Bruins Were Unaware They Clinched Atlantic Division With Win

BOSTON — The Bruins are dialed in.

How dialed in, you ask? Well, Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning not only marked Boston’s 56th of the year — one away from tying the team record — but the Black and Gold officially clinched the Atlantic Division.

But it wasn’t front of mind Saturday

“You know, I forgot,” Montgomery said after the game, “because things were happening so quickly. (Dmitry) Orlov had his 700th game, (David) Krejci moved into fifth place all-time (for games played) as a Bruin. We talked about those things, we didn’t actually talk about the Atlantic Division. But it’s a tremendous feat with 10 games left.”

The Bruins all season have reached many milestones and has had individual players celebrated for a number of reasons. It’s no surprise clinching the division fell through the cracks.

Patrice Bergeron, who scored a goal in the win, shared Montgomery’s thoughts. When asked if clinching the division meant anything, Bergeron responded with, “the last game, you mean?”

When he was told the Bruins clinched Saturday, Bergeron said, “oh, did we?”

He added: “It’s not something that we stop and worry about. I think we wanna improve, we wanna get better. I think (Saturday), we liked the response … the 60-minute effort from top to bottom. …”

One of those areas the Bruins need to improve upon is the power play, but there’s still 10 games to make tweaks before they get set for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Boston is right back to game action Sunday night when it takes on the Carolina Hurricanes. Puck drop from PNC Arena is set for 5 p.m. ET.