It seems with every passing game we've been saying; "That was Milan Lucic's best outing all season." And over the past week -- four games in all -- No. 17 seems to be getting better and better, while looking like the Milan Lucic of last year's playoffs.
Sidelined with a high-ankle sprain sustained back on Nov. 27 against the Minnesota Wild, Lucic missed the following 18 contests while watching his team from the Injured Reserve list -- his second stint on the list. Even if the ankle-injury is still lingering today, it appears as if the pain is bearable enough to log more ice time while becoming an important cog in the Bruins' new power play plan of attack. Lucic -- registering one power play assist today, while creating traffic and a screen on the B's third power play goal -- was lined with David Krejci and Blake Wheeler up front, and Zdeno Chara and JohnnyBoychuk on the blue-line.
"Yeah I think it kind of goes hand-in-hand. We needed some net-front presence and some good net-front presence. He’s one of those guys." said head coach Claude Julien after the Bruins' 5-0 blanking of the Clagary Flames this afternoon.
Coming into today's matinée, the Bruins success rate on the man-advantage was, well, of no success -- having gone 0-22 in their previous eight contests -- and 1-24 in their nine without Marc Savard. Averaging just under 14 minutes of total ice time per game this season, Lucic has seen his minutes rise to 18:35 and 16:04 over the past two games, and has upped his 0:19 power play average to 2:12 and 3:06 totals, respectively.
The 21-year-old Lucic now has points in three of his last four [1-3-4, plus-4, 12 hits, 9 shots on goal] after lighting the lamp for just one point in his seven games prior.
"Before the last couple weeks, every time he had the puck, he was really fighting it and his play selection was getting stripped and everything else. So it wasn’t the right time. You can’t put a guy on the power play when he’s trying to find his game, but he’s been much better lately and warranted an opportunity because he’s the type of player that we needed in that position and he did a great job."
A player who has made a career out of parking himself in front of the net is 42-year-old future Hall of Fame forward, Mark Recchi -- who scored his 17th goal of the season today on the power play. Lined with Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm, the two new units were breaths of fresh air to the previously stagnant power play.
"The other unit did a great job and obviously it’s an important thing, the power play." said Recchi.
"He [Claude Julien] switched things up a little bit and obviously it paid off. The one thing we did is we worked hard. The first goal was just working hard to retrieve pucks."
Net-front presence, traffic, screens, commotion: all necessary keys to a successful offense, especially an anemic power play.
"Well, you need that. Any time you have a man advantage, if you don’t use it then obviously it’s not going to work for you" said Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara, who scored a power play goal and an assist of his own today. "And on both of those goals we had some screens and good traffic in front and made it really hard for their goalie to see the puck so it was just a great job by them." Zdeno Chara
Precisely what the doctor ordered, especially on the B's second goal on the power play. David Krejci -- 4-9-13 in his last nine games -- credits the big bodies in front of Flames' goaltender, Mikka Kiprusoff.
"Well, there was nothing more than Looch had a good screen and I just tried to get it through." said Krejci. "Zee [Chara] and Johnny [Boychuk] did a good job on the point and I had so much time, so Wheels [Wheeler] and Looch did a good job in front of the net and if it weren’t for them, I don’t think I would have scored."
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