Bruins Rolling With The Punches

The Bruins have put a very respectable season together up to this point posting a 44-17-8 record and showing a rejuvenated offensive prowess that seemed to have been lost last year. The team has been a force throughout the regular season after a somewhat slow start, despite the typical Bruins plague of injuries, especially of late. The Bs have had to go without Bergeron and McAvoy for a significant stretch due to foot fracture and MCL sprains respectively, but hopefully they will both be back up in the lineup and rolling again by the start of playoffs. The original timetable for Bergeron was two weeks (a timeframe that I never expected to become a reality), which would have placed him back up in the lineup this past week, while McAvoy is more or less being ruled out for the remainder of the regular season with hopes of returning for the first round of playoffs.

It is remarkable that the Bs have been able to continue their winning ways without these two key members in the lineup, posting a 7-3-0 stint over their last 10 games; a feat that is largely in part to Riley Nash, who has stepped up big time since having to fill Bergeron's position in his absence. Of course it does not hurt that Nash is playing in between the duo of Marchand and Pastrnak who have been putting up consistently impressive numbers, especially since the injuries have struck. The two wingers are showing their leadership and scoring ability; a prime example being the 6-4 win against Carolina last week. Coming from a 4-1 deficit halfway through the third period the team was able to rally for five straight goals, highlighted by a hat trick from Pastrnak and the team posting three goals in just over a minute.

Of course the Bruins injury woes have not stopped with Bergy and McAvoy; Chara and Debrusk were both injured in the harrowing win over Carolina last week, although neither appear to be too serious. Regardless, the team took two more big hits on the injury front, especially since Debrusk had just begun heating up and forming some special chemistry with line mate David Krejci. Chara is a huge loss to the team, even for a short time. I was a pretty annoyed with Chara last year, but it has been evident that using McAvoy to eat up his minutes and keeping his legs fresh was all he really needed to thrive again.

With any luck we will have a healthy core heading into the playoffs, which we will need with our likely matchup being the fast-paced, young Maple Leafs.

The Bruins will be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning (who have held the points lead for most of the season) on the road tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see if the team is able to rally behind its offense and hold off a team that by many is favored to win the Stanley Cup this year.