BOSTON – Sometimes a loss doesn’t really feel like the soul-crushing agony of defeat, and that was definitely the case for the Bruins on Saturday night in their loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sure, the B’s ended up losing a 5-3 decision at TD Garden to a Lightning team chasing them in the standings, and both Tuukka Rask’s subpar effort and an ineffective, mistake-prone power play were big takeaway concerns from the game. But the Bruins are still up a commanding seven points in the standings and there are no more head-to-head regular-season matchups between the two teams where the Bolts can really gain ground.
The biggest theme from the highly intense, bruising regular-season affair was that both the Bruins and Lightning made snarling parting statements if they do indeed meet in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The B’s showed they are ready for the alley fight that might be coming when the NHL’s two best teams meet early in the postseason, and the Lightning showed they can come out on top in those kinds of games.
Both Atlantic Division combatants combined for 94 penalty minutes, four fighting majors, four misconducts and a second period of old-time hockey where seemingly every skirmish turned into a nasty line brawl. The B’s didn’t try to evade the question afterward, either, when asked if they had the future playoffs in mind headed into Saturday night.
With their eyes intent on the Stanley Cup prize, they sounded like a team that’s ready to go through Tampa Bay on their way to playoff advancement. The Bruins wanted to set a tone and they did just that with the “bad blood brewing” as Lightning bruiser Pat Maroon said following the game.
“You’ve got two teams playing for the top of the standings, but I think it’s a little more than too,” said Sean Kuraly, who was right in the middle of things scoring a second-period goal and burying Anthony Cirelli after he cross-checked Chara in the back. “We wanted to set the stage for what could possibly be to come. It’s two competitive teams that don’t want to give an inch.”
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Boston Bruins
It wasn’t the old days when the Big Bad Bruins might have pushed an unwitting opponent all over the ice, of course.
Brad Marchand was gang attacked by four Lightning players in the corner after making a play on a live puck at Andrei Vasilevskiy’s feet. Zdeno Chara was taken down in the main event fight by Maroon after a long, long shift that included ratty forward Anthony Cirelli cross-checking him in the back while he was engaged with the hulking Maroon.
But Chris Wagner also clubbed the bigger Barclay Goodrow in the opening fight that really got things going and his Bruins teammates will certainly remember Torey Krug attacking Mitchell Stephens after he threw a late, high hit on Patrice Bergeron along the sideboards. Every Bruins player was ready for battle against Tampa Bay knowing the stakes that will be on the line in the playoffs, and every single one of them answered the call.
With the big, strong and nasty Jeremy Lauzon now a member of the defense corps on the back end the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Nick Ritchie upfront along with an older, tougher group of B’s young players, the Bruins are ready for the fight like they might not have been a couple of postseason ago. It’s a battle-hardened group this time around in Boston that realizes you don’t let anybody push you around if you want to win in the postseason.
“Points are valuable and nobody looks forward, but if you did then you see playing them [again in the playoffs] or [being] division rivals. I don’t really like to look into the future, but I think that’s what was going on out there tonight,” said Charlie McAvoy, of two teams that weren’t backing down from each other.
“We have a feeling that maybe we’re going to see those guys again. Obviously, we didn’t get the two points. But the way that everybody played hard, and everybody played physical no matter who it was…I think there was a good response. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way [on the scoreboard], but we’ll take the positives from it and get back on the horse.”
The last few seasons the Bruins have been a little light in the physicality department. It’s no Black and Gold state secret. They would allow themselves to be pushed around a little too much and perhaps played a bit too timid when it came to really bring it once things got nasty on the ice. It certainly showed last spring in the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues, but there have been other instances where it’s been present with a large group of young, inexperienced players.
It all seemed to click in, though, with this Bruins team after they were loudly, roundly and correctly criticized for not responding to a cheap shot on Tuukka Rask in Columbus earlier this season. They have been a rowdier, tougher bunch to play against since then.
“It’s one of those things. Nobody saw what happened in that situation,” said Rask. “But then people start chirping. It was so behind the play, if people had seen it then I’m sure they would have reacted. But obviously when guys get called out, they are going to show what we are all about. I don’t think there’s ever been an issue of guys not sticking up for each other. We’re just showing more and more [closer to] the playoffs.”
That was most definitely the case on Saturday night as the Bruins and Lightning showed they are best budding rivalry in the NHL based on talent, toughness and their paths constantly converging in the postseason. Those are the exact ingredients that will create some good, old fashioned hatred on the ice like we all saw on Saturday night.
“I think both of us feel we’re the best team in the Atlantic. We went up there [last weekend], got the two points in their building and they wanted to respond. And for the simple reason as that, that the rivalry has developed now between the two of us and you’re going to get some intense matchups,” said Bruce Cassidy. “That’s what you got tonight. They were readier to go off the puck drop than we were, and it ended up being the difference in the game.
“There’s a value in sticking up for one another, there’s a value in responding. Of course there is. Some nights, it’s more important than the outcome. I’m not going to sit here and say one or the other, we’ll look through it. But we wanted to respond. I think both teams kind of went toe-to-toe in that regard, so there’s a lot of value in that. We pride ourselves on that. In fact, it was discussed earlier this year that we didn’t have enough of that. I certainly feel we do.”
Certainly, the Lightning feel like they acquitted themselves well and came away with the two points. There is no question they are tougher to play against with the summer addition of Maroon, and by adding sandpaper forward Barclay Goodrow and pesky, speedy Blake Coleman at the NHL trade deadline as well. And it showed on Saturday night with it being alright for fighting at the Garden.
“It’s one of those games that you don’t see it as much anymore, but intimidation still is a factor,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “When you look a tiger in the eye, [you] don’t back down.”
Both the Bruins and the Lightning didn’t back down in Saturday’s parting regular-season shot between two teams that fully plan on seeing each other a month or two from now. That should make for an epic playoff series after the B’s and Lightning played one of the regular season’s best games this year.