Boston's aforementioned 19-game point streak is the second-longest in team history, now trailing only the 1940-41 team's ridiculous 23-game stretch (15-0-8-0). Furthermore, their 10-game home win streak is their longest since a 14-gamer from Oct. 25, 2008-Jan. 1, 2009 and their home point streak is up to 12 games (10-0-2) now which is their best since a 15-game span (13-0-2) from Oct. 31-Dec. 27, 2014. Do you need to lay down for a little while?
It's hard to have an instant classic game against the worst team in the NHL so the Bruins predictably slogged through the mud to get these two precious points against the hopeless Senators. Remember when Ottawa nearly made the Stanley Cup Final two years ago? Haha talk about falling off of a cliff since then. When you see the tilted shot attempts totals (63-35 in favor of the B's) you understand that they probably should have beat those bums by at least a couple goals but if you watched the Saturday night tilt, you could at least explain some of that away since the Bruins hit not one, not two but three posts/crossbars in the second period alone.
Speaking of the second, that's when notable things started to happen after the first period had nothing but four penalties in it. Brad Marchand gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 10:11 with a power play goal. He roofed a shot by Craig Anderson (28 saves) into the top of the far corner of the net for his 28th goal of the season, assisted by Torey Krug and Patrice Bergeron. They are great wherever they play but Marchand and Bergeron are both riding six-game point streaks overall and 15-game point streaks at home. It took the pathetic Senators less than a minutes to tie it at one though as Jean-Gabriel Pageau (could you imagine a guy with a name like that playing on a non-Canadian club?) whipped a shot off the post and by Tuukka Rask (17 saves, 24-8-5). Brady Tkachuk-who went to BU for one season and is better known as Keith's son and Matthew's younger brother-had the lone assist on Pageau's third goal of the season.
To increase the dramatic effect of another comeback by the home team, Boston even let Ottawa lead for a few minutes in the third period. Wasn't that sweet of them? Tkachuk was able to pounce on a loose puck near the crease and put in a backhander (assisted by Chris Tierney) for his 16th goal of the season at 2:46. Tkachuk is basically an honorary Masshole (he grew up in Arizona but his dad is from Medford and also starred at BU before a great NHL career) but the Bruins got a tying goal from a true Masshole: Walpole's favorite son Chris Wagner. He redirected a shot by Krug (who tied Craig Janney for the most points-283-by a U.S.-born player in Bruins history) that almost stopped it was going so slowly but Anderson somehow couldn't react in time to make the save. Charlie McAvoy had the second assist on Wagner's 11th goal of the season; what a gem of a free agent that he's been, bravo B's GM Don Sweeney.
Just like Florida on Thursday, you knew that one way or another Boston wasn't losing this game once it was deadlocked late in the third. They waited until the last minute again but that only serves to make it sweeter (or more intoxicating on a Saturday night). It's tough to tell what Heinen's intention was on the play but truth be told, if Krejci had not have touched the puck, I believe that it still would have gone in anyway so what's the difference? Matt Grzelcyk had the second assist on Krejci's (6 goals, 10 assists in his last 12 games) 18th goal of the season. Rask has his own 19-game point streak (16-0-3) alive and well complete with a goals against average of 1.94 and a save percentage of .929 during this insane run (his last regulation loss was Dec. 23 at Carolina, he hasn't fully lost in 2019!).
As you would expect following such a long homestand, the B's will not see their own beds very often in the next few weeks. In fact, of their 14 remaining games in the regular season, only four of them will be on Causeway Street. Seven of the next eight games are on the road starting with an intriguing matchup in Pittsburgh (36-23-9) tomorrow night (7:30, NBC Sports). That's followed by a trip to Columbus (38-27-3) on Tuesday (7, NESN) and a flight to Winnipeg (40-23-4) for Thursday's showdown (8, NESN). Boston's next home game is a week from tonight (7, NESN), St. Patrick's Day eve, vs. the Blue Jackets. After that, Boston departs for another road trip (4 games). At this moment, we won't worry about that since these next four games over the next week are all against teams currently in playoff position.
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