Bruins right wing David Pastrnak, 88, celebrates his goal with left wing Tyler Bertuzzi, 59, and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk during their game Thursday in Boston. Steven Senne/Associated Press
The Bruins’ back-to-back games this weekend had appeared to be a pivotal two-game set for months.
They will play the Tampa Bay Lightning at 1 p.m. Saturday at TD Garden and then travel to Carolina to play the Hurricanes at 5 p.m. Sunday.
But the importance of these two games has changed. The Bruins have all but sewn up the Atlantic Division (a win on Saturday or a regulation loss by Toronto will clinch the Atlantic). Meanwhile the Lightning won’t be caught from behind by Florida for third place, and their hopes of catching Toronto for second place are dimming.
Psychologically, however, a game against a potential second-round opponent is not a throwaway.
Neither team wants to lay an egg in this situation and, to be honest, both clubs could stand to manufacture a good performance. The Bruins are riding a five-game winning streak but have needed superb goaltending from Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman to win their last two over Ottawa and Montreal.
Boredom and what could be an understandable if unconscious let’s-get-this-over-with mindset might easily be what’s behind the Bruins’ play the last couple of games. The Lightning are in a little more troubling situation. They’ve lost five of their last seven, and three in a row in which they’ve given up a total of 15 goals.
Perhaps the three-time Eastern Conference champs are just biding their time until the real games begin in April. But there can be little question that Coach Jon Cooper will want to see something more out of his talented, veteran team than what it’s shown recently.
And with little concern of gaining or losing ground for either team, it could very well make for an entertaining afternoon of hockey.
“I know Tampa Bay, they’re probably going through the same thing as us,” said Boston Coach Jim Montgomery. “They know they’re third (place), they’re probably going through the motions. I think they’re (2-5 in their last seven), but they’re playing us and we’re playing them. I expect it to be a good hockey game on Saturday. A lot of it is, you know, you may face these teams in the playoffs. Our players get amped up and Tampa Bay’s players will be amped up.”
Montgomery didn’t want to look ahead to Carolina. That could be due to the usual coach-think approach of one game at a time, or it could mean that the results of Saturday could affect how he approaches Sunday. Rest for a top player or two could be more important than any result.
On the other hand, a win at PNC Arena would be nice. The Bruins haven’t won there since capturing the Eastern Conference title in 2019 in a four-game sweep. They lost all four games in the playoffs there in a seven-game loss to the Hurricanes last spring, and in their only trip there this season, the Bruins suffered perhaps their most convincing loss of this magical season, 4-1 on the second half of a back-to-back on Jan. 29.
The Hurricanes will still be playing for something on Sunday. They went into the weekend barely hanging on to the Metropolitan Division lead despite losing rugged sniper Andrei Svechnikov to a season-ending injury. They’ll surely want to stay out of the dreaded 2-3 matchup that would land them in a first-round matchup with the Rangers, who eliminated them in the second round last year.
So, no, this weekend’s games won’t be as vital to the Bruins as they once appeared to be. But they will be interesting.
DAVID PASTRNAK has a new weapon, one that was born out of necessity. Since his rise as an elite goal scorer, Pastrnak’s bread-and-butter shot has been the sizzling one-timer from the left circle. But teams have caught on, especially in power-play situations. More often than not, that shot is either getting blocked or altered wide.
Lately, Pastrnak has been eschewing the boomer and taking a stutter step toward the shot before releasing a wrister. That’s how he scored his 49th goal on Thursday, as well as a big power-play goal in Minnesota last week.
Pastrnak credits and blames his own team’s penalty kill for his need for modification.
“We have the best penalty kill in the league, so I’m pretty sure a lot of teams have been watching how our team kills and try to simulate that, which takes away the elbows a little bit. You have to come up with some new plays,” said Pastrnak. “The way this penalty kill is going this year, it took a huge step in hockey. It’s something new that you haven’t seen in years, playing three guys a little bit away from the net. You have to adjust to that a little bit, get more guys involved and move around.”
AS EXPECTED, A.J. Greer will have a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for his crosscheck to the face of Montreal’s Mike Hoffman that got him a costly major penalty and a game misconduct. Apparently, Rem Pitlick’s late, high check on Patrice Bergeron – arguably a more a dangerous hit than even Greer’s ugly stick foul – will receive only the justice that Brad Marchand meted out.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.