Bruins Shaking Off Tough Double-Overtime Loss in Game 2, Drawing on Experience With Adversity From Cup Run

BOSTON — The Bruins proved their resiliency last spring.

Heck, they were in a much worse position at this time a year ago after losing both of their first two games at home to open the playoffs against Montreal. They came back to win that series in seven games and also prevailed over Vancouver in the Cup Final after losing the first two games in Vancouver.

So shaking off what could be a devastating double-overtime loss to the Capitals in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal Saturday shouldn't be an issue for these Bruins, who head to D.C. for Game 3 on Monday with the series tied 1-1 after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat.

"I think you know it's adversity,” Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. "We've been through it. It's about us going out there now in Washington and doing the job, worrying about Game 3. It's something we've been through it in the past, and there's nothing more we can do right now about this one."

Of course, knowing that you've overcome adversity in the past and still have a chance to rebound from this latest blow doesn’t erase the pain completely.

"It sucks. You go all the way to second OT and you lose the game," Bruins center David Krejci said. "You don't want to be on the losing side after five periods, but it is what it is. We're still in the series. It's 1-1. We're going to Washington, and we're just going to try to win the next game."

Rather than dwelling on the loss, the Bruins were already looking ahead to Monday's rematch in Washington.

"I mean, every game you lose is tough to put behind you, but we know we have to correct, and if we do that, we should be fine," Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. "We know we can do better, and now it's just a matter of putting it in on the ice next game."

Even the newcomers to the squad have bought into that approach.

"You look at it the same as a win. You dwell on it five minutes and forget about it and get ready for Game 3," said defenseman Greg Zanon, who came to the club from Minnesota at the trade deadline. "There's things that we need to work on, and I'm sure we'll address those tomorrow in practice, and then we'll get ourselves ready for Game 3 to be better and do what we can to hopefully help our team win."

The Bruins remain confident that they can regain control of the series even without home ice advantage.

"Well, we go on the road. It's obviously a tougher challenge, but we're strong mentality, strong physically," said forward Benoit Pouliot, who scored Boston's lone goal on Saturday. "We get there and we play. It's not that we played too, too bad here, maybe the second game a little bit worse than the first one. But if we can go there and get the momentum right away, we'll be fine."

The Bruins learned last year in their long march to the Cup that they can't get too wrapped up in individual results. The bigger picture of steady advancement is what matters, and that comes a series at a time, even if the Bruins are proving to have a knack for dragging out those series more than most after becoming the first team to win three Game 7s in a single postseason last spring.

"We did the same thing last year," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We had some games that we should have been better, and we lost, and at the end of the day, you look at the series, and did we win the series or not? And that's what we're going to do again this year. You know, we weren't good enough tonight, and that's why they won. We've got to be better next game, hopefully win, and at the end of the series, well, we can decide whether we were a good enough team or not, but I'm certainly not going to analyze our team on one game. I'll make sure I analyze them on the whole series, and when it's all said and done, we can probably answer that a little bit better."

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