Man, last night's game was huge. Tonight, not so much.

The Chicago Blackhawks came in pretty much spent, and rode Corey Crawford as far as he could carry them after last night's overtime win, and they really never generated any offensive pressure all night.

By the time the dust settled, Tim Thomas barely had to break a sweat. The Boston Bruins finally broke through in the second period when Zdeno Chara, the Massive Mutant, tickled the twine to lead Boston to a 3-0 victory in TD Garden.

Let's get to this:

THE GOOD:

Crawford. He did all he could tonight, and he did let in one horrible Johnny Boychuk goal, but he was basically on his own most of the night. If he could have stolen this game, he'd be able to walk into Stan Bowman's office and get Craig Anderson money.

Niklas Hjalmarsson's knee is OK. After Shawn Thornton went knee-to-knee on him in the first period, he left the ice pretty gingerly. He came back and managed to play the entire game, doing his usual thing. They could ill-afford to lose him.

The Hawks took no penalties tonight. So that's something, right?

THE BAD:

This team was skating in cement all night. If they had managed to win, it would have been epic. Fortunately, they've been able to build a little space between themselves and the Dallas Stars, so there wasn't a "must win" element to the game. Now they have a few days off before they go in Columbus Friday night.

THE UGLY:

Chara definitely made me re-think my decision to watch this game in HD. Fortunately, I could just flip my glasses up any time he got a close-up. God help if Boston plays Nashville in the Stanley Cup Finals. The duo of Chara and Barry Trotz will cause televisions across North America to burst into flames.

As I said, next is Friday vs. Columbus. Those are 2 points they can't squander.