Boston Bruins' DNA producing winning culture

Goalie Tuukka Rask made a telling comment after the team’s recent victory against the Ottawa Senators before the All-Star break, saying the Bruins are playing with a willingness to win, which is one reason why Boston is in the midst of an 18-game point streak with a 14-0-4 record.

The Bruins have allowed the first goal of the game in seven consecutive games and each time they’ve found a way to fight back to earn points. It’s the team’s ability to make adjustments during the course of a game that has led to this success, which is a cornerstone of most Stanley Cup winning teams.

When a team is winning, coaches and players almost expect that their success will reverse during some point of an 82-game season. The gifted teams find a way to sustain its success even when it hits a setback.

The Bruins have the ability to keep this going and coach Bruce Cassidy agrees.



More impressive than this current point streak is the fact that Boston is 23-3-4 in its last 30 games.

“It’s not just an extended two, or three weeks where one or two players carry us. I thought it dipped, at times, but we’ve found a way to get points,” Cassidy said.

Recent games against the Dallas Stars and the New Jersey Devils are perfect examples. On Jan. 15, the Bruins trailed 2-0 in the second period, but eventually earned a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Stars. On Jan. 23, the Bruins rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the second period en route to a 3-2 win over the Devils.

“We’ve been able to find our game during the course of the game, whether that’s adjustments, or the players recognize, ‘Hey, we’re got to be better if we want to get points out of this game.’ We’re able to find that and get contributions from everyone,” Cassidy said. “That’s been a real nice quality of this team, knowing that they’re never out of a game and they feel that way.

“If it goes south on us, we’ll get tested, but I don’t see any reason why it should, or would, but I’m an optimist.”

No one is more critical of the team than captain Zdeno Chara. Even when things are going well, he’ll find areas where the team can be better, which is a strong trait of a solid leader. He’s been happy with the way the Bruins have been able to maintain this streak as it enters the unofficial start of the second half of the season when Boston hosts the Anaheim Ducks at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at TD Garden.

“Resiliency,” Chara said. “The hunger to always compete and always battle for that extra point, or two points. You can sense that the team isn’t satisfied by just being in the game and hanging in there. We want to win. We want to win every game and, of course, we’re trying to play our best every game. (We) have the hunger to play every game to the best standards and that’s been a real positive for this team this season.”

His description sounds a lot like the 2016 Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins had a young core of rookies that eventually meshed well with a veteran group of superstars that had already won a Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh had a solid defensive core and a strong goaltending tandem.

This season’s version of the Bruins is similar. Veteran forward David Backes doesn’t necessarily agree that the team is making in-game adjustments.

“It’s more of getting to our game more frequently, more consistently,” he said. “You’ve seen where we’ve given up the first goal seven (games) in a row, so we haven’t started the way we’ve wanted to. Some of it’s puck luck where (opposition) has thrown it off a skate and it’s gone in our net, but our goal is play our game for as much of the 60 minutes as possible and we’re going to like the outcome more often than not. We’ve been able to do that and string a few together.”

Backes is quick to point out that hockey is a game of mistakes and the team that can limit those mistakes more often will have a better chance of winning. The Bruins have been on the receiving end of plenty of puck luck during this streak, but not throwing in the towel has been a solid trait of this team.

“Are we going to play a perfect 60 minutes? Probably not ever, but if we can play 50-55 really good minutes, and those other five minutes we snap out of it pretty quick when the other team makes a push,” Backes said. “We’re going to come out on the right side of a lot of these games. That’s been our focus and the results have taken care of themselves and that’s got to continue to be our focus when this streak ends. Hopefully that’s not for awhile, and if it is, it’s a one-game instance, then we continue the process and put our game out there the next night.”

Rask has always been the type of goalie to speak his mind about the team in front of him. Earlier this season, he was frustrated with both his own performance and the team’s. Now, for him to say the Bruins are the type of team to bring that willingness to win every game, even when it’s fighting from behind-- those are the teams that win and become perennial contenders.