Bruins Light Up Devils

Bergeron paced Boston with two goals. (Getty)

After the disappointment of missing the playoffs last year, the New Jersey Devils have made a commitment to make it back to the postseason in 2012.  Unfortunately, the long time Eastern Conference powerhouse had to contend with one of its new powerhouses in the form of the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

The Devils entered the night with a 9-3-1 record in their last 13 games, a stretch that saw them claw into the playoff picture.  The Bruins, on the other hand, had seen their seven-game winning streak snapped on New Year's Eve and were hoping to recover in the last leg of a three-game road trip.

Boston didn't do itself any favors early.  After a spirited fight between the B's Shawn Thornton and NJ's Cam Janssen, the Bruins' Johnny Boychuk was whistled for accidentally firing the puck out of play in his  own end.  While Tim Thomas made some good saves on the ensuing power play, the Devils' David Clarkson broke through to finish a 2-on-1 with an upstairs snipe to open up the scoring at 4:24.

But, true to the weather in Newark, New Jersey cooled off quickly after that.  Boston's Andrew Ference got open and fired a shot off the skate of teammate Gregory Campbell (who received credit for the goal) to tie the game at 8:15.  The Devils' Henrik Tallinder was whistled for the same delay of game penalty as Boychuk, and, in similar fashion, the Bruins capitalized for a 2-1 lead.  David Krejci found Nathan Horton on the far side of the net and Horton clanked it off the post and in from close range to put the Bruins up at 13:17.

Assistant captain Patrice Bergeron extended the lead to 3-1 at 4:02 of the second period when he scored on a clean breakaway.  The goal came just six seconds after a Bruins' penalty expired, on which Daniel Paille nearly countered the New Jersey PP for a goal.  While Bergeron's goal didn't add to the total, the Devils have given up a horrific 12 shorthanded goals this season (the next closest to that in the NHL is a mere five) and put up another poor showing in that area.

The third period sent fans heading out to beat Jersey Turnpike traffic, as the Bruins opened up the game with goals from Bergeron, Krejci and Thornton to walk away with a 6-1 laugher.  New Jersey's Martin Brodeur might be the greatest goalie of all-time, but he's clearly in the twilight of his career.   At the age of 39, he's well on his way to the worst statistical season of his career and giving up six goals on 27 shots against Boston didn't do anything to curb that.

Across the way, however, it was a good bounce back night for Thomas, who gave up a season-high four goals in Dallas on Dec. 31.  The whole Bruins team seemed focused to getting back on track after the loss and controlled the game by dominating faceoffs won to the tune of 30-12.  In all phases of the game, it's clear that Boston has firmly overtaken New Jersey in terms of Eastern Conference stature.

"We wanted to get refocused," said assistant captain Chris Kelly.  "Obviously, the game in Dallas wasn't our best, so we were trying to rebound from that [and did]."

The Bruins won't have much time to relish the lopsided win, however, as they host the Calgary Flames at 7 p.m. (ET) Thursday night.  The Flames have floundered to 41 points and desperately need to pull two from Boston to keep pace in the Western Conference.  Boston, on the other hand, has an impressive 51 and trails the Conference-leading Rangers by a single point.

As far as the Devils, they remain stuck with 44 points and precariously perched in the East's eighth spot.  They'll stay home to host the Florida Panthers at 7 p.m. (ET) on Friday night.  Florida has been playing some great hockey, but will be on the second leg of a back-to-back after playing the afore mentioned Rangers on Thursday.