After the Bruins were shut out for the fifth time in February on Tuesday night, Claude Julien was asked whether he was concerned about his offense given all the blankings. His answer was brief. 

“No,” the coach responded. 

Two days later, Julien contradicted himself a bit, but for good reason. The coach shook up the team’s lines, moving David Krejci back to center and putting Tyler Seguin on his wing with Milan Lucic. Replacing Seguin on Patrice Bergeron’s line was Brian Rolston. Chris Kelly centered the third line with Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot. 

The result was a hat trick from Krejci (and perhaps some underwhelming second-line play from Rolston, but let’s focus on the positives). Krejci scored his 14th, 15th and 16th goals of the season, the last of which led to a game-ending shower of hats from the Garden crowd and gave the B’s a 4-3 win over the Devils in overtime. Seguin added a goal and an assist, while Lucic had a pair of helpers.

Since Nathan Horton and Rich Peverley have been out, Krejci’s line with Lucic (when they’ve been together) hasn’t been the electric trio that it’s been so many times in the past. Thursday, however, it was the best line on the ice. Krejci and Seguin complement one another so well with their speed, and having a power forward in Lucic on the other wing makes the line all the more dangerous. 

Take the Bruins’ second goal, for instance. Lucic came barreling down the left wing and essentially broke a tackle from Devils defenseman and Nashua native Mark Fayne before hitting Seguin in the high slot to set up the 20-year-old’s 21st goal of the season. 

It wasn’t the first time the trio had played together, as they played a few games together in the middle of last season. With the results the line got, you can bet it will stay together when the B’s host the Islanders Saturday at TD Garden. For a team that has struggled to find offense consistently, the B’s know that Thursday’s first-line showing needs to be the start of something good, and not just a one-time occurrence. 

“One game doesn’t make a season,” Krejci said after the game,  “so forget about this one, just take the positive and try to keep it going in the next game.”

CORVO GETS BENCHED

It was only a matter of time. All of the turnovers were going to catch up to Joe Corvo, and it was going to cost him ice time. 

That happened Thursday night in the second period and into the third period. Corvo, who has had his issues this season with weak turnovers, sent a blind backhanded pass at the Bruins’ blueline right to Devils winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who had a 2-on-1 with teammate Zach Parise and only Dennis Seidenberg back for the B’s. Kovalchuk fed Parise, and Parise got the Devils on the board. 

“Once we gave them that first goal,” Julien said, “we just gave them life.”

Minutes later, Corvo left Patrik Elias all alone in front of the net to gather a puck blasted from the point and put it past Tim Thomas to tie the game. That was it for Corvo, as Julien broke up his pairing with Dennis Seidenberg and benched Corvo. The struggling defenseman didn’t play from 14:03 of the second period until 5:45 of the third period, when the B’s went on the power play and had lost Andrew Ference to a lower-body injury. 

“I don’t throw my players under the bus, but obviously he had a bit of a tough outing,” Julien said after the game. “But we used him again. So, not the easiest night for Joe, but at the end we needed him, so he came back out there.”

Corvo is second among Bruins defensemen with 28 giveaways this season. Zdeno Chara leads the team with 53, which is 19th in the NHL, but it seems the most blatant and costliest ones this season have come from Corvo. He’s fighting for his job, and may be coming closer to losing it. 

A HECTIC, BUT POSITIVE DEBUT FOR ZANON

If Greg Zanon had any butterflies or nerves Thursday night, he didn’t exactly have a whole lot of time to deal with them. He started on a pairing with Adam McQuaid, but once Corvo got benched in the second period, the Bruins found themselves with five defenseman, as Ference’s injury kept the B’s down a blueliner even when Corvo got back on the ice. 

As a result, Zanon had to handle more responsibility, skating with different guys, getting some time on the penalty kill. Plus, he had to do all of that while looking like a guy who wasn’t playing his first game in a new system. Where to butterflies fit into that equation? For Zanon, there was way too much on his plate for them to fit in at all. 

“You’re playing against everybody and you’re playing with everybody, you just don’t have time to think about jitters,” Zanon said. “[You] let your instincts take over and you do what you have to do to be successful.”

Zanon looked good in his Bruins debut. The veteran defenseman, whom the B’s acquired Monday from the Wild in exchange for Steve Kampfer, was completely as advertised. He finished the night with three blocked shots, a team-leading three hits and one shot on goal in 14:58 of ice time.

“I liked his game,” Julien said. “He did exactly what he’s known for. He blocked a lot of shots, decent hands, the way he was moving the puck. He was a pretty solid player for us tonight.”

Zanon said Wednesday that he felt the Bruins played his style of hockey. On Thursday, he backed up his words and played their kind of hockey. 

“It’s a lot about let the rush come to us, and I was able to have a few hits out there and make my presence known,” he said. “I did what I could in the D zone, maybe a few areas we’ll have to check on tape tomorrow for some mix ups, but other than that I thought it was pretty good.”

Zanon played on the penalty kill in the third period when Zdeno Chara went off for high-sticking Adam Henrique. He wasn’t on the ice for any of either team’s goals, so overall it was a solid showing in which he was responsible enough defensively to make up for his lack of offensive prowess. The guess here is that when everyone’s healthy, Zanon will be the guy who sticks in the lineup, while Corvo and Mike Mottau become healthy scratches.