Patrice Bergeron’s milestone and other takeaways from Bruins-Lightning

The Boston Bruins barely got their “A” game in their opening moments against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They gave up the first nine shots of the game and led 1-0 at 8:57 on Nick Paul’s first count of the night.

In their opener of a seven-game gauntlet, the Bruins looked ripe for disappointment against a Bolts team coming off of their third consecutive Stanley Cup Finals appearance.

There was no disappointment.

In the process, the Bruins witnessed another accolade for an all-time great in Monday’s 5-3 triumph.

Patrice Bergeron scored his 1,000th career point after getting a secondary assist 15:08 into the second period on Brad Marchand’s sixth goal of the season. The Bruins cleared their bench to celebrate Bergeron’s latest milestone after Marchand extended Boston’s lead to 4-1.

“It was kind of a surreal moment” Bergeron told Sophia Jurksztowicz of NESN. “It was cool to see everyone jumping around like that. I’m so grateful for all those guys. That’s a big part of what makes this game fun.”

A handful of Bruins supporting players within this sea of ​​humanity had their own moments before Bergeron’s milestone.

David Krejci got the Bruins back on track, delivering a vicious slap shot past Andrei Vasiliveskiy for his fourth goal in three games.

A notched Nick Foligno gave the Bruins the lead for good early in the second period on a fat power-play goal in the in front of the net.

After further consideration, Charlie Coyle extended Boston’s lead to 3-1 just 31 seconds later with a gate marker.

The Lightning provided a decent drop in the third after David Pastrnak’s power-play count on DeBrusk’s wire. A turnover from Tomas Nosek led directly to Rudolfs Balcers’ third goal of the year. Just over six minutes later, Paul landed his second lamplighter of the night moments after officials assessed a questionable minor-cutting Coyle.

Jim Montgomery called his timeout after the Lightning pulled out within striking distance. Behind Linus Ullmark’s clutch saves, the Bruins recovered from Tampa Bay’s third-period push to go 17-2-0.

Here’s what we learned after a memorable night in Central Florida.

The Bruins celebrated a captain’s milestone.

The Bruins didn’t necessarily have a scoreboard counting Bergeron’s trail to 1,000 career points. But over the past week, they all knew he was closing in on another illustrious accolade.

Marchand and the rest of the team discussed their ideas for celebrating Bergeron’s milestone. The plan came to fruition on Monday after Bergeron set the streak for Marchand’s count with a feed to DeBrusk en route to making history.

Bergeron first knew he was the fourth Bruin to score 1,000 career points after Marchand pointed in his direction.

“I saw Marshy’s reaction, and that’s when I realized I had hit him, so I [the 1,000th point]added Bergeron in his postgame interview with NESN.

The Boston captain was unaware of the group’s celebration. During his first hugs with Marchand, DeBrusk, Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo, the Bruins all came off the bench to join in a heartwarming moment.

“We talked about it as a group. We’ve seen in the past where guys can celebrate with him. It’s a special moment. It doesn’t happen often, and it couldn’t be with a better guy,” Marchand said as he joined Bergeron in this postgame interview with Jurksztowicz.

“Just a great opportunity to be with him and have the whole band celebrate with him. We’re happy to be here and a part of it, and we’re all so happy for him. Another career milestone so amazing, and obviously [he’s] a Hall of Fame. It’s fun to see.

Like the other half of the dynamic duo, Marchand conveniently finished off Bergeron’s 1,000th point. But the goal itself has become secondary to the celebration.

The humble captain and future Hall of Famer cherished every moment.

“That was probably the most special thing about it – all the guys jumping on it and sharing that with them,” Bergeron told reporters inside the visitors locker room at Amalie Arena. “Definitely something I will remember for a long time.”

As Bergeron etched his name into the record books, another veteran continued his rebounding season.

Foligno “sews” his way to an opportune marker.

The former Blue Jackets captain suffered facial repairs after taking a puck to the face while working on drills in front of the net during morning practice. Aside from a brief stint in the locker room in the second half, Foligno didn’t miss a shift.

The hockey gods must have brought luck to Foligno. In fact, he earned his lucky rebounds after a disappointing first year in Boston.

Foligno has already surpassed his goalscoring tally from a year ago. On Monday, he doubled last year’s outing with his fourth goal of the year at a pivotal moment.

Parked in his usual place in net in the secondary unit on the power play, Foligno dove for a loose puck off a Vasilievskiy rebound to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

“I think it was an important goal at the time with where the first half kind of took us and a huge goal from Krech [Krejci] exit the period tied. But then we wanted to get into our game,” Foligno told the media. “Obviously we didn’t have that jump that we needed to have in the first half and they went out [flying]. We knew they were going to push, but I think it shows what we have here to not be pissed off about it either. We got out in the second and just took over.

Thanks to their strong net, Foligno and the Bruins never looked back after that tough first period.

Ullmark held the fort…again.

Continuing the trend since Ullmark’s last start in Thursday’s win over the Flyers, the Bruins have come out slow. This time they met their tough 20th opener against one of the NHL’s top teams.

The Lightning jumped first on Paul’s opener. Knowing the Bruins would eventually get their skating legs back, Jon Cooper’s team kept pushing, generating more quality scoring chances in transition.

As the defenders struggled to contain Tampa’s attack, Ullmark remained calm. The Swede, who found himself leading the league in all three main statistical goalkeeping categories on Monday, delivered another solid outing with 32 saves, including 13 in the first quarter.

Ullmark faced several Grade A chances all night, from breakaways to tips and spot shots. Eventually, the Bruins provided Ullmark with that support to continue their torrid start to the season run.

“I think we showed resilience tonight… kind of an up and down game. But we were opportunistic and closed it at the end,” added Bergeron. “Linus made some great saves, but overall it was a team effort. And that’s all you can ask for.