However, Tuesday night was a different story. Tuesday night's win against the New Jersey Devils — the Martin Brodeur– and Ilya Kovalchuk-equipped Devils, who have 13 straight playoff appearances under their belt — was an example of the Bruins displaying an incredible amount of discipline, forechecking, netminding and, above all, patience.
"We're playing for our lives right now,'' said head coach Claude Julien, "and tonight we played desperate hockey. We competed well, and I thought we deserved to win. We were the better team.''
The Bruins demonstrated they can string together a 60-minute winning effort against one of the elite teams in the league. Actually, this time it took 64 minutes and 41 seconds for Boston, but the Bruins managed to pull out another crucial two points on a night when the Atlanta Thrashers and New York Rangers did their part as well. Both teams trail the Bruins by an uncomfortably slim margin of points, and both teams notched victories on Tuesday night in their respective games.
Thankfully, for Bruins fans, the Black and Gold did their part as well.
Tuukka Rask backstopped his team to his second shutout in a week — and fifth of the season — as he stopped all 21 shots he faced. Patrice Bergeron was the best player on the ice for Boston throughout the entire game, and was rewarded with just over 18.3 seconds to go in overtime with his 18th goal of the year.
"It was huge for us to have a bounce, finall," Bergeron said. "We worked hard for 65 minutes. We worked hard all night."
Defenseman Mark Stuart fired the shot on net that eventually bounced onto the stick of Bergeron, setting up the winning goal.
"That's a huge win for us," Stuart said. "I thought we played hard the whole game. We definitely would have liked to put a few more in the net, obviously, but we carried off the game plan to get in on the forecheck, get pucks and create chances.''
The collective sigh of relief on the bench, the jubilant reaction from Julien and the cheers that resonated throughout New England should prove to be a turning point for this team with only six games remaining.
If the Bruins can carry the momentum from Tuesday night's win into the TD Garden on Thursday, a place where they own a dismal 2-4-1 record in March, and beat the Florida Panthers, then they will be that much closer to the playoff berth.
But it's going to take a full team effort, the same type that was displayed against New Jersey. It's going to take another outstanding goaltending performance, some more goals scored and a whole lot more patience.
"It's just going to be like this the rest of the way,'' said Stuart. "No matter who we play, we just have to concentrate on the two points, because we know we aren't going to get any help."
The pressure is on, points are at a premium, and the playoffs are just around the corner. It's now time for the Bruins to take advantage of the opportunity at hand and stop missing them like we witnessed on Monday night against Buffalo.
Now more than ever, patience is a virtue.
