A little more than a month ago, the Bruins looked like they were turning into absolute pushovers on home ice at TD Garden.
They dropped four out of five games during a five-game homestand ahead of the NHL holiday break and were mired in a six-game losing streak overall that had them looking just about ready to fade out of the Stanley Cup playoff picture. It gave the “here we go again” crowd all the ammunition they needed to bail on a hockey team that had played mostly competitive, competent hockey during a harrowing first half of the regular season.
Since that moment, the B’s have won nine games in a row at TD Garden – including a five-game sweep of a homestand at the start of January – and head into February with a 21-8-1 record at home this season.
The tone, as they say, is a wee bit different with the Black and Gold these days.
“It’s very impressive the way we played in January,” said Marco Sturm. “It’s a tough month…it’s always been. It’s a grind after Christmas to come back, and the way we played was very good. Very consistent, very hard and structured. Our best players were our best players, David [Pastrnak] was outstanding and our goalies are back in business, so a lot of good things happened, especially at home. We are very comfortable at home.”
The Bruins are the only Eastern Conference team with 20-plus wins on home ice at this point in the season and lead all NHL teams in home victories with the Colorado Avalanche (20-2-4) as the only other NHL club that’s reached 20 home wins thus far this season. Needless to say, the Garden has become a den of trouble for opposing teams paying a visit, and it’s become a haven for the Black and Gold where they hold a high level of confidence in the structure and standard they have placed within their game.
“If you have to pick a certain area it’s got to be the 5-on-5 game,” said Sturm. “Coming here, I’m a big believer in playing the 5-on-5 game and playing a good, structured game. I think there is still room to grow.
“Overall, I think we feel very good. Power play has been excellent. I think that’s been even better than we thought. I know we had some good players on it, but with a new coach [in Steve Spott] coming in there was a lot of unknowns. But it’s definitely been better than I thought. And our goal production? We all talked about ‘how are we going to score more goals?’ and there it is. Now we score more goals and we have to focus more on defending. It’s interesting how things turn out, but I am very happy with where we are at right now: Points, the way we play and the way the guys come into work every day is a lot of fun.”
What was a little different on Thursday night from the recent past few games was a wholly different configuration for the forwards due to the absence of the injured Elias Lindholm. Rookie Fraser Minten instead centered second line wingers Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt in a last-minute switch cooked up by Sturm and Co. Minten scored a goal and had three points for a line that looked energized by the presence of the 21-year-old playing his older-than-his-years 200-foot game that’s only getting better and better with eight goals and 16 points along with a plus-15 in the last 18 games.
“For those young guys coming into the league it’s all new, and you can see the excitement in their faces,” said Tanner Jeannot. “But [Minten] is obviously a pretty mature young guy so maybe he doesn’t show it as much with him as you do some other young guys. But you’re just happy for them. Everybody’s road to get here is different, but it’s always hard to get here and have success like he’s had success. He’s worked hard for it, so you can’t help but be happy for guys like that.”
The bottom line for the Bruins is that their performance on home ice this month has helped push them fully back into
