Tyler Seguin Becoming A Bright Spot In Boston Bruins' Ongoing Dark Days

Tyler Seguin has not habitually produced since the Boston Bruins were last habitually winning. Leading up into the end of February, the perilously young skater had gone without a three-game point streak since Jan. 10, while the team had gone without a two-game win streak since Jan. 12.

At least one of those trends finally wilted this past weekend. Seguin has consistently been on the score sheet, and had a hand in four of Boston’s last nine goals while playing the better part of the last three games with new linemates David Krejci and Milan Lucic.

In the same span, Krejci and Lucic have logged 4-1-5 and 1-3-4 scoring transcripts, respectively.

They, too, are both fostering their first three-game production streak since before their better-known ally, Nathan Horton, returned to the injured reserve with his second concussion on Jan. 22. And they, along with Seguin, immediately trail Patrice Bergeron atop the Boston scoring charts.

Seguin started the new month of March by splashing a 10-game goal-scoring drought and adding an assist as part of a 4-3 overtime triumph over New Jersey last Thursday. Dating back to the first half of a home-and-home set with Ottawa to wrap up February, he has five points and a cumulative plus-five rating in his last five games.

In his 10-game cold spell immediately preceding the Devils game, Seguin failed to hit the net once out of 41 consecutive stabs at the opposing goaltender. So far this calendar month, he has tuned the mesh on two out of 10 shots on goal.

He easily could have been 3-for-11 and be fostering a three-game goal streak if Gregory Campbell had a better passing lane when he toured the puck along the far side of the New York Rangers’ net Sunday. During that play, in the twelfth minute of the second period, Seguin was parked patiently in the high slot with a gaping net at his disposal and insufficient supervision from the Rangers’ skaters.

That never came to be, since the puck never came to him, but Seguin did at least ensure a three-game point streak in the subsequent stanza on a similar play.

Using his turbine wheels to tour the biscuit over three lines and down the middle alley of the New York zone, he eventually handed things over to the left-side Lucic. Both players brought goaltender Henrik Lundqvist far enough to the post to give Krejci a gaping goalmouth, which he fed with Lucic’s diagonal pass.

With that, the most talented and promising offensive Bruin notched his first point in three meetings with the stingy Rangers this season. As trivial as that might appear, especially in another losing cause for the team, it is but one component in what could be a critical second wind for Seguin.

On a pure individual level, the Brampton, Ont. native has reestablished momentum in a timely manner as the Bruins prepare for their final visit of the season to Toronto on Tuesday. Seguin is already averaging a point per game in his NHL career at the Air Canada Centre, including his first hat trick and an assist as part of his sophomore surge last autumn.

The Maple Leafs, fresh off a late-season coaching change, are desperate to use one of two opportunities to avert a season-series sweep at the hands of the Bruins, not to mention salvage any playoff viability they might have left.

Boston’s best bet to counter Toronto’s urgency, which it must do for its own sake, is to have the rest of the strike force emulate the 25-and-under line. Seguin’s assignment to work with Krejci and Lucic has amounted to indisputable progress for the three players in question, and there is little cause to believe Seguin will let up against the Leafs.

There is certifiable progress in at least one section of the Bruins’ lineup, and it fittingly includes their highest draft choice in recent memory and the leading scorers of their last two seasons. If the rest of the roster, trade-deadline imports and all, can rally around that nucleus, their consistency should come back from its winter vacation.