Seth Griffith excels as Bruins snap two game skid: Bruins top Hurricanes 2-1

November 15th, 2014

by Dakota Antelman

After a disastrous two game Canadian road trip in which the Bruins were outscored 11-2, the team came home to Boston with a sense of urgency. In their matinee game Saturday, the Bruins made good on their urgency, beating the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 2-1.

The Bruins had fallen from grace this week after their five game win streak was snapped and soured by 6-1 and 5-1 losses to the Maple Leafs and Canadians respectively. They played soft making mistakes by the dozen and watching as their goalie, Tuukka Rask uncharacteristically fell apart vs the Maple Leafs.  

They understood the mistakes they made in those games and came home with a brand new will to win.

"I think it's probably the most important part of going into today's game, was upping our competitive level, emotional level and physical play," said Bruins winger Milan Lucic.

Coach Claude Jullian eluded to a subliminal reigniting of the competitive flame after those losses.

"What you've gone through the last two games, I don't think you're automatically going to turn the page. We've got to build ourselves back up there, and today was a good start."

Yet with all their preparations, things seemed to get off on the wrong foot for the Bruins. They were outshot for most of the first period and eventually fell behind when Juri Tlusty banked in his 7^th goal of the year.

"We started on time for sure. But for whatever reason, we didn't have 60,"said Carolina head coach Bill Peters.

As he suggested, the Bruins turned things around soon after the Tlusty goal. They killed a near two minute 5 on 3 man advantage for the Hurricanes that started mere seconds after the goal.

"That always comes back to haunt you. It gives you momentum if you can kill it, and it hurts you a little bit mentally if you don't score," Peters said of his team’s losing momentum from the 5-3 failure. "It would have been nice to get one."

Eight minutes after the 5 on 3, a strong hustle play by Bruin rookie forward Seth Griffith combined with a weak pass in front of the net by Andrej Sekera led to an awkward goal for the Bruins that tied the game at one. The goal was Griffith’s fourth of the season and signified yet another moment where a younger Bruin stepped up to make a huge play for the team

“These games are about the veterans leading the way,” said Bruin center Patrice Bergeron. “But with all the injuries, the young guys have to seize the moment and come up huge; and that’s what they did today.”

Bergeron himself scored with 49 seconds left in the first period giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

From there the team managed to hold down the fort. Rask made 33 saves and the Bruins hit hard and often to keep the Hurricanes out of the zone for much of the second and third periods.

 All and all Saturday was a much better effort for the Bruins as it also featured the 60 minute consistency that was lacking on their recent road trip.

“It was good,” Bergeron said. “Everything was a step in the right direction. The second was one of them as well. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s definitely better. It’s definitely something we can build from and keep working on, but that being said, we’ve been able to keep the lead and that’s something that you can definitely build from.”

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On a mission: Bruins extend winning streak to 11 games and clinch playoffs using their size to their advantage

The Bruins have not lost a game since March 1st against Washington. That means that in 21 days, the Bruins have won 11 straight games, to account for their longest win streak since 1971. This streak has included wins over great teams like the Rangers, Habs and Lightning but it was Friday night that drew the attention of the hockey world. 

In a game that started at 9PM, Eastern Time, the Bruins were in a position where, if they could grab a win against the surging Avalanche, they would be in the playoffs regardless of what any other team did. But Colorado did not plan to make it easy and they certainly followed that plan. 

You see this game was a one played by opposites. The Bruins are a team built on power and brutality on and off the puck. They are also a team that relies on guys like Jarome Iginla, Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic to pound the puck into the net. Those are all veterans. But Colorado is different. Coming into the game, they had logged just 26 fighting majors that were enough for 19th in the league. But Colorado does not need fights. They win games not with checks or punches but instead with dazzling explosions of speed and proficiency and calmness with the puck on their stick. They get the large majority of their scoring from players like 3rd year left wing - Gabrial Landeskog and rookies Matt Duchane and Nathan McKinnon. 

With these two teams going at each other with playoff positioning on the line, this game threatened to turn into one of those documentaries about the Serengeti. The small nimble wildebeest (Colorado) spends hours running as fast as it can away from the angry lion (Boston) only making that lion angrier when it cannot catch dinner. 

Instead, this game just followed the plot line of World War Z. After pushing back in the first few minutes of the game, the Avs were caught puck watching early and eventually converted from foe to victim of the Bruins army. 

Even the referees could not stop the onslaught. Just 1 minute and 48 seconds into the game, massive Bruin rookie - Kevin Miller, locked his sights on Avalanche rookie, Nick Holden. Locked up in a tight puck battle, Miller, finally delivered the hit that sent Holden crashing to the ice wondering what state he was in. Bizarrely, the hit was deemed an elbow and Miller was sent to the box. But that did not crush the Bruins sprites. Just about 3 minutes after the Holden hit, Patrice Bergeron broke the game open with his 21st goal of the year. The goal came as a result of great work by Patrice Bergeron to push the puck through 4 Colorado players. 

Dougie Hamilton took the puck at the blue line and awakened the Avalanche to their defensive error that left both Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara wide open inside the hash marks. Colorado overcompensated though and did not leave a man to cover Bergeron who proceeded to dash towards the net, and bang in Hamilton's rebound for the goal. 

“He made a good play to go to the net, and I just put it into him,” Hamilton said when asked about the goal. “I think I hit him right in the chest at the start, and it was a good finish after that, so I was pretty happy to have that.”

Colorado mustered a bit of a push after that goal, but the Bruins quieted that when Gregory Campebll dropped the gloves against 6 foot 2, 210 pound Cody McLeod. Though McLeod pounded at Campbell's head like he would a nail, Cambell held his own and eventually came back in the fight to land at least 3 strong jabs to MeLeod's jaw. That fight showed that the Bruins were not here to play street hockey. 

Over the next 2 periods, his were common. 

“I think it was a normal situation, considering we've been off for a couple of days, and again, there's thin air here, and that first period's always a bit of a challenge,” Coach, Claude Julien said. “So all of those things together, we knew we had to grind it out through the first.”

But in the second, they were just plain bullies. They defended their blue line like it was their house and the Avalanche were a hoard of zombies and forechecked and backchecked as if the winner of this game were not the team who scored the most goals but instead the team who broke the most bones.

“Second period, we kind of had to start getting pucks behind their Ds and playing more in their end, and the further the game went, the better we got. I thought we played a smart third, just putting pucks in deep and making them go back for every puck they wanted to bring up the ice. So that was kind of what we looked for and as the game wore on, I thought we got better all the time.”

The hits helped generate chances especially in the 2nd and 3rd periods when strong forechecking by the Bruins wingers allowed for their centers to pick up at least 3 great chances in front of the net. But the big hero of this game was Chad Johnson who earned his 2nd shutout of the season Friday night. He saved all 31 shots taken against him. 

“To be in front of these guys with such good systems, and a good D corps, and offensive players that want to play defense, too, you know, it helps me out a lot,” Johnson said after the game. “It helps the goalies out, and our whole team, so it's fun to play in front of our team when we're so committed defensively and we're out there to win and we expect to win.”

All and all, the Bruins are looking to be one of the scariest teams in hockey for other teams to play against. In a part of the schedule Bruins fans have dreaded all year, their team has owned the hockey world, climbing out from a tight race for the division and into a position now where massive numbers work to fairly define the magnitude of Boston's late season charge. They are 16 points clear of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Atlantic Division lead. They are 6 points clear of the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead and they are tied with St Louis for the title of best team in hockey. For the 4th time in the Claude Jullian era and the first time since 2011-2012, the Bruins have topped the 100 point plateau and for the first time in the Claude Jullian era, they have won 11 straight games.

Bruins fans, whatever you have been doing during these games for the past 2 weeks, DO NOT CHANGE IT! Let’s keep this streak going. 

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Patrice Bergeron is better than Alex Ovechken? Yeah...by alot

Patrice Bergeron is not a name unknown to Bruins fans. For 9 years and 6 beyond the conclusion of this one, Patrice Bergeron has and will likely be the face of this Bruins offence. He was, is and will be the cool headed under pressure, unselfish but sick handed backbone to this team that many Bruins fans have not seen since the days of Orr and then later on Raymond Borque.

And yet in this day and age, he is underrated. Underrated compared to Zdeno Chara, underrated compared to Brad Marchand and labeled inferior to most other big time players on most other  teams.

He is mislabeled.

You may call be crazy but I say this. When you take into account their contributions to their team that are represented by more than statistics, Bergeron may be the best leading player in the entire hockey league. Today I will narrow this down to the conversation of just two men.  That is Bergeron vs. a certain man named Alex Ovechken and yes, Bergy is better. But hear me out.

Born in September of 1985, Alex Ovechkin has been the perennial leader of the Washington Capitals. At 28 years old, the Capitals remain the only team Alex has played for in the 8 seasons since he was drafted number one overall and frankly, the Capitals have never had anything to complain about. 656 games into his career, Ovechkin has scored 411 goals 4 times scoring 50 or more in 1 season while also adding 4 dominant 100+ point seasons.

All and all, "Ovi" as he is called by his fans has averaged 1.16 points per game since joining the NHL 8 years ago. This season, Ovechkin leads the league in goals with 40 and since the last month of last season has actually nabbed 54 goals. He is without question the hottest player in hockey. But the best?

Just as Alex Ovechkin has pulled away from the pack, Patrice Bergeron has stayed with it, bettering the quality of play of his entire team. Statistically, he is on the good side of mediocre scoring just about 20 goals per season and assisting on around 30 others. But as reflected by the one stat that everyone overlooks, there is one category that Bergeron is numerically stellar at. Over the course of his career, Bergeron is a +95 while the all mighty Ovechkin sits at just +65 and is actually -17 in this 40 goal 2014 season. 

You see+/- is a strong indicator of a players value to his team solely because it measures how many more or less goals scored by your team when you are on the ice than allowed by your team when you are on the ice. For Bergeron's being a +95 that means that though he definitely did not assist on all of those goals he not only played a role in goals scored by his team but back checked, threw hits and played smart on defense in order to limit the number of goals scored against his team that would shrink his differential that is represented by the +/-.  

It is the intangibles of Patrice Bergeron that make him great and Claude Jullian recognizes that. 

"To me, he’s always been that guy that’s that perfect fit. He’s as reliable defensively as he is offensively. He’s going to give you a fair amount of production and a fair amount of points, yet he’s going to give you that same kind of, I guess, comfort feeling in your end of the ice as well. Those guys are hard to find and when you have them, like I said, you try to hold onto them.” 

Whether it be his 60%+ face off percentage, his mind numbing capabilities on defense or that ever present ability to score just when his team needs it most, Bergeron is a selfless player who's contributions to his team outweigh those made to his stat sheet. I don't know about you but to me a good player not only scores but makes those around him better. Bergeron scores, Bergeron fights but above all, he really does make those around him better. 

He is a good player, much better than Ovechkin. 

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