By Danny Picardand Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com
BOSTON -- The Bruins improved upon Saturday nights two-shot third period, but that didnt mean pucks were going into the net Monday, as Jonas Hiller and the Anaheim Ducks shut out the B's 3-0 at the TD Garden.
Hiller made 45 saves in the win, while on the other end, the few scoring opportunities that Anaheim had, came way too easy.
The Ducks entered the third period with a 3-0 lead, while being out-shot 27-15 through the first 40 minutes. Lubomir Visnovsky opened the second by beating Thomas low-right with a shot from the high slot, after a Teemu Selanne rebound came out to the wide open Ducks defenseman.
Corey Perry added the 3-0 dagger with 4:55 left in the second, and 29 seconds left on a Bruins 5-on-4 power play.
Perry to carried the puck out from Bostons right corner and went hard to the net across the goal line, beating Thomas on a second effort that turned out to be an easy shorthanded goal.
Brandon McMillan scored the first goal of the game nearly six minutes into the first period, when he blocked his own teammates shot from the point while out front, and knocked home the loose puck.
Boston Bruins
As it turned out, that first goal would be all the Ducks needed on Monday night. GOLD STAR: Ducks sniper Teemu Selanne deserves the golden decoration after setting up a pair of goals. The Finnish sniper also pushed the physical envelope with the Bruins while boarding Steve Kampfer -- without any kind of a response from the emotionless home team at TD Garden. He completely diced up the Bruins defense on the second goal with a darting move to the middlethe same middle that the Bruins basically steered clear of all night -- that ended with a puck bouncing out to Lubimor Visnovsky. The Ducks defenseman hammered the one-timer, and Selanne gave the Ducks a spark Boston was sorely lacking.BLACK EYE: No emotion from a bunch of hibernating Bruins drunk with complacency. Sloppy special teams play resulted in no momentum and a shorthanded dagger of a goal for the Ducks. No response when Teemu Selanne boarded Matt Kampfer going for a loose puck in the corner. Marc Savard attempted to lighten the burden on the Bruins coaching staff by saying the onus is on the playersbut the Bs dont look like a team prepared to play full, intense, emotionally-invested hockey at this point. That falls on a coaching staff that needs to find a way to start pushing some buttons on these guys before they drop out of the Top 8 in the Eastern Conference.TURNING POINT: Three Bruins players watching Corey Perry burst into the Bruins zone short-handed and get two Grade A chances at Tim Thomas before pounding the second shot past him to make it 3-0. Thats about as ugly and deflating as it gets. It ended up as a brutal second period play that pushed an embarrassing game over the top into the alarming category.BY THE NUMBERS: 0-3-1the Bs record this season when theyve put over 40 shots on net. The Bruins finished Monday nights loss with a season-high 45 shots on goal.QUOTE TO NOTE: I'm really disappointed in our effort tonight. We need to redeem ourselves in the next game. Bruins coach Claude Julien, who finally seems to be approaching frustration at the teams uneven effort levels.
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard. You can listen to Danny on his streaming radio show I'm Just Sayin' Monday-Friday from 9-10 a.m. on CSNNE.com.
Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs@font-facefont-family: "Times New Roman";p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormalmargin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; a:link, span.MsoHyperlinkcolor: blue; text-decoration: underline; a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowedcolor: purple; text-decoration: underline; table.MsoNormalTablefont-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; div.Section1page: Section1;