If there is a time when the Boston Bruins are going to separate from the rest of the Eastern Conference pack, the here and now is that window for the Black and Gold.
The B’s pieced together their fourth win in a row by drubbing the rival Montreal Canadiens in a 9-4 game while celebrating the “New Blood, New Beginnings” era in Black and Gold history with 1980s and 1990s legends like Randy Burridge, Jay Miller and Reggie Lemelin joining Cam Neely and Ray Bourque among others at the Garden.
“Nights like this just don't happen very often," said Brad Marchand. "It's great that happens in that fashion on a night recognizing past players and against the big rivalry team for us. It was a fun night."
With the win, the streaking B’s have opened up a seven-point lead over the Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division, a seven-point lead in the East over the Panthers and New York Rangers and sit neck-and-neck with the Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets for the top record overall in the league.
That should make Monday night’s showdown between the Bruins and Jets even more entertaining, but that’s a story for another day.
In the hockey here and now, the Bruins are coalescing into a deep, complete team averaging over four goals per game since the holiday break and finding a little something extra in recent games by reconfiguring their third and fourth lines while slotting Charlie Coyle between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak into a new look “Perfection Line” sequel.
On top of that, the Bruins are now healthy again too with Brandon Carlo, Matt Poitras and Derek Forbort all returning to play this weekend while allowing youngsters like Mason Lohrei and Johnny Beecher to go work out their respective kinks in Providence.
Sixteen different players tallied a point for the Black and Gold in a lopsided final score that might end up being a season-high outlier thanks to the nine-goal output, but what’s becoming a consistently recurring theme for the Black and Gold is the offensive connectivity and decisive third periods where they are finishing off their opponents rather than simply hanging on.
The white-knuckle third periods where they were madly clinging to one-goal leads simply haven’t been happening as much lately.
“I think it talks about the evolution of our team actually growing offensively,” Jim Montgomery said. “I don’t think we ever envisioned having a night like this. Over the course of 82 games, there’s some outliers, but I thought that we’ve been seeing this coming here for four games.”
Clearly there were some superstar moments sprinkled in for the Bruins on Saturday night, with David Pastrnak scoring and securing his seventh 30-goal season in his NHL career. Only Phil Esposito and Rick Middleton have had more in Bruins franchise history after No. 88 kicked off the third period scoring outburst by following up the rebound of his one-man rush to the Montreal net.
Marchand also notched his 11th consecutive 20 goal season, which passes Johnny Bucyk and Patrice Bergeron for the most all-time in Bruins franchise history.
Those two milestone scores were amidst a Bruins onslaught where they poured on four unanswered lamplighters in the third, and spread out the offense between Pastrnak, Marchand, Pavel Zacha and Danton Heinen as different forwards from different lines getting on the board.
The final Heinen power play score capped off the first career hat trick for a hard-working player that arrived at training camp on a non-contract tryout and embodies the team-wide collaborative method Boston is using to win games this season.
HEINO HAD A NIGHT.#EasyToCelebrate | @budlight pic.twitter.com/gtue8M8ao2
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 21, 2024
“We knew that was how we were going to win this year,” Marchand said. “Obviously ‘Pasta’s’ an exception, he produces every night, but we win by committee here, and that’s how you need to win in the playoffs.”
The biggest reason the Bruins are ready to jump out ahead of everybody else in the Eastern Conference, and perhaps the NHL at large, though?
Boston is smack dab in the middle of a 14-game stretch from mid-January to mid-February where they will play 12 games on home ice at TD Garden, with only a two-game road stretch in Ottawa and Philadelphia sprinkled in over an entire month of the regular season. As much as they endured tough stretches in November and December where the road rigors clearly wore them down, they now enter a long stretch of hockey games where they can rest, recharge and perhaps even fatten up their points total with games against lightweights like Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary among some other admittedly tough opponents coming to town, like the previously mentioned Winnipeg.
It's all there right in front of a Boston team that’s surprised at every turn and even held off a red-hot Florida Panthers team earlier this month when they went on a nine-game heater that’s now since ended.
The B’s will now to go out and seize it obviously, but we may look back at this upcoming stretch of hockey as when Boston truly pulled away from everybody else across the league.
ONE TIMERS
1. Interesting comments from Montgomery when asked earlier this week about the lower minute totals for his fourth line and whether it was a concern that it was forcing players like Pastrnak and Marchand to log too many minutes during these dog days in the middle of the season. This is perhaps something to keep in mind as to why Johnny Beecher was sent down to Providence this week after being in Boston all season. “Now we know players’ thresholds. When they hit a certain benchmark, their play drops off, and we kind of know that about some players. Three [games] in four, Marchand, Coyle and Zacha come to mind where we don’t want them to exceed 20 minutes because that’s not good,” said Montgomery. “Pasta is a little different because he’s consistently a winger and there isn’t as many hard minutes. You have other players like [Trent] Frederic that’s made a nice jump in minutes and he’s handled it really well. Now we can make him a 15 minutes player, and there are other players that run out of gas. We have players that run out of gas at 11 minutes and I know that, and that’s how we have to handle them on the bench to make sure they don’t have a significant drop-off. [Jesper] Boqvist and [Heinen seem to be players that handle it really well whether they are playing 11 minutes or 15 [minutes]. That’s a luxury. [Morgan] Geekie is the same way. He can handle bigger minutes or a more limited role. You have to have the guys that can handle the big minutes and there are other players where you want to watch it…to avoid injuries is what it comes down to. Other players just run out of gas, and they have to build up their reserves and their cardio and their willingness to push through those limitations that we may have placed on them because we see the drop-off in play when they get out there.”
Somewhere in there may be at least part of the answer as to why Boqvist is still in Boston and Beecher has been sent down to the AHL for a stint.
2. Best wishes to former Bruins goaltender Andy Moog, who was in the thoughts of so many of his teammates and friends last night as they traveled to TD Garden to celebrate the “New Blood” era of the Boston Bruins during the Centennial season. The goaltender is undergoing treatment for cancer and remained behind at his home in Dallas but had been in contact with former teammates like Reggie Lemelin ahead of Saturday night’s game. “The Bruins family has been so supportive, I’ve had so much contact with so many people. It’s been awesome,” said the 63-year-old Moog to BostonBruins.com. “I’ll tell you right now, I think the key to a battle of this nature, any sort of tough thing you have to deal with, is all this positivity that I’m receiving. I think that’s the biggest reason why I’m putting on a good battle right now. I’m fighting hard and I think it’s probably a credit to my Bruins family for all the positive support I’ve been getting.”
🎥Ahead of another Era Night, Andy Moog discusses his cancer battle and recalls his time with the B's: "I think that's the biggest reason why I'm putting on a good battle right now...probably a credit to my Bruins family for all the positive support."#NHLBruins | @WarriorHockey pic.twitter.com/tbEpqwfh1l
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 20, 2024
3. The Bruins are 16-3-1 this season when Jake DeBrusk registers a point and 8-2-1 when he scores a goal. Let that sink in discussions turn to trading him midseason with the understanding that the B’s may not be able to afford him when it comes to unrestricted free agency following this season.
4. Patrick Roy is back in the NHL as the new head coach of the New York Islanders after Lane Lambert was fired following a season where the Isles have been a bit underachieving in a Metro Division that’s kind of underachieved as well. Let’s be clear, the NHL is a better, more entertaining place with the fiery Roy as a coach capable of moments like this during the season. Can’t wait.
5. I encourage everybody to be a part of women's hockey history when the 2024 Beanpot Championship is held for the first time at TD Garden on Jan. 23. Should be a heck of a game between BU & NU after BC/Harvard consolation game. I'm glad my hockey player daughter gets a chance to attend big time hockey events like these at world class venues.