They suffered a memorable 10-game losing streak at TD Garden in the middle of last year, and even this season, had a better record on the road (24-12-5) than at home (22-13-6).
But that’s changed as the stakes have gotten higher. After opening the playoffs with back-to-back home losses to the Canadiens, the Bruins have won seven of their last eight home games, including three straight heading into Monday night’s Game 3 showdown with the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final.
At the same time, they’ve struggled of late on the road. Boston is 5-5 away from the Garden in the playoffs, but has lost its last four road games.
So facing a 2-0 series deficit, the Bruins are truly hoping there’s no place like home for Game 3.
“At this time of year, we realize being at home is our strength,” Bruins forward Daniel Paille said after Monday’s morning skate. “We do realize we are a good road team, but to come back here, even though we are down 0-2, we all have good feelings about [Monday night] and are really looking forward to putting some pressure on them.”
Fellow forward Brad Marchand agreed with the importance of taking advantage of home ice at this time of year.
“At playoff time you’ve got to be able to win at home,” Marchand said. “I think the crowd has a lot to do with it. We have a great crowd and the fans really push us when we need a momentum boost. It just seems to be working a little better for us now in playoff time.”
The crowd does play a role, but there are factors in helping a club play better at home. Having the last change allows teams to better control the matchups they want, and teams can also play a slightly different style.
“I know we weren’t as aggressive in Vancouver,” Paille said. “Teams tend to play a little bit back. They don’t want to make too many mistakes on the road. They try to play a really good, solid defensive game, where at home you try to be as aggressive as you can.”
The Bruins could use a little more aggressiveness after losing a pair of one-goal games in Vancouver to start the series. But they also have to be careful of being too aggressive, as the Canucks proved in the first two games they are very capable of taking advantage of any Bruins miscues.
“It’s nice to be at home and have our fans behind us,” Marchand said. “We want to use that to our advantage as much as we can, but if we think just because we’re at home it’s going to be easy we’re in for a tough game. We just have to make sure we’re focused and prepared for [Monday night].”
The Garden faithful can also turn on a team quickly if they struggle, so the Bruins need to get off to a strong start to keep that support building and increase the pressure on the Canucks throughout the game.
“If you want your fans cheering for you, you give them a reason to cheer,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “That’s what we need to do.
“It’s always nice to be home,” Julien added. “You got your fans behind you. That’s an advantage obviously to the home team. We expect to use that to our advantage.”
