The Bruins Enjoyed Their Brief Stay At Home As They Beat the Blue Jackets 2-1 In Overtime

No matter where you go on a trip, it's always a nice feeling to come home where you feel most comfortable and familiar with your surroundings. In that respect, pro athletes are just like us as they typically play much better in their own backyard. The Bruins (43-20-9) were gone all last week on a painful road trip that ended with three losses and no wins. Injuries throughout their lineup was becoming a major issue but at least for one night, that was forgotten as they outlasted the Blue Jackets (40-28-4) 2-1 in overtime this evening at TD Garden. Yes, those were the same clubs that played to a crazy 7-4 Columbus victory in Ohio on Tuesday. What else can I say, hockey is weird.

Jake DeBrusk returned after missing the past five games with a lower-body injury and with the most famous Irishman in the world in the house-Conor McGregor-Brad Marchand scored the game-winning goal then celebrated with the MMA star's hilarious signature strut. Boston extended their home win streak to 11 games and their home point streak is up to 13 games (11-0-2) which is their longest since a 15-game stretch (13-0-2) from Oct. 31-Dec. 27, 2014. With home ice in the playoffs in mind (there are only 10 games left in the regular season for the B's), it was a particularly important two points since Toronto (43-24-5) got walloped 6-2 at Ottawa (25-41-6) earlier tonight. That puts Boston four points ahead of the Maple Leafs who also have 10 games remaining.

Boston improved to 9-6 in overtime this season while Columbus fell to 8-3 in the extra session. The pity point was valuable to the Blue Jackets though since they are in a serious fight with Carolina (39-25-7) for the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference with Montreal (37-28-7) only three points behind Columbus. It wasn't an instant classic performance which is probably to be expected with the patchwork Bruins lineup and the fact that the Jackets were playing in their second game of a back-to-back. The B's scored first and never trailed as Patrice Bergeron (6th Bruin to reach 800 career points) swept in a backhander for a power play goal at 5:51 of the first period. His 27th goal of the season was assisted by Marchand and David Krejci. Bergy (10 goals, 13 assists) and Marchy (11 goals, 19 assists) amazingly each have 16-game point streaks still going at the Garden. Krejci is having a fantastic season as well, he's the only Bruin to play in all 72 games in 2018-19 while he has eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in his last six games and 20 points (7 goals, 13 assists) in his last 16 games.

Columbus fittingly scored on their best chance of the contest when Matt Duchene sped around John Moore and roofed a shot over Jaroslav Halak's (24 saves, 19th win of the season) glove at 16:52 of the first period. The former Senator's (and Avalanche) 30th goal of the season was assisted by Markus Nutivaara and David "Don't Call Me Marc" Savard. Towards the end of their 19-game point streak, Boston played a few of these low-scoring tight contests so they are used to the small margins for error. While regulation wasn't the most exciting 60 minutes of hockey, overtime was much more action-packed as both teams had glorious scoring chances (Boston outshot Columbus 4-3 in OT and 33-25 for the game). You'll have a hard time finding two more clutch teammates in the NHL than Bergeron or Marchand. Bergeron sauced a backhand no-look pass to Marchand who one-timed in his 15th career overtime goal (increasing his Bruins record) at 3:30. His 31st goal of the season was also Bergeron's 40th assist (4th time in his career he's reached that mark). Finally, Marchand has the most OT tallies (11) since the NHL instituted 3-on-3 in 2015-16.

After an off-day on St. Patrick's Day, the B's will practice on Monday before heading to Long Island where they take on the Islanders (41-23-7) on Tuesday (7, NESN). That's the beginning of a four-game road trip that also includes visits to New Jersey (27-36-9) on Thursday (7, NESN), Florida (32-27-12) on Saturday night (7, NESN) and mighty Tampa Bay (55-13-4) a week from Monday (7:30, NESN). Boston has been great at home (28-7-3) all year and they have the second-best record to prove it, trailing only the Lightning (30-6-2) who are having a regular season for the ages. The B's are only two games over .500 (15-13-6) on the road this season so that's an area that needs to be tightened up before the playoffs start in a few weeks.

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Is It Too Late For the Bruins to Boycott and/or Skip All Their Home Games This Season?

Typically, I am very stubborn so I hate to admit defeat by not coming up with at least a half-ass explanation for almost everything that occurs in life. However, at this point in the 2015-16 regular season, I can only throw up my hands when it comes to the Bruins and say that I have absolutely no idea how a team that is so great on the road (20-7-3) can simultaneously be truly awful at home (12-15-3) after tonight's 6-4 loss to Columbus (24-29-7).

Boston was coming off a 4-2 road trip (its longest of the campaign) and its most impressive victory (7-3 in Dallas on Saturday night) so naturally they returned to TD Garden and laid another in a long line of rotten eggs. After beating the Blue Jackets 3-2 in a shootout here on January 23 and 2-1 in overtime last Tuesday in Columbus, the B's failed to get the all-important season sweep over one of the worst teams in the NHL. The Bruins never led as they were always chasing the game and they wasted a perfectly good performance by their offense (2 goals apiece for Matt Beleskey and Loui Eriksson) and a dominant night at the faceoff dot (44-25).

He didn't have a ton of help on defense but it was a rough game for Jonas Gustavsson (29 saves, 5 goals allowed). Boone Jenner's tip-in from BC's Cam Atkinson and Ryan Murray opened the scoring at 10:52 of the first period. It was the first of two power play goals for Columbus (who had been 1 for their last 16). Conversely, Boston's power play was 0 for 2, another reason why they didn't pick up any points. Eriksson scored his first tally 15 seconds after Jenner's initial score to make it 1-1. He deflected Torey Krug's shot and David Pastrnak had the second assist on Loui's 22nd goal of the season.

Columbus jumped on Boston to start the second period as Jenner sniped one past Gustavsson just 21 seconds into the frame. Seth Jones and Brandon Dubinsky assisted on his 21st goal of the season. Beleskey knotted it at two only 2:36 after that as he deflected in Joe Morrow's shot with Jimmy Hayes notching the second assist. William Karlsson (8th goal of the season, unassisted) blasted in a turnaround shot at 10:17 to put Columbus up for good at 3-2. Then Scott Hartnell deflected in Murray's shot for the other man-advantage goal at 17:21. Alexander Wennberg also assisted on Hartnell's 19th goal of the season. With so many pro scouts in attendance this evening, you'd have to think that a quality veteran like Hartnell would be in high demand (relatively speaking) with the trade deadline now a week away.

Beleskey made it interesting for a while in the third as he worked tirelessly to tip in another shot (from Kevan Miller) that trimmed Columbus' lead to 4-3 at 2:52. Morrow registered his second assist (for the second game in a row). Joonas Korpisalo (26 saves) made enough stops and former Blackhawk Brandon Saad added the insurance goal that the Blue Jackets needed at 14:29. His 22nd goal of the season was assisted by Hartnell and Wennberg. It came on a strange play as Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg went down to block the shot, only to lose his stick which Hartnell "accidentally" shot at Gustavsson. It was reviewed but similar to Columbus' fruitless challenge on Eriksson's first goal, it still stood up.

Eriksson is certainly doing everything he can to make sure his value is at its peak for next Monday: his second goal made it 5-4 Columbus at 17:03. The shot through traffic had eyes with helpers from David Krejci (team-leading 34th assist) and Pastrnak. Good old Dalton Prout lives for games in Boston apparently since Columbus' scrub defenseman scored his second goal of the season via an empty-netter (both of his goals have been here). Normally, home ice in hockey doesn't mean quite as much as homefield/homecourt advantage in baseball, basketball and football but the B's have made sure no logic applies to them this season.

That said, it'll be a difficult rest of the week as they are off tomorrow before they host Pittsburgh (30-20-8) on Wednesday (7:30, NBCSN), go to Carolina (27-23-10) on Friday (7, NESN) then another national TV game on Sunday (6:30, NBCSN) vs. Tampa Bay (33-22-4), who they are currently tied with in the Atlantic Division (although the Lightning have played one less game). You know that the Bruins will play great against the Hurricanes so I guess we should only worry about the Penguins (2 points behind Boston in Eastern Conference, in 2 less games) and the Lightning, two clubs who figure to be battling for playoff position with the Black and Gold the rest of the way.

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They Can't All Be Masterpieces but Bruins Will Take Two Points However They Can Get Them

When you play the worst team in any sport, nothing but a win will ever be tolerated. Predictably Boston (25-17-5) didn't make it easy on themselves as they blew a 2-0 lead against Columbus (17-27-5) tonight at TD Garden but things ended well enough as the Bruins survived 3-2 in a shootout. Backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson improved to 9-3-1 this season as he made 31 saves while Ryan Spooner and Torey Krug (game-winner) provided the shootout goals for the B's.

It's tough to quantify how much of a mess the Blue Jackets have been this miserable season; in fact, head coach John Tortorella wasn't even here after he broke two ribs in practice the other day. Haha it's been that kind of year for Columbus who also traded away their best player (Ryan Johansen) to Nashville a few weeks ago for defenseman Seth Jones. Former Bruin Gregory Campbell got a nice deal with the Blue Jackets so it's a shame to see him wasting away on a club that is going nowhere fast. This was his first game back in the Garden as a visitor so he was treated to a nice video montage on the Jumbotron and deserved standing ovation for someone who did plenty of good deeds in the community as well.

After a scoreless first period, Boston took a 1-0 lead just 32 seconds into the second when Brad Marchand tapped in a pretty passing sequence from Ryan Spooner and Patrice Bergeron. That was Marchand's team-leading 19th goal of the season and the team-leading 25th assists of the season for both Spooner and Bergeron. Marchand has tied his career best streak with goals in four straight games and he extended his point streak to five games (4 goals, 1 assist).

David Pastrnak doubled Boston's lead 3:02 after that when he crashed the net (like ran into it with his stomach) and put in a rebound. His fifth goal of the season was assisted by David Krejci (23rd assist) and Loui Eriksson (24th assist). You would think that Columbus would basically give up when they were down a pair of goals on the road but they didn't as Dalton Prout scored his first goal in 107 games (!) and my man Kerby Rychel tipped in a shot from Justin Falk in the span of 3:10 later in the frame. Gustavsson should have stopped Prout's easy shot that somehow squeezed through from no angle.

Not much happened in the third period and both teams had to kill off penalties in overtime (4-on-3) before it went to the goofy shootout. Being terrible in shootouts has been a hallmark of the Bruins since it was instituted by the NHL and that is one of the numerous reasons that they missed the playoffs last year. It's hard to feel great about what transpired tonight but at least they came away with two points which frankly is all that matters with 35 games left in the regular season.

There are only two games left for the B's before the All-Star break begins next week: they are in Philadelphia (20-17-8) on Monday (7, NESN) and here vs. Anaheim (21-18-7) the next night. Boston has already lost twice to the Flyers this season (5-4 in OT here on Oct. 21 and 3-2 in Philly on Jan. 13) and the Ducks are playing much better (6-3-1 in last 10 games) after their awful start this season but this isn't a killer stretch. The Bruins can finally get to .500 at home this season (something they have yet to do) with a win on Tuesday (11-12-2).

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