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Sobered up Bruins now rampaging the East yet again

Tim Thomas; Patrice Bergeron

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (30) celebrates with teammate Patrice Bergeron after defeating the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in National Hockey League action Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Montreal. (AP Photo/ The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

AP

A funny thing happens when you string together a nine-game win streak -- all that talk about a Stanley Cup hangover disappears. After spending most of the first month losing in frustrating ways, the Bruins are now taking those frustrations out on everyone they play. Instead of coffee and toast to shake off a hangover, the Bruins are going to devour opponents.

While the Bruins weren’t exactly scoring a ton of goals for the first month of the year, during their nine-game streak they’ve turned on the offense in a big way. The B’s have 42 goals over those nine games and have done their duty defensively as well dealing out three shutouts in that time and giving up just 14 goals.

Lighting the way for Boston are Tim Thomas and Tyler Seguin. Thomas has been his usual stellar self in goal while Seguin is taking the league by storm with his offensive breakout this season. With 11 goals and 21 points this year, Seguin is showing that he’ll be just fine in Boston. His line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand is proving to give other teams headaches and it’s Seguin’s skills that are making life impossible for opponents.

As for Thomas, ho-hum his numbers this season look just like his numbers in goal last year when he ran away with the Vezina Trophy. Thomas doing his thing last night in shutting out Montreal shows that even when Boston’s offense doesn’t show up, he can still win them the game.

While everyone’s decidedly hot on Pittsburgh right now, sleeping on the Bruins might provide for a rude awakening come playoff time if things shake out that way.