After playing a little over .500 hockey to start the season, the Boston Bruins seem to be hitting their stride.

Winners of their last three contests, it looks as if the black and gold are back to playing their style of hockey and are starting to mesh together as one.

New lines have been formed and players need some time to get adjusted to skating next to one another, learning each other’s tendancies, knowing where each other will be without having to look.

It seems as if this year’s group of guys are starting to do that. Loui Eriksson is back in the lineup after missing a handful of games due to a malicious hit from the Buffalo Sabres’ John Scott.

Over the past three games, Head Coach Claude Julien has seen a boost in their power play, which every Bruins fan should know has been virtually nonexistent over the past couple of seasons. Fans can live with a sub-par power play when you have outstanding five on five play, along with an impressive penalty kill.

But this season, fans seeing a different look for the B’s on the man advantage. It helps when you have the tallest player ever to lace up standing in front of your goalie. Captain Zdeno Chara has been wreaking havoc in front of the crease, the scary thing is this giant has soft hands and is able to control the puck and score in tight areas. All three of Chara’s goals this season have come of the power play variety.

Other players such as Jarome Iginla and Eriksson add to the skill of the Bruins PP. Iginla has a knack for scoring in those situations, and Eriksson combined with Bergeron is a deadly combination of two men who dish the puck, but also have scoring touch.

The Bruins have also had a lot of help from their other defenseman during power play minutes. Eight out of the nine power play goals scored by the Bruins this season have come from defenseman. Chara and Krug each have three-a-piece, while youngster Dougie Hamilton has a pair of his own.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Bruins penalty kill has also come into form. After Monday’s matinee win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins have now killed 22-straight power plays.

This is something that B’s fans should be used to as the team always finishes in the top five in penalty killing.

Who else is your best penalty killer besides your goaltender? Tuukka Rask has been utterly impressive between the pipes so far for the Bruins, starting 15 of 17 games.

In those 15 games, Rask is posting a modest 1.52 goals against average. which is second among full-time goaltenders and is number one in save percentage at a .948 clip.

Rask proved himself to be more than reliable last season, and has earned his long-term deal. He will be heavily considered for this year’s Finnish Olympic team.

The first line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic, and JIginla continues to be a force to be reckoned with in the NHL. The Bruins’ first line are No. 1, 2 and 3 in point leaders on the team.

Krejci has three goals and 13 assists, Looch leads the team with seven goals, and has seven assists, and Iginla has four goals and seven assists.

With 23 points, the Bruins find themselves in second place in the Atlantic Division behind Tampa Bay, which the Bruins are 3-0 against this season.

Hockey time is officially here with the Red Sox season finished. The Bruins will look to end up on those funky looking boats the Sox got to ride around on, this time, with even bigger beards.