Boston trying to get back on winning track

--Goalie Tim Thomas says the Bruins getting back to winning consistently is a matter of making things better gradually.

"I think you approach it the same way you do a winning streak, just take it one game at a time," Thomas said after Sunday's 2-0 loss at Minnesota. "When we were rattling off on that roll in November and December, we weren't thinking about that big picture.

"That's more for people that aren't playing the game that have the leisure to think of stuff like that."

The Bruins will have some time to practice before Wednesday night's game in St. Louis and, down two of the top three right wings, you wonder if there's a trade coming by next Monday's trade deadline.

"In all honesty, I think we are taking steps in order to get back to where our game should be," said defenseman Andrew Ference. "We didn't have a tank of a second period where we didn't have any chances or were outplayed. We're not quite where we need to be, but we still generated, we still went to the net. Right to the end, we did what we put our minds to.

"Now it's a matter of putting it all together, a little less hesitation, a little more of just playing the game. And we should get it back to where it should be."

--The Bruins have been shut out in four of their last nine games and have had 47, 36, 42 and 48 shots in those four games.

--Losing to the Wild is nothing new to the Bruins. They are 2-10-0 against this Minnesota incarnation, 2-4 in St. Paul and 0-6 in Boston.

--The power play was just 0-for-1 Sunday (and in a 2-for-22 slump) and the Bruins have never scored a power-play goal against the Wild.

--Just as Sunday's game was the only one of the regular season against the Wild, Wednesday night's game in St. Louis is the only one on the schedule with the Blues.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"We're getting our chances, we're just not burying them. I think we're squeezing our sticks a little bit because of what we're going through. We just need to stick with it here and fight our way out of it." -- Coach Claude Julien, on his struggling team.

Copyright (C) 2012 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.