Two-game Florida trip had highs, lows
TAMPA — It wasn’t half bad.
The Bruins wrapped up their twogame swing through the sunshine state with an uninspiring, unemotional but not unexpected 3-1 loss to the Lightning Wednesday night at Amalie Arena.
Just one night after their most physical and emotional game of the season — a resilient 4-3 win over the panthers — the Bruins had little left in their legs, particularly over the final 40 minutes when fatigue was obvious and quality scoring chances were few and far between.
The Lightning also weren’t at their best coming off a five-game road trip that included four stops out West, but Jon Cooper’s club had just enough (and Andrei Vasilevskiy in net) to collect the all-important 2 points, strengthening their hold on the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The surging Lightning (8-1-1 in their last 10) could bump Toronto out of the third seed in the Atlantic Division, which would possibly set up a first-round series with the Bruins. If that’s the case, Cooper and Jim Montgomery can torch the film of Wednesday night’s game during their postseason presentations to their clubs.
That series would look a lot different.
A look at the good and the bad of this two-game trip:
■ The good: The stars came out.
Brad Marchand, David pastrnak, and Charlie McAvoy are the Bruins’ best skaters, and they showed it.
Marchand’s relentless forechecking and pursuit of the puck in addition to his refusal to back down to any opponent inspires his teammates.
After trading cross-checks with florida’s Niko Mikkola, Marchand dropped his gloves and went after the 6-foot-5-inch, 206-pound defenseman. The fact that he was giving up 8 inches and 30 pounds never occurred to Marchand.
“He’s the captain, man,” said Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman. “He’s our leader. He doesn’t play like he’s 5-foot-9 and I’d take him in any fight 100 percent. He’s just got that bulldog in him, and he cares about this team so much. He’ll do anything for us.”
Pastrnak had a goal and an assist vs. Florida, giving him 101 points on the season. He plays with both creativity and physicality. He has the uncanny ability to find quiet areas to make noise, and his anticipation is remarkable, which is not only why he finds the puck, but why the puck finds him.
McAvoy is at his best when he’s dishing hits to opponents and pucks to his teammates. He also possesses a vicious slapper and has been more willing to pull the trigger lately; that bodes well for the playoffs, when scoring chances are at a premium.
As a bonus “good,” Linus Ullmark has been simmering since the trade deadline, and having a hot goalie with the postseason looming is a good thing.
The two goals Ullmark allowed against Tampa Bay were more defensive breakdowns than mental lapses.
“Linus did a really good job,” said Montgomery. “I thought he was square, sound. I thought he handled pucks well, too.”
■ The bad: The power play.
The Bruins did get one goal on the man-advantage against the panthers (Trent frederic), but the top unit continues to struggle.
Given a pair of opportunities in the second period , the Bruins were discombobulated and disconnected. postseason power-play chances are gold, and if the Bruins can’t cash them in, it will be a short run.
“Yeah, we’re a little bit impatient,” said pastrnak. “We are quiet out there, we need to communicate more on the ice, especially [when] teams are being aggressive against us, so we need more communication out there.
“And obviously confidence. It’s hard when your pp doesn’t go your way, so you start to lose confidence pretty quickly. We’ve got eight games left and we need to make sure we get the pp back to where we used to be. We are a good power-play unit, so time is running out, so we have to be better.”
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The Bruins are off until saturday, when they go to Washington to face the Capitals — another red-hot team and possible playoff foe. The Bruins clinched their 77 th trip to the stanley Cup playoffs Thursday night without playing. The team announced that individual game tickets and single game suites for all rounds go on sale friday at 3 p.m. at BostonBruins.com/playoffs . . . following the Capitals game, the Bruins will come home for two practice days before heading to Nashville (April 2) and Carolina (April 4).