BOSTON — Through the first three games this season, the Boston Bruins looked like one of the worst teams in the NHL. Since then? Well…
Following Tuesday night’s resounding beatdown of the Arizona Coyotes, the Bruins now have earned nine of the the last 10 points available to them. Had it not been for a third-period collapse in an overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, they’d be riding a five-game winning streak into this weekend’s trip through Florida.
They’ve been scoring goals at an alarming rate (27 in the last five games) and, more importantly, have found ways to keep pucks out of their own net. The 6-0 rout of Arizona was Boston’s first shutout of the season, but Claude Julien’s club has allowed three goals or fewer in each of its last five contests.
“Just keeping the goals against down, obviously,” said goalie Tuukka Rask, who stopped all 24 Coyotes shots he faced. “That’s always the goal, but (Tuesday), we managed to do that. I was telling (backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson) before the game that I’m trying to keep it at three or under today, and we did that. You’ve got to be happy with that.”
There were plenty of happy faces following Tuesday’s win — Boston’s first at TD Garden this season — most of whom seemed to believe it was only a matter of time before the Bruins awoke from their early-season slumber.
“I think starting at home, with the new faces we had, I’m not making excuses, but it’s almost like we were trying to put on a show and try to impress people and say, ‘This is what we have,’ ” defenseman Torey Krug said. “And then we went on the road, and we dumbed the game down, simplified ourselves and just played really basic hockey. And it turned out to be a lot more fun for us. So, if we just keep capturing this feeling, bottle it up and make sure we carry it from one game to the next, it’ll be good for our team.”
Added winger Brad Marchand: “I think the first three games, we were trying to figure out what our team was going to be and what we were going to be like. I think now, we’re kind of starting to figure out our identity and the things that we need to work on to be a better team. We’re trying to improve every day, and the last four games, five games have been really good. We’ve got to be happy about how we’ve been playing.”
The Bruins’ latest win left little to critique. Fittingly, it was leading scorer David Krejci who summed it up best.
“Everything goes right,” said the veteran center, who added two more goals Tuesday night, “but only because we were doing the right things.”
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
