Jarome Iginla is 36 years old, he has played 1,232 games, scored 530 goals but was finally hearing whispers of his performance slowly dropping off after almost 2 decades in the NHL system.
There was and there still is a possibility that 2013 could be Jarome's last season as a player in the game he loves but he showed last night that if he had the choice, he would not be going anywhere. While notching normal ice time, Iginla smacked home 2 tallies, one of which was on a power play team that combined for 4 Boston goals on Monday night.
"Obviously they’re not going to be scoring three and four power play goals a night, but I think they are going to be a lot better than they have in the past,” Bruins insider: Joe Haggerty said early this morning when talking about the power play.
For almost 3 years, the Bruins power play has been a team of dismal deficiencies. Whether it be lack of conviction or inhibition in shooting the puck or simply a nonexistent presence of those with the skills to capitalize on a power play, it’s all there, the Bruins have not been able to score on the power play in a long time.
They scored on just 14.8% of their power plays last year, that was up just a few percentile points from the year before, when the B's scored just 43 times on the power play. But what was exhibited last night might represent that this embarrassing downturn may have already bottomed out. In 2013, Jarome Iginla scored 8 times on the power play and exhibits the exact kind of shooting style that most of Boston's current far and few power play tallies are born from: the one timer from inside the hash marks.
But when you look at last night's game, the presence of Jarome Iginla and is line-mates was not simply felt on that sole power play goal. Iggy scoured the first goal of the game early in the 1st but then saw teammate David Krejci add a tally of his own later on. Milan Lucic would assist on all 3 goals scored by Iginla and Krejci thus accounting for a stellar 6 point night for Boston's top line.
For a line that seemed the least confident with their chemistry back in the first few days of camp, Lucic and friends seemed a-okay last night.
“You started seeing [the chemistry]. Where we lost [Horton] being a good shooter and a big body, I thought Iginla did a great job with that,” said Coach Claude Julien. “He shot the puck well, he was solid along the walls and he made some good plays."
“It seemed like a seamless transition, and tonight they looked really good. Hopefully that continues as they work on their game and chemistry.”
“It seemed like a seamless transition, and tonight they looked really good. Hopefully that continues as they work on their game and chemistry.”
Lucic was a team player for most of the night, being unselfish and distributive when the puck on his stick....but there was still time to do his own thing. He finished the night with 4 penalty minutes, a key part near line brawl in front of the Montreal bench and a whole lot of the all-around smash mouth play we have come to expect from him of late.
Malcom Subban: former Bruins 1st round pick made his Bruins debut last night, making 11 out of 11 saves and earning the win amidst a 3 goal 3rd period for his offence.
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