If the Boston Bruins are going to eventually scratch and claw their way into a postseason spot, it’s going to be on the strength of being able to win hockey games in different ways. But it’s also going to manifest itself with strong, gritty defense and errorless goaltending at the top of the list of team traits on most nights, and the B’s showed both of those by winning a war of wills between two clearly fatigued hockey teams in a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden.
It is not going to be a lasting piece of art hanging in a hockey museum as the Bruins were outshot 27-18 and went a dreadful 0-for-6 on a day when their power play did not come through for them at all.
But they also found a way to secure two points through the muck, and that is worthy of note for the Black and Gold.
The newly signed Jonathan Aspirot led the Bruins with four blocked shots, and Joonas Korpisalo earned Boston’s first shutout of the season with 27 saves, including 10 apiece in each of the first two periods. While the polar opposite of Saturday’s 10-goal offensive barrage that dazzled fans, Sunday’s win was exactly the kind of grinding 200-foot effort that Marco Sturm had asked his team to aim for when they were slumping a few weeks ago.
“A game like today is not easy,” said Sturm. “I think we saw two tired teams out there and we needed a good goalie. And that’s what we had today.”
The Bruins being able to cobble together that kind of a defensive effort without injured Hampus Lindholm was impressive and has now pushed Boston back into a tie for the wild card spots with the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. It goes to show just how quickly fortunes and outlooks can change in the Eastern Conference this season when a team cobbles together even a modest winning streak during a grueling regular season schedule compacted by the Winter Olympics.
What’s been really noticeable over the last stretch has been the lack of penalties called on the Black and Gold in an area they truly needed to improve. They failed on six power play chances against Pittsburgh on Sunday, but they only handed one power play to Pittsburgh in an impressive show of discipline on a day they didn’t have their great skating legs.
“I think we’ve definitely been better at that the last few games,” said Charlie McAvoy of the NHL’s most penalized team, starting to stay out of the box. “Virtually half the team will end up stale on the bench if we take all of these penalties. I mean, sometimes David Pastrnak can get stuck on the bench for half of a period because we’re taking penalties, and that’s never good to not be playing your best players.
“It’s good habits, it’s stick positioning and then there’s the element of hockey. Stuff happens in the game. Nobody is out there trying to take penalties, but when it’s been as consistent as it’s been, it’s on us with our habits. You’re just alert and not slipping up mentally and being sharp to not take penalties. We know when we’re idiots and when we do dumb stuff that can make us take penalties.”
That’s a different kind of “idiots” entirely than the band of Red Sox idiots that won the World Series back in 2004.
The really good news is that