Boston Bruins

Despite win, Bruins know they can be better
March 31, 2017, 5:04 AM ET [17 Comments]
Ty Anderson
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When do you know a team is back to normal? Probably when they start criticizing their wins.

Good news: the Bruins are apparently back at that point after Thursday’s 2-0 win over the Stars.

“We didn’t play a great game,” B’s winger Brad Marchand said. “We got the two points, which is huge right now. But, Tuukka played a great game. You have to give him a lot of credit. And D had a lot of big blocks. We have to clean it up for next game, but we do have to be happy with the two points.”

“I don’t think tonight was our best defensive effort,” Kevan Miller echoed. “We got a little bit away from what made us successful the past few games. But, sometimes, you need to win some like that. Tuukka did a great job in front of us and we had a pretty good third period, which was huge.”

With goals from Marchand and a second period power-play goal from Torey Krug, the Bruins relied heavily on Tuukka Rask to carry the load for the team, and the 30-year-old did just that, with 27 stops en route to his seventh shutout of the season and his second win in as many games since returning from the lower-body injury that kept him out of last week’s victory over the Islanders.

“I thought he earned his keep tonight. He was our best player,” Bruins interim head coach Bruce Cassidy said of Rask’s performance. “When we broke down he was there. They were off net a few chances, and I think from my vantage point his angles were so solid that there wasn’t much net to shoot at, [had it] under control. So it certainly makes it easier, but when you’re in your end that much it’s taxing on the goaltender, so I guess there’s both sides of that, but... I think if you asked him, he enjoys when the D are working so hard to get sticks in lanes and willing to block shots without taking away his vision, and that’s a fine line there. And I think we’ve done a good job with that.”

For all the negativity or criticism of their game in front of Rask, the Bruins did come up with a massive stop late in the third period, with a picture perfect kill of a four-minute power play for the Stars.

“There were times we needed to move the puck a little bit better, but overall on the defensive side of the puck, I felt like we shut things down,” said B’s defender Brandon Carlo. “That four-minute penalty kill in the third was definitely a huge aspect of the game that got us that win, so we beared down when we needed to, and obviously Tuukks [Tuukka Rask] played great.”

This and that

- Torey Krug’s power-play goal gave him 50 points on the season. It’s been a sneaky 50 points, too, and it actually makes Krug the first Bruins defenseman to record 50 points in a single season since both Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman did it for the club back in 2008-09. You’re a straight-up bozo if you don’t think that Krug’s first year of his new deal has been a definite win for the Bruins.

- Tyler Seguin had three glorious chances to put the Stars back in this game and each shot seemed to ring the high glass behind Rask’s net. I thought the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs were over? And as I sit here and crow about Seguin, consider this: the only two pieces connected to the return of the Seguin trade, Joe Morrow and Jimmy Hayes (who was acquired for Reilly Smith two years ago), did nothing. Morrow, the club’s eighth defenseman, was a scratch for the 14th straight game, and Hayes logged a nine-shift, 6:16 night. Seguin, meanwhile, wrapping up his worst year in Dallas, still has 70 points. No matter your stance on the player, it’s clear that the B’s did not get nearly enough for Seguin.

- Kevan Miller said that he reached out to the Stars’ trainers to see if Curtis McKenzie was OK after he caught him with a gruesome high stick in the third period of the win. McKenzie was rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, and appears to have avoided any incident involving his eyeball. Miller, one tough customer, seemed genuinely bothered -- or maybe upset is the better word -- by the injury.

“It was really unfortunate,” Miller said of the high stick. “I had, honestly, no idea how it happened. I just turned and I ran into it. But, no, I’ll be definitely checking in on him to see how he is doing.”

Up next

The Bruins wrap up their current three-game homestand with a Saturday afternoon matinee against the Panthers. The Panthers are donezo, so this is a game that the Bruins should win. With that said, the Cats have managed to play the Black and Gold pretty hard in recent years, so expect a fight.