Milan Lucic added two more goals to his team-leading total in the Bruins' 5-2 victory over the Islanders on Thursday night. He now has 15 on the season, and continues to make his preseason hope for 20 goals look like the underestimation of the century. 

Four of them have been empty netters, and some of them, like his goals in the last two games, have been fluky, soft, or a combination of the two. That's the beauty of it for Lucic: He's getting all the bounces (and, when it comes to the empty-netters, two gifts from David Krejci). 

Fifteen goals from a Bruins winger through 27 games? Nobody expected it from Lucic, and if they expected it from anyone, it was likely Nathan Horton. Even so, they've got a first-line winger who is finding the net one way or another, and it's working. 

Speaking of the "who would have thought…" game, Tuukka Rask picked up his second win of the season … on Dec. 9. Rask allowed just a shorthanded penalty shot goal to Frans Nielsen and a third-period strike to Rob Schemp. Despite his 2-6-1 record, Rask is still top-five in the league with a .928 save percentage.  

Here's the Hat Trick:

BRAD MARCHAND: SHORTHANDED GENIUS?

The Bruins know what they're getting from Brad Marchand at this point. He's a scrappy guy, the little engine that could and a solid penalty killer. Did the team think they had a guy who would be tied for the league lead with three shorthanded goals at this point? Probably not, but then again Marchand probably didn't expect it either. 

Yet that's where the 22-year-old finds himself. For a guy who not long ago was chomping at the bit just to get his first NHL goal, Marchand sits with Claude Giroux as a sultan of the short-handed strike. His most recent came in the second period when he took advantage of Rick DiPietro coming too far out of his net to play a puck.

How is he doing it? Marchand's answer is simple.

"Lucky breaks," Marchand said. Of his three shorties, really only the first one, which came on a breakaway in the first period of of the team's Nov. 3 game in Buffalo, wasn't especially odd. 

As much as he enjoys that he's been able to pose as goal-scorer's penalty killer, Marchand laughed off the idea that he'd have better offensive stats if the team drew more penalties. 

"I'd rather get them even-strength anyway," Marchand said. "Nobody wants anybody on our team to be taking penalties."

TRYING TO CUT DOWN ON THE CHIRPING

Marchand, as is well-known throughout the league, is a world-class chirper. He said after the game that he's worked on being a mature player, taking less ill-advised penalties than he may have taken in the past, and not being a "liability."

Part of that may mean cutting down on his famed jabber, and he knows it. Because of the reputation he's already developed, it usually isn't long before the refs give him a talking to and tell him to knock it off. To make sure he gets the message, they also tell Claude Julien. 

One would imagine that makes for an undesirable trip back to the bench, as he returns to a coach who doesn't want his men taking foolish penalties.

"I know it's coming," Marchand said of what he referred to as "the nod" from Julien. "The ref will tell me and then the ref tells him. [Julien] doesn't even say anything. He just kind of looks at me like, 'They've told you. You know, so don't." 

Julien can see the improvement from a discipline standpoint, and though he appreciates the effort, he's not ready to call Marchand a changed young man. 

"It’s improving. Not quite there yet," an amusingly honest Julien said following the game. "A few times I’ve had to tell him to pick his spots a little better. A player that plays on the edge like that will always have the referees watching him closely so he’s got to be careful that he’s smart about how he does it."

A SOLID DEBUT FOR KAMPFER

Steven Kampfer had already played at TD Garden prior to Thursday night. He'd done so wearing the eight-spoked B. Hell, he'd even played against the Islanders before. yet the two rookie games in which he technically crossed all those things off his bucket list couldn't compare to his NHL debut. 

Kampfer, 22, was given the start on Thursday. With both his parents and  his agent in the crowd, as well as friends and family watching from a Michigan bar, Kampfer wasn't more than a few seconds into his NHL career before he dropped Mike Comeau at the blue line. 

Just like Shawn Thornton told him to. 

"Obviously I was nervous going into the first shift, but Shawn came up and talked to me," Kampfer said after the game. "He was like, 'Try and get a hit your first shift,' and it was easy enough, I guess."

Another blueliner was impressed with the aggression shown right out of the gate from the rookie. 

"I remember my first shift, the puck was a grenade," Andrew Ference said. "I didn't want anything to do with it. So it was good for him. Really good for him."

Kampfer, somewhat surprisingly, did not finish last among Boston defensemen in ice time. That distinction went to Adam McQuaid, who was out there for 12:47 compared to Kampfer's 13:50. 

The rookie seemed to work well with Dennis Seidenberg. One thing that Kampfer has stressed is that just because Mark Stuart is out for an extended period of time (an estimated four-to-six weeks with a fracture in his hand and a dislocated finger), does not mean he will be handed the job for the time being. He's aware of the talent at Providence and that if he doesn't work out, the team has another option in someone like Matt Bartkowski. 

Based on Thursday, he doesn't need to worry yet. So far, so good.