| 03 March 2011
The last time anyone in Boston saw the Bruins, they were giving up a late lead against the red-headed stepchild of the Northeast Division. The 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was the last game those Bruins would lose as a unit, as Peter Chiarelli hit the phones hard, shipping away prospects, picks and Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart to get the long-desired Tomas Kaberle and add Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly.
With the new members of the Black and Gold in tow, the Bruins left for a six-game road trip which they swept, winning every game in regulation and besting the NHL-best Vancouver Canucks in the process. And when the suddenly re-energized squad finally hit TD Garden ice, the changes were apparent.
There, in the first period, was a skating game that hadn’t been seen in the previous 65 games. There was an improved physicality used to throw the Tampa Bay Lightning off of their game. And there was Mike Smith, standing on his head as the Bruins assaulted him with pucks and bodies alike.
But at the end of the day, it was the old guard that got the job done.
Steven Kampfer made up for an earlier mistake that led to a Steve Downie goal when he scored the tying goal at 6:06 in the second on a designed play that had him move the puck from the right point to the center and fired a slapshot stick side past a prone Smith. The rookie’s fifth goal tied it at one, but Kampfer didn’t have much to celebrate as he left the game early after taking a big hit in the corner late in the third.
Tempers started to flare later in the period, as Milan Lucic and Eric Brewer went at it after Lucic and Nathan Horton had already been assessed minor penalties. Brewer didn’t throw a punch, but took a few good hooks from Lucic, who spent two of the next five minutes watching his teammates kill off a 5-on-3 Tampa Bay advantage that never really amounted to much.
Neither team was able to generate any offense off the power play, as the Bruins went 0 for 3 and haven’t scored a man-advantage goal in five games. Tampa Bay was 0 for 4, despite having scored five times in 14 opportunities coming into the game.
Bruins head coach Claude Julien called the kill the “turning point” of the game.
The physical play ultimately tilted the ice in the Bruins favor, as Lucic gobbled up a loose puck from under a dogpile of Bruins and Lightning in the Tampa Bay crease and lifted it into the back of the net above a helpless Smith. The goal gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish, as Tampa’s struggles with the man-advantage continued once they pulled Smith for the extra attacker.
“Everyone was on the ice including their goalie so I just shot it high and hard and it went in,” said Lucic, whose 28th goal of the season is both a team- and career-high.
After a six-game road trip which saw the Bruins gain the attacking zone with relative ease, Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher’s trademark 1-3-1 trap gave Boston problems again, just like it did in their first meeting of the year, a 3-1 Tampa win. The Bruins dumped and chased more in one game at home than they had in six games on the road, but still managed to secure the win.
“We tried to get their system figured out tonight. I think they played a little better, they were more defensively sound,” said Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who spent a majority of the game getting under the skin of Tampa forward Viktor Hedman. “It’s part of their game, they can’t beat us easily if they can’t get under guys’ skin, try to get them off their game.”
If anyone took that rule to heart, it was Horton, who after being dropped by the Lightning’s Dominic Moore in the first period followed the Tampa center back to the bench to give him a piece of his mind, and had to be forcibly directed to his own seat by the linesman.
“I don’t even remember what I said to him,” Horton admitted after the game. “I just know that I was mad because he hit me.”
Horton, who’s never been a part of something like the Bruins have - seven seasons in Florida produced exactly zero playoff berths - is enjoying the ride as much as he can. When asked if he’s ever been a part of something like this, Horton flashed his signature ear-to-ear grin and noted that while it was exciting, there’s still work to be done. “We’ve won seven in a row, and we’ll try to be perfect the rest of the way, too.”
While Horton may not have dropped the gloves, he was successful in bringing the physical presence that has made his line with David Krejci and Lucic so successful, and that has made the Bruins as a team such a strong contender late in the season.
Tampa came into the contest as the fourth-least penalized team in the league, lacking a heavyweight to trade punches with the likes of Lucic, Horton, Shawn Thornton or Adam McQuaid. The Bruins’ ability to take the physical play to the Lightning and set the tone for the game gave them the upper hand when all was said and done.
Setting the tone is something the Black and Gold has done well of late. In the six games since these Bruins started playing together, they’ve allowed only seven goals, including just three against two of the League’s top-five offenses. They’ve done it by skating and they’ve done it by being physical, and they’re quickly starting to look like a team that might be around for quite a few more months.
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