The Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead Monday night at TD Garden on just 11 shots. Three goals on 11 shots was enough to chase Penguins goalie Matt Murray from the game.
But that’s when things turned in favor of the Penguins who 14:22 later were leading 4-3 behind four unanswered goals and a dominating second period.
“I think we got a little comfortable 3-0, we saw their goalie get pulled and we kind of sat back a little bit,” said Brad Marchand who had five points in the contest (2-3-5). "But we’re a good team and we regrouped in the third and we got it done.”
The Bruins did indeed regroup in the third period, pushing their winning streak to six and point streak to 10.
Through 14 games, second periods have not been too kind to the Bruins, and Monday’s middle frame was no different. They were outscored 4-1, outshot 21-6 and completely outplayed.
In simpler terms, they got “kicked in the ass.” But sometimes getting “kicked in the ass” is the wake-up call you need.
“Maybe we needed to be kicked in the ass a little and see how do our guys respond; do they sort it out themselves?” said head coach Bruce Cassidy. “Because we do have a veteran group. We rely on the leadership group.”
There was no rah-rah speech needed between periods. There was no need to throw the game plan out the window and try to reinvent the wheel. No, the Bruins just needed to be better at the simple things like managing pucks and breaking out of their own zone.
“I think our breakouts,” Jake DeBrusk said of what changed for them in the third period.
“Honestly, it was our worst period of the year from top to bottom, Jaro [Jaroslav Halak] kept us in the game, it could easily have been six or seven goals. For us to respond in the third, it’s what we wanted to do. We can talk about it all the time, but we believe in this group and know what we can do. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, maybe some puck luck and the big boys came to play.”
The Penguins brought arguably the fastest game the Bruins have seen so far this season. Their speed with their ability to make plays happen through the middle of the ice gave the Bruins problems.
Even though the Bruins picked up two more points with a win, the Penguins ability to dominate the neutral zone and use the middle of the ice to gain access to the slot will keep a coach up at night.
“That’s the thing as a coach where you beat yourself up a little bit. All of the things we talked about were good high forward; neutral zone, you’ve got to limit their speed through there, they’re a real good o-zone team,” added Cassidy.
“Their numbers dictate analytically; they get into the slot, so that was our focus. A lot of coverage, and then in the neutral zone, eliminate some of their speed, but it didn’t work out for us.”
It was another night of balanced scoring for the Bruins who used five different goal scorers on six goals. Balanced scoring is starting to become a more common theme for an offense that was all top heavy to begin the season.
Notoriously a streaky goal scorer, DeBrusk hopes two tallies in as many games flips the switch for him.
“Yeah, definitely a little traction, helps put the mind at ease. Wasn’t the prettiest of goals, but I’ll take it. Anytime I start to feel like this it’s usually a good thing,” added DeBrusk. “Everyone says I’m a streaky player, so hopefully I’m streaking in the right direction.”
The Bruins top line continues to streak in the right direction as each member of the Bruins top trio found the back of the net Monday.
Marchand’s five-point night extended his scoring streak to 13, while David Pastrnak’s league leading 14th goal extended his streak to 12 games.
Even though Marchand’s second goal of the night served as the game winner, his play to set up Torey Krug for the tying goal in the third period was his best play of the night.
Marchand’s patience with the puck, and ability to keep it on his stick despite the efforts of Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust was a thing of beauty.
Or, maybe it was a little luck?
“To be honest, I think I got a little lucky there. Malkin caught me off guard, reaching in. I tried to get around that next guy and Torey, he actually made a really great play talking to me, letting me know he was open because originally I wasn’t going to go down to him,” said Marchand.
“It’s nice when it works out, but there’s a lot of battles I don’t win.”
Marchand’s five-point night was his second of the season. But like any hockey player will tell you, five points or zero points, the two team points from the win are the most important ones.
“They’re nice [five-point nights], but you don’t dwell on them. You’re going to have good nights and you’re going to have bad nights,” said Marchand. “Like we’ve said, it doesn’t matter in this room who has a good night. As long as we win, we’re all happy and you’ll see each guy come into the room just as happy as the next.”
With all the winning the Bruins have done through 14 games, there's undoubtedly been a lot of happy guys in that Bruins locker room.
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