Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
For the first time since mid-October, the Lightning have been knocked off their perch, temporarily passing the Atlantic Division crown to the surging Bruins.
But the Bruins didn’t just beat the Lightning by a 4-2 final and claim first place in the division. For the third time in as many head-to-head meetings this season, they smacked the Lightning around for the better part of an hour, and let a raucous TD Garden know that they’re not afraid of any team in this league. Especially not the juggernaut Lightning everybody was quick to award the East to back in October.
And honestly, why should they be?
Think about it: Everything ‘cept the location was once again on the side of the Lightning.
Entering Boston with an extra day of rest, having last played Monday at home while the Bruins played in Winnipeg on Tuesday -- and with health undoubtedly still on their side, even with the return of David Backes for the B’s -- this was a potential statement game for Tampa. This was their chance to stop a slide, re-establish themselves as the premier team in the Atlantic, and say that the No. 1 spot in the conference was not for sale.
They did that for the first three minutes of play, too, with four of the game’s first five shots coming off their sticks. But much like they did in the prior head-to-head, once the Bruins successfully weathered an early Lightning storm, they flipped the script.
In addition to firing the game’s next 10 shots on goal, the Bruins put the Bolts through a grinder that held them without a shot on goal for 13 minutes. And it was in the final 58 seconds of the first that they were finally rewarded for their playoff-caliber efforts.
Eliminating time and space on Ryan McDonagh in the defensive zone, a Tommy Wingels-Tim Schaller combo forced the Bolts’ star deadline pickup into a turnover, where a Wingels shot was capped with a signature Schaller net-front effort. And shifting to the power play just moments later, David Pastrnak’s ping-pong goal off McDonagh’s stick and through Vasilevskiy three seconds into the power-play opportunity gave the Bruins two goals in just 32 seconds and a 2-0 edge after the first period.
The Lightning countered with a power-play goal of their own in the middle frame, but when things got hot, it was Tuukka Rask that showed serious fire and brought the Garden to life with some punches to the mug of Tampa Bay forward Cory Conacher.
“It’s not something you want every night because I don’t – it doesn’t happen every night, for obvious reasons, but yeah you want to see some fire, some urgency,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said of Rask’s scrap. “He’s defending his territory without being reckless. He just did what he had to do in that situation, calmed down and played.”
“In the first period someone fell on my knee there, there was no penalty called – there was a penalty called actually – and that one it felt like to me that I don’t think our own D’s were jumping on me, I felt like they were pushing or something so I just had to let them know I was there because it happened twice,” Rask, assessed two roughing minors, said. “The last thing you want to do is get hurt in some stupid play like that.”
Part in defense of his teammate, part in defense of his crease, it was confirmation that the Bruins were not going to let the Bolts dictate anything in their building.
It was something that the Bruins were able to match for the rest of the game, too.
When Dan Girardi nailed Patrice Bergeron upstairs in the third period, Pastrnak came right over and challenged Girardi to a scrap. Girardi accepted, nullifying what looked to be the start of a great Tampa chance, and Pastrnak did his best to hang in there.
“It’s our team right there in a nutshell,” Cassidy said. “We stick together, and I think we’ve done that all year, no matter who is in the lineup. We trust our players to go out and do the job and have each other’s backs. That’s what makes it a special group.”
And after a stellar save on Nikita Kucherov by Rask during some four-on-four play, the B’s stormed down into the T.B. zone, and let Brad Marchand, Torey Krug, and Bergeron cycle the puck around like magicians before No. 37 pushed the lead back to two.
Victor Hedman responded and brought the Bolts back within one, but from there the Bruins simply burrowed themselves under the skin of Tampa’s top talents, culminating with a Marchand empty-netter and readable “It’s over” celebrations coming from No. 63.
“We can battle just like any team,” Marchand said of the heated affair with the Bolts. “Every team is going to battle hard right now, every team is fighting for position or playoff spots so every game has a playoff feel and we’re prepared for that.”
This and that
- An additional point on the whole Bruins-being-in-Tampa's-head thing: For the second game in a row, a Boston fourth liner found a way to get a Tampa Bay top-tier talent to simply unravel into a temper tantrum. After Schaller goaded Steven Stamkos into some nonsense the last time around, Noel Acciari played the role of disruptor for the Bolts' Kucherov. The Bruins have found a weakness in the Bolts here, and would love to expose it to their benefit in the postseason.
- This was perhaps the best game Brandon Carlo has played in the last month. At least from an offensive standpoint. It's clear that Carlo is gaining confidence, and while his defensive game has never quite been an issue (this year feels more like bad luck a la Dennis Wideman in 2010 than it does Carlo being genuinely bad), you've been waiting for this recent strong play to translate into some offensive chances. Thursday's win came with what felt like a ton of 'em.
"He’s trying to play a harder brand of hockey, and he was tonight. For me, it’s bring the aggression, you know, that’s required to play a matchup game, and then move your feet when you have the puck," Cassidy said of Carlo. "That’s what we’re trying to preach to Brandon every night. Like a lot of young guys, some nights you get it, some nights you don’t, but we have a lot of faith and trust in him, and we’re going to keep asking for it."
- What did David Pastrnak have to say about his first NHL fight?
"I don’t think I’ve fought ever…like, ever," the 21-year-old Pastrnak said. "Yeah, I’m a pretty calmed down guy so it was fun."
Selfishly, I hope he never changes.
Up next
The Bruins will kick off a weekend back-to-back Saturday against the Panthers at TD Garden. This will be one of three head-to-heads between the Bruins and Panthers in the final week-plus of the regular season, and with the Bruins looking to even the season-series score after taking a 3-0 loss in a Mar. 15 meeting in Sunrise. The Bruins also hope to get some more of their injured bodies -- be it Zdeno Chara, Jake DeBrusk, or Charlie McAvoy -- back in action.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»