The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Sunday night, so the Bruins will head to Buffalo to play the division-rival Sabres in the first round of the playoffs.
Regardless of its postseason opponent, though, this Boston team appears a lot more ready than it seemed to be just over a month ago. The Bruins finished the regular season with a three-game win streak and are clearly playing with more confidence and poise.
"Winning helps, but at the same time we've been through some tough things and our guys have battled through it," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "And now they're kind of reaping a little bit of the reward of sticking with it. I think in the last little while, we've been building some confidence and that confidence makes that dressing room a lot more fun to go into. I think it goes hand in hand and hopefully we can stick with it."
Veteran forward Shawn Thornton has seen the same thing over the last month or so as he and his teammates seemed to unite after being called out by team management, their coach, each other, the media and fans in the aftermath of the Matt Cooke cheap shot that — with the exception of Thronton's pummeling of Cooke on March 7 in a 3-0 loss — went essentially unpunished both on and off the ice.
"I think for the most part since that Pittsburgh game, we haven't had as many 'passengers' per se, and a lot of guys have stepped up their game and come to work. There's no other way to explain it," Thornton pointed out.
"I think everyone just woke up and realized we need to work and have everyone ready to go. Maybe we didn't have that consistency all year and I guess guys just got frustrated and came to work."
A huge source of frustration has been the power play.
Some of the players on whom the Bruins depended for consistent scoring last season came up empty for large stretches of games. Two of those players were Marco Sturm and Michael Ryder, and on Sunday, they got off the schneid with Ryder scoring two goals — one a power-play tally — and Sturm lighting the lamp as well. Ryder had gone 12 games without a goal and Sturm 15. The power play hadn't been successful in eight.
"Yeah, that was nice to see," said veteran Mark Recchi, who had a well-deserved day off and watched from the press box. "The guys were really moving the puck around well and Sturmy and Ryder, we know they both have great shots and can score, so maybe this gets them going for the playoffs."
For a team that finished dead last in scoring, averaging 2.39 goals per game, having Ryder and Sturm both playing well would be huge for the Bruins.
"Those guys needed that confidence going into the playoffs," Julien said of Ryder and Sturm. "We've said all along if those guys get going, it's going to help our team a lot."
The struggles of Ryder, Sturm and the 2009-10 Bruins have been frustrating with such high hopes coming into the season, but a long playoff run will erase that memory before it even becomes one. The Bruins, as opposed to last season, will enter the playoffs as an underdog whether they play New Jersey or Buffalo, and as Sturm pointed out, that can serve as an advantage.
"As a favorite, you've got more pressure, probably," Sturm said. "You can see it every year that some big favorite is struggling because of the pressure. But as an underdog you just go out and have fun and try to upset the big guys."
That's what the Bruins did on Sunday and last Thursday against Buffalo. Now they will try to do it when it matters most.
