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For the first time all season, the Boston Bruins have won consecutive games at home.
In an impressive goaltending duel between Boston’s
Tuukka Rask and Toronto netminder
James Reimer -- though Reimer’s workload was undoubtedly larger, nearly double in fact, than that of his Boston counterpart -- the Bruins and Leafs traded blow for blow for nearly three periods.
But it was the Bruins that broke through with less than four minutes left to play in the third period behind
Zdeno Chara’s third goal of the season, beating Reimer from the faceoff circle.
B’s winger
Brad Marchand added an empty-net tally with less than seven seconds left, while Rask made 22 saves for his second shutout of the season and first against the Leafs since Feb. 2013.
Here are some leftover thoughts and notes from the win…
Chara turns to Ol’ Reliable for game-winner
If you have noticed a little something missing from Boston captain Zdeno Chara’s offensive game, you’re not alone. For whatever reason, it appeared as if the 38-year-old was not firing off his world famous slap shot with the regularity you had become accustomed to in his 10-year tenure with the Bruins. But when the Bruins were deadlocked in a scoreless draw with the Maple Leafs late in the third period, the 6-foot-9 wound up and rifled off the cannon that’s won the league’s hardest shot competition five times.
On net and practically put through Reimer’s body, the strike proved that Z’s cannon still works just fine.
“I never, was never shy of taking shots,” Chara said after the win. “I like shooting the puck. I like, you know, using my shot. I think it’s something that I work really hard at and when it’s there…”
Given the success that comes with Chara’s slap shot, it’s truly puzzling that he hasn’t brought it out every time the puck has been on his stick, but health may have had something to do with it, too.
“We know he likes to shoot,” Claude Julien said of his captain’s uptick in slappers. “I think he just came back from an injury there, and I don’t think his timing and stepping into those shots was at its best early on, and I think he’s starting to feel better and better. And the injury that he had, it made it that he wasn’t able to shoot as hard as he is right now. So obviously he’s much better.”
Between Chara,
Torey Krug, and
Colin Miller, there’s no shortage of power on the Boston blue line, and that can only help a Boston offense that’s scored the thirst-most goals in the East.
Zach Trotman still confident, records big helper in win
To the right of Chara, the Bruins can’t help but be expressed with the progress of
Zach Trotman. In his fourth straight game in the lineup, the 6-foot-3 recorded the primary assist on the game-winning goal, and continued to look comfortable with his spot on Boston’s top pairing.
With Trotman, there are going to be bumps in the road. But after his rough start to the season and subsequent month-long benching, it’s great to see that this isn’t a player whose confidence has been completely shot by some ‘tough love’ coaching (if you want to even call it that versus a team having eight defensemen on their NHL roster). And it’s deserved given the perhaps unfair expectations put on his shoulders following last year’s strong finish, Dougie Hamilton’s exit, and the belief (or hope is a better fit there) that No. 62 could have just transitioned right into a top-four role without a problem.
“I’ve never really been through a stretch like that before in my career,” Trotman admitted when asked of the lengthy scratch that circled the first month of his 2015-16 campaign. “I actually talked to a couple people and told them it is what it is and I have to take it in stride and look at it as a challenge and try and prep myself in practice and push other guys but at the same time make sure that my game is squared away and I’m ready to go next time I get a shot. You know, that’s what I tried to do and now it’s taking that approach and bringing it into every practice while I’m still in the lineup to stay there.
“I had a couple tips along the way and kind of things that I need to work on to be prepared when I got my chance again so I took that for what it was worth and I didn’t start marking down the games on the wall or keeping track of how long I was out I just kind of took it day by day. And we were winning too, so it’s easier to kind of just keep going to practice with a positive attitude and be excited.”
In four games back in the Boston lineup, the 25-year-old has recorded two assists and put nine shots on net, along with six hits and four blocked shots to his name over that stretch.
Leafs’ Reimer deserves a legitimate chance at owning Toronto crease
So, I understand the opinions I’m going to met with when I say the following, and I’m OK with it. But it might be time for head coach
Mike Babcock and the Toronto Maple Leafs to hand the keys to James Reimer as the club’s starter. (Hell, they may have already done it.) Again, I understand the polarizing nature of such a statement, but it’s clear that he has the head and attitude to earn it.
His entire situation honestly reminds me of
Tim Thomas back in the day. Although Thomas was the ultimate good soldier for some rebuilding and straight-up horrific bad Boston clubs, the Bruins did everything they could to take the crease away from the former journeyman netminder. They put their faith in guys like Hannu Toivonen, and even traded for Manny Fernandez. But every time, Thomas rose to the challenge, put a grin on his face, and tried to stop everything thrown at him. And over time, he stopped more and more, and the Black and Gold were essentially forced to say ‘Yeah, this is our guy’.
“I just know he’s a good guy and he’s battled hard,” Babcock said of Reimer. “He came out of training camp, he had had a good training camp, the other guy got to play all the time, it would have been easy for him to feel bad for himself or be upset, but he just dug in and played harder – well maybe he was upset – and he’s just gotten better and better each night he starts. So good for him.”
Given everything Reimer’s endured in a Maple Leafs uniform -- did you know that Reimer’s had four games of 49 saves in his career, FOUR! -- he’s absolutely proving his worth to Babcock and Co. on a Toronto club that everyone has picked to finish as one of the league’s worst five clubs this year.
Wait, maybe that’s the reason you trade him?
Still, it’d be nice to see No. 34 get a chance at being the undisputed No. 1 for this team when they’re, y’know, approaching contending status with a capable coach behind their bench. Just a thought.
The Homestand as a whole
The Bruins closed out their five-game homestand -- the longest of the season -- on a high note with a 2-0 victory over the Maple Leafs last night, and finished with wins in three of those five games. All in all, that’s a by definition successful homestand. And though the Bruins didn’t come on until later in terms of consistent efforts -- the Bruins have looked their best in wins over Minnesota and Toronto when it comes to their three-zone effort -- Julien will take what he’s seeing from his club right now.
“Our guys are a lot more committed. Whether it’s blocking shots, even our penalty kill did a great job again tonight, even though they didn’t have to kill much, but it was a good kill on their part. There’s a lot of commitment, even physical commitment, either taking a check or finishing your check,” Julien said. “So there’s a lot more there in skating and getting into those dirty areas a lot more.”
The next step, of course, is building on it.
But not before a two-game breather on the road against the Leafs and Detroit Red Wings.
Bruins claim Landon Ferraro off waivers
A quick little Sunday note-- It appears that the Black and Gold have claimed
Landon Ferraro off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings. This makes sense for the B’s, who had
Maxime Talbot making the ‘emergency recall’ trip from Providence to Boston on an emergency basis, just so they had enough forwards for their game last night (d-man Joe Morrow practice as a winger on Friday).
The 24-year-old Ferraro was drafted 32nd overall back in 2009 and has one goal and nine minutes in penalties in 17 career games with the Red Wings, including 10 this season.
He is the son of former NHL player Ray Ferraro.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Boston Chapter of the Pro Hockey Writers Association since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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