Bs Get Four In Third To Take Care Of Oilers, Now 5-1 Since Chara Injury

11/07/2014 4:30 PM

With a few days off on the horizon after finishing their 15th game of the season (tied with Calgary for most in NHL), it looked as though the Bruins might’ve been looking ahead to their respite early in the third when they found themselves down 2-1 to the Edmonton Oilers, a team that has seen more ping-pong balls in the last decade than your Bingo-junkie grandmother has in her lifetime. But the notion of blowing two points to the team that Kevin Lowe is still allowed to run seemed to wake up the local squad.

They continued pouring shots Ben Scrivens’ way and finally knotted things up when Loui Eriksson slammed home a deflected Dougie Hamilton shot. 1:25 later, Carl Soderberg converted a sweet Patrice Bergeron feed on the the power play to go up 3-2. Just 1:09 passed before Dougie doubled the lead when he completed a give-and-go with Loui after some sweet power play passing that got started with Bergy’s dogged forecheck. Milan Lucic added an empty-netter with eight seconds left to put a bow on what was a close game at the start of the period but became a 5-2 blowout by the end.

But the bigger picture is how good the Bruins have played in Zdeno Chara’s absence. The team improved to 5-1 since losing their captain and while it hasn’t always been pretty, it has been effective. More importantly, the team is banking points by beating the teams they should beat in order to keep pace in both the division and the conference. They’ve been able to incorporate Providence defensemen Joe Morrow, Zach Trotman, and David Warsofsky seamlessly into the line-up without missing a beat. And they’re getting balanced scoring not only from the forwards but nine of their 43 goals have come from five different defenseman.

So while things looked bleak two weeks ago, the results in the interim have been anything but. That word that we’ve been associating with this team for the last few years now—resiliency—is once again what the team is showing as it deals with injuries to regulars yet keeps on humming along. They’ll need some rest over the weekend before playing nine games in 19 days starting Monday when the Devils come to town.

A few more buds for your weekend bowl…

*Simon Gagne and Matt Bartkowski were the scratches last night. After getting some early scoring chances, Gagne wasn’t much of a presence in his last few games so Claude gave him a view from upstairs. Bartkowski will have a hard time supplanting one of the P-Bruins as long as the squad keeps winning.

*A little late on this one but I was glad to hear the team extended Claude. He’s brought structure and stability to a team that was struggling for both after the disastrous Dave Lewis hiring. After coming within inches of likely being fired (just watch Game 7 vs. Montreal in ’11 again and take a pick of your plays), he’s now on his way to becoming the winningest coach in the team’s long history and solidified himself as one of the NHL’s premiere coaches; he has the second-longest tenure after Detroit’s Mike Babcock. It’s a far cry from when he was hired to less-than-enthusiastic fanfare and was slow to win people over. But along with the wins, Claude has earned a ton of respect for the way his carries himself, runs his team, and deals with the media. Additionally, his players play for him and have showed no indication of tuning out his message. Rather, they seem to embrace it and buy in because Claude’s record speaks for itself. The core has been here and knows that Claude puts them in the best position to win (it also helps not having any divas). In a job known for its revolving door nature, Claude has become an anomaly—a fixture behind the bench. Here’s a re-post of an excellent Jackie Mac read on the coach. Say Claude, how many years is that extension for anyways?

GIF: Clode’s reaction to the 2nd quick whistle was an all-timer. http://t.co/TqckM7ZBp1
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) November 7, 2014

*Dougie has certainly stepped up in Z’s absence and has been fulfilling a lot of those pre-season predictions of a big season for the still-only 21-year-old who is only going to get better. He had a goal and two assists last night in 23:37 of ice time, second only to Dennis Seidenberg’s 25:47 for the Bruins. But Dougie does have a team-high 22:50 TOI average. His 3-7–10 line has him tied for second place in team scoring with David Krejci (3-7) and Brad Marchand (5-5), though Krejci has played five less games. If he keeps progressing, he may have some Norris candidacies in his mid-20s.

*The Big Swede continues to be a monster for the Bs, feasting on opposing teams that have to focus on both Krejci and Bergy before they even get to Soderberg. He scored the game-winner last night and assisted on the tying goal; he leads the team in scoring with 4-8–12 totals and four power play points (tied with Lucic). The only real knock on him is his number at the dot (47.2%).

*This is the best goddamn thing you’ll watch today. 8-year-old Bruins fan Liam Fitzgerald greets the Bruins with a fist bump as they exit the ice after their pre-game warm-up. And I can’t wipe this shit-eatin’ grin off my face from watching the little man. His reaction after Greg Campbell apparently put a little too much mustard on it is priceless. And Dan Paille’s quick pat on the head gets me right in the feels. The @realOBF did some nice work to get Liam’s story and it’s a heartwarming read on a courageous boy.

Big h/t to, who else?, @PeteBlackburn for the video heads-up and to @realOBF for the story.