First Half Recap: B's Overcome Early Season Injuries

BOSTON- David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Tim Schaller, Zdeno Chara, Sean Kuraly and Brandon Carlo.
Those are the names of the only six Bruins players to have appeared in all 40 games the Bruins have played this season.
Adversely, 13 Bruins skaters or goaltenders have missed multiple games or spent time on the injured reserve. From diverticulitis and concussions to fractured bones and groin tears, the B's have seen it all.

Despite playing in the fewest games in the NHL (40), the Bruins have tied for the third-most man-games lost to injury (155).
Through the first 17 games of the season, the Bruins injury-riddled roster stumbled to a 6-7-4 record, totaling 16 points and ranking 13th in the Eastern Conference.
On November 15, the B's lost to Anaheim, 4-2, stretching their losing streak at the time to four games. Since then, the Bruins have posted a scorching 17-3-3 record. In that time, they have vaulted to the third spot in the conference and second in the Atlantic division.
While being consistently shorthanded early in the year was a significant challenge, assistant captain Patrice Bergeron believes the difficulty helped to bring the team together.
"We faced some adversity early on and I think that got us stronger mentally," said Bergeron. "It doesn't matter who's in the lineup or who does the job, we find a way."
Bergeron, however, noted there are still areas where the team can grow and improve.
"We can be better, we can still learn," said Bergeron. "The young guys are developing nicely… A lot of positives and a lot of things to learn from as well."
Entering the mandatory five-day bye week, the Bruins recorded a point in 11 straight games, going 8-0-3. The streak is their longest consecutive points streak since they went 15-0-1 from March 2-30, 2014.
Brad Marchand, who was selected to the All-Star Game earlier this week, expressed excitement at how the team is coming together on and off the ice.
"We really came together there over the last month and a half and showed the type of team we can be," said Marchand. "We had a lot of growing pains early on and some injuries. I think we kind of expected that to be the case, not so much the injury bug, but a lot of young guys and new guys on the team.
"You need time to come together and we've really done that now. We showed that we can compete every night and that we can be a good team and we're consistent. We need to continue to do it after the break."
Head coach Bruce Cassidy spoke after the recent overtime loss to the Penguins about the team's strong play since the early season injury turmoil.
"We had some injuries we fought through, stayed afloat, battled through some adversity and we've gone on a good run," said Cassidy. "We've seen good growth in a number of our players. We've seen our veteran players contribute, obviously our young guys, our guys in between. We've started to see an identity of our hockey club here in the last six weeks.
"I like where we're at right now and the break is coming at a good time. We could use a break. We have a very heavy schedule in the bag. I think we're one of the teams that played the least amount of games. We're going to need our rest to keep it up."
FIRSTS FOR ALL
While assimilating a multitude of young talent to the NHL roster, the Bruins experienced their share of firsts, beginning in Game 1 of the season against Nashville. Jake DeBrusk and Charlie McAvoy both recorded their first career goals in the 4-3 victory.

Rookie Anders Bjork notched the first of his career on Oct. 14 in a 6-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Danton Heinen was the next rookie to record his first. After spending the beginning of the season in Providence, the 22-year-old needed only four games at the NHL level to find the back of the net, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win over San Jose on Oct. 26.

Sean Kuraly, known for his overtime heroics in last year's first-round playoff series against Ottawa, scored the first regular-season goal of his career on Nov. 2 against the Vegas Golden Knights. Peter Cehlarik followed that with the first of his career a few weeks later in San Jose, when the Bruins defeated the Sharks, 3-1.
Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk was the final rookie to notch the first of his career when the Charlestown native scored in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 24.

TUUKKA TIME
After a turbulent opening month, Tuukka Rask ended the second half of the season on a stellar run. In the month of December alone, Rask started 10 games, recording a 9-0-1 record, with a league-leading save percentage of .955 and an astounding 1.22 goals against average, which was also best in the NHL in December.

Rask was named the NHL's First Star for the month of December, and his hot play continued into January when he stopped 25 of 26 shots in a 5-1 victory over the New York Islanders. The Bruins overtime loss to the Penguins on Jan. 7 marked the 11th consecutive game that Rask recorded a point, the longest streak of his career.
Rask's goals against average of 2.23 is second in the Eastern Conference behind only Tampa Bay All-Star Andrei Vasilevskiy (2.10).
BY THE NUMBERS
One of the biggest keys to the Bruins recent success has been the ability to receive scoring from their veterans, rookies, or any of the four forwards lines on any given night.
Bruins' rookies have combined to score 33 goals, which is more goals from first-year players than any other team in the NHL. The fourth line of Tim Schaller, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari is on pace to score 29 goals this season, proving they can play valuable minutes while also chipping in offensively.

The contributions from all areas of the lineup are evident, as the Bruins rank in the top 10 in the NHL in a multitude of categories. The B's balanced attacked has produced 3.23 goals per game, ranking sixth in the league. The offense has not come at the expense of the team's defense, as they are allowing a mere 2.50 goals per game, the third-best mark in the NHL.
The Bruins power play is converting at a 20.8% success rate (ninth), while the penalty kill is thwarting 82.8% of opponent's man-advantages (ninth). Bruce Cassidy's team is also allowing the second-fewest shots per game in the league (29.6), and winning 52.4% of all face-offs (eighth).

These impressive metrics have boosted the Bruins to the sixth-best winning percentage in the NHL (.662), and they have tied for the seventh most points in the league (53) despite playing fewer games (40) than all 30 other teams.
MILESTONES
Brad Marchand:

Patrice Bergeron:

Tuukka Rask:
David Backes:
David Pastrnak:
- On December 13 against the Detroit Red Wings, Pastrnak appeared in the 200th game of his young NHL career when the Bruins topped the Wings, 3-2 in overtime. In his career, Pastrnak has recorded 76 goals, 86 assists and 162 points.