Boston Bruins 2011-12: 6 Signs the Worst Is Far Behind Them

With Tuesday night’s 4-3 triumph over the New Jersey Devils, the Boston Bruins were officially in the coveted Top 8 portion of the Eastern Conference leaderboard for the first time this season.

Although the Ottawa Senators subsequently leapfrogged them with a win at Calgary, the Bruins have three games in hand. And Thursday night will spell an opportunity to flip-flop those positions once more when their most daunting obstacle figures to be the threat of complacency.

If they can live up to all paper-based prognostications and lash the Columbus Blue Jackets, they will sweep their five-game homestand and pull off their first seven-game winning streak since late February/early March of last season.

In turn, Boston will merely tack another bonus layer of ointment on the rash that is their October report card.

The danger, most naturally, is that an ill-timed loss to the NHL’s bottom-feeders will result in a sharp, long-term U-turn back the other way, especially with the pesky likes of Montreal and Detroit on the horizon.

But, there are abundant reasons to think the Bruins have the requisite supplies to alleviate the effects of any noticeable stumble they take over the next 66 games, if not fend that off altogether.

Just consider these six favorable omens that have surfaced over the course of the last six games.

Victory Variety Pack

Over the course of this six-game tear, the Bruins have initially trailed on three occasions. They have been down after 20 minutes twice and tied at that point in two other outings.

Yet, they have repeatedly surmounted those deficits and, whether in defense of a lead or in the name of nabbing one to begin with, they have activated more red lights in the second and third period. By night’s end, they have had anywhere between four and seven on the board.

The latest the Bruins have trailed in a game this month was the 7:40 mark of the second period against Buffalo last Saturday, at which point Rich Peverley inserted the equalizer.

And in two of their come-from-behind triumphs, they have vaguely reenacted Game 6 of the 2009 Eastern Conference quarterfinals. In their respective visits to TD Garden, the Ottawa Senators and New Jersey bit back after spilling their leads to draw 3-3 knots, only to subsequently sputter en route to 5-3 and 4-3 Boston victories.

Killer Bs Instinct

The chief reason that the Bruins have consistently outscored the opposition, particularly within the latter 40 minutes, is their uncanny tendency to insert a follow-up goal before PA announcer Jim Martin can give the details of the last one.

This is nothing new, especially on home ice. Just glance back to the three lopsided victories in Games 3, 4 and 6 of last year’s Stanley Cup championship round.

The rejuvenation of the Nathan Horton-David Krejci-Milan Lucic line has played an instrumental role in this phenomenon. But so, too, has the growing input of the less celestial scorers. Their numbers are not improving because of the team-wide explosion so much as the other way around.

Consistently Decent Defense

In a way, the Bruins still have not legitimately authorized four opposing goals in a single game yet. The same goes for losses ending in a margin of two goals or more.

Of the three times that has happened, two involved empty-netters. And in an Oct. 18 bout with Carolina, they accumulated 47 penalty minutes as opposed to the Hurricanes’ nine all within the final half of the third period.

In the midst of that, the Hurricanes morphed a 2-1 difference into a 4-1 final on two five-on-three goals, and Boston head coach Claude Julien joined multiple pupils on an early egress to the dressing room.

Naturally, this proves that when they are focused and have all of their humors in balance, the Bruins boast an exemplary stinginess.

All they need in return is an honest effort from the entire 12-man strike force. The combination of the general October-long hibernation of that group with the more recent laser show means Boston’s league-leading plus-18 goal differential is not as far out of proportion as one might think.

Pouliot Fitting In

When his new team was 3-7-0 on the heels of a sweep at the hands of his old mates while he was pointless in his new colors, Benoit Pouliot was the Bruins’ most logical hunk of trade bait.

In his last three appearances, though, Pouliot has sprinkled two goals onto his transcript, including Tuesday night’s clincher.

Both that go-ahead goal with 3:01 to spare in regulation and his icebreaker against the New York Islanders were executed from the vicinity of the goaltender’s porch.

One was scored by way of cutting without hesitation to within whispering distance of Evgeni Nabokov and redirecting Jordan Caron’s up-front feed. The other was pulled off by joining Chris Kelly in screening Johan Hedberg, readily lassoing the remnants of Joe Corvo’s point blast and spooning it home.

The more Pouliot―and, for that matter, all of his fellow grinders―exercise the same grit going forward, the more output the Bruins will have to supplement the top six.

Corvo Catching On

Boston’s only other offseason import, defenseman Joe Corvo, steadily let his plus/minus dip through his first 11 outings. By the conclusion of a Nov. 1 victory with Ottawa, the one that started the team’s active hot streak, he had a minus-six glowering on his transcript while Boston had a minus-two deficit overall.

His next time out, while he did not have a hand in any Bruins’ strikes, he was on the ice for four of them, improving his rating to minus-two. By the next game, in Jeopardy! terminology, he was out of the hole after logging an assist and a plus-two rating.

Corvo has since steadily sculpted a plus-three with the help of four more helpers, including a playmaker hat trick versus Edmonton. That night, he was on the ice for a total of four of the Bruins’ six goals―two on the power play, two at even strength―and only one of three by the Oilers.

Tuukka on Track

After losing each of his first three starts, goaltender Tuukka Rask has since vacuumed four points in 120 consecutive minutes played.

As dubious as those two wins may appear, given that they came against Edmonton and New York, Rask frankly earned them both in a similar fashion. He weathered a two-way tempest of a first period that saw the visitor repeatedly whittle down and/or outright delete a Bruins lead, never authorized a deficit and was pristine the rest of the way.

The only exception to that would be Ryan Smyth’s power-play goal at 15:18 of last Thursday’s third period, which brought the Oilers back to within a 4-3 deficit. Other than that, Rask repelled 12 out of 13 shots in that closing frame and averted the equalizer.

As soundly as Tim Thomas continues to perform, there are few assumptions more ill-advised than that he will be able to play a sizeable majority of the regular season. Whether it is an injury or a delayed onset of fatigue, Thomas cannot be banked on to play two-thirds of the schedule as he has so far, let alone as effectively.

But, the more Rask plays now and the more traction he accumulates, the stronger Boston’s insurance policy will be in the cage come the second week of April. And assuming the Bruins have a series to prepare for at that point, it will owe heavily to the reliability of the Thomas-Rask tandem.