Boston Bruins

DALLAS (AP) - Two nights earlier, the Dallas Stars were dominated on home ice by the team with the NHL’s fewest points.

Motivated by that dismal showing, the Stars proceeded to knock off the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

Michael Ryder and Loui Eriksson scored power-play goals in the first period and the Stars ended Boston’s seven-game winning streak, 4-2 on Saturday night.

DALLAS, TX — Dallas Stars Head Coach Glen Gulutzan had plenty to say about the Boston Bruins this morning and all of it was good.

“Well I look at that team and the funny thing is, I don’t mean anything [negative] by this, they don’t do anything special but they do everything really good,” said Gulutzan. “To find a weakness on our starting report, we kind of had to make one up this morning.

“They’re a solid team, you look at their goals against, you look at their penalty kill, you look at their 5-on-5 game, you look at their team toughness and team speed – they have everything, that’s why they won last year.”

DALLAS, TX — Bruins fans can look for #49 to return to the Black & Gold game roster tonight versus the Dallas Stars.

“Yeah he’s ready to go,” said Boston Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien. “He felt good this morning and yesterday, and it’s been going as scheduled I guess.

“He’s as good as he’s going to be.”

BostonBruins.com — For the second time in as many games, the Boston Bruins will face a unfamiliar opponent from the Pacific Division, this time the Dallas Stars.

But Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said they’ll prepare for them like they would for any other team, and that’s to expect Dallas’ best game.

“They’re a good team,” Chara said. “They play well and we can’t take them lightly.

BostonBruins.com — Not much has changed for Michael Ryder since he’s left the Boston Bruins for the Dallas Stars.

Sure, he’s on a different team in a different city, but at the end of the day he’s trying to do the same thing – win hockey games.

Tonight, he’ll get a chance to play against his old team for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup, as the Boston Bruins play the Stars tonight in Texas.

BostonBruins.com — Just like his linemate David Krejci, Milan Lucic thought their trio with Nathan Horton had a decent game against the Phoenix Coyotes during the B’s 2-1 overtime win on Wednesday in Arizona.

“Yeah definitely, I think we spend a majority of our time in the offensive zone and that’s usually a good thing,” said Lucic who owns a 12-13-25 line through 33 games.

“We created a lot of shots, and for myself I got a lot of [shots blocked] that probably could have ended up as some goals.”

BostonBruins.com — In stark contrast to a 3-7 start in October, the Bruins have compiled a 21-2-1 streak in 24 games through November and December to re-establish themselves as one of the most dominant teams in the NHL.

Boston leads the league in goals with 3.47 per game (a .49 increase from last season) and they are also at the top with a 1.87 goals against average. Even beyond the impressive numbers, the team continues to pull out tough wins, as evident in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Phoenix Coyotes.

But the expectations are set so high for the Black & Gold, that some might call Wednesday’s win “a bad night” for the Bruins and while the victory in Arizona wasn’t the B’s impressive 8-0 win over the Southeast Division-leading Florida Panthers, the Bruins (24-9-1) found a way to win, and that’s all that matters to Head Coach Claude Julien.

NHL.com — The Boston Bruins are playing so well, coach Claude Julien is reminding his team to keep its confidence in check.

Boston has plenty of reason to be confident against its next opponent.

The red-hot Bruins go for their eighth straight win Saturday night when they visit former teammate Michael Ryder and the Dallas Stars, who haven’t defeated Boston in more than four years and are coming off a loss to the league’s worst team.

BostonBruins.com — The Boston Bruins have only played the Dallas Stars three times in the last three seasons, and it’s safe to assume the two teams aren’t overly familiar with each other.

But there is one skater on the Dallas bench the B’s are actually quite fond of, and that’s former teammate and Stanley Cup champion Michael Ryder.

Goaltender Tim Thomas is slated get the start in net Saturday for the Bruins, but he doesn’t expect the game to be any easier because he’s familiar with Ryder, who spent three seasons with the Bruins before signing with Dallas over the summer.

GLENDALE, AZ — Given the Bruins current hot streak (21-2-1 in their last 24, 8-2-10 in their last 10, and seven wins in a row), it seems like a bonus for the Black & Gold to be getting healthier, but that’s exactly what is happening for Boston.

Sparkplug forward Rich Peverley, who has recently missed two games due to an undisclosed injury, remains a strong possibility to re-enter the lineup on Saturday night in Texas versus the Dallas Stars.

“Everything feels good,” said Peverley after today’s practice in Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona. “Obviously, the teams playing pretty well so you don’t want to mess anything up, but hopefully I can get back in Saturday and I’m ready to go.”

GLENDALE, AZ — It wasn’t the best game of the Bruins season, but it was one of the best starts to a game on the campaign.

David Krejci scored just 47 seconds into the contest, gave the B’s a 1-0 lead and paved the way for Boston’s 2-1 overtime win over the Phoenix Coyotes.

“It was kind of a broken play and I tried to shoot the puck on net,” said Krejci, whose wrist shot beat the Coyotes’ Jason LaBarbera clean on Boston’s first attempt of the game.

BostonBruins.com — The Bruins have not one, but two of the top goaltenders in the NHL, and Head Coach Claude Julien said that’s a luxury from which he won’t hide.

That’s good, because Tuukka Rask and Tim Thomas would make that incredibly hard to do.

After winning the Conn Smythe trophy for his outstanding playoff performance, all eyes have been on Thomas — a two time Vezina Trophy-winner. And lately, when Rask is in net, it’s anything but an easier game for opponents.

BostonBruins.com — After defenseman Dennis Seidenberg scored his first goal of the season in Friday’s 8-0 win over the Florida Panthers, he said that he was taking his shots and it was only a matter of getting that “lucky” bounce.

Just 58 seconds into overtime, Seidenberg raced towards Benoit Pouliot’s off-line centering pass and chopped at it, to put the shot past Phoenix goaltender Jason LaBarbera to give the Bruins a 2-1 win over the Coyotes.

“The puck jumped on the high slot and all I was seeing was a guy in front of me,” Seidenberg said. “I was tying to get the puck by, and luckily it hit one of their guys and went in.”

GLENDALE, AZ — Claude Julien’s face couldn’t hide the fact that he was already working on items for his Bruins to work on before Boston plays Dallas in Texas on Saturday.

However, the B’s Head Coach also admitted that he was pleased with his club’s ability to consistently find ways to win.

“I think we struggled through the neutral zone,” said Julien of the B’s 2-1 OT victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night. “We got spread out quite a bit and they were just going through us like Swiss cheese – we left a lot of areas for them to skate through.”