All things considered, the Bruins aren’t in bad shape

Everything was great, and then everything was no longer great.

I have a way with words, I know. Putting that journalism degree to use!

Yesterday’s Game 2 loss stung, mainly because the Bruins were in great shape and let the game slip away due to a less-than-stellar effort from pretty much everyone.

However, it’s going to be in the 80’s in Boston today. It’s sunny. The weather is improving. The Celtics are in the playoffs tonight. I had pizza for dinner yesterday.

That’s right: it’s a positivity post!

There’s no sugarcoating it: the Bruins should be up 2-0 in this series.

But if someone had told you that the series would be tied at a game apiece heading to Boston, would you have taken it?

Probably, especially given the struggles the Bruins had against Ottawa in the regular season.

The fact of the matter is that the Bruins now have home-ice advantage in a best of five series. Let’s look on the bright side:

• The Bruins split two playoff games on the road with approximately 3.7 defensemen. Brandon Carlo is out. Torey Krug is out. Colin Miller is out. And in Game 2, Adam McQuaid was out for the majority of the game. The Bruins are icing guys who probably shouldn’t be playing, playing guys way out of their element and they still managed to win a game. Speaking of...
• ...Charlie McAvoy, man. Kid looks good. McAvoy has played nearly 52 minutes over the course of two games. He had a few hiccups today (including screening Tuukka Rask on Ottawa’s rally-starting goal), but the good has drastically outweighed the bad.
• The Bruins have, for stretches, looked utterly dominant. The Patrice Bergeron line appears to average at least one shift per period that features over a minute of time spent in the offensive zone. The return of Marc Methot helped Ottawa spread their talent around a bit more, but the Bruins have shown an ability to set up camp in the Ottawa end, provided they beat the trap.
• In theory, every day should get the Bruins’ closer to full strength. Barring something worse than we all anticipate, David Krejci should be back by Monday or Wednesday (the logic being that he warmed up on Wednesday and was a last-second pull; it can’t be that serious...we hope). Same for Noel Acciari. Carlo, assuming he suffered a concussion last Saturday, should be getting closer to a return.
• The 1-3-1 hasn’t seemed to cause that many problems for the Bruins to this point. They’ve been able to get decent time in the offensive zone, and appear to be capable of stifling their frustration. The Senators also appear to be very dependent on their system: if things aren’t going their way, they don’t appear to have much of a back-up plan. This, of course, makes scoring first a big help, but even just establishing possession a few shifts in a row goes a long way toward breaking down the 1-3-1.

That’s five bullets worth of positive vibes! Good stuff.

What do you think? Are you happy with where the Bruins are (all things considered), or do you see pending doom?