BOSTON – It was an encouraging win for the Bruins on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks, the first one since the coaching change going from Claude Julien to Bruce Cassidy earlier this week. So it would be understandable if some got a little overexcited about the 6-3 win over the Sharks in a game that the Bruins never trailed.
Instead they got big games from David Pastrnak (two goals), Patrice Bergeron (1 goal, 4 points) and David Backes (1 goal, 3 points), and rolled over a team that made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final last season. It was impressive on just about every level with goals from three different lines, and a nice push back from the Bruins in the first after the Sharks had mounted a little challenge by tying the game midway through the opening period.
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The Bruins have been there before this season with the one-off, feel-good wins, however, so Torey Krug was going to forego the compliments and glowing verbal bouquets about Boston’s promising first win under Cassidy. Instead the message from the Bruins was about putting the win in the rear view mirror, and focusing on the next one with only a couple of games to go this weekend until the week-long bye week.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s one game. It’s about sticking with the process. Obviously we’ve tweaked some things, and guys responded well,” said Krug, who stepped up and led the Bruins with 22:59 of ice time in Zdeno Chara’s absence from the game. “At the same time, it’s one game, so we have to continue to do our jobs and do it well. [If we] do it to the best of our capabilities then we’ll end up winning a lot of hockey games.
“Time will tell with that. I think there are a lot of guys in here that take a lot of pride in what they do, and were disappointed with what happened [to Claude Julien]. But now there’s no looking back. We’ve got to move forward, and make sure that this isn’t just a one-time thing, and just do our jobs.”
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It’s an important point from Krug to keep in mind inside the walls of a Bruins dressing room where focus and commitment has wavered at times this season, and the group hasn’t been able to build on potential turning point games prior to this one. The reality is that the Bruins are still facing an uphill battle for the postseason even if they snuck back into the playoff structure on Thursday night just past the Flyers.
The hope is Boston’s current situation in the standings and the actions of the last few days would be enough to keep them fully attentive to the present, but only time will tell if the Bruins have finally learned their lesson for once and for all.