Going into the 3rd period of Thursday night's home clash with the struggling Florida Panthers the Bruins held a 1-0 lead that they knew they needed to retain. The mood was tense but by the end of that final 20 minute set that was not the case.
The Bruins walked out of TD Garden that night victorious for only the second time in almost 3 weeks and unlike some of their most recent games they earned every goal they scored against the Panthers and worked from puck drop to the final horn. That last part of their game has been lacking of late as they have surrendered late game leads in 2 of their last 6 games. They pounded the Panthers net with 30 shots but managed to get back and almost every play. Goaltender: Tuukka Rask was never hung out to dry.
But regardless of that, he got back to his backstopping ways by saving 23 out of 24 shots en route to a nice win that dropped his season GAA to an Eastern Conference best, 1.68.
“I think the consequences of me not being on top of my game might be a little different than in the past,” Rask said. “I just try to stop every puck and keep the game tight. If we’re not playing our best, you know -- it’s been a little unusual situation for us, giving up chances, and what kind of chances we’ve been giving up but it’s part of the game and we just have to battle through that.”
To elaborate on the details of those consequences Rask has outlined one simply needs to look back at the score sheet. Tuukka had allowed 11 goals in his previous 4 starts but above all was seeing more shots as a whole. In that same 4 game span, Bruins opponents blasted a total of 122 shots on Rask, when you look back on the 4 starts prior to this stretch those 122 bombs were nearly 25 more that those accrued in the sequence in which the Bruins went 3-1. In short, more shots equals more goals and for the Bruins that is a bad thing.
What is worse is the fact that in coalition with the struggles of his goal-tender, normally perfect defense-men: Zedeno Chara had been feeling the effects of upped ice time and came into Thursday night withering under two games of negative points in the plus minus category.
“I don’t know what you want to call it, but I call it not good enough,” Coach Julien said following last Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Islanders. “There’s no way in the world you should come in here and play the way you play. We’re not competing hard enough. We’re just not good enough right now. You see the difference in the team that beat you tonight — the energy and the effort that was put in compared to us. Sometimes you think you’re working hard, but you’re not.”
Claude Julian voiced all of the shortcomings felt by this Bruins team of late with that quote. Tuukka has seen too many shots, Zdeno Chara has flopped under the pressure of advanced ice time and above all the Boston Bruins just were not scoring goals.
They reversed all of those negative aspects of their game against the Panthers and despite the subordinate nature of their opponent, each of the 4 goals Boston scored were crucial in the win all be it only one of them would be credited with the title of the one that won the game.
Early on, there was David Krejci who, just over 7 minutes into the 2nd period broke up a 0-0 tie via a bomb of a shot from the point. What is better is the fact that on that play, lovable captain Chara was credited with the assist. Krejci said he did not remember much about that play but for the rest of the Bruins, they sure did. For a team that had only led for about 20 total minutes since the New Jersey game, getting the first goal here was crucial. The game was not over and yes the tension was still there but the Bruins had the lead and that was the fact that mattered the most.
Regardless of that, the Bruins piled on in the third kicking off the final frame action with an uplifting Brad Marchad goal just over 4 minutes in. Marchand snapped the longest goalless streak of his career with that goal but the Bruins were still not satisfied yet. Next up we had Torey Krug, the second year D-man who banged in his league leading 6th goal of the year as a defencemen.
Those 2 goals seemed to break and then pulverize the hearts of the Florida Panthers and their goalie seconded that notion.
"That was obviously a turning point of the game, that second goal for them," he said regarding the Marchand goal. "And it gave them some momentum and it puts us back on our heels with just 13 minutes or 14 minutes -- whatever it was -- left to play. So, obviously, that was just the turning point."
The Bruins would add on their 4th tally of the night with just under 2 minutes to go in the game and that just about sealed it.
The Bruins skated off the ice Thursday night with their heads held high finally doing what that had not been able to do in so long. They strung shifts together, banging in goals and never losing sight of their goal, to score goals.
*Note: The Bruins play the Toronto Maple Leafs in a rematch of Game Seven of last years Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at 7PM tonight. They will be looking for their 10th win of the year while Jarome Iginla and Torey Krug will each be gunning for their 10th points of the season.
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