Boston Bruins: B’s Third Line Coming Together
The Boston Bruins have never been a one-trick pony. The Black and Gold has spent most of its years being a ‘scoring by committee’ kind of team. This year is no different as the Boston Bruins have seven different players with double digit goals this season. Three of those seven players are on the current third line, centered by Ryan Spooner.
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Ryan Spooner has been the team’s most improved player this year, and has done a fantastic job coming in for Chris Kelly, who went down early in the season with a broken leg. Spooner has quickly matured into a full-time NHL center, and his play has certainly improved the B’s chances as they try to stay in the playoff race. The Spooner line (along with Matt Beleskey and Jimmy Hayes) has put in 37 goals for the Bruins this season, and have provided a lot of necessary secondary scoring for the Black and Gold.
“If you look at the top teams in the league, it’s all about depth, right?” said Ryan Spooner after the B’s most recent 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. “There’s been times during the year when we’ve had to rely on the top two [lines] for the scoring and that’s just not going to cut it, so it’s ideal to have four, so I think it’s been good the last little bit.”
The B’s third line earned two of the four goals last night, and they helped put it away for Boston. Matt Beleskey has been hot lately, putting in five goals in the last four games.
“It’s always nice when they start coming like that,” said Beleskey, who was awarded Second Star of the Game honors for his two goal performance. “You just keep working hard, keep doing the same things and hopefully it’s going to pay off and right now, it is.”
“Arguably probably our best line tonight,” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien. “Spooner and Hayes and Beleskey, they really worked hard, they had great chances and I thought as a line, it was one of their better nights together, so hopefully that’s chemistry building and probably confidence as well, and if we have that, it gives us that much more of a weapon to counter against other teams.”
The third line has found a chemistry that rivals the Bergeron line. Bruins winger Jimmy Hayes believes that chemistry is a big factor in the third line’s secondary scoring.
“We’re a line that’s going to have to continue to play well here down the stretch to help our team every night,” said Hayes. “There’s two other good players on our line and we’ve got be hard and heavy and let Spooner make some space and create some plays like he did.”
Hayes is also happy to see his linemate Beleskey rack up the goals as well.
“Yeah, I told him, goals will come in bunches like bananas here and he’s starting to do it,” offered Hayes. “So he just has to continue to go to the net and finish off plays like he’s doing.”