While fans departed in droves, the Bruins went back to work after Claude Julien called a rare Sunday practice. The bench boss called for his players to bring their hard hats and boots, as there was no more time to be wasted in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race.
Credit Julien for forcing the players to be held accountable, and credit those players for turning things around. It wasn't easy.
The B's ran into the scorching-hot Devils, winners of 24 of their last 32 games, and handled them with a 4-1 victory — the biggest margin of victory for the Bruins since Feb. 17 and the first time they had scored four goals since Feb. 18.
"It could have easily been a situation where everybody starts to panic, everybody starts to yell and it doesn't get any better, but we stayed with it as a group and we found a solution," Julien said after the slump-busting win.
That, however, was only the beginning.
Just two nights later, a massive Montreal media horde and a whole mess of distractions invaded Boston, as the Bruins faced the Canadiens for the first time since Zdeno Chara hit Max Pacioretty. There were dozens of storylines and a wealth of distractions, and the game was being dubbed the annual "biggest game of the season" for the Bruins.
How'd they respond? They won by a touchdown.
Even the most optimistic Bruins fan couldn't have seen that coming.
"I never thought we would do this," Mark Recchi, a focal point for much of the evening, said after the 7-0 win. "I thought it would be close."
Then came the weekend. A home matinee against the fighting-for-their-playoff-life Rangers followed by a trip to Philly to face the best team in the conference. The results weren't there on Saturday, but the effort was, and it paid off in the form of a grind-it-out victory over the Flyers on Sunday.
Heading into the week, the schedule looked daunting, and with Chicago next up on Tuesday, it still is. Yet, a 3-1 record to kick off the stretch run of the season has the Bruins passing the first part of the test with flying colors.
Wins aside, though, they have reason for confidence. The power play, once left for dead, has been resuscitated, to the tune of four goals in the last 15 chances (26.7 percent) and a 2-for-3 showing on Sunday night.
On the other side of the ice, both goalies appear to be working with high levels of confidence. Tim Thomas has won three straight, allowing just two goals on 83 shots (0.67 GAA, .976 save percentage). Though Tuukka Rask took another tough loss on Saturday, he did his job well, allowing one deflected shot to get by him while making 22 saves.
The goalies aren't the only players skating around with confidence, not after the B's improved their record to 3-0-1 against the Flyers, who have led the Eastern Conference for basically the entire season.
Even putting the stats aside, the Bruins pass the eye test. They're sticking up for each other and they're not backing down from any challenges. Tyler Seguin is maturing rapidly on a game-to-game basis, they're getting unrelenting energy and pressure from the fourth line, Nathan Horton has rediscovered his scoring touch and the unlikely duo of Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand has combined to score 50 goals, after Marchand's game-winner brought his season total to 20 on Sunday.
Though the Bruins are in a very different position this Monday as opposed to last Monday, the job remains the same for Julien.
"Right now, the challenge is we can't get comfortable," the coach said after the B's clinched a playoff spot on Sunday night, according to The Boston Globe. "You've got to build momentum heading into the playoffs and show some consistency in our game so we can be consistent in the playoffs."
While one solid week against playoff-caliber competition can't usually completely change the postseason outlook for a team, it seems to be possible with the Bruins. They hit too many ups and too many downs to count, and the city rides the wave with them. Yet, right now, at the right time of the season, the Bruins appear to be climbing back up.
And with a playoff spot now secured, the team can focus on improving the little things without any added pressure.
"We're focused on where we are and not where we're going to be," Recchi said after he recorded his 1,531st point on Sunday night to move into a tie with Paul Coffey for 12th all time. "We're pretty confident we're not going to slip past third [place in the East]. We just want to be playing our best hockey full speed ahead."
Given the way the TD Garden was rocking on Thursday night, the fans feel the same way. Thanks to a solid week of work from the Bruins, great hockey isn't just desired. It's once again expected.
