It’s not an overstatement to say we might all look back at this portion of the regular season as a fundamental turning point for the Boston Bruins.
Everybody knows the B’s had a wholly disappointing seven game homestand where they dropped five of seven games, and experienced four straight defeats before ending two weeks of home-cooking with an epic shootout win over Dallas. They paired that last home victory with a thrilling 6-5 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night where overcoming adversity was a calling card.
It wasn’t perfect while blowing a two-goal lead in the third period a strong opening 40 minutes, but it also revealed a staunch, stubborn refusal to give in even when things started stacking against them. That’s something all good playoff teams develop during the regular season when their collective backs are pushed to the wall.
“I just loved the way we kept forging ahead,” said Jim Montgomery. “We didn’t worry about what happened, positively or negatively, I thought we continued to play. Obviously, they had a great push by a great team in the third period and it kind of snowballed, but we went right back to work afterward.
“When they made it 4-4, the next four minutes I thought we controlled the game and started to push back. We got the ‘Pasta’ goal, and they came back, it was great for the fans.”
Now the Bruins have won back-to-back games against strong Western Conference playoff teams, moved past the Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division standings even as Florida has won six games in a row and have more than sampled the adversity that’s going to harden them for the postseason.
“I can’t say it feels good when you’re going through it. But it is definitely important to go through these kinds of games,” said David Pastrnak to TNT on the Postgame Show after Wednesday’s win over Edmonton. “It’s not a great feeling in the locker room, but we face it as a challenge and motivation. We need to stick together because the only we get out of these situations is together side-by-side. It’s good to face it and hopefully it’s going to prepare it down the stretch.”
As important as going through it all has been some of Boston’s key, money players stepping up when it was absolutely needed.
Perhaps none more than No. 1 D-man Charlie McAvoy, who has stepped up and made plays while fellow defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Matt Grzelcyk have gone down around him with injuries. It was McAvoy firing home the game-winner in the shootout on Monday afternoon as the ninth shooter in Boston after serving up a pass to Pastrnak on the game-tying score late in the third period.
And it was McAvoy again with the game-winner in overtime on a slick toe drag move straight down the middle after crossing over 30 minutes of ice time in a game where Boston basically played with just five defensemen for the entire game.
It wasn’t just McAvoy, of course, but it was important to see one of Boston’s leaders step up and throw the rest of the team on his back at crunch time when Brad Marchand and Pastrnak have done that for so much of the season to this point. McAvoy isn’t always the guy making offensive plays with a habit of being a reluctant shooter focused on good two-way play, but there are times when it’s simply required if the Bruins want to win hockey games.
“I think that’s an identity of ours,” said Jeremy Swayman. “It was not exactly how we drew it up, but it was really special to get those two points and the way we did it through adversity and their push, I think that’s really something special for our group moving forward. The mentality our group has is just do whatever you need to do to win, no matter whether it’s a 1-0 game or a 6-5 game, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win.
“We know how valuable every point in this league is, especially at this stage in the year, and it’s really special to see our group come together and fight through no matter what comes our way.”
And that will need to continue from McAvoy with Lindholm on the shelf for weeks, not days, with a lower-body injury and now Grzelcyk hobbled as well after taking a nasty Ryan McLeod slash to the top of his left foot. The Bruins will also need the A-game that Mason Lohrei showed on Wednesday night as well as he piled up a career-high three assists in 23 plus minutes of ice time and a plus-2 rating with four shot attempts and four blocked shots as well.
It was a big development to see Lohrei play with poise and defensive intensity in a playoff-level game against some of the NHL’s best offensive players, and make a subtle, crafty drop pass to Pastrnak for a third-period score that helped get the B’s to OT. That will also need to continue as Ian Mitchell likely stands poised to be called up to the Bruins from the AHL after performing well in Providence, even as attrition is biting into Boston’s back-end depth and forcing all healthy hands on deck to step up.
One other trend from Wednesday’s win that will need to continue: An energetic, productive performance from Jake DeBrusk. Perhaps playing in front of friends and family in Edmonton gave him the something extra he’d been looking for while going scoreless since the NHL All-Star break, but DeBrusk played his best game in weeks while also having this beautiful moment with his dad Louie during the game.
DeBrusk, by the way, scored a second-period goal on a hustling play crashing the net for a rebound and then fed McAvoy for the overtime game-winner that got him out of the 30 pushups promised to his dad on the “golden ticket” if he didn’t deliver.
And it was a positive development to see the Bruins play with a little physical snarl, as well, as Parker Wotherspoon handled himself nicely against Corey Perry during a solid second-period scrap. Perhaps it wasn’t ideal timing with the B’s down to five D-men for the game at that point, but it’s important to see Wotherspoon develop a little of that into a role that he’s filling for the Black and Gold right now.
Sure, there were some things to be concerned about. Chief among them was another third-period blown lead and a few leaky rebounds and goals allowed by Jeremy Swayman in the third period among the 19-shot onslaught that Edmonton threw at the B’s desperately trying to press for overtime.
But give credit where it’s due to a B’s hockey club that’s pushing through adversity and getting winning results against quality opponents that have clearly all elevated their game at this time of season. The Bruins are doing the same now after a rude wakeup call of a homestand dud that may well become one of the most important stretches of the season when we look back at this year’s full seasonal timeline for the Black and Gold.
Leave a Reply