After struggling on home ice for much of the last two seasons, it was an encouraging sign to see the Bruins win three of the four games, and even the 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday featured a solid performance.
The Bruins got their offense going in a big way with 22 goals in the four games, while allowing just eight as Tim Thomas continued his spectacular season by bookending the homestand with a 6-0 shutout of Ottawa and Monday's whitewash of the Hurricanes.
Boston now heads on the road for three of their next four games, including a trip out West to Colorado and Los Angeles, but before the Bruins leave, here are a half dozen items from the past week that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks in the latest installment of the Bruins Shootout.
1. For much of the season, the Bruins have struggled to generate much offense from their defense. That has changed of late, with rookie Steven Kampfer helping to spark the change. Kampfer scored his fourth goal in just his 17th game against the Flyers on Thursday. At the time, that equaled the combined total of goals for the rest of the club's defensemen outside of Zdeno Chara. But that's quickly changing, as Dennis Seidenberg followed with a goal and an assist against Pittsburgh on Saturday and Mark Stuart scored his first of the year in his first game back from a broken hand Monday against Carolina. In all, five of Boston's six defensemen collected points against the Hurricanes, with Chara celebrating his first career hat trick and Adam McQuaid enjoying his first multiple-point game with two assists.
"This is what we've been preaching all year, we've just been getting better at it," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "That's basically it. We've always encouraged our D's to go up the ice. One thing we have worked on is probably our neutral-zone regroups and attacking with some speed. So again, in doing that and in encouraging our D's to move the puck whenever the ice is available, it's kind of going hand-in-hand and giving us a better attack."
2. While the defense's performance has largely been a positive for the Bruins of late, there could be some cause for concern with Johnny Boychuk's lack of production. Boychuk came up as an offensive defenseman, scoring 20 goals in his final season in the AHL with Providence in 2008-09, and while he's made great strides to round out his game and contribute in all areas the past two years, his offense has been largely absent this season. He remains without a goal on the year and while the rest of the defense has been piling up points of late, Boychuk has gone eight games without a point. With youngsters Kampfer and McQuaid playing so well, Julien will have a tough decision to make on who to sit when Andrew Ference is ready to return. Boychuk's spot in the lineup shouldn't be in jeopardy yet, but just one year removed from being a healthy scratch 24 times, he can't afford to slump too much longer.
3. Despite his career-high seven goals and a mere three assists heading into Monday's clash with Carolina, Bruins tough guy Shawn Thornton fancies himself as a "disher" rather than a sniper. He finally did something to back his claims against the Canes though, as he ran up on an outlet pass from Blake Wheeler along the right boards, put on the brakes and sent a backhand saucer pass in front to Greg Campbell, who tipped it in despite having his back to the net and falling while being hit. "Hell of a finish," Thornton said. "I saw him going to the net and I just tried to saucer it over there.
"You know I’m very unselfish," added Thornton in his usual deadpan delivery. "The linesman was surprised. I was like, 'You must not watch practice, I guess. I do it all the time.' He didn't think I had that in the bag. He thought that club was left at the golf store."
4. While Thornton was busy padding his scoring stats, Daniel Paille was threatening to take Thornton's role as the team's tough guy. Paille had his first NHL fight last Tuesday, and he didn't bother working his way up the ranks, taking on Ottawa heavyweight Matt Carkner late in Boston's 6-0 win. Of course, the bout wasn't exactly Paille's idea.
"I didn't really hit him, I just kind of nudged him," Paille said. "But I guess I got him angry. For some reason he kept pushing and shoving me, then all of the sudden he held on to me and he wasn't letting go. The next thing I know he dropped the gloves, so instinct is just to do the same thing. I mean, it was short and the refs got in there quick, but I was just shocked that it kind of happened that way."
5. Paille may have made a rookie mistake though, as he revealed he was a southpaw when he connected on a couple of late lefts that stunned the Senators' enforcer. "The whole world knows he's a lefty now," Thornton said.
Those punches came after the linesmen had gotten in to break up the fight and Carkner was being held, but Paille didn't feel much remorse after Carkner forced him into the bout, then threw the first punch after the officials stepped in. "I kind of got lucky there," Paille said. "The refs came in and he gave me a punch, so I just reacted and punched back. But yeah, it was nice. It was a good feeling to get those in."
6. Really liking the new lines Julien rolled out for Monday's game with Milan Lucic's return from an undisclosed injury. Separating Lucic, who has no goals in his last 12 games, and Nathan Horton was needed, and the Michael Ryder–Marc Savard-Horton combo has started to click of late and deserved to stay together. Meanwhile, Lucic gets to go back with David Krejci, who has a knack for getting his wingers going. Having Tyler Seguin round out that line gives him two quality scorers to work with and if Lucic gets back to his hitting game, the talented rookie will have some extra time and space to show off his skills.
Having proven worthy of a shot on a scoring line, Brad Marchand gets to stay with Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi, and that trio has already displayed some encouraging chemistry. And while Blake Wheeler has been dropped to the "fourth" line, Campbell and Thornton have shown they are more capable of playing a regular shift and contributing some offense than most fourth liners, so rather than being a punishment for Wheeler (1-5-6 in his last six games), the move gives Boston a balanced attack few teams can match.
