We continue our Bruins breakdown at the break with the men in the passing lane. On Monday the centers got their attention and Tuesday was for the men riding shotgun. Wednesday is for the men who like to skate fast and hit hard — the left wings.

The group is split by two players who like to let their speed make statements, Marco Sturm and Daniel Paille, and two men who often let their fists do the talking, Milan Lucic and Shawn Thornton.

On Thursday we will look at the top three defensemen on the roster and the three back blue liners on Friday before finishing up with the goaltending situation on Saturday.

Without further ado  . . . .

Sturm — Last September the Big Bad Blog took a look at what Sturm would mean to the Bruins offense this year. The idea was that Sturm would be able to fill in the goal-scoring production of the departed Phil Kessel and, if the rest of the team played to its 2008-09 levels, then the Bruins would still be near the top of the leading in scoring.

So much for that.

Last season the Bruins were second in the league in scoring with 3.29 goals per game, almost all of which was done without Sturm because of a knee injury. This year the Bruins have receded to below 2006-07 and 2007-08 levels when they scored 2.56 and 2.51 goals per game, respectively. At 2.35 goals per game this season the Bruins are dead last in the NHL in scoring with the next closest team (Edmonton at 2.43) almost a full tenth of a point ahead of them.

Call it the curse of Sturm.

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Summary — Daniel Paille scored two first period goals for the Bruins at Buffalo on Tuesday at HSBC Arena, but the Sabres came back with two second-period goals to tie the game before Boston won the game 3-2 on a David Krejci score in a sudden-death shootout. Ryan Miller took the loss with 32 saves, while Tuukka Rask was the winner for Boston with 43 saves. It was Rask’s fourth straight start for the Bruins, and he has been able to get a point for Boston in all four with a 2-0-2 record.

Paille netted the first of the game at 4:51 when he scored on a wraparound against Miller to give the Bruins the early lead. Paille would strike again at 11:58 in the period when he crossed the crease in front of Miller to tip a slap shot from Zdeno Chara at the point for the two-goal advantage.

The lead would not last, as the Sabres came out strong in the second period and turn a lot of pucks over in the neutral zone. The first goal in the comeback came courtesy of Buffalo center Derek Roy with a wrist shot that beat Rask at 4:35 in the second on a 5-on-3 power play. Dynamic Sabres rookie defenseman Tyler Myers would tie it at 18:35 with a wrist shot from the blue line that surprised Rask just enough to beat him on the glove side.

Three Stars

Daniel Paillle — Acquired on Oct. 20 in the first ever trade between the Bruins and Sabres, the speedy forward came back to haunt his former team with two first period goals to give him nine on the year for the Bruins.

Tuukka Rask — The Bruins goaltender had a career-high 43 saves and made three stops in the shootout to give the Bruins consecutive wins and points in their last four games.

David Krejci — Krejci had the game-deciding goal in the shootout as he crossed in front of Miller and buried the puck to give Boston the two-point victory.

Turning Point

The Sabres comeback came in the second period courtesy of the power play. Milan Lucic went for hooking penalty at 2:54 and was joined by Steve Begin for a hook at 3:46 to set up 1:08 of 5-on-3 for Buffalo. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff took a timeout with his team down two goals to talk about the situation and was rewarded when Roy found time and space in front of Rask and put a wrist shot passed the young goaltender for Buffalo’s first goal of the game. The Sabres would play well from there on out to complete the comeback and gain a point.

Key Play

Miller came up big in overtime to stop the Bruins and send the game to the shootout. Early in the extra frame the Bruins had a great chance when Marco Sturm and Matt Hunwick had a 2-on-1 in front of Miller. Sturm crossed to Hunwick who let go of a one-timer that Miller crossed the crease to make a kick save off his pads and send the puck into the corner. Krejci had the game-deciding goal in the shootout that was tied at one after the first three rounds off of goals by Marco Sturm and Jason Pominville.

The Bruins look a lot crisper than the Sabres in the first period at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. Boston is taking advantage of a plethora of Sabres turnovers to put pressure on star goaltender Ryan Miller and take a 2-0 lead into the second period. It is the fourth straight game where Boston has held a 2-0 lead and the Bruins are 1-0-2 in those games.

Daniel Paille is comfortable playing in Buffalo. The Sabres drafted him in the first round of the 2002 draft (20th overall) and he made his NHL debut with them in the 2005-06 season and played 195 career games with 35 goals before being traded to the Bruins on Oct. 20 for a third and a conditional fourth round picks. Paille beat Miller by picking the puck up in the trapezoid and wrapping it around at 4:51 for the early Bruins advantage.

Then he did it again.

Paille started the sequence by digging the puck out of the corner and cycling it back around the net to Derek Morris who crossed it across the blue line to captain Zdeno Chara. The big defenseman wound up and fired a shot towards Miller. Paille, who cycled along with the puck, crossed in front of Miller at the same time as the puck and got a piece of it for his second goal of the period that gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

Tuukka Rask has blanked the Sabres through the first. Buffalo has generated shots but not a lot of chances.

Shots through first period:

Boston — 11

Buffalo — 17

Summary — The Senators completed a sweeps week against the Bruins with another victory at TD Garden, 2-1 over in this Saturday’s matinee. Daniel Alfredsson scored Ottawa’s first goal and Jason Spezza had the game winner in the second period. Tim Thomas took his second loss of the week at the hands of the Senators though he played better than Monday when he was pulled from the game in favor or Tuukka Rask.

Daniel Paille scored the Bruins only goal in the second period with a blast from the left wing over Elliot’s glove shoulder to tie the game. The goal was the forward’s seventh of the season.

The Bruins have not won a game in the Garden during the entire month of January (they did when at Fenway) and continue to struggle to score goals without Marc Savard and Marco Sturm. Byron Bitz and Steve Begin also missed the game. None of the four will travel to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes tomorrow night as the Bruins will not have ice time before the game.

Boston is now six points behind Ottawa for second place in the Northeast Division.

Three Stars

Brian Elliott — Ottawa’s goalie was solid in stopping 32 of shots and his team outscored the Bruins 7-2 on the week.

Daniel Alfredsson — In two games this week, Alfredsson has outscored the Bruins 4-2 and been a general menace in the TD Garden. The wingman has six goals and four assists for Ottawa in his last 12 games since coming back from an injury.

Daniel Paille — The wingman skated hard and provided the only spark of offense for the Bruins in another frustrating offensive performance.

Turning Point

For the second game in a row the play hinged not on a goal that was scored, but one that was not. After killing an Ottawa penalty it looked like the Bruins had taken a 2-1 lead late in the second period when Mark Recchi crashed the net and appeared to knock the puck past Brian Elliot. The play was reviewed and determined that Recchi kicked the puck (which ricocheted of Elliot’s skate). About a minute later Spezza scored the go-ahead goal and the Senators did not look back.

Key Play

Jason Spezza was questionable coming into Saturday’s game and the Bruins probably wish that he had delayed his comeback from injury for at least another day. He scored the game winner at 16:39 in the second period and the goal took away any momentum the Bruins had mustered. Spezza was fed in the center of the offensive zone from Alex Kovalev and let out a wily wrist shot that Thomas was able to see and follow, but could not corale.

Summary – Zdeno Chara blasted a slap shot past Evgeni Nabokov in the fourth round of a shootout, lifting the Bruins to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday (recap). Tim Thomas made 41 saves and stopped all four San Jose shooters in the shootout to help the B’s secure the victory and end a three-game losing streak. Daniel Paille scored in the second period to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead before Joe Thornton answered with a goal later in the second to draw San Jose even.

Three Stars

Tim Thomas – A rock-steady, 41-save performance by Thomas helped the Bruins pick up a big win.

Zdeno Chara – The captain went with his best mode of attack, an overpowering slap shot to score the only goal of the shootout.

Daniel Paille – With the Bruins lineup becoming more depleted by the day, the steady forward raised his game, scoring one goal and creating several other chances.

Turning Point

After a scoreless opening period, Shawn Thornton intercepted a Doug Murray clearing pass near the San Jose blue line and quickly moved the puck to Paille, whose shot ultimately deflected off the skate of Dan Boyle and into the net to give the Bruins the lead in a game in which they needed a competitive showing.

Key Play

With Dany Heatley in a position to secure the win for San Jose with the third shot in the shootout, Thomas stayed with Heatley’s back hand shot, snaring it with his glove. Chara then sent his blast past Nabokov.

WILMINGTON — After helping the Bruins penalty kill turn things around in their last three games, winger Daniel Paille was missing from Monday morning’s practice at Ristuccia Arena. No injury for the gritty former Buffalo Sabres forward, however, as Paille was allowed to travel back to his home in the Buffalo area to pick up his belongings and tie up the loose ends of life after last week’s trade.

“He just went back home to get his stuff,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “He came with a suitcase from Florida, so we thought we’d send him home to get his stuff.”

*A lot of talk about the Bruins simplifying their efforts during the last handful of games, and now the results are flowing for the B’s while taking five of their last six available points. Derek Morris got off to an inconsistent start, but he’s put things together during their recent stretch and now leads Bruins defensemen with a goal and 6 assists. The blueliner has looked very much like the puck-moving, offense-minded guy that Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli had in mind when the team inked him to a $3.3 million contract this summer.

“We all had a meeting and we talked about it.  We said we can sit here and make excuses for why we’re losing games, but the fact of the matter is it’s not going to help us. We’re not going to have [Savard, Lucic] for at least a couple of weeks,” said Morris. “I think we’ve simplified our game a little bit, and we’ve worked harder and simpler because of it. We’ve been rewarded because of it.”

*Mark Recchi didn’t want to talk much about being named to the four-person NHLPA subcommittee charged with the task of investigating the Paul Kelly firing and the circumstances surrounding the exec director’s quick removal. Recchi has been one of the more vocal individual players against the hasty action by his union, and the 41-year-old said that things are player union dealings will be handled behind closed doors from this point going forward.

Recchi joins Rob Blake, Chris Chelios, and Nicklas Lidstrom on the four-person investigative body, and intends to roll up his sleeves and get the union headed in the correction direction after a tumultuous last few months. 

“We’re going to have things to go over, but we’re really not going to comment on it,” said Recchi. “It’s going to be done quietly. We’ve got a lot to review and a lot to go over. The players have emplaced a lot of trust in us, and we intend to reward them for that. It’s a huge [responsibility]. This is an important time for our union, and we need to — for once and for all — get our things in order.”

The Boston Bruins made a counter-move Tuesday two days after the Chuck Kobasew deal and traded a pair of 2010 draft picks — a third round pick and a conditional fourth-round pick — for Buffalo Sabres forward Daniel Paille. The hard-edged, skilled Paille had 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points in Buffalo last season and has one assist in two games for the Sabres this season.

 The 25-year-old Paille had his best season for the Sabres in 2007-08 when he had 19 goals and 16 assists in 77 games. The move gives the Bruins a solid left wing with a cap hit of only $1.125 million that can potentially replace Lucic on the second line for the next two months while the hulking forward recovers from a broken right index finger. Paille will be a restricted free agent following this season. 

According to the Bruins press release, it’s the first trade ever executed between the Boston and Buffalo organizations dating back to their Adams Division days as head-to-head rivals. The Bruins did trade the rights to unsigned free agent Andre Savard to the Sabres for fellow unsigned free agent Peter McNab, but that swap was never officially recognized as a trade by the NHL, according to the Bruins PR staff.

B’s GM Peter Chiarelli was also able to pull off the deal without raiding his treasure chest of nine first and second round draft picks in the 2010 and 2011 NHL drafts. Paille is expected to be available to play Wednesday against the Nashville Predators at TD Garden.