BOSTON — Just a few weeks ago, Daniel Paille was mired in a 36-game goalless drought and had a 2.4 shooting percentage. So, B’s head coach Claude Julien made a change to his fourth line and inserted young forward Brian Ferlin into the lineup to replace the struggling veteran winger.
Paille was a healthy scratch for two games, but he returned to the lineup March 5 and has scored four goals in his last three games.
“Sometimes when you sit out, you get to reflect on what you can do better, and for me I definitely kept a positive attitude about it,” Paille said.
“Claude was great with me, so just coming back, you kind of play like you’ve got nothing to lose and just keep working. If you keep working good things will come out of it, and so far, that’s the way it’s been going right now, so it’s been a huge boost I guess.”
Two of those goals were scored in Sunday afternoon’s 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden.
During a second-period Red Wings power play, Paille stole the puck from Stephen Weiss at the defensive blue line and sped toward the net. He was able to fend off a challenge from Erik Cole and beat Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson for a shorthanded tally.
Paille widened Boston’s lead to 4-1 with another another second-period goal. Gregory Campbell won the faceoff to Max Talbot, who went behind the goal line and made a nice centering pass to Paille. It was solid all-around effort from the fourth line.
Paille went 266 games without scoring two goals in a single game — his last such performance was Dec. 14, 2011, against the Ottawa Senators. Even though he’s been a fixture of Boston’s fourth line throughout his tenure with the team, Paille has been able to provide some scoring depth. He has scored nine or more goals in four of his five previous seasons with the Bruins.
The Bruins’ fourth line struggled in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs and those issues carried over into the this season. Boston’s scoring depth suffered as a result, but the addition of Max Talbot at the trade deadline has brought some much-needed jump to this line.
Talbot has two assists (including the primary helper on Brad Marchand’s overtime goal Saturday), five shots and an average of 1:13 of penalty kill time in his three games with the Bruins.
“He fits perfectly (on our line),” Paille said of Talbot. “These last couple games that we got to play together it just feels natural, and he plays pretty much a similar style with all three of us.
“We like to grind it out and try to out work teams, and he gives us that extra boost that we’ve been missing, and I think that (Campbell) and I realize that we need to pick up the slack a little and whether it’s scoring or just out working other teams … there’s no more excuses.”
The Bruins relied on their fourth line during the team’s two runs to the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 and 2013. One of the common denominators among most Stanley Cup champions is the ability to roll four lines, so it’s important that Boston’s fourth line finds the consistency it’s lacked throughout the campaign.
The early returns from the Paille-Campbell-Talbot trio are encouraging, though.
“It’s obvious that this fourth line has been a real good fourth line,” Julien said. “When Ferlin’s been in, we had some good stints from that line as well. But now, I guess, what helps a lot is if you’ve got three veterans that have been around, so you feel a little bit more comfortable, too, to give your top lines a break every once in a while after power plays and that you’ve got to utilize your bench a little bit more.
“I can afford to throw those guys against the other team’s top lines, and know that there’s some experience and you can rely on them a little bit more. So that’s been a good change for us.”
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
