Winners of five straight after Monday’s 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils, the Boston Bruins are back in the thick of things near the top of the Atlantic Division, trailing second-place Montreal by one point and first-place Tampa Bay by three (though both have a game in hand over the Black and Gold). They’ve also won seven of their last nine, and are 6-1-0 since captain Zdeno Chara went down with a ligament tear in his knee. Their only defeat came at the hands of the incredibly top-heavy Minnesota Wild, and even that was a one-goal loss headlined by third-period defensive breakdowns by the since-banished-to-the-press-box Matt Bartkowski.
Things are not as doom-and-gloom as originally projected to be, you’d think.
But honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever learned less about a hockey team during a five-game winning streak as I have during this recent run of success for the Black and Gold. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Is it even a thing? Again, I don’t know. And deep down, that’s absolutely maddening.
Here’s the thing about the Bruins-- They’re beating up on vulnerable teams. Let’s just take a look at the past week alone. They took care of a Florida team that simply can’t win on the road (you could include the ‘on the road’ part or not and the main idea of that point remains the same). They beat up on an Edmonton club without their captain and best player. And even on Monday, they took advantage of a Cory Schneider that’s begun this season at a grueling pace that’d kill you 20 miles into your adventure in Oregon Trail.
You have to play the schedule in front of you, though, and the B’s have done just that.
It hasn’t been their best hockey, however, and they’ll be the first ones to tell you that.
“We’re going to expect more out of our team the whole year. We never get satisfied. I’m happy with the game, and I use that term all the time, but I’m not satisfied,… Boston coach Claude Julien said of his club on Monday. “I think there’s still areas we continue to work. You’ve got to keep working on that throughout the whole year. But I think we’re heading in the right direction, I guess is what I would tell you at this point.…
There’s been undeniable progress from a Boston defense without Chara (knee), Kevan Miller (shoulder), and even Torey Krug (though the 5-foot-9 puck mover made his return to the ice last night after a four-game layoff with a broken finger), too. Zach Trotman has been a mobile and steady option on their third-pairing, while Joe Morrow has slid into without much of a worry on the Bruins’ middle pairing with Adam McQuaid. The veteran Dennis Seidenberg is beginning to look closer to 100%, and Dougie Hamilton has been the talk of the town given his personal growth.
You expected Hamilton’s growth, though. In fact, it was all you heard about this summer.
It’s been the contributions of a Trotman, and of a Morrow, a former-first round pick, that’s been noticed.
“I think he’s been playing really good and improving every game. Past couple games, I’ve really liked the way he’s played defense and carried the puck up the ice,… Rask said about Morrow’s intro to the NHL. “Right here in the third period he made a great play. There was a guy in the back door, wide open and he just took the puck and skated off. Things like that, that people may not see, I see and I try to give credit for that.…
At the same time, I don’t think you’ve seen Morrow go head-to-head with some elite scoring talent just yet, and that’s an obvious test that he’ll have to go up against at some point. They’ll all have to go against it at some point, too. And that’s something that I think has escaped the club throughout this five-game winning streak. You look at their opponents over this stretch -- the Sabres, Senators, Panthers, Oilers, and Devils -- and ask, have they really had to shut down an elite offensive talent? Keep in mind that the Panthers were without both Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov when they came to town, while the Oil did not have Taylor Hall in their lineup. The honest answer is no, not really.
That’ll likely change with a road contest that pits the Boston defense against Phil Kessel and the rest of a Maple Leaf squad that’s scored 47 goals this year, the second most in the Atlantic Division.
Though the Bruins handled the Leafs with relative ease in their last meeting back on Oct. 25, the Leafs come into this game with a two-game winning streak (and wins in six of their last 10), scoring 13 goals in their last three contests.They’ll also see Daniel Winnik back in their lineup tonight, too.
In net, the Bruins will (not surprisingly) give the start to Maple Leaf killer, Tuukka Rask.
The 27-year-old Rask has won 10 of 12 career starts against Toronto, posting a .945 save percentage over that stretch. He stopped 32-of-33 shots in his last start against Toronto, and comes into this contest with wins in six of his last seven games (Rask’s last loss came all the way back on Oct. 28 vs. Minnesota).
Toronto counters with Jonathan Bernier. Bernier made 31 saves on 35 shots in his last start, a 5-4 win over the New York Rangers on Nov. 8. Unlike Rask’s splits against the opponent, Bernier comes into tonight with a 1-3-0 record with a .876 save percentage and a 4.46 goals against average against Boston.
Yikes.
The Bruins will be without top-line center David Krejci once again. Claude Julien’s version of Mr. Everything, Chris Kelly, will skate in his place on the Bruins’ first line.