(Ikeastan photo) Brad Marchands first career hat trick led the Bruins in their 8-0 victory over the Florida Panthers

With the Florida Panthers playing for the second time in as many nights, and due to injuries sending out two full AHL lines, it’s hard to put stock in a win, but this Bruins performance was just to pretty to not be impressed.

Brad Marchand netted his first career hat trick, Benoit Pouliot scored the Bruins goal of the year, and Tuukka Rask made 30 saves for his second straight shutout, as the Bruins beat the Panthers 8-0.

“I think we were moving our feet well, and being hard on the forecheck, and causing some turnovers” said Patrice Bergeron who had a goal and two assists. “We talked about that last game, in the third period, I thought that’s what gave us success, so we had to keep that going tonight.”

The Bruins scored early as Brad Marchand got the Bruins on the board first with a shorthanded goal just under six minutes into the opening frame and continued to score often throughout the game including two goals in less than a minute by Pouliot and Dennis Seidenberg’s first goal of the year.

Marchand’s hat trick helped him pass Tyler Seguin for the team lead in goals, but Marchand was quick to give credit to his line mates.

“Yeah, I think I’ve just been fortunate enough to play with great players and I just kind of feed off them and get some lucky goals. I never expected to be in that position and I don’t expect to be there long, but it’s a lot of fun being on this team and being in the winning ways right now, so hopefully it keeps going.”

When a hockey team puts up a touchdown and adds in the two-point-conversion it’s hard to give the goalie some credit, but Rask made some big saves keeping the Panthers scoreless. Rask now has a 155 minute scoreless streak.

“Nothing, I mean, you pretty much know you know, if you don’t mess it up, you’re going win the game but other than that you just try to focus on every time- every puck and it doesn’t change anything in your game. It’s just a good insurance for your team I think” said Rask.

With the Bruins win, and the Flyers 4-2 loss in New York against the Rangers, the Bruins head into the Christmas break as the number one team in the Eastern Conference, not bad for a team that started 3-7, eh?

On behalf of Bruins Daily, I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!