The Bruins are in first place heading into the Christmas break. Things are looking ridiculously good. No major injuries, the team is on fire, hell, Benoit Pouliot and Zach Hamill are even getting into it.

For your enjoyment, after the jump there's a bunch of articles bashing the Habs, and some articles about how awesome the Bruins are. Damn it's a good time to be a Bruins fan . . .

Bruins News

• Jordan Caron was assigned to Providence. He last played December 10. He'll get to play for Providence on Monday, and he will likely be recalled for the trip Bs trip to Phoenix for Wednesday. [WEEI]
• It's getting really tough to describe all these "the Bruins are really good" articles. [WEEI]
• Brad Marchand got his first hat trick in a while on Friday. [ESPN]
• The three-day break should be really good for the Bruins. [ESPN]
• Benoit Pouliot is putting himself on the map. [CSNNE]
• Tyler Seguin is a hockey Nostradamus it seems. [Globe]

NHL News

• Haggs on the mess in Montreal. [CSNNE]
• More on the Canadiens' problems. [CBC]
• MOAR. [Pro Hockey Talk]
• Puck Daddy's Top Ten fan moments of the year. [Puck Daddy]
• Thomas Vanek left Buffalo's last game with an upper-body injury. Any serious injury to him could really be a killer for Buffalo. [Pro Hockey Talk]
• The Rangers and Flyers players are really enjoying the "24/7" series. Ilya Bryzgalov is still chasing Jaromir Jagr around at breakfast. [NHL]
• The upcoming World Junior tournament will have a lot of NHL players placing bets on their countries. [TSN]

From everyone here at SCOC, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope you are having a great day. Also, my cousin got the Bruins' Monopoly game for Christmas, and Tuukka Rask is Mediterranean Avenue. Kaberle is Baltic. It's a crime.