By Mario Vasquez

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are approaching, and players are beginning to amp up their play. Captain Zdeno Chara earned his 500th career point in New York, as the Bruins were able to cap off a 6-3 win against the Islanders.

The Bruins will provide five Olympians in the winter games, Chara will captain Team Slovakia, Bergeron will play for Team Canada, David Krejci will play for Team Czech, Loui Eriksson will play for Team Sweden, and Tuukka Rask is expected to be the starting goaltender for Team Finland. In their last seven games the Boston Bruins are 6-1, having dropped a rivalry game against the Montreal Canadians. The 4-1 loss to Montreal marked a rare occurrence between these two teams. This was only the third time in the last 16 games between the two that a game was decided by more than one goal.

However, it seemed as if the snap of a four game winning streak by an archenemy impelled the Bruins to come out strong in their next game. The Bruins welcomed the Edmonton Oilers with four goals and backup goalie Chad Johnson earning his second shutout of the season. As anticipated, the Bruins organization along with thousands of fans welcomed back Oiler Captain, and former Bruin defenseman Andrew Ference.

Ference was recognized with an opening highlight reel of his memorable days in Boston. Having been the assistant captain to the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions, Ference earned himself a well-deserved standing ovation. At the moment the Bruins led the Atlantic Division by six points over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and stand second in the Eastern Conference behind the tenacious Pittsburgh Penguins.

Tuesday night, the Vancouver Canucks rolled into Boston for a 2011 Stanley Cup rematch. The Bruins, not having beaten the Canucks at home since 2006 were able to pull out a 3-1 victory. Left winger and Vancouver native Milan Lucic initiated the Bruins offense by scoring his 16th goal of the season in the first period.

Assisting Lucic was line-mate Jarome Iginla, which marked his 600th career assist. In the second period Vancouver forward, Daniel Sedin was not able to capitalize on a breakaway as Rask vanished his targeted five-hole.

The Bruins second line then went up ice to score. An Iginla snap shot from the slot assisted by Chara and Lucic gave them a 2-0 lead.

Later in the period, newly acquired Rafael Diaz got Vancouver on the board with a deflected slap shot from the point to cut the Bruins lead in half, ending a Vancouver scoring drought. Minutes after, forward Brad Marchand seemed to have scored with a behind the net pass from Reilly Smith.

The goal was then overturned due to a goalie interference committed by defenseman Torey Krug.

However, Daniel Paille was able to score a third goal as he collected a long pass up the ice from Johnny Boychuk. Scoring his eighth goal of the season on a backhand, Paille gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

In the last two minutes of the game, Vancouver Coach John Tortorella pulled goalie Roberto Luongo to give his team more scoring chances. With 27 saves in the game, Rask held Vancouver to one goal in effort to give the Bruins a much-needed win.