Ryan: Tampa Bay is still the team to beat, but this B’s team is poised to be bracket busters this spring

Of all the players in the Bruins’ locker room — leave it to a guy like Brad Marchand to defer from fanning the flames following Boston’s 4-1 trouncing against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.

The final stat sheet spoke for itself following Thursday’s anticipated matchup at TD Garden. A three-goal win very well could have been even more decisive had it not been for the efforts of Louis Domingue in net, with Boston holding a 41-21 edge in shots on goal, 40-22 advantage in scoring chances — while a stout defensive effort limited a Tampa Bay club averaging 3.80 goals per game to just five high-danger scoring chances generated over 60 minutes of game action.

The win extended Boston’s point streak to 15 straight games — with the club closing out a calendar month without a regulation loss for just the ninth time in franchise history — while also snapping Tampa Bay’s 10-game winning streak. It was also Boston’s eighth win in nine games without David Pastrnak, with the B’s now averaging 3.75 goals per game without their top goal scorer.

And yet, as Marchand noted, it’s still important to temper expectations a bit, and not rev up the Duck Boats quite yet.

After all, Tampa Bay was clearly gassed in Thursday’s matchup, with the game standing as the second leg of a back-to-back slate for the club, and its third game in four nights — while the Bolts’ regular man in net (and Vezina favorite) in Andrei Vasilevskiy was not called upon.

With another two regular-season meetings with Tampa still on the docket and 16 more games still remaining before the campaign for Lord Stanley’s Cup can truly begin, Marchand opted to keep things focused on the next task at hand — a matchup on Saturday against the cellar-dwelling Devils.

“Well, it’s just another game,” Marchand said. “Honestly, they’re the top team in the league and everybody wants to measure themselves against that team, but at the end of the day, it’s regular season and again the schedules are a little different for each team, so you can catch teams on an off night.

“It’s a big test for the group, and you know, we had a good game, but at the end of the day it’s two points, so we’ll feel good about it tonight and worry about the next one tomorrow.”

It’s important to take some of Marchand’s words at face value — given that Boston will likely face an entirely different beast if it faces off against Tampa in the postseason.

But it’s hard to not be encouraged by what Boston showcased against the top team in the NHL by a wide margin — nor is it out of the question to think that this Bruins club is far better equipped to answer the call and hang in the ring against the Bolts come May.



Sure, Tampa might have been on its heels given its recent workload, but this still a wagon of a team that’s on pace to be just the third club in NHL history to post 130 points in a season. Entering Thursday night, the Bolts have managed to post an impressive mark of 6-2-0 on the second leg of back-to-back matchups.

Against the top-ranked penalty kill in the league, Boston’s second-ranked power play broke through — cashing in on one of its three bids off of Jake Debrusk’s seventh goal in his last eight games — while Tampa’s top unit on the man advantage (29.3 percent success rate) landed few punches over 3:24 of 5v4 TOI, with Boston’s penalty kill limiting the Lightning to just three attempts and zero shots on goal during that stretch.

“We were probably a little overwhelmed from them,” Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper said. “Things started alright, and then, you know, just the second half of the first period, we just weren’t skating, they were a step ahead of us, and you just spend so much time in that D-zone, now you’re just chipping pucks out, they’re coming right back at you … The fact of the matter is the team that played the best won the game tonight, and they deserved it.”

The flaws in this Bruins club have been well-documented this season — whether it be secondary scoring, 5v5 production or shorthanded miscues — but the signs are there that Boston is clearing some of the warts in its game, especially with the additions of Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson.

That duo might have only generated a single secondary assist in five combined games with the B’s, but Boston’s third line — anchored by Coyle — is generating much more pop, with the East Weymouth native and David Backes generating a plus-8 shot differential and five high-danger scoring chances in just over 29 minutes of 5v5 play together.

Prior to Coyle’s arrival, Boston’s third line only managed to generate one high-danger scoring bid in its previous four games.

It was quite ironic that Johansson and his linemates in David Krejci and DeBrusk were one of the few groups that didn’t generate a goal on Thursday, because they spent most of the night causing havoc in the Bolts’ zone — compiling 21 shot attempts and 12 shots on goal in just 12:25 of 5v5 TOI.

During that same stretch, the Krejci line’s primary matchup in Steven Stamkos, J.T. Miller and Ondrej Palat — a top line for Tampa that has generated a combined 140 points this season — only landed three shots on goal.

“I do believe we wanted to put our best foot forward,” Cassidy said of his team’s effort postgame. “It’s the team that knocked us out last year, so I wouldn’t say a message, but we do want to let them know that we’re a good hockey club as well, and we’ve changed a little since the last time we’ve seen them.”

Sure enough, new additions in Coyle and Johansson, a revitalized Krejci, a potent top line and a buzzing “fishbowl” group that once again shut down a deadly scorer in Nikita Kucherov have given the Bruins plenty of reasons to be excited about another postseason run.

But what might be the biggest difference between this Bruins team and the one bounced out by Tampa Bay in five games last spring? The strides made by Boston’s young core — whether it be a red-hot DeBrusk (on pace for 28 goals) or a finally healthy Charlie McAvoy, who is looking more and more like a future franchise defenseman.

“I think (Matt Grzelcyk), Charlie have a little more experience under their belt, so does Jake, (Danton) Heinen,” Cassidy said. “You know after that our top guys are our top guys. … A lot of returning guys. Some of our guys are a little more battle tested. That’s probably the biggest difference. They’ve seen now what it’s like to play…I don’t know how to describe it – maybe “man’s hockey” in April and May? Where it just gets elevated and you have to be heavier, stronger on pucks, whatever description you want to use. They probably have a much better feel for that now.”

Great play from McAvoy is starting to become the norm for the 21-year-old blueliner, with Boston holding an absurd 14-0 edge in attempts in over six minutes of play with McAvoy out against Tampa in the opening period, while a healthy, 6-foot-5 Brandon Carlo (21:19 TOI Thursday) should make a major difference against a Lightning club with just two players 6-feet or taller in its skilled top-six grouping.

Add in an experienced Grzelcyk (who is an absolute wizard when it comes to breaking the puck out of the D zone) and DeBrusk — who has now posted an absurd plus-60 shot differential a 56.00 Corsi-For Percentage in 565 minutes of 5v5 play with Krejci this season — and the natural progression from Boston’s young guns already put the Bruins in a better position to make things difficult for the Lightning in a potential postseason matchup.



Are the Bruins suddenly favorites in a best-of-seven series against Tampa? Nope. But given what they’ve shown over the past month, the B’s at least have a puncher’s chance against the Bolts. And in the unpredictable fracas that is postseason hockey, sometimes that’s all you need.

“If teams are (using us as a measuring stick), it’s definitely a compliment because for us we feel Tampa – listen, they were better than us last year,” Cassidy said. “They’re the top team in the league, so we feel if they’re not – listen, internally, we feel real good about ourselves, but the big picture they can make a very valid argument they’re the best team in the National Hockey League, so usually you want to measure yourself against the best.

“So, if teams are starting to use us, it’s a compliment to our group that we’re playing the right way and teams are trying to emulate the way you play then that’s a positive. I was asked this morning about the measuring stick. Like I said, I think it’s hard when they travel in here, we have a little to play for, but you still want to use some of the game to see where you’re at, at least, so I thought our guys responded real well.”