By Carmine Frongillo, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Oct. 30--BOSTON -- The first month of the NHL season is quickly coming to a close and the Boston Bruins are still searching for an identity.
It was easy to assume the Bruins would pick up right where they left off last year, when they skated to the best record in the Eastern Conference.
But anyone who pledges allegiance to the Black & Gold now realizes that was then and this is now. And in the here and now, the Bruins are scuffling along, without key offensive cogs Marc Savard (broken foot) and Milan Lucic (broken finger), trying to put forth a consistent effort every game.
The Bruins had the misfortune of getting into a breath-holding contest with the New Jersey Devils at the TD Garden last night. And as is often the case when it comes the Devils, the Bruins ended turning blue in the face first.
Dainius Zubrus scored with 1:26 left to play to lift the Devils past the Bruins, 2-1. The loss left the Bruins with a 5-5-1 record.
Patrice Bergeron scored Boston's goal with assists from Marco Sturm and Zdeno Chara at 2:32 of the second period.
"There are a lot of things that have to change," said Bruins' coach Claude Julien. "A couple of our top players aren't at the top of their game just yet. There are some key injures that are slowing us down a little bit. But I see some positive signs that the team is coming around.
"We really didn't get going last year until November. People want to make assessments, but you really can't make them because
every year is different. You have to get bounces. You have to be healthy. A ton of things come into play. We just have to take this year and work towards making it a success. That's all we should be thinking about right now."
The Bruins have only scored 31 goals through their first 11 games. This means there isn't much margin for error for the goaltenders, as Tim Thomas (29 saves) found out last night. Both of the Devils' goals came on rebounds that bounced past Thomas and were whacked into open nets.
"We've been getting some scoring," said Thomas. "It's just that we haven't scored on the nights where we've played a good defensive game. They haven't seemed to go together. The games where we've gotten the goals are games when we've had a lot of turnovers and gave up a lot of chances. Then we have a game where we play well defensively and don't give up as many chances, but we don't score. We were trying to score (tonight) but we just couldn't get any in. New Jersey is the master at keeping the score down."
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