In a resurgent season that had already featured 18 goals for Jarome Iginla, the month of March was just plain dominant.
At the beginning of the year, March was earmarked by many in the Bruins following as the biggest obstacle the team would have to overcome this season. Those people cited its ravenous schedule of 17 games in 31 days combined with there being a road trip of 3 games in 3 time zones that once completed gave way to a week of games against a list of teams that included the Blackhawks, Canadians and Capitals. These people saw the month of March, a month that I point out has been one marred with the struggles of the Bruins in recent years, as a month the Bruins would just have to grind through and hope that it would not diminish their playoff positioning too much.
Instead, the Bruins exploded out of the mid February, Olympic Break finding their groove as these March games got under way and slowly but surely climbing to the pinnacle of NHL regular season excellence. As the Penguins went 7-7-4 in March for example, the Bruins went 15-1-1 earning 31 points in the standings, clinching the Atlantic Division, soaring away from the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead and jumping 3 points clear of the Blues for the number one spot in the entire NHL. Furthermore, with 110 points accumulated so far, the Bruins have already eclipsed each of their points totals in the past 4 seasons and were just 6 points shy of topping their output from 2008 (the largest points total since 1971).
Their defense has helped win them games just as their goaltender has. Those arguments are fairly defended solely by the team GAA average of 1.94, that the Bruins posted in the month of March coupled with the 3 shutouts (2 by Rask and 1 by Johnson) during the same span. But as we look back on this stretch of superiority, it is the offence that has played the biggest role in these 15 wins.
The Bruins have averaged scoring 3.58 goals per game. Among the list of 61 goals scored by the offence, Jarome Iginla and Patrice Bergeron have accounted for 13 and 11 goals respectively with Iginla basically doubling his scoring output for the season in one month and Bergeron solidifying his case for the Selki Trophy awarded to the league's top defensive forward. Iginla and Bergeron both nabbed "3 stars of the week" honors from the NHL during the month while Iginla also finished the month with the number one star.
Iginla's work in March helped lock up his 12th career 30 goal season while also boosting his season +/- to an immaculate +34. He was also clutch as in 4 different games he scored 2 goals against opponents that included the Capitals as well strong goal-tending teams like Phoenix and Minnesota.
But most of all he has been more consistent than any other player in the sport scoreing in 9 of the 17 games in March.
"It's an honor," Iginla said of the award. "It's been an enjoyable month. For our whole team, we've had a great month. There have been a lot of guys who had great months, great streaks. You look at [Patrice Bergeron] -- he's been as hot as I've seen. So it's been good.
"It's been fun, but it's one of those things you don't really expect. I've gotten some good bounces, some great passes from my line mates, and as a line we've had some fun. But bigger than that it's been a great month for our team and we've all benefited from that."
All and all, Iginla has played with a kind of passion this season that even he has not shown in a long time.
Mighty Jarome Iginla, with all his brilliance has never won a Stanley Cup and he sees this season in Boston as one of his last chances to change that.
"I definitely feel blessed that this has gone as well as it has," Iginla said. "I was given a great opportunity to play with Krejci and Lucic right from the start. We had some hiccups during the year, even as a team we had some spells and stuff, but we've been able to work through them. I haven't been on a team in my career where you're battling at the top of the standings for pretty much the whole year, and it's fun. It's a different type of pressure."
"I probably enjoy more battling at the top of the league and preparing for the playoffs. I do feel fortunate to have experienced that this year. I knew it was a very good team I was joining."
As has been well documented this season, Iginla has greatly elevated the play of his line mates. The Bruins first line has scored 67 times this season up increasing their consistency and creating momentum better than any other line in recent Bruins history.
In one month, Jarome Iginla has shown the league that he still has it dominating the hockey world and helping the Bruins become the best team in hockey.
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