Bruins get grunt work from Lazar.
As part of the Hall deal, Curtis Lazar was seen by a lot of people as a throw-in to the trade, but he has been much more important than just an afterthought in the deal.
He solidified the Bruins fourth-line in the regular season, but in the playoffs, he might not have produced much offense, but it was the little things he did that helped the Bruins advance to the second round of the playoffs against either the New York Islanders or the Pittsburgh Penguins. New York currently holds a 3-2 series lead following a double-overtime win Monday night. Game 6 is Wednesday night on Long Island.
Back to Lazar, he averaged just under 12 minutes a night in the five games and had an assist, but it was the other things he contributed. He had 18 hits, which is what you like to see from your bottom-six forwards, but he was very good on faceoffs.
For the series, he was 20-for-34, which is 58.8-percent at the dot. His one assist came on a faceoff win in Game 1, which led to Jake DeBrusk scoring the Black and Gold’s first goal of the series, which also knocked out the first of three Washington goalies in Vitek Vanecek, who was injured trying to make the save.
Past trade deadlines have not been too kind to Sweeney, but after one playoff series against Washington, the results have been good. Now we see if the results can stay consistent against either the Islanders or Penguins.