There was no shortage of ways that Saturday night could have gone horribly, horribly wrong for the Boston Bruins.
They were down countless integral contributors due to injury: from their top defensive pairing of Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy, to top-six forwards Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk. They were flat for 60 minutes Thursday night against the Florida Panthers, laying an egg in a 3-0 loss. It was their first time getting shutout since the second game of the season.
Oh, and their matchup Saturday? A road date with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who held the Atlantic Division lead by four points entering the night.
All of those factors bottled into one make for a daunting matchup for even the most resilient of teams. But instead of just rolling over and waiting to go back to Boston, the B’s came out firing, scoring just over three minutes into the game and never looking back en route to a 3-0 win.
Now the B’s are just two points behind the Lightning in the standings with a game in hand and two more matchups against the Atlantic Division rivals to come.
There was no shortage of positives to take from the win. Tuukka Rask made 23 saves, registering a shutout after a run of less-than-stellar recent outings between the pipes. Boston’s special teams were efficient, capitalizing on two of their three opportunities on the man advantage while blanking all three of the Bolts’ power-play opportunities.
Goals came from three different scorers (David Pastrnak, David Backes and Riley Nash), but the important contributions ranged well beyond that. Torey Krug provided an assist on every goal, Adam McQuaid was physical and Matt Grzelcyk put tremendous pressure on the puck. Each player found a way to step up.
And emblematic of the night as a whole, Lightning star Nikita Kucherov, who leads the NHL with 91 points, didn’t register a shot on net until there was 9:43 left to play.
While Saturday’s two points are weighed just as equally as all the others, the Bruins made a big statement with their rout. With the cards stacked against them, they were dominant, even after taking the mid-game blow of losing Backes due to a right leg laceration.
The way things are trending, it is a very real possibility that the Bruins’ potential path to the Stanley Cup Final will involve a seven-game series with the Lightning. And if that does prove to be the case, the B’s showed Saturday they are up to the task, regardless of the obstacles placed in front of them.
Here are some other notes from Bruins-Lightning:
— Krug had been quiet offensively his last five games, but that changed Saturday night. He had an assist on every goal and did a fine job moving the puck and creating opportunities both on the power play and at even strength.
In fact, each of his assists came because he threw the puck on the net and a teammate was there to clean it up. Krug now is slashing 13-38-51 this season, which matches his career high in points with 12 games remaining.
— Backes left Saturday’s game after suffering a laceration to his right knee. He was cut by Yanni Gourde’s skate late in the first period after the two went sliding into Tampa’s crease.
Backes left the game and received “multiple stitches” according to the team, and did not return to the game. Head coach Bruce Cassidy estimated Backes received at least 18 stitches, according to Boston Sports Journal’s Joe McDonald, but McDonald noted that Backes was walking out of the locker room following the game and said, “he’s OK”.
