Bruins blanked for third time in six games

Coach Claude Julien was talking about the Rangers after Tuesday night's 3-0 New York win in Boston.

"They play hard. They're playing well, like we did last year when we were playing well, which is what's happening right now," Julien said. "They grind you down, and they don't give you much, and whenever you give them an opportunity, they pounce on it.

"Right now, that's kind of the identity we're looking for again."

Right now, the Bruins, who begin a six-game road trip in Montreal Wednesday night, have the identity of being extremely mediocre, the kind of team that wins one, loses one, etc.

In the past 14 games, they are 6-7-1.

They have been shut out in three of the last six, scoring one goal in the other game of that 2-4 stretch.

They are nine points behind the Rangers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Hot players? Left wing Milan Lucic is playing well. That's really about it, at least in terms of putting the puck in the net.

They had 42 shots on nemesis Henrik Lundqvist Tuesday night. But as Julien said, "You can shoot 42 shots on net, and it may look good on paper versus 20, but the mistakes, the identity, the battles. I think they won more battles than we did tonight, especially in their own end, so certainly not good enough for the Boston Bruins."

Tim Thomas made only 17 saves, the second New York goal going in off defenseman Zdeno Chara. The Rangers scored twice in the first period, the Chara own goal coming with 11.8 seconds left.

"We outshot them and we controlled the play the majority of the time," said Thomas. "But overall, I don't think we got the quality scoring chances that you need to beat a good goaltender like Lundqvist. And, we make a mistake and take a penalty (on Chara) and it ended up in the back of the net."

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