Persistence was the watchword again in this one. Stuck with a plucky, competitive, pretty determined, tight-checking Carolina team and played a defensively sound, hard-fought game until they finally found a way through, aided by a healthy dose of more goalie awesomeness from Halak.
The Bruins have to be a nightmare to play against at the moment. Fast, hard-working, able to stick in games even when they're not quite clicking on offense, built on a really solid, organized D in which every pair skates hard and is difficult to beat, and even when you do you still have to get by an excellent goalie, regardless of which one is in net. And then at the other end you have to contend with 4 lines which all seek to work you over and give little respite, one of the hottest scoring forwards in the NHL right now, and plenty of other ways to hurt you even if you can contain him and his annoying little line-mate.
Sure they're not the biggest or hardest-hitting team, and don't carry the greatest sheer scoring threat, but they've got enough physicality to at least hold their own and use the body when required against all but the heaviest opponents, and they pack enough offensive punch that they're never far away should you give them a sniff.
The sum of it is I don't think teams are scared the play the Bruins, they just know they're really up against it in breaking them down and that they're going to have to go hard for the full 60 mins if they want a positive result. That must make teams wary, and then increasingly frustrated when they put in so much effort for little reward, only to then concede in their own net, often twice over in pretty quick succession.
Lovely place to be for the Bs and us fans.
