More to prove

Great 2-1 win by the Bruins tonight over the Bolts. They showed that they are on a completely different level than Tampa Bay. Despite the flashes of brilliance that have been shown all year by the Stamkos-St. Louis duo (not to mention the superb play by net minder Mike Smith tonight), this Boston team has too many threats for one-dimensional teams to keep up; threats that include goal-scorers that can brawl and brawlers that can score.

While Boston's depth is an upgrade from disappointing years past, there's still a mental elephant the Bruins have struggled with which may have been a key factor in their recent post-season shortcomings. Night in and night out, thoguht, this team appears to be facing these demons in a desparate effort to show they are a different team. Winning 6 out of 6 games on a road trip which included some of the top contenders in the West in CAL and VAN as well ass draft lottery candidates NYI and OTT(x2) showed that the Bruins have the ability to perform at their level and play their game no matter the opponent.

If ever there was a case for Boston to drop to their competitor's level, playing a Tampa team that relies heavily on a strict game plan of maintained-possession and a high quantity and quality of scoring chances would be it. A big part of this is the fact that the Lightning lead the league in power play minutes coming into the night. While at times it looked like Boston was struggling to build momentum playing a team that appeared to have a hard time staying on their skates in a city that knows how to keep a sheet of ice frozen, the Bruins skating a squad where each player is expected to contribute in all aspects of the game helped them battle a 2 minute 5-on-3 PK and run 3 crunch-time lines int he final minutes of the game to pull out the win.

But this was just one game and if this season ends the way the past several have, this will only be one game out of 82, and this win streak, while nice at the present time, will be something many a Boston fan would sacrafice to put together a group of wins in May and June.