But while the Bruins' recent success may have been expected back in the preseason, it wasn’t expected after they lost two of their best players, Marc Savard (broken left foot) and Milan Lucic (broken right index finger), for four to six weeks.
Instead of folding, however, the Bruins have answered the bell and are showing something they didn't show right out of the gate: resilience.
“It’s one of those things where we’ve always been underdogs every year, since I’ve been here anyway, and we've worked our way up,” head coach Claude Julien said after practice on Monday. “And now expectations are high, and you need to know how to handle those things. It took hard work — and it took a lot of luck at the same time last year — to have the season we had because we were relatively healthy.”
But the Bruins aren’t healthy right now, and while they obviously would prefer to have Savard and Lucic in the lineup, their injuries may have had an unexpected positive effect on their game and approach. The Bruins have simplified their game, and it’s paying dividends on the ice.
“By either trying to do more or not realizing how hard it is to stay on top, we got an early lesson,” Julien said. “All of a sudden, we understood we had to get back to our game and our identity and work from there. It was more of a mental thing, I think. When you simplify the game … it was basically bringing us back to the basics.”
As a result of the simplified approach, Boston's defense has improved as well, a change that can be attributed to the elevated work ethic.
“We obviously needed to try and play better defensively because that’s always helped our game," Julien said, "not only on the defensive side, but offensively as well. We turned pucks over quicker and we were back on the attack. Just understanding that concept was basically what we needed to do here — and whether it’s the changes that we made last week or whether it's the injuries that we had, or a combination of all, it just seemed to bring that attention back.”
The team will practice in Wilmington on Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for Thursday's game against the Devils at the TD Garden.
Also of note around the hockey world was the Carolina Hurricanes waiving former Bruin Stephane Yelle. Yelle signed a one-year deal with the Hurricanes over the summer and is on the books for a cap hit of $550,000 this season. This season, he has one assist in 10 games.
Yelle was a valuable asset to the Bruins last season with his faceoff skills and defensive game. Patrice Bergeron has done a good job at the faceoff dot this season, ranked 21st with a 55.8 percent success rate, but the Bruins could be interested in bringing Yelle back. He was a nice fit in Julien’s system and was a respected leader in the dressing room.
Teams have until Tuesday at noon to claim Yelle off waivers. After that, he is also available at half price via re-entry waivers.
