Less than two weeks ago, Jim Montgomery criticized his Bruins’ players, made them skate hard, and then sent another message when speaking to reporters after the session.
“We’re not ready for the playoffs yet,” stated the B’s coach.
Now? Well, they’re making progress.
The B’s could have made things easier for themselves if they had taken advantage of their power plays (0-for-4) but, in the end, they managed to achieve a good win over one of the hottest teams in the league, the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, at PNC Arena on Thursday.
One of the most important things in their recent wins in Florida, Nashville and now Carolina has been their ability to close out games without much drama, which they struggled with for most of the season.
Montgomery changed the bottom four defense, pairing Parker Wotherspoon (four blocks, plus-2) with Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk with Andrew Peeke (four hits, four blocks), and he may have found the right combination to go along with the top pairing of Charlie McAvoy (team-high 23:13, two blocks, two takeaways) and Hampus Lindholm (goal, two blocks, plus-2).
“The biggest development we’ve seen is how confident we are in third periods now,” Montgomery told NESN. “Nice to see in a 0-0 game (in Nashville) we go out and win a game 3-0 and did it looking like a confident team. Now we’re up 3-1 on another elite team, we push the lead to 4-1. I don’t think we gave up that much. I thought our D corps was excellent. I thought they played a great game tonight and I thought the forwards did their job.”
The B’s maintained their four-point lead in the Atlantic Division over the Florida Panthers — winners over Ottawa on Thursday — going into the teams’ showdown at the Garden on Saturday (3:30 p.m.)
Since Montgomery criticized them at that practice, the B’s have won four of five games and now three straight, all against playoff-eligible opponents. And Jeremy Swayman doesn’t look like he’s ready to concede the net to his good buddy Linus Ullmark for Game 1 of the playoffs just yet. He made 27 saves and put out a couple of fires before Carolina could get itself back in the game.
“I think the guys in front of me are doing a great job of boxing out, allowing me to see the first shot,” said Swayman, who has won his last three games. “I’m just trying to do my job of putting rebounds in … good areas for me, bad areas for them and just trying to do my job, make that first save.”
The Hurricanes came into the game on a winning streak, having gone 11-2-1 in their previous 14 while goalie Freddie Andersen was 7-0 since returning from a blood clot scare that had kept him out for most of the season.
But the Bruins took control of the game in the first period with three consecutive goals in the first 10:46 of the game. The first one was a significant one – and a long time coming.
Brad Marchand had been stuck on 399 career goals for a considerable 10 goal-less games but he finally got off the schneid at 2:12. Morgan Geekie hit him with a great blue line-to-blue line pass to send him for a breakaway. Andersen stopped the captain’s initial backhander but, as Marchand was falling, the rebound bounced off him and through Andersen for the milestone tally. As Marchand made his way to the bench for his long-awaited fist-bumps, he did the imaginary throw-the-monkey-off-his-back motion, the relief obvious on his face. It was his 28th goal of the season.
Brad Marchand commented that he is relieved to have finally scored his 400th goal and is glad that the team had a good game on the road trip following the milestone.
The Bruins increased their lead to 2-0 at 7:42 with a goal from David Pastrnak, who took advantage of defensive confusion from the Hurricanes and displayed great skill. Pastrnak held the puck in the left corner as the Hurricanes tried to defend, but he managed to take the puck to the net and score.
The B’s and Pastrnak didn't stop there. From the right wing, Pastrnak made a nice pass into the slot, allowing Danton Heinen to score his 16th goal of the season with a one-timer past Andersen.
Jack Drury of Carolina tried to spark his team by fighting John Beecher, but it didn't immediately motivate the Canes' offense.
The Bruins had a chance to take control of the game when Andrei Svechnikov received a double-minor for high-sticking Charlie McAvoy, but they didn't take full advantage of the opportunity and only managed two shots on goal during the power play.
The Bruins then gave the Canes a 5-on-3 power play by taking two penalties 10 seconds apart, and the Canes capitalized on it by scoring a goal to make it 3-1.
The Bruins had to defend against a too-many-men penalty late in the second period, but they successfully killed it off and went into the intermission with a 3-1 lead.
Despite the Canes scoring a goal to narrow the lead, the Bruins tightened their defense in the third period and eventually sealed the win with an empty net goal from Lindholm.
There’s a big game against the Panthers on Saturday, but after that, the Bruins only have four more regular season games before the playoffs.
Swayman expressed his excitement for the upcoming games and the fast-paced and enjoyable year the team has had.
