Haggs: Boston Bruins Not Riding ‘Roller Coaster’ To Playoffs | BHN+

BRIGHTON, Mass – Despite some recent troubles giving up goals at the most inopportune times in third periods, that shouldn’t lessen the shine on the recent play of the Boston Bruins. The numbers across the board are consistently stellar for the Black and Gold over the last few weeks, and they continued the upward trend with Thursday night’s 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden.

It was a game where the Bruins rode some David Pastrnak heroics to a big win late in the third period and wholly dispelled the bad mojo they’d experienced recently in surrendering costly goals late in games.

“It was a big bounce-back for us,” said David Pastrnak. “We were around it [against the Blackhawks]. We could’ve had a couple more and that’s how it goes sometimes. You just have to stick with it.”

The Bruins are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, averaging 3.9 goals per game over that span and allowing 2.2 goals per game and they’ve beaten playoff-caliber teams like the Avalanche, Kings and Golden Knights during that time. They have a No. 1 goaltender in Jeremy Swayman that’s 8-1-1 with a 1.93 goals against average and .940 save percentage since the NHL All-Star break, and they have a game-breaking sniper in David Pastrnak with 25 goals and 39 points since the beginning of January.

But it goes way, way beyond a couple of top-level performers in Pastrnak and Swayman carrying the Boston Bruins to a 21-8-3 record since New Year’s Day that has them just four points behind the Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division.