It’s been an interesting start to the season for the Bruins, but it seems they may be on the right track to catching a little bit of fire.
Boston stretched its win streak to two with a 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden on Thursday night that was highlighted by a four-goal night from Patrice Bergeron. It’s just the second time in the young season the Bruins have won two consecutive games.
Boston came into the 2021-22 campaign with a slew of newcomers. Couple that with the loss of David Krejci and Tuukka Rask and you have a team that doesn’t have the chemistry it did the last few seasons.
But they certainly seemed to the clicking Thursday, and Bergeron credited that to having more practice time throughout their long layoffs between games.
“I think there’s a lot of guys that are new to the locker room. We’re trying to jell,” Bergeron told reporters after the game. “I think it’s been good, in a way, to have less games and more practice time. Time to get together and really bond. Tonight was a great effort for sure.”
For Brad Marchand, who assisted on all four of Bergeron’s goals, believes a lack of confidence contributed to their losses, but saw a lot of positives Thursday to think the Bruins can carry it over into the weekend.
“Confidence is probably the biggest thing in any player’s game in this league. There’s a lot of guys who have the ability to be here,” Marchand told reporters. “Confidence is what separates a lot of guys. Our confidence wasn’t necessarily there. But you have a game like tonight and you just feed off of that. It started in practice (Wednesday.) A lot of the plays we made tonight, we made in practice yesterday. It started yesterday. It continued tonight. Hopefully, it will continue into Toronto.”
Head coach Bruce Cassidy echoed Marchand’s sentiments.
“We could use a game like this where guys start feeling better about themselves,” he told reporters. “Now we get to get back at it. This probably sets us up well. Even though it’s one game, it gets guys feeling better about their game. Let’s see if we can extend it.”
Sometimes all it takes is one game to get a team off and running in the right direction.
The Bruins get ready to hit the road and take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Puck drop from Scotiabank Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET.
