But the Bruins winger will be happy if he can keep the time between goals to just eight days when Boston hosts Tampa Bay in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Saturday. After all, those two goals last week ended a 20-game drought that spanned more than six weeks for Lucic.
Lucic led the Bruins in goals in the regular season, reaching the 30-goal plateau with a tally against New Jersey on March 22. But Lucic never added to that total, going without a goal in the final 10 games of the year. Normally a big point producer in the postseason, Lucic then opened the playoffs with no goals in his first 10 games before finally breaking through with a pair as Boston completed a sweep of the Flyers.
Those scores came as a huge relief to Lucic, who hopes to carry the momentum of that breakthrough on to this round despite the long layoff between series.
"It feels better, it feels much better," Lucic said after practice at the Garden on Friday, the club's final tuneup for the conference final. "Obviously there's less pressure. It was tough to get out of that slump, but now I honestly feel even in practice just more confident when I get the puck in those areas where I know I can score. I just need to have that same mentality and get to those areas where I know I can get some offense."
Even with no games since that two-goal night, Bruins coach Claude Julien has seen a difference in Lucic, and expects more production from him in the upcoming series.
"I think right now I've liked the way he's practiced," Julien said. "He seems to be moving his feet well. He's skating well. He's making plays and shooting pucks, going to the net. So to me it looks like he's kept the same intensity and the same confidence he had there in the latter stage of the Philly series. So I don't see an issue and I think right now the stakes are getting higher and higher, so no reason in the world for guys to get comfortable or to let their games slip."
With Patrice Bergeron sidelined indefinitely with a concussion, the Bruins need Lucic to be at the top of his game. The top line of Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton was outstanding against the Flyers, combining for eight goals and 19 points in the four games. Now they'll have to find a way to beat Tampa's constrictive 1-3-1 trap and continue to pile up points in this series.
"I know personally we just have to keep doing what we did that made us successful," Lucic said. "I think we played with a lot of speed. We were going forward with the puck. We were making plays and being strong on the puck. That's exactly what we have to do as a line to be successful. That shouldn't change against these guys. We can't sit back and see what they will do. We've got to continue what we did last series. I think a reason we won that series is we went right after the Flyers and they weren't able to keep up."
Thanks in no small part to the play of that top line, the Bruins finally got past the second round to make it to the conference finals for the first time since 1992. That's an accomplishment Lucic is proud to have been a part of, but he's not satisfied in stopping there.
"It feels good," Lucic said. "The main thing is this is something that we've been working toward as a team and as an organization to get to this point. It took three tries in the second round to get here, so it obviously feels good and we're excited. For myself, I'm excited and you want to go out there and make the most of the opportunity. At the end of the day, you want to have no regrets and say you did everything you could to help your team win.
"We're not satisfied," Lucic added. "We know how hard it's been to get to this point and it's going to take that much more to take that next step. It all starts with Game 1 and we have to go at the Tampa Bay Lightning just like we went after the Philadelphia Flyers."
And if Lucic can score a few more goals like he did in that final game against Philly, that would certainly help too.
