The playoff-style tune-ups continue for the Boston Bruins.
On Saturday night, it was a 6-4 victory at PPG Paints Arena over a hungry Pittsburgh Penguins team that was fighting for their playoff lives against the Black and Gold. It was a spirited affair with star Penguins players like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby playing with desperation and snarl, whether it was Malkin getting into it with Andrew Peeke at the end of a period or Crosby chastising David Pastrnak for taking a slapshot at the Penguins goaltender at the end of regulation.
Sidney Crosby wasn't too pleased with David Pastrňák taking a slap shot on his goalie at the buzzer 👀 pic.twitter.com/62PfEWvsy0
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 14, 2024
The strong emotions were understandable from the Pittsburgh side as that might have been the loss that ultimately puts the Penguins' playoff hopes out of reach.
It was the sixth win in the last eight games for the Bruins against playoff-level competition and continues what’s been a consistent forward trajectory toward the postseason with intense competition against quality opponents. This time around there were six different Boston scorers with Jake DeBrusk snapping an eight-game goalless streak, Pavel Zacha netting his 20th goal of the season for the second straight year and both Morgan Geekie and Danton Heinen scoring their 17th goals of the season.
Combine that with a strong 28-save effort from Linus Ullmark that included 13 stops in the first period when the Bruins were finding their footing, and it was an impressive effort from a Bruins team building upward toward next week’s playoffs.
“We're fighting for first, but we're more worried about getting our game ready for the playoffs,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. “We're worried about Game 1 in the playoffs. Whether we're first or second, it would be nice to be first, but that's not as paramount as our game being ready.”
With that in mind, there were some performances with playoff ramifications on Saturday as well. Patrick Maroon made his B’s debut and looked healthy, big and strong in 13 plus minutes while skating with Jakub Lauko and Jesper Boqvist in a fourth-line role, and Kevin Shattenkirk scored a nifty goal and continues to look like a defenseman that help Boston offensively from the back end.
The goal ended a 28-game goal-scoring drought for Shattenkirk as he’s also finishing up strongly in his first season in Boston.
“I thought the atmosphere [in Pittsburgh] was great tonight,” said Shattenkirk. “So it kind of creates that playoff atmosphere for us, juices you up a little bit, rather than playing somewhere that may be a little bit quieter and might be harder to get into the game.”
The Bruins still haven’t clinched the Atlantic Division as Florida kept pace with them on Saturday, but the B’s have a game in hand on the Panthers with two games remaining in the B’s regular season. The real question is whether they truly want to finish ahead of Florida as clinching the Atlantic Division means a first-round playoff date with the wild card Tampa Bay Lightning as a very difficult first round draw.
Then again, falling to second place in the Atlantic would mean a first-round date against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Auston Matthews as he’s on the verge of hitting the 70-goal mark with the Leafs this season.
Either scenario leaves the Bruins with a challenging first round playoff opponent, but that’s entirely okay for a Boston hockey club that’s been steeling themselves with top opponents down the stretch just as they did on Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
ONE-TIMERS
1. One encouraging area of growth for Pavel Zacha, aside from the offensive hot streak over the last few months, has been the uptick in his faceoff performance. Zacha is up to 54.8 percent of his faceoffs won this season, and both Zacha and Coyle are well over 50 percent as the only two B’s players that have taken over 1,000 draws this season. That’s going to be incredibly important in the postseason with a center group of Jesper Boqvist, Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic that have struggled taking draws and only Johnny Beecher as another dependable faceoff guy. “I think it’s very important especially if you want to be out there for the start of power plays, and for power plays to be on my side,” said Zacha. “Winning those faceoffs is important, and even on the penalty kill and in those 5-on-6 situations that you are put in…to have the trust to perform in the circle [is important]. That’s something I wanted to get better at, and I pride myself on having a good faceoff percentage.”
2. Kind of interesting to see Derek Forbort out skating with the rest of the Boston Bruins at Friday’s practice while wearing a maroon no-contact jersey. Montgomery indicated that Forbort was ramping up to see if he could be a possibility in the playoffs after enduring through a chronic injury this season that may see him facing surgery in the summertime. Perhaps he could be an option for the B’s if injuries open up an opportunity during their playoff run, but it’s hard to see him being a long-term solution given that he’s had to shut things down multiple times during the regular season. Still, full credit for toughing it out and being there if the B’s need him at some point.
3. Pat Maroon made his Bruins debut on Saturday night and looked solid after having not played for a couple months following back surgery. Maroon finished with a shot on net, three shot attempts and four registered hits in 13:17 of ice time. He joked on Friday that his timing was probably going to be “horse [expletive]” after such a long layoff, but Maroon actually seemed to pretty quickly assimilate into the speed of two teams playing at playoff-level intensity. That’s a very good sign for the Big Rig’s readiness for playoff action just about a week from now. “I thought he was very effective for us,” said Montgomery. “Managed the game really well. You can see why he’s won a lot. Because of the way he manages the game. Changes at the right time. Putting pucks to good areas. I thought him, Boqvist and Lauko together were good.”
4. Boy, something just feels off with Boston College sniper Cutter Gauthier, doesn’t it? He forced his way out of the Flyers organization during the season in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks that’s going to make him a target of fan’s ire whenever he visits Philly for the rest of his career. And then he gives a pregame interview prior to Saturday’s national championship game against Denver where he talks about how the opposing team’s players will be crying after the game is over. Then he gets shut out along with the rest of the Eagles in a 2-0 loss to Denver in the NCAA title game. Boy, that’s a bad look and it feels like the talented Gauthier still has some lessons to learn. Maybe he learned one of them on Saturday.
Tough look for Cutter Gauthier giving this interview before going out and getting shut out in the championship game pic.twitter.com/riiKcMR3iC
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) April 14, 2024
5. University of Denver goalie Matt Davis deserves all kinds of credit for Denver taking home their fifth NCAA championship since 2000, and their NCAA-best 10th championship title overall. The undrafted netminder stopped 138-of-141 shots in the tournament and had a highway robbery save in the championship game as part of his shutout effort against a high-powered Boston College team that had been blowing teams out along the way. This right here is how you win a championship.
Denver Goalie Matt Davis stopped 138 of 141 shots in wins over @UMassHockey @CornellMHockey @TerrierHockey and @BC_MHockey as he went 4-0 in the @NCAAIceHockey Tourney!
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) April 14, 2024
And he’s an undrafted free agent! Some @NHL team will be happy soon! @wbz
pic.twitter.com/iKWx1cCaWR
