Is that what you call revenge?

The Bruins certainly should have had revenge on their minds when they had a matinee rematch with the Ottawa Senators who had embarrassed them on their home ice just five days before. The Bruins were yet again dazzled by Ottawa netminder Brian Elliott as they dropped their fourth consecutive game with a score of 2-1.

The Bruins wore their Winter Classic jerseys to give the fans who weren't fortunate enough to attend the Winter Classic a good look at them. The change in jersey didn't really do much on the scoresheet. The Bruins were still without Marc Savard, Marco Sturm, Steve Begin, Byron Bitz, and Andrew Ference. Ottawa had reinforcements coming back into the lineup as Milan Michaulak and Jason Spezza made their return to the ice. The Bruins battled through a very tight checking first period, but Ottawa was able to crack the scoreboard first. With just six seconds remaining in the period, Nick Foligno broke into the attacking zone with Daniel Alfredsson, feeding Alfredsson the puck, and he was able to trickle one through Tim Thomas' legs to make it a 1-0 game. That was Alfredsson's fourth goal of the week against the Bruins. It was so discouraging because there is nothing worse than giving up a goal in the final seconds of a period.

The Bruins came out for the second period sort of flat, which is what I expected since Ottawa sucked all of the air out of them with Alfredsson's last minute tally in the first. It took the Bruins a little while, but they were able to tie the game at 1 as Patrice Bergeron, who was taken out at center ice, was able to get the puck ahead to Dennis Wideman, who then found Daniel Paille coming down the left side, and Paille ripped a booming slapshot top shelf, glove side on Brian Elliott. That goal extended Paille's point scoring streak to three. The Bruins thought they had the go-ahead goal just over three minutes later as it appeared that Mark Recchi gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead, but the puck was redirected off Recchi's foot; Recchi did not make a distinct kicking motion, but his foot moved towards the net when the puck ricocheted off his foot. It was a really difficult call, and it took the referees several minutes to determine the call. It was eventually ruled as "no goal," which disappointed the sold-out crowd at the Garden who have been dying for some offense. Ottawa would eventually go ahead in the game as Alex Kovalev made a nice drop pass to Jason Spezza, and Spezza roofed it top shelf over Tim Thomas. It was Spezza's first goal since returning from his knee injury. The Bruins went into the room down 2-1 after 2 periods of play.

The Bruins came out and dominated the third period, but to no avail; they lost the game 2-1. It was really discouraging. I was really hoping they could score more than just one goal against Ottawa, who is ahead of the Bruins in the standings but is not a superior team by any means. I found it very interesting that with the extra attacker on the ice and with Tim Thomas on the bench, Trent Whitfield was out there instead of David Krejci. It very well could have been a message to Krejci from Claude Julien, considering Whitfield is a career AHL journeyman.

The Line Combinations were as follows...

• Daniel Paille-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
• Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Blake Wheeler
• Miroslav Satan-Trent Whitfield-Michael Ryder
• Shawn Thornton-Vladimir Sobotka-Drew Larman

• Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
• Dennis Wideman-Matt Hunwick
• Mark Stuart-Johnny Boychuk

The Scoring Summary...

• OTT: Daniel Alfredsson assisted by Matt Carkner and Nick Foligno
• BOS: Daniel Paille assisted by Dennis Wideman and Patrice Bergeron
• OTT: Jason Spezza assisted by Alex Kovalev

Bruins Goal Videos...

• Paille - The Dancing Bear

Warmup Music...

• Disturbed - "Indestructable"
• Metallica - "Cyanide"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Snow"
• Disturbed - "Ten Thousand Fists"