The Bruins record books need some revising after Wednesday night.

Tim Thomas improved to 7-0-0 on the season, surpassing Tiny Thompson for the best start by a goaltender in team history, in a 5-2 win over the Sabres at HSBC Arena in Buffalo. The victory was the team's fifth road win in as many games away from the Garden, also a franchise best.  

Wednesday's game was a rather messy affair. The second period featured plenty of chippy play, and all in all the Bruins may have played one of their worst games. The team jumped out to an early lead thanks to a pair of shorthanded goals from Brad Marchand (his first career NHL goal) and Patrice Bergeron, but from there, the B's seemed to play down to the competition for two periods. Still, they were able to continue the stretch of dominance with which they have begun the 2010-11 campaign. 

Thomas picked up yet another victory despite what qualified for him as a statistical down night compared to the high bar he's set (see below). But with the Bruins playing a stretch of three games in four nights, it's natural to wonder if the team might give Tuukka Rask some time between the pipes against the Capitals on Friday in D.C. 

Here's the hat trick of storylines following the team's seventh win in nine games: 

ROAD WINS COME EASIER WHEN THE HOME TEAM CAN'T SCORE

Sure, the Bruins were better on the road (21-13-7) than they were at the Garden (18-17-6) last year, but the team's 5-0-0 start on the road -- the best in franchise history -- deserves some attention. 

And here's the attention it gets: Tim Thomas has started all five of their road games, and maybe, just maybe, it's the lights out play of the goaltender that has made the feat so attainable. 

Not only did the Bruins reach the impressive mark on the road with the win on Wednesday, but Thomas improved to 7-0-0 to start the season. He allowed two goals for the first time this season. By comparison, Niklas Backstrom, the only other goalie to have a .930 save percentage or better in at least seven starts, has allowed two goals or more in seven of his 10 starts this season.

Not to suggest that the Bruins haven't been a very difficult team to play against otherwise -- their offense has been very balanced, as all four lines bring an energy that can match the opposition -- but if you want the primary reason as to why the Bruins have yet to be handed a road loss, look no further than the Tank.  

A REMINDER FROM RYDER

For a guy who seems to be such an obvious candidate to leave town and, more importantly, the books, Michael Ryder sure has done plenty this season to make such a scenario a shame. 

The reason why Ryder could eventually be destined for Providence or another team via trade is obvious: He accounts for $4 million on the cap that the Bruins will need off the books when Marco Sturm and Marc Savard return.

What would the Bruins be missing if the financial part of the business forces them to move on? A heck of a lot more than many would have guessed a few months ago. Ryder, like Thomas, was viewed by fans and media members alike as a contract the Bruins would be fortunate to shed. While Thomas' impact this season requires no further explanation, Ryder himself has had a resurgence that could make him both attractive to other teams and tough for the Bruins offense to lose. 

Ryder's goal on Wednesday, one in which he took the puck the length of the ice to beat Sabres' goalie Patrick Lalime from a pretty tough angle, was the latest indication that he's amidst a bounce-back season (he has three goals in nine games and, if one wanted to extrapolate this early on, is on pace to get that familiar total of 27), but his value to the Bruins has exceeded just his scoring touch. 

Perhaps the undeniable on-ice chemistry between Ryder and rookie Tyler Seguin on the third line has been easy to overlook. But there may be very few things more important to the Bruins franchise than Seguin's development, and it seems Ryder has been a big part of it. 

The trust the two have with one another regarding the passes they make is quite remarkable, considering one of them is just 18 years old. Plenty of plays come to mind, most notably Ryder's hail mary in the second game of the season for Seguin's first goal, and a perfectly threaded pass against Washington in the neutral zone in which Seguin, with his back to the play, was able to reach and control it on his back hand. It's been an interesting dynamic, and one that would be unfortunate to see end. 

Ryder had seen a dip in ice time, getting 13 minutes just once in the four games entering Wednesday. Against Buffalo, he made the most of the season-high 16:18 of ice time he got, feeding a nice pass to Blake Wheeler from behind the net to assist Wheeler's first tally of the season and finishing a plus-two on the night. 

DEFENSE STEPPING UP SANS BOYCHUK

"Are we blocking more shots this year or something?" Mark Stuart sarcastically called out in the Bruins' locker room on Tuesday. 

Everyone's taken notice of the way the team's defensemen have assisted Thomas in seeing that pucks don't make their way to the back of the net, but perhaps the bigger story is how the defenseman have continued to step it up with Johnny Boychuk out of the lineup. After all, the team's leader in blocked shots on Wednesday, Adam McQuaid, likely would have been watching the game as a scratch rather than blocking four Sabres shots had Boychuk not suffered a forearm fracture. 

Not only did McQuaid, who arguably played the best game of his short season and was a plus-one on the night, excel, but a defensive rarity occurred for the Bruins: Zdeno Chara did not lead the team in ice time.

Chara, who can handle half an hour on the ice or more, played a season-low 23:41, while Dennis Seidenberg, who has been outstanding of late, led the B's with 25:53 of ice time. To bust out the team's goals against stats would be a bit skewed given how Thomas has played, but the Bruins' defense has proven more than capable of dealing with the tough test that was thrown their way when Boychuk went down.