Hurley: Bruins Show They're At Least Willing To Fight For Playoff Spot
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- We have located a pulse.
Though the Bruins still may hardly be sitting pretty with regard to their chances of making the playoffs, they proved one very important thing on Thursday night on home ice with their hope for the postseason dangling in the balance.
They're willing to fight for it.
That's something that hasn't always been evident amid a 2-7-1 stretch which was capped off by an uninspiring shootout loss at home Tuesday night to the Carolina Hurricanes. It was a loss that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for a team destined to finish their season with a fizzle instead of a pop.
Yet on Thursday, just 80 seconds into the game, David Pastrnak broke into the Detroit zone all alone, receiving a picture-perfect 100-foot bank pass from John-Michael Liles on his backhand, staying just onside and slipping one past Jimmy Howard for an early lead. A little more than a minute later, Torey Krug sent a cross-ice pass to Brad Marchand at the dot, and the Bruins' leading goal scorer fired one past Howard for a 2-0 lead just 2:35 into the game.
Pastrnak, a 19-year-old with zero playoff experience, celebrated his goal by leaping into the glass. Marchand, a 27-year-old with 66 playoff games and a Stanley Cup under his belt, celebrated with equal exuberance.
The message was clear: Despite recent results, this team wants to make the playoffs.
"I was definitely pretty excited," Marchand said of his celebration. "You could just tell the emotion in guys. So, it felt good. I'm lucky I didn't get hurt on that."
By the end of the night, the Bruins had themselves a 5-2 victory, and -- surprise of all surprises -- they nearly got all the help they needed from the Toronto Maple Leafs, otherwise known as the very unlikeliest of sources. The Leafs managed to postpone their quest for the best odds at the No. 1 pick by somehow beating the Flyers in Philadelphia, though they did surrender a late lead and allow Philadelphia to earn a point.
Two nights after losing control of their own playoff fate, the Bruins came that close to seizing it right back.
So, they'll still need some help in order to earn that playoff berth. For starters, they'll have to beat the Senators at the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon. Aside from that, they'll have to hope for a Red Wings loss at the Rangers in a game that will be played simultaneously to the game in Boston. If Boston wins and Detroit loses, then Boston will have secured the third and final Atlantic playoff spot.
If, however, Detroit wins, then Boston will need the Flyers to gain a maximum of three points in their two games remaining -- home against Pittsburgh and at the Islanders.
Clearly, drama still lies ahead for the Bruins, but they soundly removed any and all stress from the building on Thursday night. And for as much as that was about the early offense, the stifling defense was equally important. The Bruins limited Detroit to just 15 total shots on net for the entire game, including just two in the final period.
"It's about commitment to keeping pucks out of our own net," said Claude Julien, who's seemingly coaching for his job in the final days of the season. "Every time we've been in those high-scoring games, there's not too many of them that we've won. So, we've had our best success by really playing good defense, and every time we've played good defense we've also had better offense come out of it. So it's about buying in and doing a job properly."
The offense-out-of-defense manifested itself in the form of Torey Krug snapping a 55-game stretch without a goal, when he rocketed a shot on the power play past Howard to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead in the second period.
Detroit answered with a goal that deflected off a mess of bodies in front, but two Bruins goals in the opening minute of the third period -- from Lee Stempniak and Loui Eriksson -- cemented a victory that was important as much for its impact on the standings as it was about creating confidence in the locker room.
As for Saturday's regular-season finale, which remains a virtual must-win, the Bruins now at least offer reason to believe they'll take the ice as the reassured bunch that skated away with a dominant victory on Thursday instead of the team that appeared to tighten up in a frustrating loss on Tuesday.
"It's fun," Krug said about the opportunity in Game 82. "Obviously, you'd like to be in a different position where you have a playoff spot secure. But you want to play in big games, important games, and you want to be the guy that helps your team win. And so I think right now we have a lot of guys in our locker room that want to help out that way."
We'll find out on Saturday afternoon. Though the path to the playoffs remains complex, there's now at least reason enough to believe the Bruins will hold up their end of the bargain.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.