Boston Bruins: A Timeline of Tribulation from January 7 to the Present

So much for jelling the post-deadline roster and restoring order. The Boston Bruins hit a new nadir in the 2011-12 season over a three-game road trip this week, stretching their pointless streak to four games and allowing six goals in back-to-back outings versus Tampa Bay and Florida.

The last sighting of the fearsome breed of Bruin was no more recent than the middle of the first week of this calendar year. In a pair of back-to-back game nights, they throttled the host New Jersey Devils 6-1, and returned home to charge up their most lopsided victory of the season, a 9-0 romp over Calgary.

At that point, they were 23-3-1 dating back to Halloween. Since then, however, they have gone 14-17-2, dating back to their Stanley Cup finals rematch with Vancouver.

In the last 10 weeks, the Bruins have seen their collective workload accelerated naturally by the schedule. They have seen aging goaltender Tim Thomas’ workload elevate and his performance plunge by a poorly distributed split in crease time and an eventual injury to colleague Tuukka Rask.

The Bruins have seen a slew of skaters sit out due to suspension or injury and have variously used three trade-deadline acquisitions and six different Providence players to help fill the voids.

Boston’s top 10 lowlights of these last 10 weeks are as follows.

January 7

The Milan Lucic mistake aside, Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks is still heavily attributable to an egregious lack of discipline and one shortcoming too many on the penalty kill.

All four Vancouver strikes come over a span of 11 power-play segments, including two on a carry-over, five-minute sentence to Brad Marchand for clipping with 1:13 remaining in the second period. Marchand’s ill-advised infraction effectively turns a 2-2 tie into a decisive 4-2 deficit and subsequently forces the Bruins to press on without a key top-six forward as he incurs a five-game suspension.

January 21

In Marchand’s second game back from his suspension, the Bruins blow an opportunity to follow through on a 4-1 win at New Jersey and to claim the long-awaited first installment of their season series with the Rangers. Worse yet, they spill their shot at a two-point package in a fashion comparable to the Marchand-Sami Salo chapter in the Vancouver game.

After the team deletes a pair of one-goal deficits to force overtime, another Bruin commits a suspension-worthy, five-minute offense that invites the game-deciding strike. After defenseman Andrew Ference is tossed for a hit from behind, New York’s Marian Gaborik inserts a four-on-three conversion in the dying seconds of the bonus round to finalize his squad’s 3-2 victory.

Ference sits for the next three games.

January 22

A much-needed shootout triumph in Philadelphia is marred by Thomas’ worst statistical performance to date and the loss of Nathan Horton.

In the third minute of the second period, Horton sustains his second confirmed concussion in a little more than six months after the Flyers’ Tom Sestito bowls him over in the offensive zone. He has not seen game action since and could be sidelined for the balance of this season.

February 2

The lowly, go-nowhere Carolina Hurricanes complete their improbable sweep of their four-game season series with the Bruins, who watch Cam Ward repel each of the 47 shots on net.

Two days later, a 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh gives Boston its first set of consecutive pointless outings since early December and only their second such streak since October.

February 8

Rask and Thomas, both usually given to goals-against averages at, near or below 2.00, allow three goals apiece in a split spanking via the host Buffalo Sabres.

February 15

The Bruins repeat an old pattern by bouncing back from a home loss to the Rangers with a road shootout win over another rival accompanied by an injury to a key forward.

Rich Peverley, conventionally a third-liner but the top choice to fill any void in the top six, brooks a wounded knee via Hal Gill. He only just returned to on-ice workouts this week and will likely not be back in game action until April.

February 19

Following up on a 4-2 falter in Winnipeg two nights prior, Boston brooks a 2-0 defeat at Minnesota. It gives them two pairs of successive losses on the calendar month, in which time they will not compose an equivalent winning streak.

March 3

This is the first of five straight games missed by an ailing Ference, and the forward and goaltending positions are not about to be outdone in the casualty department.

In the first part of another set of back-to-back losses, a 3-2 submission to the Islanders, Rask makes an early exit upon suffering a lower-body injury at 9:01 of the second period.

One period later, Daniel Paille also leaves and misses the next five games with an upper-body ailment.

March 11

As soon as they finally win their first pair of back-to-back games in eight weeks, the Bruins endure a succession of regulation losses for the fourth time since Groundhog Day. The lone heartening element is the debut of emergency signee Marty Turco, whose relief of Tim Thomas amounts to a virtual 2-2 tie in the latter 40 minutes.

But in terms of all-important tangible gains, that does nothing to recompense the initial 3-0 deficit that allows the host Pittsburgh Penguins to pace themselves to a 5-2 victory.

Along the way, Patrice Bergeron and Adam McQuaid miss the better part of the final two periods. AHL call-up Max Sauve injures his leg in his Boston debut. And Johnny Boychuk, a concussion victim merely two weeks prior against Ottawa, endures a controversial hit from behind via Evgeni Malkin.

March 15

For the second time in as many road tilts in the Sunshine State, the Bruins tie their season-high mark of six goals against. But whereas he split the tab with Rask and Turco at Buffalo and Tampa, respectively, Thomas claims sole responsibility for the half-dozen drawbacks in this 6-2 battering at the hands of the Panthers.

The latest loss eclipses the return of Benoit Pouliot, who pitches in an assist after missing the previous three games, and the two-point night by trade deadline acquisition Brian Rolston. Ditto the fact that, for the first time in seven games, the Bruins have a full, 20-man roster of players who saw action in the NHL last season.