BOSTON – Let’s get one thing clear and understood right out of the gate: one game doesn’t solve any of the problems the Bruins spent 75 games creating for themselves this season.
Milan Lucic had one of his best games of the season while kicking in a pair of goals, Carl Soderberg and Reilly Smith both made important contributions after slumping for the better part of the last two months and the Bruins showed some genuine surliness and toughness in their impressive 4-2 win over the Rangers at TD Garden.
While the Bruins have played soft many, many times this season, they stormed out of the gate with a hardness to their game that didn’t flag throughout. The forwards were scoring, the D-men were pushing every manner of attack to the outside perimeter and making those attackers pay a heavy price for going there in the first place, and all 20 members of the team contributed something to the victory that put them back into a playoff spot.
“We always talk about doing it, it’s just a matter of us actually going on the ice and performing at a consistent level,” said Dennis Seidenberg. “That’s what’s been missing the whole year, it’s been a lot of up and downs. Tomorrow you want to stop going the other way and keep going forward.”
With the Senators losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday night in overtime on the strength of a Tyler Bozak hat trick, the Bruins are suddenly back in the playoff picture and leading the second wild-card spot by one point. It doesn’t mean much of anything unless they can maintain it for the final seven games starting Sunday afternoon in Carolina, and the Senators still hold an important game in hand on the Black and Gold.
But Saturday was one of the few really, really good days in a Bruins season that’s felt at most turns like sitting on Storrow Drive at rush hour just waiting for a chance to gather up some speed.
“I think if we play the right way, that’s what you see. Our system is a positive thing for this team, and when we’re playing the right way there are layers, and guys are where they’re supposed to be and everybody knows where everyone is,” said Torey Krug. “So we’re forced to play good hockey right now, and it’s nice to get a result for sure. We got to bottle this up and use it tomorrow.
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“I think when we looked at it there was nine games left, and there was a segment of games that we had to step up, and it was necessary. The things that we looked for was the commitment and that desperation, and it’s not just 15, 16, 17 guys…it’s all 23 [players on the NHL roster]. That’s important for our team. We’ve had that the past two games, but we have to make sure it doesn’t stop. So like I said before, we’ve got to bottle it up and move forward.”
The win was certainly under some extenuating circumstances for the Rangers, with Henrik Lundqvist in his first game back from a scary neck condition that cost him the better part of the last two months. The Blueshirts were also missing Marty St. Louis from their lineup, and just seemed a bit off on Saturday afternoon with less to play for after clinching a playoff spot.
But that’s not to take anything away from the Bruins, who monumentally disappointed in the previous six games with just six five-on-five goals to go along with costly breakdowns against speedy opponents. This time around the Bruins scored four five-on-five goals, held the Rangers in check with a withering fore-check that was causing turnovers for Keith Yandle and Co., and jumped all over the other team with three first period goals.
You can see a difference when everybody in the dressing room is committed to the task at hand, the fans can feel the difference as they did when they gave a notable ovation to the team after an impressive first period and the players certainly feel the difference as well when everybody has once again bought into the plan. There are no ghost-like performances from the forwards, and you don’t leave a play scratching your head wondering what the defenseman could have possibly been seeing on the play.
Instead, the five-on-five scoring becomes a key for the Bruins. That’s usually an indication that each of the four forward lines are operating at maximum efficiency, and it’s a hallmark of the past Bruins teams that accomplished so much in the postseason. That hasn’t been the case at all this season, obviously, as the Bs completely ordinary plus-4 goal differential tells the tale.
“I think that everybody’s really committed right now. Everybody’s playing on the edge and everybody’s playing with a lot of energy,” said Zdeno Chara. “That’s what we have to do. It’s pretty simple, when we have everyone going then you can feel it, you can sense that everybody’s jumping and playing on our toes, everybody’s doing their job.”
What Saturday proved more than anything else is that the Bruins could still be a dangerous team to top seeds like the Rangers if they can slug their way into the playoffs, and a Boston/New York first round matchup is entirely possible if the Bruins do eke their way into the postseason. It’s also the more favorable matchup for the Black and Gold rather than once again tackling a Montreal Canadiens team that’s owned them the last two plus years.
But those around the Bruins have seen these shimmering one or two-game showings from this erratic hockey club this season, and been fooled into thinking they could be that team when it all really matters. They weren’t that team last week when they dropped an unforgivable game to the Ottawa team they are now neck-and-neck with, and they weren’t that team when it really mattered last year in the second round vs. Montreal.
Now the Black and Gold will have to prove they can replicate the effort and results from Saturday for another seven games of Bruins-style hockey, and show that Saturday afternoon wasn’t just another example of Fool’s Black and Gold against the worthy New York Rangers.