The Bruins win streak couldn’t last forever. The Black and Gold fell back into bad habits last night when they played the New York Rangers. Due to poor play in the third period by the Bruins, they lost to the Rangers, 3-2 in an OT shootout. After a quite first period, Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman scored, putting the Bruins on top 2-0. But during the third period, the train seemed to derail and the Bruins blew their two goal lead.

Nigel Dawes and Markus Naslund tied the game up for the first place Rangers. During the shootout, Rangers, Chris Dury was able to get one past Tim Thomas and that was enough to secure the win. There was some confusion on whether Patrice Bergeron scored a goal during the shoot out, but it was recalled after a review. The Bruins left New York with one point and still in first place. The Bruins next game is Monday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Prior to last night’s game, it was announced that Bruins Defenseman, Andrew Ference would be out for the next 6-8 weeks due to a broke tibia. Ference will have surgery on the broken bone on Monday and this injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. Ference spent most of last season injured and was having a successful season so far. Look for Mark Stuart and Matt Hunwick to get more playing time and cover for the injured Ference. If the Bruins are still searching for some extra help, they could recall Matt Lashoff from Providence.

The Bruins have signed restricted free agent Mark Stuart to a multi year contract extension. Stuart is a former 2003 first round draft pick and played in all 82 games last season for the Bruins. This signing only leaves Pettri Nokelainen, Dennis Wideman, and Glen Metropolit as the only unsigned Bruins from last year’s team.

****

Boston has acquired defenseman Johnny Boychuk from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for forward Matt Hendricks. Both players spent the majority of last season in the minor leagues. Boychuk is a 6-2 225 pound pointman who tallied 26 points last season and 17 of those on the powerplay for Lake Erie of the American Hockey League. Boychuk also saw little time with the Avalanche, playing in four games.

****

Former Bruin goaltender Andrew Raycroft was put on waivers yesterday by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Raycroft appeared in only 19 games last season after losing his starting job to Vesa Toskala. Raycroft went 2-9-5 with a 3.92 goals-against average and .876 save percentage. He earned $2 million and has a year left on his deal at $2.2 million.

****

Marian Hossa has told the Pittsburgh Penguins that he will test free agency making it almost certain that he will not resign with the Penguins. Pittsburgh’s GM Ray Shero cant waste time in seeing what Hossa will do. He has a slue of free agents on his roster that he must take care of. The Bruins tried to get Hossa at the trade deadline, but the Thrashers wanted Phil Kessel and Peter Chiarelli didn’t want to part with him.