In this edition of Boston Bruins News & Rumors, a bottom-six forward suffered an injury on the recent six-game road trip, a veteran forward scored a milestone goal to get a monkey off of his back, the Bruins have been better at closing out games recently after a bad stretch of not closing them out and more.
Justin Brazeau Injured on Road Trip
One of the pleasant surprises this season and more recently has been Justin Brazeau. In the first period of a 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators on April 2, he left in the first period after taking a check at center ice and went immediately to the locker room. The Bruins announced that he was not returning to the game with an upper-body injury and before a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on April 4, head coach Jim Montgomery said that Brazeau flew back to Boston on April 3 to see the doctors.
After practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Friday (April 5), Montgomery gave an update on his forward’s injury and there really wasn’t one as the second-year head coach said that he is week-to-week.
“Still week to week,” said Montgomery. “We don’t have any definitive information, unfortunately.”
Lineup-wise, it’s going to be interesting to see what Montgomery does as there a just five regular-season games remaining and I’m sure they would like to get newly acquired Pat Maroon into the lineup before the playoffs.
Bruins Closing Out Games Better
If there was one issue that the Bruins were having this season, it was closing out games late in the third period. They have let several key points slip away and ended with an overtime or shootout loss. On their recent trip, they secured eight out of a possible 12 points and did so closing out games strong.
Related: Bruins Could Benefit if Montgomery Stops Experimenting
Against the Predators, it was a scoreless game, the Bruins scored two goals and then sealed the game with a David Pastrnak empty-net goal. Then two nights later, Hampus Lindholm sealed a 4-1 victory over the Hurricanes with an empty-netter. As the playoffs get closer, finishing games the way they have lately is going to be a key for the Black and Gold.
Brad Marchand Relived to Have Milestone Goal Scored
One look at the play of captain Brad Marchand recently and you could see he’s playing with a lot of pressure. Finding the back of the net has been an issue and you could tell whether it was 5-on-5, on the power play, or shorthanded, he was pressing way too much. Against the Hurricanes, he was finally able to break through with his 400th career goal and after the game, you could tell he was relieved.
“It was good. Was trying not to think about it…it was kind of an elephant in the room. Nice to get it. Don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s nice that we had a really good game to follow it up and a big road trip. It’s a good night.”
Brad Marchand
Following the game, Montgomery spoke about his captain potting his milestone goal and how amazing of an accomplishment it is to score 400-plus in the NHL.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment to get 400 goals in this league,” said Montgomery. “It speaks about longevity, it speaks about your ability to make a tremendous amount of plays over the course of your career. There’s a guy that has been doubted his whole life and all he keeps doing is putting out any doubts in anyone’s mind about how great an athlete he is and great a hockey player and Bruin he is.”
Now that the goal has been scored, hopefully, that takes a lot of pressure off of Marchand, who missed practice Friday as a maintenance day, and he can get back to playing his game down the stretch ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Black and Gold look to have a better postseason run than they had last spring.
Tough Strech Begins With Panthers
Five games are remaining in the regular season and there is still a lot to be decided in terms of where Boston will finish in the standings in the Atlantic Division. They host the Florida Panthers on Saturday (April 6) and will enter the game with a four-point lead on them for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. It’s a very big two points, to say the least. After that, the Hurricanes come to the TD Garden on April 9 and those two games will go a long way into determining the Black and Gold’s fate finishing first or second in the division.