Bruins' gutsy win against Capitals shows ‘buy-in’ under Sacco 

BOSTON -- Ten seconds into the third period, the Boston Bruins were down two forwards. David Pastrnak hadn’t come back out for the third, because of an upper-body injury. Oliver Wahlstrom had been assessed a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

The game against the Washington Capitals, who came in one point behind the Winnipeg Jets and New Jersey Devils for the best record in the NHL, was tied.

This was where the Bruins, who had struggled mightily in third periods this season, might have crumbled. It would have been easy to do so – give up a goal on the penalty kill and then take chances trying to come back, give up another, lose.

But they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t allow a single shot on goal in the power play.

Asked what they did well, Elias Lindholm said, “Honestly, I think, everything.”

It would be the difference. Eventually, they would score three straight in the third, one each by the suddenly on-fire line of Lindholm, Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle, as they defeated the Capitals 4-1 in the final game before the holiday break.

“It was right up there,” interim head coach Joe Sacco said of where the game ranked among gut-checks for the team this season. “I think that when you go down two forwards like we did in the third period, the five-minute kill in the third period, there was some adversity that we faced there. Certainly says a lot about the team tonight and their effort and their determination.”

While the Bruins remain a work in progress, they are far from the team that flitted from mediocre to bad at the start of the season, far from the team that lost four out of five games back in November, forcing general manager Don Sweeney’s hand.

Since the coaching change on Nov. 19, the Bruins are 11-4-1 after an 8-9-3 start that cost coach Jim Montgomery his job. Which is not to say that the Bruins have been great. But they have been a good deal better than the lackluster group that was foundering and floundering before the jolt of a coaching change.

They have earned nine of 10 points in their past five games, the sole blemish an overtime loss at the Edmonton Oilers. Marchand now has a 10-game point streak in which he’s scored 13 points (seven goals, six assists), the third time in his career he’s reached double digits.

But it wasn’t all good. Pastrnak, after all, did not come out for the third. There was no update on his status after the game.

Perhaps Sacco’s best move of late has been to put Coyle with Marchand and Lindholm. Though they haven’t been together long, the line has found comfort and chemistry. They’ve also found the scoresheet. In addition to Marchand’s three points (one goal, two assists) on Monday, Coyle had a goal and an assist, and Lindholm scored.

Lindholm broke the tie with a goal at 13:41 of the third period, taking a pass from Marchand on a 2-on-1 rush and deking around Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren to score. Coyle added an insurance goal at 15:59, finishing a rebound after Marchand’s shot hit the post, and Marchand added the empty-netter at 18:38.

“Three good players,” Sacco said. “They can all defend. They all have offensive capabilities. They’re veterans. They’re experienced players. And it’s a line that we can use against the other team’s top lines. They can check. They can score. There’s a lot of balance there.”

They have only been together for the past two games, and for some of the game before against the Calgary Flames, but for now it is working. And the Bruins need things that are working.

“Lately, it’s been feeling a little bit better on the ice,” Lindholm said. “Obviously making more plays, feeling more confident. Everything is slowly getting better for me.”

After going seven games without a point, Lindholm has five (three goals, two assist) in his past five games.

It’s a start. For him and for the Bruins.

“It’s trending in the right direction,” Sacco said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. There’s been a commitment from our players. There’s been a buy-in. We have a process that we go through every game, and they’re checking most of the boxes. It’s not perfect every night and we know that. There’s going to be games where you’re not at your best. But we’ve shown lately when we’re not at our best, we can find ways to win.”

The Capitals, who were in the second game of a back-to-back after a 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings Sunday, came into the game second in the NHL in goals for per game (3.76). The Bruins held them to one goal on just 11 shots. It was offense from defense, long the hallmark of good Boston teams.

“We just played a really smart game,” Marchand said. “We didn’t force anything. We were really detailed defensively and then obviously capitalized on a couple turnovers, really good defensive plays. That’s the way that we’ve been preaching to play in this room for a while now. It’s how we’ve always had success.”

The Bruins remain an unfinished product. They are not what they hope to eventually be, a team that had some picking them to reach the Stanley Cup Final.

But they are closer than they were. And heading into three days off, they’ll take it.

“There’s a good feeling, obviously, right now in the room because of the way we’re playing,” Sacco said. “It’s good to go into the break the way we did tonight, getting on the right side of that feeling.”