Back At .500, Confidence Growing For Bruins
BOSTON (CBS) – After a shaky start to the season, the Boston Bruins are back to .500.
They've dug themselves out of their early season hole by scoring 24 goals in their last four game, all victories.
"It's good. We're winning battles. We're working hard out there. We're playing the full 60. I think right now, that's the main thing, is consistency, and that's what we're doing," said Tyler Seguin, who has four of those 24 tallies in the last four contests.
"I think it's just that we started to build our confidence," said forward Milan Lucic. "I think a big thing for us is that we touched up on our neutral zone and we are doing a good job getting back and creating turnovers. Once we are creating those turnovers we are doing a good job going quick on the attack and I think that's why we have been rewarded for as many goals as we've scored."
That confidence is leading to great energy in the locker room.
"You just have that feeling going into the game, like we didn't have before. Like we're going to win the game and it just depends on by how many," said defenseman Joe Corvo, who had three assists in the B's 6-3 win over Edmonton. "That's just how I feel and I think the team feels going into the game. And when you're playing well like that it makes it fun."
Corvo was one of the players struggling early in the season, but broke out Thursday night against the Oilers. He has four assists and is a +5 during the Bruins mini-win streak.
"I've been kind of feeling it the last three games, like something was going to happen," said Corvo. "I think I've been feeling a lot more calm out there, and making things happen. I was just waiting for that big night to happen and it was tonight."
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"Obviously it makes me feel good, especially when the team wins and that happens and I get to contribute and do the things that I was brought here to do," the defenseman said of his three helpers. "So I'm going to obviously feel a sense of satisfaction from that, and just try to keep the ball rolling into the next game and hopefully keep winning."
"He's getting more comfortable. He's understanding our system better – not that he didn't at the beginning, but you've got to kind of go into a game, and you can't be thinking about everything you're doing out there," head coach Claude Julien said of Corvo. "It's got to be done instinctively, and that's what he's starting to do now. He's just reacting to a situation instead of over-thinking it."
Also breaking out of a slump on Thursday night was forward Brad Marchand, who stopped a 10-game goal-less streak with two against Edmonton, giving him six on the season.
"It was nice to get the monkey off the back it was definitely getting frustrating," said Marchand. "(I was) missing a lot of opportunities, so it was nice to get a couple."
"I think the big thing was keep it a little more simple and getting pucks to the net," he said. "I was getting a lot of opportunities and they just weren't going in. And if you keep pushing and keep getting opportunities then eventually something is going to go in and that's what happened tonight."
So now the Bruins are back to even on the season, but sitting 11th in the Eastern Conference is far from good enough for the defending champs.
"We've had to work extremely hard to get ourselves back at .500 here. Obviously a big thing for us is having a winning record and we still haven't accomplished that yet this year," said Lucic. "Obviously we've made strides in the right direction, especially these last four games to start November. We have to keep going, keep building off what we are doing right and keep this thing going."
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