The Bruins felt like it was all coming together for them – even after getting shut out on home ice by the Vancouver Canucks -- and they thoroughly needed for exactly that to happen.
And lo and behold it did happen on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving in a galvanizing moment that could end up being a bit of a turning point in their season as the Bruins matched a season-high scoring six goals in a 6-3 breakthrough win over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
Charlie McAvoy talked about “the dam breaking” after they were shut out by the Canucks just 24 hours prior and it most definitely happened with three unanswered goals in the third period, including a two-goal outburst from Pavel Zacha that won them the game and put the B’s in the driver’s position for the rest of the period.
Wednesday night’s effort wasn’t the same kind of methodical lockdown defensive effort as the first three games under new head coach Joe Sacco, but it did feature an impressively resilient effort after some self-included D-zone mistakes allowed the Islanders back into the game.
“We showed signs last night [in a shutout loss to the Canucks] that we had opportunities,” said Sacco. “Tonight, what’s the difference? We just put the puck in the back of the net. I thought, actually, last night we played a tighter game defensively. We didn’t give up as much as we did tonight [against the Islanders], but you’re going to have these games, especially when you are in a back-to-back situation.
“You have two teams that are desperate for points. It certainly wasn’t our cleanest game, but that’s hockey. Sometimes you find ways to win when you are not at your best, and that’s a good sign for our group."
A Parker Wotherspoon backhanded turnover led to one B’s goal allowed and a critical mental gaffe from the pairing of Nikita Zadorov and McAvoy led to a big Islanders goal in the closing seconds of the second period to tie things up.
For a team in the Bruins that has experienced plenty of demoralizing third period struggles already this season, it didn’t seem to be a good development at all.
Instead, the Black and Gold dusted themselves off and scored all three goals in the third period while locking in their slot within the Eastern Conference playoff structure at the Thanksgiving holiday, a traditional milestone that portends very good chances of the Bruins being in the postseason picture at the end of the year. For a team that hacked and coughed their way through the first 20 games of the regular season and saw their head coach get fired, it’s an achievement that the B’s find themselves in this position after showing plenty of resiliency on the second night of a back-to-back to get there.
“Especially with the back-to-back travel and coming in here -- it’s not an easy place to play -- getting some momentum, getting our feet under us [was important],” said Brad Marchand, who set the tone early with an energetic first period where he scored a pair of goals. “Obviously, they got one shortly after, but we held the fort down and we were able to come out with a win. So, that was important for us.”
There is little question the Thanksgiving turkey is going to taste extra good on Thursday given how the Bruins have pulled themselves out of the fire over the last couple of weeks. They have dialed down the number of penalties taken, they have tightened things up defensively in a major way, the compete level has raised significantly and the final piece – putting up some more goals offensively – finally showed up on Wednesday night after they had been doing the right things for the last four plus games.
That is not an insignificant development for a Bruins team that entered that game last in the NHL in goal scoring and on the power play in a frustrating start to the season.
Marchand potted a pair early and then Zacha stepped up for the two goals in the third period, including one play where David Pastrnak won a battle below the goal line and fed Zacha in some of the hungriest hockey No. 88 has played to date this season. The game-winning goal for Zacha was his 10th since joining the Black and Gold, with only Pastrnak (20) and Marchand (13) totalling more game-winners over that time period.
That, if nothing else, was a promising sign of where things are headed for the Black and Gold.
“I think the mindset is just keep sticking with the process that we have and keep creating,” said Zacha. “I think if we have a lot of shots ... we had a little bit more net-front presence today, I think, and that's when the puck went in, and we just have to keep doing that more.”
The question now is how sustainable it’s going to end up being and just how much better this Bruins group is than they showed in a ragged opening couple of months. Players like Zacha, Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm seem to really just be getting going, and others like Marchand, Pastrnak and McAvoy are hitting their level a lot more consistently over the last few weeks as well.
The Bruins are 11-10-3 overall, 3-1-0 since Sacco took over as head coach and now they are back in one of the top three playoff spots in the Atlantic Division after hovering over a wild card bubble spot for most of the last month. There is plenty for the Black and Gold to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving holiday after they pulled themselves up from the abyss that forced a coaching change, and thankfully that seems to have shaken this hockey team out of an extended malaise that colored the start to this season.