Bruins basking in success during bye week

All things considered, the Boston Bruins find themselves in an impressive spot one game shy of the halfway point of the 2017-18 season. Currently, the Bruins are in the midst of the CBA-negotiated bye week with a 23-10-7 record, good for 53 points.

After struggling out of the gate due to injuries, a young roster and an inconsistent lineup, Boston has been on the upswing for over a month and showcasing its potential. The Bruins are 11-1-3 in their last 15, and have earned points in 11 straight with an 8-0-3 record. Contributions are coming from every player in the lineup and there's depth in the organization, which has created the all-important internal competition.

"I like the way we've developed as a team," said Patrice Bergeron. "We got better and we faced some adversity early on, and I think that got us stronger mentally -- meaning it doesn't matter who's in the lineup (and) doesn't matter who does the job. But we find a way. We can be better. We can still learn. The young guys are developing nicely, and for us as leaders and older guys, we've got to do a good job of making sure we still become a team that works hard, is professional, and shows up to play every night. There's a lot of positives and a lot of things to learn from as well."



Not every team in the Atlantic Division is on its bye week, so the standings will fluctuate until the Bruins and Canadiens resume at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Bell Centre in Montreal. Currently, the Bruins are second in the division and third overall in the conference. They're 11 points ahead of the fourth-place Panthers in the Atlantic, and six points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild-card spot. And, the Bruins have four games in hand on Toronto, which also has 53 points.

Meanwhile, Boston has 155 man-games lost this season due to injury. It's impressive what this team has accomplished so far.

"We've done very well with the start we had," said Bruce Cassidy, who is 41-18-8 in 67 games since taking over as head coach last February. "A little uncertainty with our lineup. We were putting some youth in there. We knew that and we had some injuries we fought through and stayed afloat. We battled through some adversity, and we've been on a good run. The first half of our year's been very good.

"We've seen good growth in a number of our players. We've seen our veteran players obviously contribute; our young guys (and) our guys in between, and we've started to see the identity of our hockey club here in the last six weeks. Goaltenders are both playing very well. There are always areas we can get better and we will, but I like where we're at right now and the breaks coming at a good time. We could use a break. We've got a very heavy schedule on the back. We're one of the teams that has played the least amount of games, so we're going to need our rest to keep it up."

Earlier this week, we reviewed the rookie class for the first half of the season and the typical ebbs and flows. Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk, Sean Kuraly, Danton Heinen, Matt Grzelcyk and Anders Bjork have all made contributions -- some more than others. More importantly, the younger core is finally starting to mesh with the veteran group.

The Bruins' top line of Brad Marchand, Bergeron and David Pastrnak has been one of the most productive lines in the league at both ends of the ice. When David Krejci is healthy and in the lineup, it gives the Bruins a solid 1-2 punch down the middle. Similar to the '11 season when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, this season's bottom-six core has been solid and also producing offensively. As far as goaltending, once Tuukka Rask cleaned up his early-season struggles, he and backup Anton Khudobin have become a dependable tandem.

Overall, the Bruins are pleased with their performance. Given everything that's happened, they should be.

"We've been very good," Marchand said. "We really came together the last month and a half, and showed the type of team we can be. We had a lot of growing pains early on and some injuries, and we expected that to be the case -- not so much the injury bug, but with a lot of young guys and new guys on the team, you need time to come together, and we've really done that now. We've showed that we can compete every night and we can be a good team and we're consistent. We need to continue to do it after the break. We can't take it for granted what we've done and make sure we keep this thing going."

Rask has been outstanding for more than a month now and he's playing like he did when he won the Vezina in 2013-14. He currently has a career-best 13-game point streak with an 11-0-2 record during this span. The veteran netminder criticized his game after a 6-5 overtime loss to the Penguins on Sunday in Pittsburgh, which is a good sign because it shows he's playing with confidence and expects more from himself. He's also not afraid to criticize the team in front of him when needed. But overall, Rask has been pleased with the effort.

"We're trending up, and that's the biggest thing," Rask said. "We had a lot of injuries in the beginning and battled through that. We got guys back and started trending up, and the last month and a half has been very good hockey for us. Now, we're going to rest for a couple of days and then get back at it because the schedule's going to pick up and it's going to be very crazy after the break, so we have to be ready for that."

The Bruins will play five games in eight days once they return from the bye week, and that includes three games against the Canadiens. If the Bruins can remain healthy and productive, it's going to be an exciting second half for the playoff contenders.