The Boston Bruins are pushing the right buttons right now as they enter November with a three-game winning streak and four wins in their last five games. They are also starting off November on a winning note as the third game of their winning streak came on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
After losing to the Ottawa Senators 7-2, the Bruins took it personally with a bounce-back win against the New York Islanders the next night. Even though you would not have been able to tell when they were down 2-0 going into the second period.
What happened to lead the Bruins to a three game winning streak?
Joonas Korpisalo standing on his head
Joonas Korpisalo was in the net on Tuesday against the New York Islanders due to it being a back-to-back game. While he let up two goals in the first period to the Islanders, after that, he stopped the next 33 shots he faced.
He was rewarded for his performance with a second straight start on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres. While he let up two late goals to allow the Sabres to force overtime, he was still coming up with big saves and stopped 37 of the 40 shots he faced.
Korpisalo was very vocal about his desire to play more games this season, and if he keeps playing the way he is, then he will be rewarded with more starts.
New Defensive Pairings
Marco Sturm has benched Mason Lohrei, which gave someone else the chance to play with Charlie McAvoy as the top defensive pairing. That person? Nikita Zadorov.
Zadorov being paired with McAvoy just makes sense; both are hard-hitting players. Zadorov is more of a rigid D-zone player with a bruising approach, which allows McAvoy to go and help in the offensive zone, where he seems to flourish.
The pairing seems to be similar when McAvoy would play with Hall of Famer and Bruins legend Zdeno Chara. Chara and Zadorov are both big players, 6-foot-9 inches and 6-foot-7 inches, respectively.
During 5-on-5 play with the pairing of Zadorov and McAvoy on ice, the Bruins have only allowed one goal, and that was from the Colorado Avalanche's top line.
Jeremy Swayman's Bounce Back Game
To make it to a three-game win streak, the Bruins had to face the surging Carolina Hurricanes at home on Saturday. Strum was still debating who was going to be his goalie for the game: do you let Korpisalo have his third straight start, or do you go back to your number one goaltender?
Jeremy Swayman did not play the first two games of the homestead, as he let up seven goals against the Ottawa Senators. Well, he took that game and flushed it down the toilet as he kept the league-leading goals per game team to just one goal with three minutes left in the game.
Swayman played with fire in his stomach and saved 28 of 29 shots, which is also a great sign, as the Bruins have averaged about 30 shots in a game all season.
One Negative of the Winning Streak
There is, unfortunately, one negative thing about the winning streak, and that is the loss of Elias Lindholm. Lindholm has a knee-to-knee collision with Jordan Greenway of the Buffalo Sabres early in the third period. He is now week-to-week and most likely will be out for at least the next month.
While this is a negative, it gives Marat Khusnutdinov the chance to play on the top line with Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak. He even got his first goal of the season, which ended up being the OT winner against the Buffalo Sabres.
Is this a turn around?
While it is a cause for celebration, fans should be cautiously optimistic, as anything can happen with the condensed schedule, as well as those hungry teams that are below the Bruins in the standings.
It will be exciting to see the momentum the team gains from this, and it will be interesting to see where the injuries the team has faced will lead the team. For now, though, it's a fun thing to celebrate after losing six straight and being able to get back to .500.