BOSTON — After suffering back-to-back losses over the weekend, the Boston Bruins have responded with some of their best hockey in recent weeks.
The Bruins snapped a two-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, and they played three more solid periods of hockey Thursday when they recorded a convincing 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden.
Boston has been inconsistent this season due to the rash of injuries it suffered early in the campaign, but the B’s finally seem to be clicking, especially defensively, over the past two games.
“Defensively, for sure,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game when asked if this is the best hockey his team has played since the injuries. “I think we are working hard for one another, to support one another — in terms of our routes, forechecking, neutral zone, working to get back above the puck. We’ve had stretches where we’ve obviosuly played well. But yes, I think team-defense wise, you look at the last two games, of course, (Jaroslav Halak) was there for us making saves, but I think they are both, you know, were almost another shutout and I think you can put those in the team category. Sometimes the goalie’s just not going to be beat that night, but I think the last two games in general we’ve really worked hard for our goaltender to limit the chances.
“But yes, defensively we seem to have found our stride.”
While the Bruins’ defense has been rock solid over the last six periods, the B’s power play also has been more deadly of late.
After going 0-for-4 combined on the power play in consecutive losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, the Bruins scored once on the man advantage against Montreal and lit the lamp twice on the PP in the second period against the Ducks.
David Pastrnak, who potted the first power-play goal Thursday and got an assist on the second, was happy to see the unit finally get going.
“Yeah, huge for us,” Pastrnak said after the game. “You know, the power play didn’t go well, so we try to get little bit movement up top and it worked today. So, really happy we got some big PP goals.”
Boston didn’t capitalize on its only power-play opportunity in the first period, but the unit executed well in the second stanza.
“It hasn’t been great as of late,” Torey Krug said. “We kind of go through some ups and downs, some stretches where we get complacent and we aren’t working as hard, but tonight we worked. That first one was a little bit ugly, but we worked through it and we got rewarded on the next two with some faceoff plays and some things we designed before the game and we executed it well.”
Here are more notes from Bruins-Ducks:
— Krug recorded his 200th career assist Thursday night. With the assist, Krug now has the most assists by an American-born player in Bruins history.
— David Krejci lit the lamp during the third period to record his 600th career point.
— David Backes recorded his 300th career assist in the game.
— The win snapped the Bruins’ nine-game losing streak to the Ducks. The B’s last win against Anaheim came on Oct. 21, 2013.
— Boston still is without Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Jake DeBrusk, Kevan Miller and Urho Vaakanainen but all of them returned to practice Wednesday, meaning the Bruins are inching closer to full strength.
