Bruins trounce Blackhawks, end losing streak

More than anything else, the Bruins were just happy with the good result.

Riding a six game losing streak and a potentially disastrous winless five game road trip through the Western Conference, the Bruins did many, many things right and also enjoyed some good fortune in their 6-2 thumping of a powerful Chicago Blackhawks team at the United Center.

They finished 2-for-4 on the power play, scored a season-high six goals, got a goal from a forward on each of their four lines in a fine show of scoring depth and bounced back mightily from a tough ending to their first period.

Six different goal-scorers all took a turn having a good feeling in the win: Patrice Bergeron, Loui Eriksson, Milan Lucic, Gregory Campbell, Dougie Hamilton and Reilly Smith.

More importantly, it allowed the B’s to take four out of a possible 10 points by salvaging the finale of the five game road trip and saw the Bruins lose little ground to the Florida Panthers chasing them in the playoff standings. Compared with the alternative had they turtled in the second and third period and once again found a way to lose, the Bruins were gleefully happy leaving Chicago with a resounding victory.

“This was more [beneficial] for our psyche and our confidence. If you look at the scenario the other way, we’re going back home with our heads between our legs and that would have been the normal reaction of a team that took two out of ten points,” said Claude Julien. “Aside from the score, I didn’t mind the St. Louis game. I liked our skating and I liked our pace.

“Today our execution at scoring goals was better, so it’s important that we take this, bring it back home and remember what we did here to get things going in the right direction. If we can do that we’ll get ourselves back on track.”

The two points will also ease some of the questions swirling around this team with both Peter Chiarelli and Julien on the hot seat, and perhaps takes some of the intensity off the glaring spotlight pointed at the hockey club. That, in turn, allows the Bruins players to relax just a little bit, and play with a little more confidence after escaping the worst losing streak in five years for the Black and Gold.

“The road trip as a whole, we are obviously not happy about. We got four out of a possible 10 points, but sometimes that’s the way it goes. We just have to make sure we take the game we had here in Chicago, and take that into our next game at home,” said Zdeno Chara. “It’s one of those things where you’ve got to create your own confidence, and really believe in yourself.

“It’s not always easy. It’s challenging. It’s a long season, and we just have to stick with it and keep pushing. Eventually things will go back to the way it should be, and for a lot of guys tonight was a good example. We couldn’t get anything going on this road trip, and it was really frustrating and disappointing. Today we got good results: more goals for, and fewer goals against.”

Joe Haggerty serves as Comcast SportsNet's NHL Insider. Read more from Joe here, or follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.