Boston

Tyler Seguin’s initiative in the ninth minute of the second period wrote the Boston Bruins a radiant invitation to reverse the momentum in Saturday’s bout with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Boston Bruins have now gone through nine consecutive games without raising the upper hand early and keeping it up until the final siren.

The last time they scored first and never looked back was en route to a 2-1 squeaker against the Montreal Canadiens Jan. 12. In addition, that was also the last time they mustered a set of back-to-back victories, something they have failed to do on four tries since then.

For only the third time in their first 38 games, the Boston Bruins allowed four goals without any of those being empty-netters in Saturday’s 4-3 shortcoming against the Vancouver Canucks.

What did this game, plus a 4-1 falter to Carolina on Oct. 18 and a 4-2 drawback in Dallas one week ago, have that the majority of their other 35 outings did not?

Facing the likes of Jose Theodore, who had not lost to Boston in regulation since Tuukka Rask was a 17-year-old, the Bruins could have been forgiven for limiting their offerings to the 24-year-old stopper Friday night.

After all, while there has been a recent history of making Rask’s life a little tougher than colleague Tim Thomas’, another loss by a soccer score to Theodore would have been enough to mask that myth.

Tuesday and Thursday night were hardly the first time that either Ondrej Pavelec or Jose Theodore had parsimoniously stymied the Boston Bruins.

The Toronto Maple Leafs head to Boston for their fourth meeting against the Boston Bruins.

So far this season, the Bruins have won all three meetings rather convincingly, outscoring them 19-5 and look to feed on a very successful November, having won 25 of a possible 26 points.

In season series as quantitative as that of the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, some believe that the longer the fortunes stay exclusively in one party’s favor, the tougher that upper hand gets to maintain.

One day after their dropping their first possible point in the month of November, the Boston Bruins head right back to work against an old friend in the Winnipeg Jets.

Boston lost via shootout to the Detroit Red Wings in the Discover Thanksgiving Showdown yesterday afternoon.

After a half-full/half-empty Black Friday matinee against Detroit, the Boston Bruins vie to take the point and run. That is, to kickstart another winning run through Saturday’s engagement with the newfangled Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden.

The Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres will put their four-game winning streaks on the line at the TD Garden Saturday night.

Besides the endeavor to keep stoking their fire, the divisional rivals also have conflicting desires in terms of the standings. The second-place Sabres trail Toronto by one point while the fourth-place Bruins trail Ottawa by the same margin.