BOSTON – It was inevitable that a great deal of focus would be on Milan Lucic after a big Saturday afternoon win powered by a two goal performance from the Bruins power forward. The big left winger potted the first two goals of the game in the 4-2 win over the New York Rangers, powered up for an active five registered hits and generally looked like the powerful player that’s been missing for long portions of this season in Boston.
Claude Julien will certainly take the goal production and the dedicated play from Lucic after that line was just so-so against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night, but wanted to make clear that Saturday’s win was about the entire team top to bottom.
“I really don’t think it’s all about Looch [Milan Lucic]. I think he helps, but I think right now you needed guys like we just talked about, those last two guys [Reilly Smith & Carl Soderberg], everybody needs to respond at this point. I think that everybody can bring something to the table,” said Julien. “I thought Looch was one of those guys that had a good game, but we can’t just look at Looch and say, ‘You’ve got to get us going’ because I think that’s the wrong approach.
“I think we can each have our own things that we can do to help our hockey club, and that’s how we have to approach the situation here.”
Lucic buried the first goal less than two minutes into the game when he opened up his skate blade, watched as a Henrik Lundqvist rebound of a Patrice Bergeron shot bounced off his skate and into the empty net. Eight minutes later Lucic finished off a blast from the left wing as the trailer in a fast break play that saw Ryan Spooner and Torey Krug both push the puck up the ice quickly.
Lucic is now up to 17 goals on the season and still has a decent chance at 20 goals in a down offensive year, but knows it’s about contributions from a roster that’s been sleepwalking through the season for far too long. They’ve seemed to have woken up over the last two games, and will need to play with that level of togetherness for the final seven games if they want into the playoffs.
“I think our biggest asset has always been when we have all twenty guys going. You know, every line coming at you, wave after wave…that’s always been our biggest asset to give us success. You saw that [against the Rangers] today so, you know, we’ve never won by depending on one guy, or two guys, or even ten guys,” said Lucic. “You know, we depend on everyone here to be pulling in the same direction at the same time. That’s what we’re gonna need if we want to have…if we want to get the right result moving forward.”
Boston Bruins
Lucic was joined in Saturday's win by Carl Soderberg with his second goal in the last 29 games, and Reilly Smith scoring his fourth goal in the last three months while snapping a 14-game goalless drought.
While it’s admirable to hear Lucic say that on a day he was a clear star while scoring a pair of goals to kick start the Bruins, the left winger is one of the bigger figures in the immediate future of the Black and Gold this season. He was doing the right things during the game and saying the right things afterward, the Bruins are usually in a pretty good position when both of those things are happening.