On Hockey
Phil Stacey
BOSTON - Remember that old "Seinfeld" episode where Jerry dated a woman who looked great in a certain light - but hideous in others?
The Boston Bruins can relate.
Less than 48 hours removed from getting pummelled (again) by the Canadiens in Montreal, the Bruins did a complete 180 back on home ice last night. With four different players scoring, the hosts looked like world beaters in completely dispatching the New York Islanders, 4-1, at the Garden.
"This one was important for a number of reasons," said goaltender Tim Thomas, who stopped 28 shots. "Most importantly, for our self confidence."
When the Bruins play responsible team defense, get balanced scoring and forecheck aggressively as they did last night, they can be fun to watch. They might not be the most exciting team to come flying down the rink, but when you win, people don't complain.
But this team isn't good enough to play that way all the time. So when that certain ugly light creeps up - like the 8-2 pasting they suffered against the hated Habs - they look like a team that might struggle playing Catholic Memorial.
Fortunately for the team wearing black sweaters, that never really came into play last night. Coming out with a fire that was missing two days ago north of the border, they scored twice within the game's first 101/2 minutes, tallied on each of their first two power plays and never really let the visitors from Long Island have a sniff at two points.
"We got back to playing 60 minutes of good hockey," said rookie left wing Milan Lucic, the fan favorite who scored his fifth goal of the season. "We talked before the game about what we wanted to do, putting that (Montreal) game behind us while also learning from it. I think we were able to do that."
The Bruins' four goals last night came from four very different type of players: a budding power play threat from the point (defenseman Dennis Wideman); a player more known for his fisticuffs, but growing into a decent two-way player (Lucic); the team's hands down best playmaker and skilled forward (Marc Savard); and a 20-year-old with world class speed who, if he can somehow put it all together, might be a 40-goal scorer some day (Phil Kessel).
A power play tally from Wideman and a pretty wrister from Lucic, all within a span of 52 seconds, gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead midway through the first. That might as well have been 20-0, with the struggles that Winthrop's Rick DiPietro displayed in the Isles' net and the overall lethargy shown by the visitors.
Savard netted the game's prettiest goal, a bad angle slapper from between the goal line and the bottom of the circle to DiPietro's left midway through the second period. By the time Kessel's man-advantage snapshot from the dot eked through the keeper's legs late in the middle stanza, this one was all but over.
Last night's victory saw Boston leapfrog the Islanders in the standings, sending them into this weekend's All-Star break in Atlanta with 54 points, good for seventh overall in the Eastern Conference.
They're not going to catch Ottawa for the top spot in the Northeast Division, meaning they can finish no better than a No. 4 seed for the playoffs. But with only four points separating them from the team currently occupying that spot, the Pittsburgh Penguins, there's no reason why they can't.
"At this point, it's about chasing the teams in front of us (in the standings) and stop looking at those teams behind us," said Savard, who will join Thomas and captain Zdeno Chara for the All-Star festivities in Atlanta this weekend. "That's how we'll move up in the standings."
Of course, they could also bottom out and miss the playoffs entirely. After all, they're only eight points better than their two division rivals, the Sabres and the Maple Leafs, who sit 13th and 14th, respectively in the current hierarchy.
What does all this gibberish mean?
That with 33 games to play over the next two-and-a-half months, the Bruins can pretty much determine their own fate. Earn points in, say, two-thirds of those games, and a playoff spot is pretty much a sure thing. Start falling apart defensively like a hippo on thin ice, and it's another spring of time spent on the links.
"There's a little more than a third of the season to go, so they're all important now," said Lucic, whose screen of DiPietro helped Kessel score his goal. "Beating those teams in front of us - that's the bottom line."
With these being the absolute halcyon days for Boston sports fans, the Bruins often find themselves playing the role of Jan Brady in a city of Marcias. The Red Sox are the world champions, the Patriots are nine days away from winning their fourth title in seven years and the Celtics seem well on their way to having the 17th championship banner hoisted into the Garden rafters.
But the Bruins? They just plod along, doing their own thing while only the most diehard of those pro hockey fans still remaining in town seem to notice.
The fact of the matter is, the Bruins are not a bad team. They're not great by any means - they have actually allowed more goals (132) than they've scored (128) - but in today's NHL, you don't need to be a juggernaut to qualify for the postseason. Simply get your ticket punched to the dance and anything can happen: just as the Edmonton Oilers of two seasons ago.
E-mail Phil Stacey at pstacey@salemnews.com.
