Good Company

After winning six consecutive games on the road, Patrice Bergeron and the Bruins are now being compared to the greatest Bruins squad in team history, the 1972 Stanley Cup winning version. 

Before Tuesday night, the last time the Boston Bruins won six consecutive road games in a single season was 1972, the same year they last hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Infused by a plethora of significant additions brought in just before the trade deadline, the Bruins are crystalizing into something special right before our eyes. By defeating the Ottawa Senators 1-0 Tuesday night, the Bruins completed their arduous West Coast road trip with a jaw-dropping 6-0-0 undefeated record. At 37-19-7, the Bruins are now tied with the Lightning for second place in the Eastern Conference. And with 81 overall points, they trail the Flyers by just five points for the number one spot.

"It feels great," explained Milan Lucic of the Bruins recent success on the road (the Bruins now own the best road record in the NHL at 22-7-4) . "It helps us to build confidence in the room, that no matter who we face, or no matter what the conditions, we believe in each other."

Head coach Claude Julien, who became the first Boston benchmaster to guide the Bruins to six consecutive road wins since Tom Johnson, seems to be pulling all the right strings of late. Not only is he flawlessly mixing in recent acquisitions Chris Kelly, Rich Peverley and Tomas Kaberle into the gameplan, but he seems to be managing his star-studded goaltending duo to perfection as well.

Early in the season, the Bruins were winning games by the bunches but Julien seemed to be riding Tim Thomas into the ground. Sure, his numbers were sparkling (Thomas has led all goaltenders in every major statistical category for nearly the entire season), but Thomas could never catch a breather. Julien threw him between the pipes night in and night out and in back to back games several times.

It finally caught up to Thomas in early February when his game began to slip as a result of being overworked. The former UVM star allowed an uncharacteristic 15 goals over the course of just ten periods, culminating with an embarassing 4-3 loss at home to the Maple Leafs on Feb. 15. If you remember correctly, that's the game Phil Kessel undressed Thomas twice and then Mikhail Grabovsky split three Bruins defenders and then beat Thomas with a bad angle wrister with less than a minute left.

However, since then, Julien has come to his senses and finally managed Thomas correctly. In an attempt to keep Thomas fresh for the playoffs, Julien has started Tuukka Rask more often and the 23-year-old Finnish phenom has not disappointed. Over the course of the Bruins recent road trip, Rask started and won four of the six games. He recorded wins against the Islanders, Senators, Oilers and then blanked the Senators again Tuesday night to pick up his second shutout of the season.

It's been a dream scenario for the Bruins, as Rask has been able to find his groove with more playing time while Thomas has been able to re-energize his sapped batteries.

"His practices have been a lot better," GM Peter Chiarelli said of Rask. "A lot sharper. And in fairness to Tuukka, he needs games to get on a little bit of a roll, too. He has been able to play, contribute, and Tim has been able to get rest."

Over the course of the undefeated six game road trip, the Bruins outscored their opponents 20-9. However, despite the glaring similarities between today's Bruins and the 1971-72 version led by Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito that won Stanley Cup, captain Zdeno Chara is careful not to put the Bruins in that category just yet.

"I don't think we have any of those kinds of names or players," Chara said after the win over Ottawa. "Those are such legends that it's hard to really be compared to those guys. We're really trying to focus on  playing well and playing our game and playing for each other, and win as many games as possible and have good feelings after the games, no regrets."

Still, while Chara humbly dismisses comparisons to the greatest Bruins team ever, it's hard not to get excited about the Bruins chances come playoff time. After all, they're hitting their stride and beginning to peak at the perfect time.

"This is good for us at this stage of the season," Julien said. "We got some new faces in the lineup and this helps us to build some momentum. Obviously, the confidence is tremendous, they believe they can do it."