B’s hitting their stride
Youth, veterans blend solidly
A month ago, it was noted with some alarm that the Bruins did not occupy a playoff position at Thanksgiving. This is seen in hockey circles as an ominous sign, with claims that 75 percent of the teams who are in the playoffs on that holiday will go on to earn a post-season slot.
BRUINS BEAT Stephen Harris
And, thus, that most of the clubs not in, will not.
Well, the obvious question for the Bruins today: Would you rather be in on Thanksgiving or Christmas? Surely holding a playoff slot at this later date, as the Bruins solidly do, is much more meaningful than doing so in late November.
As the NHL shuts down for the three-day Christmas break (it stopped scheduling games on Dec. 24 and 25 about 1973), the Bruins are one of the hottest teams in the league, with a record of 13-3-1 in their last 17 games.
The surge, featuring strong play by both veterans and youngsters, and by both men in nets, delivered the B’s to a reasonably comfortable place in the standings. They stand third in the Atlantic Division race, just two points behind No. 2 Toronto and with three games-in-hand.
Furthermore, where it once looked as though teams in the deep Metropolitan Division would likely grab both wild card spots, the Bruins have actually edged ahead of pretty good New York Rangers and Islanders teams, if they were in the wild card hunt.
Ahead for the Bruins after their much-needed break, starting on Wednesday at the Garden against the underachieving Ottawa Senators, is a stretch of eight games against Eastern Conference foes. After being so busy pre-Christmas (seven games in 11 days) the B’s will remain busy in the upcoming stretch with that same games/days ratio through Jan. 7, then get their bye week with a shutdown from Jan. 8-12.
All of the above standings and scheduling issues will be of little concern if the Bruins can continue to play as they have in November (7-5-1) and December (7-2-1).
“The last month was good,” said goalie Tuukka Rask on Saturday after stopping 30-of-31 Detroit Red Wings shots in a 3-1 B’s victory.
The win gave Rask, who was taking incoming media fire not too many weeks ago, an 8-0-1 record in his last nine starts. Yesterday he was named the NHL’s first star of the week, after going 3-0-0, with 1.30 goals against and .954 save percentage.
“We’re trending in the right direction and playing the way we want to play, and it’s been resulting in wins,” said Rask. “We’ve just got to keep it going after the break.”
Rask shrugged off his recent run of excellent play.
“Yeah, well, it’s just that sometimes they bounce in and right now they’re bouncing out,” said the 30-year-old. “Hopefully the rest of the season it goes that way.”
Rask was asked about the startling turnaround by the team from a messy and inconsistent bunch that until mid-November (6-7-4 as of Nov. 15) seemed a longshot for the playoffs, to a solid three-zone club that is playing with the admirable old-time Bruins-style identity.
“We had a lot of injuries (early) and the lineup was changing a lot,” said Rask. “And a lot of young guys (were) not comfortable yet. It takes a little while to get going, but we stayed patient and we believed in our system. We were working hard and looking at a lot of video of what we’re supposed to be doing out there. And now this is how it looks when we do what we’re supposed to do, everybody chipping in.
“There’s really no other recipe for success than that everyone is chipping in.”
The key, of course, is the likes of Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk, Sean Kuraly, Matt Grzelcyk, Danton Heinen, Noel Acciari, Anders Bjork, etc., have represented an enormous infusion of talent into the lineup.
“The credit there goes to the scouting department and to the managers for signing them and believing in them,” said Rask. “Also, Butchie (Cassidy, the B’s coach, for) knowing how to coach them. He can be hard on a guy sometimes but he also talks to them and gives them credit, stays positive. The worst thing you can do is start yelling at young guys, because then they get scared and don’t want to try and make any plays. (Cassidy) stays positive and these guys are making plays.
“This is the thing that they wanted to do here. People say we’ve been rebuilding the last few years. Well, now they have the right cast here.”