First thing we thought of when the power went out in the Superdome was "Haha, look at all those rich motherfuckers stuck in the Superdome. Sucks, don't it?" But right after that we thought, "This has nothing on the old Boston Garden."

PuckDaddy had the same thought as they found some YouTube video from the1988 Stanley Cup Final between the Bruins and Oilers.

Man. They just don't make ice rinks like they used to. Who wouldn't want to play in the fog?

We do like this theory on who was responsibile for the Super Bowl power outage. Wonder if he was in attendance in Boston, too, in 1988?

Shawn Thornton was on the ice this morning for the first time since fighting John Scott. He didn't practice with the team but did some skating and working out before the rest of the Bruins hit the ice.

From Big Bad Blog:

Asked to clarify whether Thornton was part of the group of players potentially eligible to play Wednesday, Julien indicated that Thornton will in all likelihood be held out.

“Probably very doubtful for him, but he’s feeling very good,” Julien said. “He’s been great. He’s symptom-free for a few days now. He biked yesterday, he skated today, so things are going well but obviously there’s a protocol to follow. We’re certainly going to follow that to the letter.”

Clearly Shawn Thornton is Wolverine to come back form a concussion so fast. 

Or he didn't have a full on concussion (if that's even a thing). Twos definitely looked woosy after his bout with Scott and teams are better off playing it safe than sorry when it comes to head injuries and its players. Be it concussion or something less brutal, we're glad Thornton is feeling better and on the way back to the line-up. Fourth line looks so wrong without him.

Speaking of Fourth Line, Paille is a maybe for Wedsday. He says he's feeling better but hasn't been cleared by Docs. Rest of the battered Bruins -- included Marchand -- are expected to play against Montreal on Wednesday.

Last night was Chris Bourque's first goal as a Boston Bruin. And he paid a nice homage to his old man afterwards with the Bourque Sliding Fistpump. And thanks to the Internet, GIFs exist of both for the world to enjoy side-by-side. 

Not sure if they're the ones who made it, but we found the GIFs via the BostonBruinsGIF Tumblr account.

Old fan favorite Marco Sturm has signed with the Kolner Haie (Cologne Sharks) in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (German Ice Hockey League), according to the team website.

From Google Transalte:

S/T to Marc. M for sharing this story with us.

Boom. This was exactly what the Boston Bruins needed after that shitshow against the Sabres. As Greg pointed out the team had been playing awful defense the last few games but it was vieled by wins. That Sabre's travesty was the ass kicking the team needed. So what do the Bruins do? They go up against the Maple Leafs and play strong defensive hockey, the type of hockey fans expect under Claude Julien and get their first shutout of the season.

You know it, Mr Connery.

Thanks to unfortunate injuries to Thornton and Paille, Chris Bourque gets put back into the line-up with Chris Kelly and Rich Peverly. And maybe Raymondson just needed to see the game NHL13 style. His drive to the net put him position to bank in a sweet pass from Kelly for the game's only goal. As Chris O' said (with sarcasm), it's gonna be awesome to see #48 next to #77 in the rafters.

The Chris Bourque Experiment continues, folks. Love him or hate him, it's good to see #48 and the rest of the third line producing.

The good, the bad, and the lingering questions after the jump...

Can we get one thing out of the way before I dive into this preview? Can we please stop talking about someone antoning for Shawn Thornton's injur versus John Scott? For some reason, people want to see Lucic or Chara go toe-to-toe with John Scott and my question is why? Why have one of your best (or better) players fight a guy who is in the NHL strictly to fight people? Losing Chara or Lucic for 5+ minutes (or worse if an injury is involved) certainly hurts Boston more than losing John Scott hurts the Sabres. 

Enough is enough. It wasn't a dirty play, it wasn't a cheap shot, it was a fight. Enough. Is. Enough. 

The Bruins are in Toronto, only their third away game this season. The Bruins will be missing some fourth line pieces as Danny Paille and Shawn Thornton won't be playing tonight. Instead, Boston has called up Jamie Tardiff on an emergency basis and Chris Bourque (sigh) will be back in the lineup. 

The good news today is that Boston is playing the Maple Leafs, who have just left Hockey Town with their new starting goaltender. The bad new? James van Reimsdyk is on fire. I bet Philadelphia wishes they kept him around now huh? I'm sure Luke Schenn is doing amazing things on their blue line for them. 

If Boston wants to win tonight, they need a defense to show up.. For some reason, people haven't been down on the defense this year and have chalked the loss up to Buffalo as more of a one-time thing than a seven game problem. Toronto is a fast team and speed can beat this team. Look at Gaborik, he skated up and down the ice on the Bruins defense. 

This is going to be a lite version of the preview, but I wanted to make sure that I touched on a few things. I'm not completely sold on this defensive unit yet as I talked about in the post underneath this one. Chara has not looked like Zdeno Chara so far this season. He's been out of place and his decision making as been poor at best. 

After the jump the lines and stuff...

Shawn Thornton didn't look so good after taking a beating from John Scott last night. Bruins should give Twos a fucking purple heart medal for that and everything else he's done for the team. And the Bruins are now announcing that Thornton is out for the next 7-10 days with a concussion.

From BostonBruins.com:

Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli issued the following update today, February 1, on forward Shawn Thornton: Thornton will miss the next 7-10 days due to a concussion sustained during the first period of the Bruins/Sabres game on Thursday, January 31.

Thornton has skated in seven games this season and has registered one goal and 25 penalty minutes. For his career, the 35-year-old has appeared in 457 games with 31 goals, 43 assists and 797 penalty minutes. The two-time Stanley Cup champion joined the Bruins as a free agent on July 1, 2007 and recently signed to a two-year contract extension through the 2013-14 season on March 17, 2012.

We're assuming MacDermid will stay on the Fourth Line. Maybe Paille goes back down to Merlot and Tardif to third? Or Tardif to fourth? Who the fuck knows. Krejci, Bergeron and Paille also weren't at practice today but no news on them yet.

Anyone know where we can send a "Get Well" card to the DOY Patron Saint?

Grindin' Gears is a segment I started when Justin, Jon and Robb asked me to write for DOY. It was merely a weekly thing where I could rant and rave about the Bruins and whatever happened throughout those seven days. It was well received and has remained a staple throughout the three years I've been here. If you're new to the segment, it's an unedited, uncensored look into my brain when it comes to the black and gold and sometimes the NHL in general. 

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I think I'm finally over last night's loss. In fact, I was pretty much over the loss when the horn sounded to end the game. What can you do? The "vaunted" Bruins defense looked like gar-bitch and it's not the first time they've left Tuukka Rask out to dry like he's a bedsheet. Remember the second game versus the New York Rangers? 

The Bruins defense was all over the place and not in the good way either. They were lost, making tons of mistakes and left Tuukka Rask to fend for himself. Rask was able to make some unbelievable saves against the Rangers, but faced too many 2-on-1s or breakaways and can't stop everything that comes his way. Here's a screen shot of Gaborik's first goal: 

Chara was burnt by Gaborik coming down the right side of the ice. He had no idea he was there. Boychuk had no idea that Chara was going to be above the faceoff dot and not in his position, so he took the man with the puck and Nash hit a wide open Gaborik, who waiting for Tuukka to make a move and scored. 

After the jump, the rest of the shitty defense...

Bruins took a few bumps and bruises last night. Between Thornton taking on Scott, the elbow thrown at Dougie's head, the high stick into Paille's face, etc., it was a rough and tumble game. So the Bruins have recalled Jamie Tardif from Providence. He's practicing with the team today and will travel to Toronto. No idea if he'll actually play or not:

Tardif currently leads the Providence Bruins in scoring this season with 21 goals and nine assists in 39 games. His 21 goals currently ranks second overall in the AHL and he was also selected to participate in the AHL All-Star weekend held on January 28-29, 2013. The 28-year-old has played in 415 career games in the AHL with 114 goals, 100 assists for 214 points. He has not made an NHL appearance to date.

The 6'0", 205-pound native of Welland, Ontario was originally drafted by the Calgary Flames in the fourth round (112th overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. He was signed by the Bruins as an unrestricted free agent on July 5, 2011.

Still no word on Thornton's status. He was seeing birds after his bout with Scott last night.

Guess what everyone?