Haggerty: Bruins offense starting to come together at right time

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BOSTON – The Bruins idly wondered just how good they could be often in the first half of the season, and hoped they would get a chance to find out if a few more pucks started finding the back of the net.

It took almost the entire first half of the regular season, but the Bruins are starting to find out just how good they can be with a functional offense, and a power play that can actually help them win some games.

The Bruins used both to score six goals on Saturday afternoon in a solid 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, and captured an important regulation win against a team that is one of their closest competitors in the playoff race. It also continues an offensive awakening over the last dozen games where the Bruins have scored 37 goals and succeeded on 26.1 (11-for-42) of their power play possessions over that span.

“The guys are not hesitating,” said Tuukka Rask, who gets a pretty good look at Boston’s offensive players at practice. “They’re just moving the puck, attacking, and shooting. That’s tough for a goalie. You can definitely see it. When you score a couple goals, I guess your confidence goes up a little bit. I think that’s what happened [with us]. So we’ve just got to make sure that we keep it going and don’t take a step back.”

On Saturday it was like much of the bountiful offensive stretch for the B’s with their best players stepping up their game. David Krejci, Torey Krug, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara among Boston’s best players, and those were the names that stepped up and produced when it was needed against the Flyers.

“It’s our job. We have to do our job to lead this team. You know that it’s not always going to be the same guys every night, but we know that it’s important for this team that the best players have to be the best players. It’s our job to lead by example and lead by our play,” said Zdeno Chara, who smoked a one-timer on a cross-ice pass from David Pastrnak as part of a four goal attack for the B’s in the second period. “I’m not keeping track of how many games [we’ve been scoring]. It’s getting better but we always want to keep improving and keep kind of pushing ourselves to be the best that we can be. You know at this time of the year we have to, we have to keep looking to move up and keep building on some positives and good things.”

The Bruins have been able to maintain their solid defensive play and Tuukka Rask is still playing at an extremely high level, so it’s the additional offense that’s helped them collect some pretty convincing wins over Florida, St. Louis and Philadelphia over the last week. Marchand has seven goals in his last five games, and has posted a whopping 12 points in his last six games he heats up for the first time in the regular season.

Krug has three goals and 14 points in those very-same dozen encouraging games, and has four power play points in the last three games as Boston’s man advantage unit has become a legitimate threat for the first time all season. Clearly the addition of Frank Vatrano to the B’s lineup 12 games ago also provided a bit of an offensive boost, and handed the Bruins another player that could finish off some of the plays that went unrewarded in the first half of Boston’s season.

For the Bruins it’s also about the younger players in Boston’s lineup beginning to understand the day-to-day expectations in the NHL, and exactly the kind of consistency that’s required for success to follow.

Marchand alluded to it when he said he felt that “all the pieces” are coming together for the Bruins a little past the midway point, but in plenty of time to still help them as divisional rivals like Ottawa and Toronto chase them with significant games in hand.

“I think early on we had a lot of moving parts and guys in and out of the lineup. [We had] different guys that came in that we all had to get used to one another, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” said Marchand. “It took half the year – but…I think we all realized that we have to be a desperate team. We’re starting to come together and learn each other and finally get some chemistry on the lines. All of that comes into play and again, I think we’re just starting to connect.”

The rub about all of those additional offense and good feelings from the Black and Gold after waylaying the Broad Street Bullies: the B’s are only 6-4-2 during this productive 12 game span of games. It’s certainly better than treading water along at .500, and getting stuck in an eternal win one/lose one rut.

It will also take some time, and plenty more good offensive nights, if the B's are going to climb from their current rankings of 23rd in offense and 23rd on the power play. The Bruins need to be much better than that if they want to compile points, get some separation in their search for a playoff spot and make life easier for themselves when the calendar hits March and April.

It appears that things are coming together nicely for the Black and Gold at the right time, and that’s surely encouraging. But they need to seize this good stretch of play and win a lot more than they lose in order for anybody to buy in and say it’s going to be different for the B’s this time around. 

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