabres were to lose to the Maple Leafs on Monday and if the Bruins win, then the Bruins would trail them by four points. Needless to say, this a big game for the Black and Gold.
Not only does this game mean a lot in the standings, but it will mean a lot for the team's confidence as they head into their holiday break, with only one more game against Atlanta on Wednesday before Christmas.
The Bruins enter Monday's game in one of their worst slumps this season at 0-2-2 in their last four games. Their offense has been struggling, and more specifically, leading scorer Marc Savard is in the midst of a five-game pointless streak. The Bruins need Savard and all their forwards to pick up their game, and head coach Claude Julien is hoping another shuffling of his forward lines will do the job. Savard once again has a new winger in Steve Begin on Monday, as Julien switched things up at the morning skate.
There was some good news out of the Bruins morning skate, as Dennis Wideman was back with the team and will play his first game in a week. Wideman missed the third period of last Monday's 3-1 loss to the Flyers and has not played in the last two games.
Andy Wozniewski looks to be the healthy scratch on defense again and Adam McQuaid, who played well in his first NHL game at Toronto on Saturday, will remain in the lineup.
Tim Thomas will be back between the pipes as Tuukka Rask had an off-night in Saturday's loss to Toronto, letting in two goals he admitted he could have stopped.
Much thanks to NESN's Bruins broadcast producer Brian Zechello for the line updates.
Steve Begin–Marc Savard–Marco Sturm
Daniel Paille–Patrice Bergeron–Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler–David Krejci–Michael Ryder
Shawn Thornton–Vladimir Sobotka–Byron Bitz
Zdeno Chara–Johnny Boychuk
Andrew Ference–Dennis Wideman
Matt Hunwick–Adam McQuaid
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Stay with us here as we live blog the Bruins-Senators. Happy holidays!
