The Bruins began Saturday afternoon celebrating Patrice Bergeron’s 1,000 career points and they ended it celebrating a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets that wasn’t always the prettiest effort.
As part of a pregame ceremony, Bergeron, who reached the 1,000-point milestone last month, received multiple gifts from the likes of Johnny Bucyk, Don Sweeney and longtime teammates David Krejci and Brad Marchand. There were also a pair of videos, one highlighting his milestone goals and assists and another featuring the other three players who have scored 1,000 points in a Bruins uniform -- Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and Ray Bourque.
Bergeron’s family joined him on the ice, and his kids watched warmups from the Bruins’ bench.
“It was special,” Bergeron said of the ceremony. “Obviously it means a lot. I’ve been around for a long time, this city and playing in front of these fans. I’m very appreciative of all the support I’ve had over the years from them. It was a nice moment. I was happy to share that with my family and my teammates as well. They’re part of why I was able to accomplish the milestone. Again, very thankful for all of them, and obviously the fans as well.”
‘It’s your dressing room’
Of course, Bergeron’s leadership means just as much to the Bruins as the points, and there was an example of that Saturday.
While the Bruins led Columbus 2-1 after two periods, they weren’t playing particularly well, a theme that has dragged on for a few games now.
Coach Jim Montgomery said he got a little worked up in the dressing room during the first intermission, but that it didn’t seem to wake the team up. So at the second intermission, he let Bergeron take charge.
“Never mind the Hall of Fame player he is, he’s a Hall of Fame person and leader,” Montgomery said of Bergeron. “So much so that -- after the first, I was not happy with our team. I was not very happy in between periods when I addressed the team. Second period, it had no impact. So I said to Bergy with 40 seconds left in the second, ‘It’s your dressing room.’ I just hope he doesn’t want to be a head coach, because we came out and played our best period of the game. That just speaks volumes. One, it’s how much I trust him, and it’s how much the players listen to him.”
The Bruins got goals from Taylor Hall and Tomas Nosek 19 seconds apart in the middle of the third period to extend their lead to 4-1. The Blue Jackets did get one back on the power play, but wouldn’t get any closer.
Penalties remain a problem
Speaking of Columbus power plays, the Bruins continue to have trouble staying out of the box. They gave the Blue Jackets five power plays on Saturday, which led to both of their goals. That came one game after they put the Los Angeles Kings on the power play six times.
For a team that has a lot of possession (fifth in Corsi-for percentage) and doesn’t give up a ton of high-danger chances (fourth-fewest allowed), the Bruins somehow find a way to get on the wrong side of plays and commit infractions more than you’d expect.
They’ve taken the sixth-most penalties in the NHL this season and rank 24th in penalty differential. That’s an area where you would generally expect to find bad teams that are chasing play a lot and resorting to desperate defending in their own zone.
In the Bruins’ case, four of their six penalties on Saturday (there was also a matching penalty in there) came in the offensive zone.
“I don’t think we’re playing very good hockey. We’re not,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think we’re checking well enough. I don’t think we’re playing fast enough with or without the puck. It’s leading to us spending more time in our own end. It’s leading to us getting on the wrong side of pucks. We’re taking a lot of stick infractions, especially in the offensive zone, where our forwards have been very good all year of being over the top of people. We’re not there right now, and that’s leading to us leaking oil a little bit in how we want to play.”
Swayman goes for goal
With the Columbus net empty late in regulation, Jeremy Swayman got the puck below the goal line and saw an opportunity to go for glory.
The Bruins netminder took a quick look up, saw open ice and an open net in front of him, and fired a 200-foot shot that looked like it just might go in. Unfortunately, it ended up inches wide of the left post and scraped the outside of the empty cage.
It would have been the first goal ever scored by a Bruins goalie. Alas, Swayman will have to try again some other time.
“I was leaning with it, too. ‘It’s going… No,’” Swayman said, adding that he’s never scored a goal at any level. “…I wanna score so bad, man. It’ll happen.”
Near-goal aside, it was a strong performance from Swayman, who stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced. It was an important bounce-back given that Swayman allowed four goals on 16 shots in his last start last week in Arizona. That, in part, led to the Bruins riding the red-hot Linus Ullmark for three straight games this week.
“I thought he was our best player, and I think he needed to be,” Montgomery said. “Very confident. Very confident in his movements. … Mentally, when a goalie’s on top, he’s taking whistles at the right moments, tries to go for that empty-net goal -- that’s the sign of someone that I guess the game is going slow for, which is what you want mentally.”
Montgomery said before the game that the Bruins won’t be riding Ullmark for three straight starts all season, noting that they’re going to need both goalies to play and play well down the stretch so that no one gets worn down.
“With our schedule coming, the way it’s gonna get real busy, especially post-All-Star break, it’s gonna be the 1A-1B again, just because we need both of them playing, and we have confidence in both of them,” he said.
McAvoy still has ‘levels to reach’
We noted the other day that Brad Marchand and David Krejci still aren’t back to 100% in their returns from offseason surgery and a year abroad, respectively. The same goes for Charlie McAvoy.
He’s playing a lot (23:20 per game), he’s putting up points (17 in 17 games after recording an assist Saturday), and his advanced stats are solid (53.7% Corsi, 57.4% expected goals), but McAvoy and the Bruins both believe there’s still more there.
“He has levels to reach,” Montgomery said. “I think if you ask Charlie, he’s not happy with his 200-foot game. There’s moments where he’s elite at both ends of the ice. What I like most about him is when games are on the line, that’s when he’s at his best. There’s going to come a time, just like with Brad Marchand. Same thing. Neither one of them are at the top of their game yet. That’s good. That’s good for our team.”
McAvoy said his play with the puck and in the offensive zone is where he sees the most room for improvement.
“I think it’s just the ultimate confidence in plays with the puck,” he said. “I think it’s really the offensive side. Defensively, a lot of that’s the same. It’s chemistry, it’s cohesiveness with the five-man unit, ending plays quickly. I think for me, when I’m at my best, it’s offensively I’m able to contribute all over the ice to make plays happen.”
McAvoy got dropped to the second power-play unit on Saturday in favor of Hampus Lindholm, perhaps a reflection of McAvoy's offensive game not quite being on point. Interestingly enough, Lindholm and McAvoy both set up power-play goals Saturday -- Lindholm on a one-time feed to David Pastrnak, and McAvoy on a pretty much identical setup to Krejci.