Jeremy Swayman made 18 saves in his return to the net, handing interim coach Joe Sacco his second win in as many games.
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DETROIT — Career goal No. 407 off of Brad Marchand’s stick came with 8:30 to go Saturday night, in his 1,051st regular-season game, and it lifted the Bruins to a 2-1 win over the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
The assists went to Andrew Peeke and David Pastrnak, and 25-30 years of repetition, muscle memory, and offensive guile.
“There’s a point of comfortability when you are in certain positions,” noted the Bruins captain, who snapped his short-range laser by Wings goalie Cam Talbot, high to the short side for the winner.
“Instinctively, you just know to shoot. That’s a shot that I’ve made since I was a kid, kinda coming around like that — just the way I set up the shot — something I worked on a lot when I was younger.
“It doesn’t happen a lot now, because teams are so quick to close defensively, but it’s nice when you get a little room like that.”
After officially entering a team-wide reframing with
Tuesday’s dismissal of coach Jim Montgomery, in terms of confidence and execution and just plain trying to feel good about themselves, the Bruins have shown some signs of recovery:
▪ The win was their second in a row, something they did only twice before this season. Marchand’s goal was their first at even strength in their last three games.
▪ After allowing Utah
only 21 shots in a 1-0 win on Thursday, they yielded only 20 to the Wings, helping to stabilize No. 1 goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who had allowed 12 goals across his prior two starts.
Swayman looked far more like the netminder who encouraged the Bruins to sign him to his 8-year, $66 million megadeal on the eve of the new season.
▪ In two games under interim coach Joe Sacco, they have shown far better defensive structure and mindset.
It remains to be seen if they have a lineup that can finish at the net, but they had some quality chances — not all on net — among their 51 shot attempts on Talbot.
The Bruins are a game over hockey .500 (10-9-3), and could move to a season-high two games above break-even Tuesday night when the Canucks visit Causeway Street.
“Something we’ve talked about as a group is taking pride in defending, and the structure we want to play with,” said Sacco. “That’s what we’ve had the last two games.
“I thought the first period we weren’t really skating the way we’re capable of, so we had to defend a little bit more than we would like. But overall, especially in the third period, we tilted the ice in our favor.”
“We seem to be a little bit more comfortable right now,” offered Marchand. “Effort seems higher … I like the way we closed the last couple of games, being tight, playing very well defensively. I do like that aspect of it.”