It didn’t end exactly the way Boston would have preferred as the Bruins fell to the Devils 3-2 in New Jersey on Sunday. But the most important thing was that the Bruins got through what was essentially a meaningless game without any injuries and will head into the postseason with their full lineup available.
“I think that’s one thing that’s important for us heading into the playoffs, making sure your team is as healthy as possible,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “And we at least accomplished that.”
There were a few other things the Bruins could have accomplished with a win on Sunday. It would have been their first season sweep of the Devils since 1985-86 and a victory would have given them the second-most points of any Bruins team since 1992-93.
Instead, they finish 3-1-0 against New Jersey and 46-25-11 overall, good for 103 points. That’s still the franchise’s third-highest total since Boston finished 1992-93 with 109 points, trailing only the 116 points of 2008-09 and the 104 points of 2003-04.
“Overall, we’ve been fairly consistent when you look at this season,” Julien said. “Through 82 games you’re going to lose some, you’re going to win some, but our curve was pretty steady as far as climbing up throughout the whole season. When we did have some challenges they didn’t last too long. Guys have worked pretty hard and we had a decent year.”
After hitting a 1-3-3 skid early in March, the Bruins rallied down the stretched and finished on a 7-3-1 roll. That late-season run actually began with a 4-1 win over these same Devils on March 22, followed by a 7-0 blowout of the Canadiens at the Garden on March 24.
Now they’ll move on to face the Habs again, with the third-seeded Bruins taking on No. 6 Montreal in the opening round of the playoffs. It’s the 33rd playoff series between the Original six rivals. Montreal has won 24 of the first 32, but the Bruins did sweep the Habs in their last meeting in the first round in 2009.
Montreal likewise opened this year’s season series with three straight victories, but Boston rallied to win two of the last three with an 8-6 victory at the Garden on Feb. 9 that featured 182 penalty minutes and last month’s 7-0 triumph.
That should give the Bruins some confidence, but the Bruins know everything starts over in the postseason.
“Now we have to close the book on the regular season,” Julien said. “It’s a brand new season starting at the end of this week. We’ve got some playoff opponents here that have been pretty challenging and we have to get ourselves ready for that. I don’t think there’s any reason to be overconfident or not confident enough. It’s just a matter of getting in the right frame of mind here, understanding that we have a pretty good hockey club here and if we plan on making a long run we’ve got to be mentally ready.”
The Bruins weren’t at their sharpest in that regard on Sunday. But they also rested Zdeno Chara, Mark Recchi and Tim Thomas and had little incentive beyond avoiding any costly injuries. Even that quest was close, with David Krejci, Johnny Boychuk and Tyler Seguin all getting banged up at different points. Krejci was hurt blocking a shot, Boychuk tumbled hard into the boards and Seguin took a blow to the head, but all three returned to finish the game and appear fine.
The Bruins’ game didn’t bounce back as well. They didn’t manage a single shot on goal in the final 18:16 of the second period, getting outshot 10-1 in that frame and 32-26 overall. They also recorded just six hits all day, with the lack of physical play obviously a result of the fact that nothing was really on the line. That will change when the Bruins return to the ice against Montreal, and that physical element is something the Bruins will have to get back to if they want to be successful against the speedy Habs.
“When our team is playing with an edge and that fire, which we’re going to have to create on our own, that’s when we’re a pretty good team,” Bruins forward Milan Lucic said.
Lucic admitted Sunday’s game didn’t showcase the Bruins at their best, but he was happy with what the club accomplished this season, and is looking forward to what they can do in the postseason.
“It definitely would have been nicer if we got the win,” Lucic said. “Looking back, it didn’t seem like a long season but it definitely was. We thankfully had more ups than downs this year and we were able to achieve our goal this season. That was getting ourselves back into the playoffs and also being on top of the division. We can feel pretty good about ourselves about the season that we had. We can enjoy that for the rest of today. But after tonight it’s definitely going to be all business and all our focus should be going into, I’m guessing, Thursday night.”
