"If this piece had been prepared at the end of December we could have handled the whole midseason report card business in four words: Everyone gets an A.

Alas, as magnificent as the Bruins were in the first few months of the season — after a brief, rotten start — the quality of their play and their individual grades have slipped somewhat as January comes to a close.

Maybe it was just human nature that the remarkable level of success enjoyed by the B's during their 21-2-1 stretch led inevitably to some measure of overconfidence, complacency, relaxation and decline in play, as shown in the so-so 7-5-1 record (two shootout wins) in the last 13 games."