Boston got on the board first when (how fitting) Zdeno Chara (8) ripped a slap shot from the point on the power-play sneaking the puck past Craig Anderson.

Not long after Chara’s goal, Shawn Thornton settled a score with Chris Neil. A fight Thornton tired to start earlier in the period.

1:38 after Thornton and Neil dropped the mitts, Adam McQuaid and Zenon Konopka did the same in front of the B’s net.

It seemed as if the Bruins would take a 1-0 lead into the locker room but Colin Greening tied the game with just 1:20 left in the period.

The Bruins and Tim Thomas played just awful in the second period. The team was outshot 13-5 and gave up two goals and were down 3-1 until Milan Lucic (18) brought the Bruins within one with just forty-five seconds left in the period.

Something had to have been said by Coach Juilen between the second and third period because the Bruins came out in the third firing on all cylinders.

Marchand (18) tied the game by battling for a rebound on the PP and Dennis Seidenberg (3) gave the Bruins the lead on a dump-in from center ice. Yeah, I said it. A dump-in from center ice.

The third period effort from the B’s is what we are accustomed to seeing from the Bruins so far on the season, unlike the efforts in some of the games over the past few weeks.

Now the Bruins will try and beat the lowly Carolina Hurricanes (who are 3-0 against the B’s this year) on Thursday night at TD Garden.

The B’s come into the second half leading the Northeast Division with 64 points. Although the lead is only four points over Ottawa, they do have five games in hand on the Sens and have not lost to them in the their two meetings this season, outscoring them 10-5.

In the seven games leading-up to the break, the Bruins were only 3-2-1 and were outscored 25-23.

So what do the B’s need to do in order to secure another division title and a spot in the 2012 post season. Eleven of the Bruins final thirty-five games are against division opponents. If the Bruins can go 7-2-1 or something along those lines in those games they should be in a good spot.

Also, a good start out of the gate will help the B’s. They play four games in six days right out of the shoot, along with a six game road trip in the middle of February and the schedule wraps up with 17 games in March alone and four weekends with games on Saturday and Sunday.

Things to consider — Who will emerge as the number one goalie for the Bruins. Obviously it is Tim Thomas’ job to lose after last season playoff run. But Tuukka have been off the charts since November and with Thomas struggling over his past few starts things could become interesting if Thomas still has some shaky play in mid-March.

The health of Nathan Horton, he missed the final game before the break with a mild concussion. After a week of it seems he will not be part of tonight’s contest, which begs the question when he does return how effective will he really be.

Finally, what will the B’s do at the deadline. They have until the end of February to make a move. Do they go offense or defense? And when will they make their move. Last year they acquired Kaberle a few weeks before the deadline and pulled off the trade for Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley on the day of the deadline.

Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Rich Peverley
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Zach Hamill
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Steven Kampfer-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Andrew Ference (suspension), Nathan Horton (concussion)

Projected Senators lines
Forwards
Milan Michalek-Jason Spezza-Colin Greening
Nick Foligno-Kyle Turris-Daniel Alfredsson
Erik Condra-Zack Smith-Chris Neil
Kaspars Daugavins-Zenon Konopka-Bobby Butler
Defense
Filip Kuba-Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen-Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips-Matt Carkner
Goalies
Craig Anderson
Alex Auld
Scratches: Brian Lee (lower body)

The game was pretty evenly matched, each team scored three goals in each of the first two periods. Tim Thomas held Team Alfredsson to three goals in the third while Team Chara exploded for six third period goals. Thomas also had the save of the day.

Highlights of the game, in the video above are at Evgeni Malkin’s goal (0:30), Marian Gaborik’s goal (1:07), Daniel Alfredsson’s goal (3:30), Phil Kessel’s goal (4:35), Marian Hossa (5:37), Zdeno Chara (5:50),

Well there is another Bruin who dominates a contest and that is Zdeno Chara and the hardest shot. Chara set and NHL record last year with a 105.9 MPH shot on goal. This year in four attempts, his first shot and his slowest shot of the four broke last years record. Chara’s four shots came in at 106.2, 108.8, 106.9 and 107.0 MPH.

Here are some other highlights from the nights events.

ESPN Boston — “[The controversy] is all media-driven and it has been from the start. Everything that I said and did was as an individual. It was not as a representative of the Boston Bruins,” Thomas said Friday at All-Star Weekend in Ottawa. “All it has to do is with me. But it’s separate from hockey. That’s my personal life and those are my personal views. Those are my personal beliefs. It has nothing to do with hockey. It has nothing to do with this All-Star Game. It has nothing to do with the Boston Bruins.”

Ohh Timmy. Why do you need to keep opening your mouth. Like a kid who keeps trying to deny stealing cookies from the cookie jar. Your own personal views do not matter in this situation. This is a TEAM event and you acted like a selfish kid instead of being with the TEAM.

As much as this is going to pain me to say, even Scott Hartnell gets what I’m talking about. He had this to say from the same article;

Flyers winger Scott Hartnell was less sympathetic.

“I’m not a big political guy or whatever but for me it’s a team event and should be an honor to be in the White House no matter what your political views are,” Hartnell said. “It would’ve been the right thing to do to go there and enjoy the day and who’s gonna say he’ll ever have another opportunity like that to go there again?”

Surprisingly Chara received a nice ovation from the Ottawa faithful when he was introduced on stage as one of the captains. Considering he usually gets booed every time he touches the puck when he is in Ottawa.

For Bruins fans it was entertaining watching Zdeno Chara make Tyler Seguin sweat in the green room as he waited until the second to last round before before Chara selected Seguin. Chara also avoided taking any Vanouver Canucks and got snubbed on a handshake by Carey Price…Fuckin Canadiens.

Logan Couture took the honors from Phil Kessel as the last pick in the draft.

The teams broke down like this, by pick:

Team Chara
Assistant Capt — Joffrey Lupul
Pavel Datsyuk
Tim Thomas
Evgeni Malkin
Marian Hossa
Kimmo Timonen
Corey Perry
Carey Price
Phil Kessel
Ryan Suter
Jimmy Howard
Brain Campbell
Patrick Kane
Dion Phaneuf
Jarome Iginla
Dennis Wideman
Marian Gaborik
Jordan Eberle
Tyler Seguin
Jamie Benn

Team Alfredsson
Assistant Capt — Henrik Lundqvist
Erik Karlsson
Jason Spezza
Jonathan Quick
Claude Grioux
Kris Letang
Steven Stamkos
Brain Elliot
Shea Weber
Daniel Sedin
Dan Girardi
Keith Yandle
Milan Michalek
Henrik Sedin
James Neal
Alexander Edler
John Tavares
Scott Hartnell
Jason Pomminville
Logan Couture (Last Pick)

Today Joe Haggerty of Comcast Sports New England had a story about Thomas on csnne.com today. He had this today;

The 37-year-old netminder has been in the middle of a media/political firestorm over the last three days after choosing an individual political decision over joining the rest of his teammates in Washington D.C.

The move was admirable on the level of standing up for one’s belief system. That, after all, is what freedom is all about.

But it was also inherently selfish, given the predictable way it overshadowed that day’s celebration of the Bruins’ Cup championship. Thomas has been painted in the past as a “me-first guy”, and there were big elements of that in deciding to go rogue while the rest of his teammates were with the President.

The Bruins knew about Thomas’ decision for months, but didn’t announce it beforehand. They didn’t want to compromise the enjoyment level of their players visiting the White House by worrying about Thomas’ political inactivity.

Ok so here we go:

Point #1 – It was a TEAM event, no part of the Bruins trip to the White House had any political meaning other than just being honored as a champion of their sport. Every major sports champion gets a day at the White House as invited guest of the president. By Thomas choosing not to go, he made it a political issue and put himself first over the TEAM.

Point #2 – Be a man. Ok, so Thomas chose to make his big political point by refusing to set foot in the White House. A move you told management, months ago, you were going to make. Be a man about it and face the media and give them your reasons why. Instead he waited until the end of the day and from behind the locked door of his hotel room, he wrote a Facebook post on his fan page stating his reasons. Give me a break. Be a man, get in front of the camera (because this isn’t going away and now he has to face national media at the All-Star Game) and just take the heat and make your comments.

Point #3 – How will this affect the team. When you have 30 guys (lets include the practice squad) in a locker room, there will be 30 different personalities. Obviously the topic of politics is always a hot-button issue even amongst family at the dinner table. Will Thomas not showing up for a team event affect how the team will play down the stretch. Probably not. I don’t think guys on the team will hold a grudge against Thomas for being a no show. However, I think for the length of time this is a hot topic and all the players on the team are forced to answer questions about it because (back to point number 2) Thomas won’t speak to the media, this is how it has become a distraction.

Point #4 – My final point. I think Thomas is on his last legs in Boston. If we remember back to when Curt Schilling was a prominent member of the 2004, curse breaking, Red Sox team. He played a key role in brining the team a championship. Schilling is a guy who should be greeted with a hero’s welcome anytime he shows up in Boston. But how is he viewed? Most people hate him, because his is opinionated, political and constantly runs his mouth when he should keep his mouth shut. Now, I’m not saying Thomas runs his mouth but he is now a political issue, which is going to have people wondering what he will do next. Not to mention he made his big political statement during a time in the season where he has been playing his worse hockey.

If this media frenzy doesn’t go away any time soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if Thomas is traded. He would not be traded because of his political beliefs but more because he is 37 years-old, becoming a distraction and the 23 year old Rask has been playing like he did in the 2009-10 season when he was the starter. Not to mention Thomas’ job is Rask’s for the taking and its only a matter of time before Thomas is just too old to play on a nightly basis. Which is a case of age and would be the same even if Thomas kept his mouth shut and went to the White House.

The Bruins play four games in six days coming out of the All-Star break. The team is two points behind the Rangers for first in the Eastern Conference. They also begin their second half against the surprisingly hot Ottawa Senators who sit four points behind the Bruins in the division.

There is no room for distraction the rest of the season. Its time to buckle down and focus on defending the Cup.

By the way. Thomas, if you have such a problem with the US government. You didn’t seem to hae a big problem when you were elected to the Olympic team to represent our COUNTRY

The Bruins got a lucky bounce with 2:14 left in the first period when Peverley (8) tried to squeeze a pass to Milan Lucic in front of the net but the puck deflected off the Caps defenders stick and past Vokoun giving the Bruins the 1-0 first period lead.

It was all down hill from there. The second period began with two goals from the Capitals in the first 2:55 of the period. Tyler Seguin (19) continued to stay hot with a sick backhand goal to even the score 2-2. Not to worry though Bruins fans, that lead was relinquished 2:02 seconds after the Bruins tied the game.

Before the periods end, Marchand (17) found the back of the net during the power-play to even the score 3-3 heading into the third period.

For the second time in two games the Bruins allowed a hat trick from an opponent when Mathieu Perrault beat Tuukka Rask 7:18 into the third period to give Washington a 4-3 lead, which they would not give up. Former Bruin Dennis Wideman put the nail in the coffin with a 200 foot empty net goal with twenty-seven seconds left on the clock.

The Bruins have just been awful in the past week. The team has gone 3-2-1 over that time span and breaking even scoring and allowing 21 goals.

It will be good for the team to have a week of to rest up and prepare for the stretch run as they push for the playoffs and continue to defend the trophy which is theirs until eliminated.

The B’s will next take the ice on January 30 at home when they take on Ottawa.

The Caps are without Ovechkin (due to suspension) and stud defenseman Mike Green (due to injury). The game will be the final game before the All-Star break for the Bruins.

Nathan Horton has a mild concussion and will miss his first game of the season. As for Thomas, he is not projected as the starter according to the nesn.com projected starting line-up’s.

Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Rich Peverley
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Zach Hamill
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Steven Kampfer-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas
Scratches: Andrew Ference (suspension), Nathan Horton (concussion)

Projected Capitals lines
Forwards
Marcus Johansson-Mathieu Perrault-Alexander Semin
Matt Hendricks-Brooks Laich-Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera-Jeff Halpern-Mike Knuble
Cody Eakin-Jay Beagle-Joel Ward
Defense
Karl Alzner-Dennis Wideman
Roman Hamrlik-John Carlson
John Erskine-Dmitry Orlov
Goalies
Tomas Vokoun
Michal Neuvirth
Scratches: Alex Ovechkin (suspension), Nicklas Backstrom (concussion), Mike Green (abdominal surgery), Jeff Schultz

Tim Thomas, the star of the Bruins Stanley Cup run last season had told Peter Chiarelli, months ago apparently, he would chose not to attend the White House trip.

CBS Boston — Thomas released a statement on his Facebook page about his decision:

“I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.

This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT”

Who the hell does this guy think he is? I mean c’mon Timmy. Who gives a shit about politics and what your views on government are, your being honored as A TEAM by the nation, in the nations capital. Doesn’t matter who currently is the President is when your team wins and gets to be honored at the White House. Don’t be a stubborn old man and stay home because your politial beliefs, you go because you are part of the team and you support the team.

Even Tomas Kaberle made the trip from where ever the hell the Canadiens are right now because he was part of the team. And at the end of the day that is what this is all about…YOUR A F-IN TEAM. PERIOD.