Victories have their own beauty, no matter how ugly they may be crafted.
"We didn't get the bounces we wanted, but two points are two points," mused Jeremy Reich, after his first NHL goal Saturday night helped nudge the Bruins along to their 2-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. "We won't argue with it."
But there is concern on Causeway, despite the fact that the Bruins awoke today with 39 points, second in the Eastern Conference only to the powerful Ottawa Senators (45) - tomorrow night's visitors. For two straight nights inside their home rink, including Thursday's 3-1 loss to the Devils, the Bruins were decidedly not the better team.
If not for the airtight netminding of Alex Auld (4-1 in his five starts), and the Jackets' paucity of finish (0 for 32) and purpose around the net, the outcome Saturday would have been vastly different. The issue, once again, was offense, or the near total lack of it, particularly in the third period when Columbus piled up a 15-2 shot lead. One of those two shots was Marco Sturm's empty-netter with a fraction less than 12 seconds left on the clock.
Must the Bruins, who have bought in to coach Claude Julien's structured, defensively disciplined system, sacrifice offense for the sake of sticking to the game plan?
"That," said a clearly irked Julien, "is a crock."
By Julien's reasoned view, the goals are there for the taking, no matter how demanding the mission to play defense. The only thing lacking, he believes, is the effort, especially among the forwards, that would produce the chances and the goals. His club isn't physical enough for his liking. They don't forecheck with enough speed or purpose. Traffic to the net is of a volume that rivals Mayberry, sidewalks rolled up for the night, the lone streetlight turned off.
Overall, it's a squirtgun offense, guaranteed to lead to trouble.
If the Bruins were to go .500 the rest of the way, they would finish with 89 points, likely not enough to avoid a third straight postseason DNQ. Is it reasonable to believe that an average of 2.63 goals per night will make them much more than a .500 team? Early returns aside, not really, which is why GM Peter Chiarelli is ratcheting up his efforts to find a fix to the offense, and why Julien bristles at the suggestion that a club so invested in defensive discipline, and so goalie-reliant, can't use the offensively creative side of its brain.
"It's not necessarily because of line combinations," said Julien, asked if he has fought the temptation to juggle his lines to create more offense, if for no other reason than the fact his squad has gone 4-1 of late. "It's the way we are working. We can work a lot harder. We get outworked, and that's something we can't accept."
Thursday, playing their third game in four nights, the Bruins arrived home dead on doublerunners after playing the night before in Atlanta, and Julien gave them a pass for the stinker against the Devils. Not so 48 hours later, even with the record improved to 18-11-2-1. Julien, like nearly everyone in the crowd of 14,058, realized that a stand-still offense, one that suffers, in part, because of the lack of back-end transition, most nights will be left standing out in the cold.
Of the four lines Saturday night, the only one not outworked was the fourth line, consisting of rookie Vladimir Sobotka pivoting Petteri Nokelainen and Reich. The No. 1 line of P.J. Axelsson, Glen Murray, and Marc Savard, totaling 54:49 in ice time when playing at even strength or power play, generated but three shots, and nearly zero offensive presence.
Murray especially has tapered off the last two weeks, scoring only once and landing only 11 shots over six games. But he's not alone atop the pile of offensive futility. Chuck Kobasew has one goal in seven games. Sturm's empty-netter ended a string of 12 games without a goal. Glen Metropolit has knocked only one home in the last nine games. For all his flash and dash, Phil Kessel has scored but thrice in 21 games. All in all, seven goals over a combined 55 games from that pack.
"The coaching staff keeps harping on us not to sit on leads," said Reich, his first NHL goal coming in what is his eighth pro season. "In this league, a two- or three-goal lead ain't safe. When we get one, we have to want to go get another, put the nail in the coffin."
After the win Saturday night, top goalie prospect Tuukka Rask was sent back to Providence (AHL) and Tim Thomas, recently sidelined with a pulled groin, was taken off the injured-reserve list. Provided both remain healthy, Messrs. Thomas and Auld will divvy up the chores for the remainder of the season . . . Auld will begin to break in his new pads during this morning's workout at Wilmington. A new mask likely will arrive later this week. His save percentage in five games: a spectacular .955 . . . Another busy week for the spoked B's, in part because of their upcoming three-day break over Christmas. They've got the Sens here tomorrow, followed by visits from Pittsburgh (Thursday) and St. Louis (Saturday, 1 p.m.) and then a quick trip to Pittsburgh for a Sunday matinee at 3 . . . In anticipation of yesterday's bad weather, and no doubt noting his squad's fatigue as mid-season approaches, Julien granted everyone a day off. The weather also put off the club's annual on-ice Christmas party.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.
