BOSTON — For about 12 seconds the puck seemed to ping-pong between the neutral zone and the Washington Capitals’ end of the ice, with neither team able to properly corral it.
Then in a flash, the Boston Bruins made the kind of fortuitous play that could split the razor-thin margin between them earning a playoff berth this season and falling just short.
Hampus Lindholm threw the puck over to Casey Middlestadt, right to left across the TD Garden sheet. Middlestadt didn’t receive the pass so much as he one-touched it (with a little extra sauce on it) to Viktor Arvidsson breaking through the middle of the neutral zone with a full head of steam. The pass caught the Washingtonians by surprise and sent Arvidsson in alone on Capitals’ netminder Logan Thompson, and the veteran winger did his job by burying it four-and-a-half minutes into the third period.
His 18th goal of the season snapped a tie game and ultimately led the Bruins to a 3-1 triumph in a Saturday matinee. It was Boston’s NHL-leading 24th win in a row on home ice and 12th straight dating back to January 8 against Calgary.
For a team that will likely teeter on the fringe of making the playoffs or not over the final 20 games of the regular season, this was another two points the Bruins needed to bank.
Bruins management decided that conservatism was the way to go as Friday’s NHL trade deadline came and went, feeling that standing pat was better than trading off young talent and/or draft picks for a quick fix. They were smart to do so.
“Since we started in September, we believe in this group,” Arvidsson said. “This is a statement from management that they also believe in us and (that) we can push for a playoff spot with this group.”
So this is the foundation they’ll ride with the rest of the way, resulting in either a return to the Eastern Conference playoffs after falling into the Atlantic Division basement last year, or a “nice try, but … ” ending that has them making April tee times yet again.
When they’re playing well, as the Bruins have been at TD Garden for the better part of two months, they connect on the power play (Saturday’s 1-for-6 effort notwithstanding), get good goaltending, and lock it down in crunch time.
When they don’t — and with six straight road losses heading into Sunday night’s game in Pittsburgh, those times can be equally apparent — their defensive structure collapses, they find themselves playing catch-up hockey and, more often than not, ultimately can’t.
A 3-on-1 scoring change in the second period Saturday not only went by the wayside, but the Bruins never even got a decent chance off before the Capitals converged and broke up the play. That can’t happen.
So Saturday’s key plays — Pavel Zacha backhanding the puck out of the air for a second period man advantage goal, a strong 22-save outing from goalie Jeremy Swayman, a penalty kill that has turned up its aggressiveness since returning from the Olympic break —all proved vital. They made more plays than Washington, a floundering team that just sold off its best defenseman (John Carlson) and with a 40-year old Alexander Ovechkin, who for all of his goal-scoring greatness is finally showing his age, and it resulted in another victory on 100 Legends Way.
“It’s just been working for us,” Zacha said of Boston’s run of success at home this season. “Good teams win at home … and we have to keep doing that.”
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Phil Stacey covers the Boston Bruins for CNHI Sports Boston. Contact him at pstacey@salemnews.com and follow him on X @PhilStacey_SN