3 Stars: Viktor Arvidsson remains white-hot scoring threat for Bruins – 98.5 The Sports Hub

When the Bruins dropped a ‘gimme’ of a game against the Leafs last week, the frustration went beyond leaving two seemingly crucial points on the table.

It really had as much to do with the seemingly daunting schedule in front of the Bruins following that game, which would see the Bruins go against the Sabres, Wild, Blue Jackets, and then the Stars. A ‘best case scenario’ for that four-game stretch probably looked like an even split, you’d think. The Bruins decided to flip that idea on its head in a major way, and instead delivered the seemingly improbable with a win, a win, a win, and yup you guessed it, another win Tuesday night against Dallas.

“The good thing is that everyone was talking about the schedule, [like] ‘You know, the Bruins have the toughest schedule.’ Yeah, I believe that too,” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said following Tuesday’s win at TD Garden. “But what I like about is we always play better when we are playing against better teams. And for us, the playoffs started a long time ago, and that’s a good thing about our team.” 

Here’s a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game…

With the Blackhawks and Sabres prior to joining the Bruins, this is actually the first playoff race of Henri Jokiharju‘s NHL career. And though minutes have been hard to come by, Jokiharju looked like someone ready to make a late-season push for a spot in what was an excellent performance against the Stars on Tuesday night.

Deployed for 16:47 of action, Jokiharju finished this contest with a goal, an assist, and a plus-2 rating. The goal was actually his first as a Bruin, too, coming in what was his 57th appearance with the club dating back to last year.

In other words, Jokiharju went his first 56 games in a Boston sweater without finding the back of the net. The list of other Bruins skaters to go at least that long into their Bruins tenure without a goal (last 30 years): Dean Malkoc, Ken Baumgartner, P.J. Stock, Andrew Alberts, Matt Bartkowski, Jakub Zboril, and Parker Wotherspoon. 

Beyond the point production, though, Jokiharju had a fantastic night when it came to controlling the puck. The Bruins out-attempted Dallas by a 16-7 mark, outshot them 8-3, and held a 2-0 scoring edge with Jokiharju on the ice at five-on-five play.

Jokiharju’s odds of cracking Boston’s postseason lineup may come down to their matchup, as the Bruins essentially have Jokiharju, Andrew Peeke, and Mason Lohrei (out for the last two games with an upper-body injury) battling for two spots.

The Bruins quite simply needed more compete from Elias Lindholm. And right now, they’re getting it, as Lindholm took yet another step in the right direiction, this time with a goal, an assist, and a plus-2 rating en route to the victory.

In addition to the point production, Lindholm won 14 of his 19 battles at the dot, giving him a 73.7 faceoff percentage by the night’s end. That’s good for Lindholm’s fifth-best single-game faceoff percentage of the season.

Is the hat trick scored by Viktor Arvidsson in this victory really a hat trick if it’s done with two empty-net goals? Or better yet, who actually cares? Because what the Bruins are getting out of Arvidsson right now — and what they’ve gotten out of him all year, for that matter — has gone beyond what anybody could’ve expected.

With what was his second straight three-point outing, Arvidsson finished his March with eight goals and 20 points in 16 games. Arvidsson’s actually tied for the ninth-most points in the NHL since the league returned to play from the Olympics, too.

He’s truly been everything and more.

The dude has been an assassin with his deployment, really.

Arvidsson, who is averaging 14:33 per game, now owns the third-best season by any Bruins player who’s averaged under 15 minutes time on ice per game, with 50 points on the year. The only two seasons better while meeting this criteria: 2013-14 Reilly Smith (51 points) and 2008-09 Michael Ryder (53 points).