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Saddled among the mediocrity of the Eastern Conference, entering Sunday night’s contest three points away from the second wild card leading Washington Capitals, the Boston Bruins are without a doubt at a point in their frustrating-albeit-injury riddled season where they’ll take two points by any means necessary.
So, while an overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres isn’t going to steal headlines tomorrow, Loui Eriksson and the Black and Gold are more than happy to admit that it all counts the same in the standings.
“I think it was a gut check,… Boston head coach Claude Julien said of his team after the win. “We just kept plugging away and took a long time to get the goal but we did and you win in overtime. Wins are tough to come by these days, so when you get them, you take them and you try to build on the positives.…
Forcing overtime with a Dougie Hamilton goal with the goalie pulled and just 91 seconds to play, the Bruins continued their relentless pressure on Jhonas Enroth’s crease before Eriksson broke through in alone and buried his seventh of the season, and fourth in the last seven contests.
The marker was the Swedish winger’s eighth overtime tally since the start of the 2008-09 season, tying him with Steven Stamkos, and putting him just two behind Alex Ovechkin (10) for the league lead.
“It’s always fun to score those important goals,… Eriksson, who scored the B’s overtime winner in Minnesota last Wednesday night, said of his knack for overtime goals. “I don’t know why it’s been that way but hopefully it continues like that.
“I’m feeling good, starting to score goals now again. I’m finding those pucks. The last couple games we’ve been creating a lot of chances too. When me, [Chris Kelly] and Carl [Soderberg] play together we always seem to get some chances.…
The 29-year-old’s night didn’t begin with Kelly and Soderberg, but rather Milan Lucic and David Krejci, in a desperate attempt to jumpstart the Bruins’ sputtering first line (and revolving door of right wingers). But when the chemistry between the trio seemed to develop too slow (or not at all) for Claude Julien’s liking, Eriksson was swapped back down to the Soderberg line, while Craig Cunningham moved up.
The results were immediate from the line Julien called ‘the only line scoring’, too, with Kelly deflecting a Zdeno Chara shot home, tying the game up at 2-2 through 40 minutes of play.
But while the reunion between Eriksson and the ‘third line’ ended as the game’s story, it was the play of the 21-year-old Hamilton that made literally everything possible for the Bruins in their victory.
Striking with a power-play goal in the first, assisting on Kelly’s marker, and then scoring the aforementioned game-tying tally, Hamilton had himself a night. It was the first two-goal game of his career, and the third three-point game of his season, which now includes seven goals and 20 points in just 34 games played.
“Tonight he was aggressive at the right time and he played a real solid game. There’s times where he’s aggressive and the decisions aren’t the right one, so it’s learning as you go along here for a young player,… Julien noted of Hamilton’s play. “He’s 21 years old, I think we’re getting a lot out of a 21-year-old defenseman right now. Even if he has bad games, he’s been pretty good overall.…
Even in victory, though, the Bruins had some gripes with their game.
For one, the Sabres’ first two goals came off the B’s inability to get the puck in deep behind the Buffalo defense. And on the third, an ugly wraparound goal surrendered by Tuukka Rask just 1:27 (good for Tim Schaller’s first in the NHL), put the Sabres back on top.
“Both goals in the second period were results of that and that’s what we talked about for the period. I said both goals we gave them we didn’t get the puck deep behind their D, plus not getting it deep and then we make a bad change on one of them,… said Julien. “Certainly those are things that ended up costing goals and little details, again, we dissect those kind of things really closely lately because we’re not scoring enough.…
Scoring four goals is a rarity for the Bruins this year -- tonight was their 10th four-goal game of the season -- but there’s something to be said for the way that the Bruins dominated the puck. It seemed that when they did gain entry into the Buffalo end, they were creative, passed the puck with a purpose, jammed around the net, and did a tremendous job of getting their defensemen involved in the attacking end.
And though it was Buffalo, if that’s something they can duplicate with any sort of consistency, the goals will follow, regardless of who’s skating with who on line one, two, three, or four.
Matt Bartkowski crushes Brian Gionta, gets ejected
Boston’s rare Sunday night didn’t come without some nastiness, too, as Brian Gionta was rocked by a Matt Bartkowski hit late in the first period.
Handed down a five-minute major and game misconduct for the hit, Bartkowski’s night didn’t end without an instantaneous fight with Marcus Foligno.
As for the hit itself, it was a clear as day interference. Bartkowski’s arm does ‘chicken wing’ as they call it, which doesn’t help how it looks. And Gionta was injured on the play. Personally, I hated the hit. It looked like the Pittsburgh, Penn. native was going for a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, sure, but Bartkowski catches Gionta in a horrible position (what a terrible pass, by the way) and he doesn’t let up. He clocks him right in the head (Gionta's 5-foot-7 stature should be pretty irrelevant in this entire discussion as Bartkowski, or any player for that matter, should undoubtedly be aware of that), and it was just an all-around ugly hit. It’s a hit that’s OK a decade ago, no doubt, but one that’s a major no-no in 2014. Bartkowski, playing in his 100th game at the NHL level should know that, too.
But will the 26-year-old find himself suspended? Honestly, I don’t believe so. Without a track record of any ‘dirty’ hits and given the penalty (a five-minute major and game misconduct), it seems like the NHL could feel that that was enough.
Random thoughts and foolery
Well, it was another night where the Bruins were robbed of an apparent goal.
"He doesn’t hit him, he barely touches his glove. It’s kind of a flash screen is what we call it and he’s in position," Julien said of the play. "I guess it’s another non-goal that I’m sure we’ll hear should’ve been a good goal later on. But it’s what we keep going through."
I never thought I'd live in a world where 'Disallowed goals' is the Bruins' legitimate top scorer near the 40-game mark, but that's where we are.
Julien also talked about his heavily criticized decision to throw fourth-line center Gregory Campbell out there in the final moments of Friday night's 2-1 loss in Winnipeg. Julien talked about how Zdeno Chara, the club's preferred sixth attacking in those situations, was gassed from a long shift he had finished just seconds prior, and why he went to No. 11.
"Soupy’s probably the best tipper of our whole team there for the front of the net, so we put him at the beginning and then when he came off Zee [Zdeno Chara] went back on for the last 40-some seconds," said Julien. "But Z’s our net-front guy. Unfortunately, we got caught there with him on the ice late in that period where he hadn’t recovered enough to go as a forward."
I understand Julien's rationale to a degree, but even so, Campbell has not been the best at that this year. This is a player that after the Winnipeg game, has just one goal/point in his last 22 games played. Good net-front presence or not, it seemed as if there was a better option somewhere. Anywhere.
Up next
The Bruins will conclude their two-game homestand with a Tuesday night visit from the Nashville Predators. The Preds took the first meeting between this two last week, sinking the Bruins by a 3-2 final via the shootout. One of the league’s top teams through 30-plus games, the Preds will arrive in the Hub with the game’s top defenseman in Shea Weber and the game’s top netminder in Pekka Rinne. No easy task.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com