Boston Bruins' Aaron Ward, upper left, celebrates his winning goal in overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 15 with teammates P.J. Axelsson, centre, and Phil Kessel, right. (Michael Dwyer/Associated Press)
Feature
Bruins OK with being hunted
NHL club clings to Eastern Conference playoff berth as regular-season winds down
Last Updated Wed., March 26, 2008
By Chris Iorfida, CBC Sports
The giant B on Boston Bruins jerseys may as well be a bull's-eye these days.
The Bruins (38-28-10) were sitting alone in sixth place in the NHL's Eastern Conference at the beginning of March, but a 2-5-4 span had them clinging to the last playoff spot in the East with just two weeks to play.
Boston scored just 16 goals during those 11 games, and Washington, Florida, Buffalo and Toronto all moved to within four points in the standings.
The Bruins gained a little daylight on Tuesday, trumping Toronto 6-2, while Florida and Buffalo also lost. Washington remains two points behind Boston, but the Bruins have a game in hand on the Capitals.
Offence dried up
"We haven't been able to score and get in front of the net and bang in rebounds," defenceman Dennis Wideman said. "When you get down the stretch here, the goals you score are [nearly] all rebound goals and crashing the net."
While nearly the entire team is ice-cold offensively, veteran forwards Marco Sturm and Glen Murray have been particularly hard-pressed. Sturm has two goals in his last 10 games, while Murray has just one point in his last 12 contests.
The pressure only grew more intense when it was learned Monday that all-star centre Marc Savard, who generates much of Boston's offence, would miss at least the two Toronto games after taking a cross-check to the back from Montreal's Steve Begin last week.
Glen Murray celebrates one of Boston's goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night. The Bruins won 6-2, giving them a much-needed boost in the East playoff race. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
The Bruins will need to summon the same kind of will that has seen them overcome nearly season-long injuries to top forward Patrice Bergeron and Manny Fernandez, who was deemed the team's No. 1 goaltender heading into the season.
As well, injuries have sidelined key defencemen Andrew Alberts, Aaron Ward and Andrew Ference for a total of 76 games.
In driver's seat
Despite all the troubles, the franchise is in a position it hasn't occupied since 2004, controlling its own playoff destiny in the final two weeks of the season.
"If we sat back and looked at it at the beginning of the season, that we had seven games to make the playoffs, it's a great opportunity for us, and that's kind of the way we're approaching it," forward Chuck Kobasew said.
Should the Bruins retain a playoff spot, it may not be the prettiest of things to behold.
Not the most talented bunch in the league, Boston has achieved success this season by adhering to a stifling defensive system employed by first-year coach Claude Julien.
The margin between victory and resounding defeat has been extremely fine, illustrated by routs suffered earlier this month to teams with speed, Washington and Toronto.
"When we're on our game with our neutral zone, it slows down, takes away a lot of speed, and if we're off, we're left with a lot of holes," Wideman said.
"Teams like Washington really stretch out the zone with three forwards really high, and if we don't stay compact in the neutral zone, it makes things easier for the other team."
Chara's return a big boost
Wideman and Zdeno Chara will be under even more pressure to generate scoring chances from the back end given the injury to Savard. Chara recently returned from a five-game absence in a campaign that is rightly meriting Norris Trophy consideration as top defenceman in the league.
Chara has 16 goals and 33 assists in 71 games, with a plus-12 rating. While the team was drubbed by a collective score of 18-4 in those early-March games against Washington and Toronto, including allowing nine even-strength goals, Chara was a plus-1 overall for the two tilts.
Aside from the big defenceman and the play of goalies Tim Thomas and Alex Auld, the Bruins have been buoyed by the energy that youngsters Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Petteri Nokelainen have often provided.
"For me as a young guy, you can never take a game off, you can never take a shift off," Lucic said. "As fast as you can move yourself up the lineup, you can move yourself down the lineup as fast, and you gotta make sure you're ready to play every night."
It's the type of attitude more of the veterans will have to embody for the Bruins to have any chance of making the playoffs for the first time in four years.
