In a week of missed opportunities, the Bruins looked set to let another pass them by through 20 listless minutes of downright uninterested play against the Senators.
There the Bruins were, in an 0-1 hole against a hopeless Senators team down their best player and captain (Erik Karlsson) and starting Danny Taylor, a 31-year-old journeyman goaltender playing in his first NHL game since Mar. 2013. At one point, Senator defenseman Christian Wolanin -- definitely not a real person, by the way -- played himself into a deke that forced Ottawa offside, and then turned the puck over at center ice. It's worth noting that Wolanin had zero forechecking pressure when this happened.
All of this came while the Hurricanes were in the midst of a 2-0 lead on the Lightning.
But with an intermission to sort things out, the Black and Gold responded with five unanswered goals, got some help by way of an overtime win for the Hurricanes, and now find themselves back in control of their own destiny for the top seed in the Eastern Conference after a 5-2 Saturday night final at TD Garden.
"That's why you play the game, you want to play to win and to be at your best. We're in a position to win our conference," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said of their next challenge. "It's a big feat, obviously, home-ice -- we talk about how big it is. We're right there and obviously I talked about how you finish going into the playoffs. It's definitely all about tomorrow playing the right way and feeling good about our game."
The results break down the future scenarios quite simply: Thanks to tonight's win and Lightning overtime loss to Carolina, a win of any sort Sunday night against the eliminated Panthers means that the Bruins would win the Atlantic Division (and East) over the Bolts by a single point. That would allow the Bruins to avoid the Maple Leafs in the first round and instead play the Devils, who are locked into the second wild card.
Playing in Game 82 with three rounds of home ice on the line is the kind of scenario that the Bruins admittedly didn't think was possible when they sat at an underwhelming and injury-fueled 6-7-4 in mid-November, and with the Leafs and Lightning dominating.
"I would not have thought that," Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy admitted. "Let's face it, we were trying to find our own game and get to where we thought we were at the start of the year, which was definitely a playoff team. We just didn't know where we would fit, and the way Tampa got out of the gate, and Toronto for that matter, it was going to be an uphill battle, but here we are. We're in a position to take it, and that's a credit to the guys. We've worked hard to get here. This wasn't by accident. We didn't back in, I don't think."
With Sunday's game meaning something, and potentially making the difference between a deep run and a first-round exit, Cassidy knows that there will pressure on his team. But it's the same pressure that will come when the stakes raise next week.
"There's pressure, obviously, to win," said Cassidy. "You want that number one seed, but when you have pressure, and you have expectation, what does that tell you? It means you're good, so you've got to be able to handle it."
Cassidy also confirmed that Tuukka Rask, parked on the bench with a night off Saturday in hopes of this exact scenario, will be in the B's crease against the Panthers.
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