NEW YORK CITY — Bruins fans have been clamoring for the 2019-20 NHL regular season to be about a Revenge Tour for the Boston Bruins after what happened in the Stanley Cup Final a little over four months ago.
It appears that those aggrieved Bruins fans are getting their wish based on the results both in Sunday night’s 7-4 drubbing of the New York Rangers, the weekend sweep of the Blues and Blueshirts in back-to-back fashion and the 8-1-2 record that the Black and Gold have jumped out to this season after nearly a month’s worth of games.
The Rangers were the unwitting victims on Sunday night as the Perfection Line took a zero in the first period with New York taking the lead despite being dominated in the opening 20 minutes, and then shock, awe and destruction ensued with Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak simply taking over the game. The rebuilding Rangers didn’t have anybody that could stop them and didn’t have the firepower to keep up with them, a quality that makes the Bruins so difficult to stop for so many teams across the NHL.
Once they got the engine going in the second period, they scored four unanswered goals to take control of the game and then finished with a pair of Bergeron scores in the third period to cap off his fifth career hat trick.
“They’re going to have good nights when they’re ‘on’ and they’re always going to show up and be ready to go and play well,” said Bruce Cassidy. “They’re ready to go. They’re dialed in. They are good pros and they read off each well and they’re ready to play. [Against the Rangers] they got rewarded more than usual.”
After the game, Brad Marchand laughed off worries about the second periods and concerns about secondary scoring, and basically said the Bruins aren’t worried about anything at this point in the season. Why would they be when they have the NHL’s leading goal-scorer in David Pastrnak (11), the leading point scorer in Pastrnak (25), the leading plus-minus player in Brad Marchand (plus-11), and the leading goals against average and save percentage goaltender in Tuukka Rask (1.48 GAA and .952 save percentage)?
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It sounded equal parts defiant and perhaps a little angry after last season’s Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final, and that translated into five goals and 13 points for Boston’s top line.
Right now, they are arguably the best team in the NHL and they aren’t worried about too much when it comes to their game. Instead they feel like a pissed off hockey team trying to prove a point after stumbling at the end last season.
Certainly, the top line is giving off that attitude after effectively getting shut down last season when it mattered most in the Stanley Cup Final.
“People talk about our second periods,” said Marchand. “We’re not worried about that [expletive]. That’s a bit of a joke. The more people hype it up the more we try to stay away from it.”
The Bruins left winger, fresh off two goals and five points in the Sunday night win, then shifted into a mock-excited tone with “Yay, we had a great second [period” and continued with the “Hakuna Matata” mantra from the Black and Gold.
“Everybody is going to have their night and if everybody plays their game every game, and does what they do good, then they’re going to be a good player for this team. That’s what has been going on here. We win by committee and that’s why we’re a good team, and that’s why we’re winning games. It doesn’t matter who scores. We’re just as happy for the next guy as we are for ourselves if we score and produce, and that’s the mentality in this group. Regardless of how many outside this room talk about scoring, or secondary scoring and whatever it is…we’re not worried about that in this room. We’re worried about winning games and that’s all that matters.”
Is there anything the Bruins are worried about?
“Nope…having fun,” shot back Marchand quickly.
The worries for this carefree hockey club will obviously come in April, May and June as they already look like they’ll be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, and by extension in the National Hockey League. The question will become whether they can sustain the level that they are playing at now with an aging core group full of key 30-something players, and leap over the wall of fatigue they are expecting to hit later in the season when the legs aren’t so fresh all the time.
For now, the Bruins are winning hockey games, piling up points, setting the pace in early every statistical category both offensively and defensively and feeling pretty good about themselves as they seek a different, better ending for last season’s heartbreak. They should feel good about the current state of all things Black and Gold, but the Stanley Cup reality is that it’s a long way away from turning last spring’s bitterness into this season’s joy.
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