Less than two weeks ago, Jim Montgomery tore into his Bruins’ players, bag-skated them and then sent another message when talking to reporters after the session.
“We’re not playoff-ready yet,” declared the B’s coach.
Now? Well, they’re getting there.
The B’s could have made life easier on themselves a little easier if they had taken advantage of their power plays (0-for-4) but, in the end, they managed to score a quality victory over one of the hottest teams in the league in the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, PNC Arena on Thursday.
Perhaps the most important development in their recent wins in Florida, Nashville and now Carolina has been their ability to produce some drama-free close-outs, something that had eluded them for most of the season.
Montgomery went with a new bottom four defense, pairing Parker Wotherspoon (four blocks, plus-2) with Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk with Andrew Peeke (four hits, four blocks), and he may have found the right combination to go along with the top pairing of Charlie McAvoy (team-high 23:13, two blocks, two takeaways) and Hampus Lindholm (goal, two blocks, plus-2).
“The biggest growth we’ve seen is how confident we are in third periods now,” Montgomery told NESN. “Nice to see in a 0-0 game (in Nashville) we go out and win a game 3-0 and did it looking like a confident team. Now we’re up 3-1 on another elite team, we push the lead to 4-1. I don’t think we gave up that much. I thought our D corps was excellent. I thought they played a great game tonight and I thought the forwards did their job.”
The B’s maintained their four-point lead in the Atlantic Division over the Florida Panthers — winners over Ottawa on Thursday — going into the teams’ showdown at the Garden on Saturday (3:30 p.m.)
Since Montgomery tore their hide off at that practice, the B’s have won four of five games and now three straight, all against playoff-eligible opponents. And Jeremy Swayman doesn’t look like he’s ready to concede the net to his good buddy Linus Ullmark for Game 1 of the playoffs just yet. He made 27 saves and put out a couple of fires before Carolina could get itself back in the game.
“I think the guys in front of me are doing a great job of boxing out, allowing me to see the first shot,” said Swayman, who has won his last three games. “I’m just trying to do my job of putting rebounds in … good areas for me, bad areas for them and just trying to do my job, make that first save.”
The Hurricanes came into the game on a heater, having gone 11-2-1 in their previous 14 while goalie Freddie Andersen was 7-0 since returning from a blood clot scare that had kept him out for most of the season.
But the Bruins took control of the game in the first period with three consecutive goals in the first 10:46 of the game. The first one was a momentous one – and a long time coming.
Brad Marchand had been stuck on 399 career goals for a whopping 10 goal-less games but he finally got off the schneid at 2:12. Morgan Geekie hit him with a beautiful blue line-to-blue line pass to spring him for a breakaway. Andersen stopped the captain’s original backhander but, as Marchand was falling, the rebound bounced off him and through Andersen for the milestone tally. As Marchand made his way to the bench for his long-awaited fist-bumps, he did the imaginary throw-the-monkey-off-his-back motion, the relief obvious on his face. It was his 28th of the season.
“We try not to think about it, but obviously it was kind of an elephant in the room. Nice to get it. I don’t have to worry about it anymore,” said Marchand. “It’s nice that we had a really good game to follow it up on a big road trip. It’s a good night.”
They doubled their lead at 7:42, thanks to some defensive confusion from Carolina and high-end skill from David Pastrnak. Operating in the left corner, Pastrnak held the puck as the Hurricanes scrambled into their man-to-man defense, taking everyone but Pastrnak. As Brent Burns finally fell off him, Pastrnak took the puck to the net and roofed it over Andersen for No. 47.
The B’s and Pastrnak were not done. From high on the right wing, he zipped a pretty pass into the slot that Danton Heinen one-timed past Andersen for his 16th goal of season.
Trying to get his team going, Carolina’s Jack Drury dropped the gloves with John Beecher and landed a couple of shots after Beecher had lost his balance. But the fight did not ignite the Canes’ offense, at least not yet.
The Bruins had a chance to put the hammer down on the Canes when Andrei Svechnikov laid some lumber on Charlie McAvoy and got a double-minor for high-sticking, but the B’s had little urgency on the advantage and managed just two shots on net.
If that wasn’t enough to give Carolina some momentum, the B’s then took two penalties 10 seconds apart – a Brandon Carlo slash and then Lindholm for slashing – giving the Canes a 5-on-3 for 1:50. Unlike the B’s, the Canes decided to accept the gift. With the puck bouncing around at the side of the net, Jake Guentzel chopped at it and it bounced over a prone Swayman to get the Canes on the board at 15:12.
The B’s then had to kill off a too-many-men penalty late in the second, but they managed to do so to get into the intermission with a 3-1 lead.
The Canes may have had a little life with that one goal, but the B’s clamped down in the third until Lindholm, after taking a bad icing, ended it with an empty net goal from his own zone to put a bow on an impressive road trip.
There’s a big game on Saturday against the Panthers, but then there are just four more regular season games before the real season begins.
“It’s crazy to think. It’s gone so fast, it’s been such a fun year,” said a grinning Swayman, “but I’m excited for what’s to come, baby.”
