Bruins Play As Well As They Should Have Been All Season In Big Home Win
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Where has that kind of effort been all season?
Why have the Boston Bruins mysteriously played lethargic, uninspired hockey so much at home this season? Why haven't they been able to deliver at the TD Garden for the home fans as much as they have on the road? As of Friday, the Bruins owned the league's third-best road record (20-7-3) but the seventh-worst home record (13-15-3). Only the San Jose Sharks own a worse home record among current playoff teams.
Why haven't they been able to play as well all season as they did against the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night? After a somewhat tentative start holding back the Penguins' explosive offensive attack, the Bruins played like a desperate, hungry, invigorated bunch as they zipped up and down the ice with the Pens in easily the biggest, most exciting home win of the season. Aggressive forechecking. A cohesive team game. A dominating effort by Tuukka Rask. And even a little defense (Adam McQuaid had his best game in a long time).
Tom Kuhnhackl scored the only Penguins goal when he "accidentally" knocked the puck in with his skate on an open-net rebound. The Penguins peppered Rask with shots, but the quality was lacking thanks to the Bruins' strong backchecking and solid team defense.
Rask said the lone Penguins goal was the exact type of play the Bruins focused on limiting throughout the game.
"[The Penguins] had a lot of chances, but we took their rebound chances away and we knew they were going to look for those backdoor plays a lot," said Rask. "We took care of those and it resulted [in] a pretty good defensive effort."
Brad Marchand, who scored his 31st goal to move into a tie for fourth in the league (with, ahem, Tyler Seguin), acknowledged the team's struggles at home this season and the impact a great win like this can have on the team moving forward.
"That's what we have to learn, how to do [better] here at home, and that's definitely a big game for us," said Marchand.
The Bruins entered Wednesday night just two points ahead of Pittsburgh for the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. With the win, they leapfrog the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders to move into fifth.
Coach Claude Julien said the Bruins' problems at home could be stemming from overthinking things and those problems continued to somewhat manifest themselves early in Wednesday night's game before the Bruins played less tight as the game went on.
"We talked about the things we're not doing at home that we do on the road and those kinds of things, and I guess we needed a better approach to fine details and I think there was a lot of focus on that," said Julien, "and sometimes when you focus too much on those things you carry a little extra weight with you, so once we loosened up a little bit in the third period, we were much better."
The Bruins delivered easily their strongest home effort of the season, but it should only be the start. If they want to be a legitimate contender, they need to sustain that kind of effort well into springtime.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.