Be prepared

After practice yesterday, Coach Claude Julien talked about how important it is for the players to stay focused to maintain their winning ways. Losing focus can end in a first period like the one the team had against Buffalo Wednesday, when the Sabres scored four times. This new and improved Bruins team (10-1-1 in the last 12 games) was able to regroup for the final two periods and claim a 7-4 victory.

"The wear and tear is what's tough on players,'' said Julien. "Every day you're coming to the rink and we've got 10 games in 18 days that we're doing right now. The mental part of the game, the preparation, is tough as it is and you're asking guys to do that over and over. It's not easy, so you can imagine having to put physical effort in there as well. What cost us in the first [period] was the little details; what won us the game later was also little details -- they were just better.

''When things are going well, you want to take advantage of it, but at the same time, it's just a matter of our team staying focused and not taking anything for granted. The worst thing you could do is take anything for granted, think you can just go out there and just play OK and pull out some wins. Sometimes there are going to be some ugly wins but you've got to know that every game, you've got to come ready and prepared to do the job and when you are, you can bounce back from situations like last night where we had a tough start but because the guys were determined and focused we got ourselves back in the game.

"When you respect other teams around the league, you get yourself ready to play,'' said Julien.