One month ago, the sky was falling. 

In late December, the Bruins were struggling to grab a hold of the top spot in the Northeast Division, and even when the Canadiens seemed ready to relinquish it, the B’s couldn’t seize it. The Bruins already had begun compiling “worst loss of the season” nominees, but none touched Dec. 20. None set off a city-wide uproar over the squad like Dec. 20. 

With the Habs having lost the night before to the Avalanche, the eighth-place Bruins, who had been largely inconsistent in the early going, had a shot to move up five spots in the standings with one win. Two points would give them 40 (as many as the Canadiens) and they would jump atop the division given their games in hand. 

Yet, rather than seizing the opportunity, the B's turned in what could go down as the worst loss of the season. The Ducks came into town and took advantage of a nonexistent Bruins effort with a 3-0 shutout that had the boo-birds out in full force at the Garden. Of course, the fans weren’t the only ones looking for answers. 

"When you've got a chance to move up five spots, it's unacceptable," Claude Julien said at the time. "This game's about emotion. I think that's the thing that really irked me. We should have been excited to play this game and move up five."

Which brought the Bruins — and an angry city — to Dec. 21. It was one month ago that the questions of whether Julien should keep his job were louder than ever. It was the No. 1 thing on the Boston sports fan’s mind. 

The Bruins had two days off before their next game, a Dec. 23 matchup against a Thrashers team that had already embarrassed them once on the season. For two days the B’s held physical practices, at times getting chippy with one another, and for two days they heard the wrath of the fans and the media. As is generally the case in this town, there wasn’t much the B’s could do to silence it during those two days. The only answers they could give could come in games, and not in practices. 

“We were obviously pissed with our effort, too,” Shawn Thornton told WEEI.com in hindsight on Thursday. “It’s not like we lose a game and are just ‘la-dee-da,’ but we try not to get as negative as other people, I suppose. We knew what we had to do to correct it.“

The day of Dec. 23 was a tad different than your average game day. The Bruins didn’t have a morning skate, and the attitude throughout the room was one that suggested a group of group of guys who, as Thornton said, knew what they needed to do. Nobody seemed worked up over what was being said. They were loose, with Zdeno Chara even walking through the room to joke that he had no Christmas carols to sing the media. The players didn’t appear frustrated, but whatever they had built up came out when the puck dropped against the Thrashers.

With all eyes on them that night, the Bruins put on a show against the Thrashers in a 4-1 victory that featured a pair of goals from Thornton, as well as 118 penalty minutes between the two squads. 

Since then, the losses — ugly or otherwise — haven’t come too often, while the points have come pouring in. Including Thursday night’s regulation loss to the Sabres, the B’s are 9-3-3 since the Thrashers game. They’ve had the most points (21) in the Eastern Conference since that contest, and they’ve taken over the top spot in the Northeast Division. They even had jumped ahead of the Lightning in the standings prior to Thursday’s Lightning victory. 

When looking at the differences between the team on Dec. 21 and Jan. 21, it’s tough to point to one thing. Tim Thomas has been as consistent as he has been since November (his October stats are rather tough to compete with). Lines have been changed up multiple times. The team has seen increased scoring from the blueline. The power play has improved of late but has struggled as a whole (10-for-57). Plus, they still can’t put away the Sabres. 

They’ve dealt with different injuries and different slumps. In some cases (Nathan Horton) they’ve dealt with the same thing they were dealing with before. There’s no concrete statistic or player one could point to summarize the team’s resurgence since Dec. 21. Thornton sees it more about how the Bruins have gone about it than what they’ve done. 

“I think we’ve established a little bit more consistency since that point, and a little bit better work ethic and battle level,” he said. “It’s the same stuff every day, but we’re competing at a higher level, which we need. We’ve been a little more emotionally engaged.”

There seemed to be agreement that the squad is more emotionally engaged in what it was doing than before. “Emotion” was the word Julien repeated over and over as he vented following that Ducks loss. They didn’t have it, and somehow over those two days, with the fans and media personalities yapping and typing away, they got it.

With the strides the team has made over the course of the month, a focus seems to have been heavily placed on limiting the nights in which people are left talking about players getting going and searching for consistency, much like it was following Thursday’s game. If the team can overcome the speedbumps and the slumps individual players have encountered, they’re in good standing to continue their heightened play of the last 15 games. 

“I think we’ve kind of seen what we’re capable of, and it’s been a challenge for us to stay consistent, so that’s been another motivating factor,” Blake Wheeler said. “If we can get our heads into it every game, we’re going to give ourselves a great chance to win.”

With that having been said, the blips, such as a pair of games vs. the Sabres in which the B’s have blown multiple leads en route to a loss, are going to come. The games in which the whole group is “flat” (perhaps with the exception of Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton’s line, which has rarely struggled as Julien has rolled out all four lines) will still occur. Yet those games haven’t piled up to form the super concern that lingered last month. 

“I think our mindsets been a lot better ever since the Christmas break,” Milan Lucic said prior to Thursday’s game. “It seems like we’re more focused, and we’re paying more attention to detail. When we’re out there, we’re executing.

“We’re making plays, and everyone’s feeding off one another. It’s fun right now. We have to do whatever we can to keep this feeling going and keep winning hockey games. If we do that, everything will take care of itself. “

Dec. 20 was the loss that had fans calling for blood. Jan. 20 was simply a loss. What a difference a month and five spots in the standings makes.