(Photo Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern/ USA TODAY Sports)

By: Mike Cratty                                                         Twitter: @Mike_Cratty

Amidst the New England Patriots’ divisional round thumping of the Tennessee Titans at Gillette Stadium last night, the Boston Bruins picked up an important divisional win over the Montreal Canadiens. Although it wasn’t a squeaky clean win, it’s an important one after some significant time off with a league-mandated bye week. There shouldn’t be bye weeks in the NHL.

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Bell Centre has proven to be a tough place to play in the past, but the Bruins handled themselves well in Habs territory last night. Bell Centre just doesn’t have the same atmosphere when the Habs aren’t playing well it seems, as shown last night. Although a competitive game, it just didn’t feel like a typical Bruins-Habs game to me. The Canadiens have now lost six of their last 10 games and sit in sixth place in the Atlantic division. The worries of the Bruins possibly coming out sluggish and possibly dropping their first game after significant time off can fade.

Max Pacioretty got the scoring started in what turned out to be a back-and-forth game. That back-and-forth action ceased when David Krejci tied the game up on his seventh goal of the year late in the second period. The game was sent to a wild overtime period with no score followed by a shootout featuring clutch goals from Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk to capture the win. Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk put his name on the scoresheet in regulation as well with the first and second Bruins goals of the game respectively.

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They’re 9-0-3 in their last twelve games and have just ten losses in regulation all year. Sure they’re tied with the San Jose Sharks for the least amount of games played (41), but at the same time, their 10 losses in regulation are tied for the least in the league with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights. To sum it all up, the Bruins are in a very good spot, with room to work with. Especially in terms of the games that they have in hand on their opponents, as well as their ability to confidently roll four forward lines and three defensive pairs.

As long as they stay healthy and keep playing with the same mindset, the Bruins could continue to roll for quite some time. That mindset being just to keep things simple and find different ways to win and wear teams down. Not all teams can confidently roll the combinations that the Bruins can.

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