The Boston Bruins have minimized the bumps along the road of an 82-game NHL regular season better than anyone over the past two years.
With another tough test ahead against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning ahead on Saturday night and the second half of the schedule inching closer, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery knows that his team must accept the challenge.
“Teams will force you to increase your pace,” Montgomery said. “We’ve got a great Tampa team coming in, and then four games on the road (in) tough environments. … After the All-Star break, everyone takes a breath and really starts to look at, ‘Do we have a shot?’ And then the intensity goes up another fivefold. We need more players to rise to the occasion.”
The Atlantic Division-leading Bruins, who are 5-3-2 across their last 10 games, had their four-game win streak snapped with a 6-5 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday. It was only their third regulation setback at home this season (11-3-3).
Thursday’s game featured five combined goals in the first 7:21 and Pittsburgh building a 5-2 lead early in the second period. The Bruins’ comeback fell just short after a three-goal response to tie.
Brad Marchand’s two goals and three-point efforts by David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie weren’t enough for Boston.
“There’s never any quit, which is a great sign to see. We pride ourselves on that,” Bruins forward Charlie Coyle said. “But it’s not a good thing to put yourself in a couple of different holes during that game. … It’s great to see our fight back, but we don’t like to play that way.”
Rookie forward Matt Poitras could be an option for Boston’s lineup on Saturday after returning from his stint representing Canada in the IIHF World Junior Championship.
As of Friday, Tampa Bay led Pittsburgh and three other teams by one point for the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and now visits Boston for the first time this season. The Lightning earned a 5-4 overtime win over the Bruins on Nov. 20.
A 4-1 road win over banged-up Minnesota was only the Lightning’s second victory in five games, but they are 6-4-0 in their last 10.
Three of Tampa Bay’s four goals came from defensemen, including Darren Raddysh’s first two of the season in a span of 2:29. Victor Hedman and Brandon Hagel also lit the lamp.
“We’ve just got to make sure we build off that and get ready for Boston on Saturday,” Raddysh said.
The Lightning have made several recent roster moves on the back end after Mikhail Sergachev went on injured reserve with an upper-body injury earlier this week, including the recall of Declan Carlile from AHL affiliate Syracuse to make his NHL debut on Thursday.
Carlile and Seth Day were both re-assigned to Syracuse on Friday. Jack Thompson and Emil Lilleberg earned recalls.
“We’ve got to generate a little bit more offense, especially from the back end,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “That was in our game plan (on Thursday) and it worked out well for us.”
Nikita Kucherov assisted on Hedman’s goal for his 64th point, tying Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead and setting a new franchise record for the most points prior to the 40-game mark of a season.
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