The Bruins are well past the halfway mark of the season, having played their 50th game of the year Tuesday night against the Maple Leafs at TD Garden.
But, still, the post-All-Star Game portion of the season seems to have a renewed focus, a renewed push.
That’s even more true with a difficult and busy February ahead for the Bruins as they play 14 games between Feb. 2 and the NHL’s Feb. 29 trade deadline.
It became even more crucial, given what happened Tuesday, as the Bruins took just 1 point in a divisional game in which they should have gotten 2.
“With the way things are right now in the standings, you can’t give up points like that,’’ Brad Marchand said after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs. “That’s what it’s going to come down to at the end of the year. Every point right now is huge.’’
The Bruins remained in position for the first wild card, just 1 point ahead of the Penguins.
Boston has 58 points, the same number as the two teams ahead of them, the Lightning and Red Wings, who now each have a game in hand.
“It just puts a lot more importance into what every game means now,’’ coach Claude Julien said. “You always look at the scheduling, look at 82 games. You say, well, so you lose a few here or there. You can’t look at it that way anymore.
“You’ve got to win every one of them and you’ve got to go out there with every intension and try and win as many as you can because it won’t take much for one team to slide in and one team to slide out.’’
And the Bruins aren’t exactly set up for success this month, with a seasonlong six-game road trip coming up in the middle of the month. It will be, as Torey Krug said, “a grind with not much time to rest.’’
But, at least at the moment, they’re right in the thick of things. That’s heartening, but it only counts for so much.
“We need to be at a better place,’’ Patrice Bergeron said. “We need to realize that it’s only half the battle if you’re in a playoff spot at the All-Star break. You have a lot of work to do ahead of you and that’s the position we’re in right now. We gave ourselves a chance to be fighting for a spot til the end of the year and we need to keep playing and keep some consistency to our game if we want to advance to our goal.’’
Because they don’t want what happened last year to happen again. They don’t want to be on the outside looking in after the final buzzer in the final game of the regular season.
“I’ve been saying we don’t want to have regrets,’’ Krug said. “Last year there were a lot of games that we let slip away from us, whether it’s points in overtime, shootouts, third-period leads that got away from us in our own building. We’ve got to make sure we stay on top of that.
“I’ve said it before, we’ve got to be comfortable playing tight games and important games. We did a lot of those last year, so we’ve got to take a step forward this year.’’
They didn’t do that on Tuesday night.
Gustavsson on ice
Jonas Gustavsson has been cleared to practice, but not yet cleared to play, according to Julien. Gustavsson was one of three goaltenders for the Bruins at the team’s morning skate, along with Tuukka Rask and Malcolm Subban.
Gustavsson did take shots on net and was not made available to the media by the team.
Gustavsson went to Mass. General after the first period of last tuesday’s game for precautionary reasons because of an elevated heart rate, staying in the hospital overnight.
The Bruins placed him on injured reserve coming out of the All-Star break and brought up Subban to serve as their second goalie.
Dry spell for Ferraro
Landon Ferraro knows exactly how long it’s been since he scored his last point: 16 games. He has gone 16 games without adding a point to his total, after having three goals and four assists in his first 12 games as a member of the Bruins.
“I didn’t have a really solid chance the last couple games, but before that, our line had been playing really well and we were getting lots of chances, just it wasn’t going in for us,’’ Ferraro said. “I think it’s 16 now that I haven’t gotten anything, so I’m well aware of it.
“To have a team that’s going to go far down the stretch, do well and then go far in the playoffs, you need four lines that are contributing. We don’t need three goals from us every night, but when you can chip in, it just makes it that much easier for the guys that are scoring constantly and we’re relying on. It just takes a little weight off their shoulders.’’
For and against
Marchand scored twice Tuesday, bringing his total on the season to 22. He has scored seven in his last seven games. But it wasn’t all good, at least according to his coach. “We’re getting production from him, but he’s also one of the guys that’s on the ice sometimes with goals against,’’ Julien said. “So I like his production. I think as a group, including him, we’ve got to get better without the puck.’’ Marchand was on the ice for two goals against, by Daniel Winnik in the second and the game-tying goal by Nazem Kadri in the third . . . The one player on the Bruins who did get a chance to rest over the break was Bergeron, who spent the weekend in Nashville for the All-Star Game. “It’s a pretty busy weekend, you’re asked to do quite a few things, but at the same time it was nice,’’ Bergeron said. “I had time to enjoy my family being there and spend some quality time with them.’’
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin @globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @amaliebenjamin.
