Kalman: Bruins Unexpectedly Exceptional When They Needed It Most
BOSTON (CBS) -- Bruins forward Brad Marchand accepted the 7th Player Award Thursday as the player who has exceeded expectations this season based on fan vote.
After the pregame presentation, Marchand continued to exceed expectations with his 37th goal of the season 2:44 into the first period. The goal gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead on Detroit and tipped the lid of an evening that was all about exceeding expectations.
With their 5-2 win at TD Garden the Bruins pulled into a tie with the Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division with 93 points. Both teams have one game remaining. The Bruins also lead Philadelphia by one point for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Without going through all the scenarios, the Bruins still need help to get into the playoffs, and would need a lot of help if they lose their regular-season finale to Ottawa on Saturday.
"It's fun," said defenseman Torey Krug, who scored his first goal in 55 games in the win. "Obviously you'd like to be in a different position where your playoff spot's secure. But like I said before the game, you want to play in big games and important games and you want to be the guy that helps your team win. I think right now we have a lot of guys in this locker room that want to help out that way."
This season has been anything but fun for the Bruins. Even before their 2-7-1 slid before the Red Wings game dropped Boston from the top eight in the East, this season was a roller coast covered in muck and grime. Few of the Bruins' wins have been spectacular and many of their losses have been ugly. For many reasons, the Bruins are lucky to be in a position to make the playoffs on the last weekend of the regular season.
Considering their lackluster performance in a 2-1 shootout loss to the mathematically eliminated Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, in addition to so many other probable wins they turned into losses, there were few reasons to believe the Bruins would respond with an old-school shellacking against Detroit.
But then David Pastrnak turned on the jets and scored on a breakaway 1:25 into the game. Marchand followed with one-timer 1:19 later and the Bruins were rolling the way they did for most of the five years prior to last season. Krug scored his first goal of 2016. Tuukka Rask made all the difficult saves, including a point-blank glove stop on Jonathan Ericsson, and finished with 13 saves. And Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard, who was coming off a shutout and like his team was on three-game winning streak, went to the bench with 19:15 remaining in the game after giving up Boston's fifth goal.
The only way you knew the Bruins were capable of such a performance was if you knew to expect the unexpected or you were in the Bruins' dressing room behind closed doors prior to the game.
"I mean that's how we came to the rink, ready to play, energized, positive. ... And we went out and performed and got results. And we need to do that again our last game," captain Zdeno Chara said.
Wow, the Bruins actually think they can do this again. Just as the Red Wings play on the second half of a back-to-back played into the Bruins' hands, the Senators playing with nothing but pride on the line will be another Boston advantage. The Bruins have to be careful because now that they showed they can play the way they did against Detroit, expectations will suddenly be high.
"Well we just realize how important it is to have every single guy pulling their load and committed to the system and moving forward," Krug said. "We played great but that game's over with and we have another big test and we've got to just realize that and bring the same effort Saturday."
Regardless of whether they get the outside help they need to get them in the playoffs, anything less than a performance similar to Thursday on Saturday will seal the Bruins' fate as underachievers.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media
outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
