Bruins End 2011 with a Whimper, Fall to Stars

It had been 23 days since the Bruins last lost a game, so you had to figure they had a stinker in them. And they got it out of their system with a deflating 4-1 loss at Dallas in a game filled with sloppy play and bad penalties from Boston.

The Stars came out fast and spent most of the game skating around a Boston team that seemed like it had better places to be, committing delay of game and too many men on the ice penalties in the first 40 minutes.

Tim Thomas looked like a goaltender who hadn't played in almost two weeks, letting in four goals - more than he'd allowed in a game all season - in the first two periods of the game. Two of those goals game on Dallas power plays; Loui Eriksson opened the scoring with a 5-on-3 goal and former Bruin Michael Ryder got his 15th goal of the year on a power play when Thomas came far out of the net to play his forehand.

Tyler Seguin and Milan Lucic had the goals for Boston.