Bruins Talk: Boston Wins Third Straight

The Boston Bruins have seemingly risen from the dead once again - for now.

On Tuesday morning, the Bruins were hanging on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Confernce, with a home-and-home series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the teams chasing the Black and Gold.

The Bruins had lost three straight going in, and looked vulnerable to teams like Buffalo, Washington, and Florida, which were all creeping up.

The Capitals, for instance, were only two points back of the B's, who on the weekend had just lost to Montreal for the eighth straight time this season and had only three victories in a dozen games this month.

Certainly, had the Bruins lost both games to the Maple Leafs, they would have been finished.

Instead, Boston came out and smoked the Buds twice, outscoring Toronto 10-4. The two victories not only avenged an 8-2 drubbling suffered at the hands of the same squad on March 6th, but also eliminated the Leafs from playoff contention.

Then the B's followed the pair of victories with their third straight triumph on early Saturday afternoon, a 4-0 shutout over the reeling Ottawa Senators.

Tim Thomas, whom I heavily criticized recently, was in goal for all three victories, and was named the first star in two of them, stopping 92 of 96 shots directed his way.

Boston, now with 90 points, has temporarily moved into seventh place in the conference, a point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers, who take on the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum in a game later on Saturday evening.

The Capitals, three points behind the Bruins at the moment, take on the Florida Panthers at BankAtlantic Center on Saturday evening as well.

The Bruins have only four games remaining, with a pair against the Sabres, and on the road in New Jersey and Ottawa.

In a tight race up and down the conference, Boston can either miss the playoffs entirely or finish as high as fourth.

The key for the Bruins is to keep winning and avoid a first-round playoff showdown with the Canadiens, the B's long-time post-season nemesis.

Incidentally, with Saturday's win against Ottawa, the Bruins (40-28-10) picked up their 40th win of the season. Meanwhile, the NBA Celtics are 57-15, No. 1 in the leauge by a sizeable margin (6 games).

It's the first time in six years that both the Bruins and Celtics have topped the 40-win mark, when the Celts fell in the Eastern Conference Finals while the B's lost to the Canadiens in the opening round.

This time around, while Doc Rivers' boys are expected to march all the way to the NBA Finals, the Bruins' future is very much up in the air.

Some optimistic Bruins fans see big things from the team this spring--including Bleacher Report's own Matt Baker (see Bruins Sweep Home and Home, Inch Closer to Playoffs: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/14958-NHL-Boston_Bruins-Toronto_Maple_Leafs-New_York_Giants-Bruins_Sweep_Home_and_Home_Inch_Closer_to_Playoffs-270308), but it would be a stretch to say the B's would actually go on a run the way the New York Giants and Colorado Rockies did months earlier in their respective leagues.

(Sorry Matt, Mark, et al.)

Sure, no one expected the G-men or the Rockies to do what they did either, but still...

But then again, that's why they play the games.

The way I see it, the Bruins will ultimately fall in the playoffs but their regular season has been a huge success. Let's applaud them at least for the three gutsy wins they've pulled off in the last five days.