Say this for the Bruins: They know the value of a point. 

Overall, Tuesday’s performance against the Rangers was subpar. Through perhaps the first 45 minutes of the game, Milan Lucic was playing his worst game of the season and the same could probably be said for Nathan Horton. Tyler Seguin had a quiet showing, while Tuukka Rask was uncharacteristically shaky. That all showed as the Bruins allowed the first three goals against the Rangers on a night that saw them take a pair of stick penalties in the offensive zone, one of which came on the power play. 

Yet the B’s came out of Tuesday’s game against the Rangers – their final meeting of the regular season – with a massive point thanks to a three-goal third period comeback prior to falling in a shootout. 

It seemed like the type of night that teams in 82 game seasons could chalk up to a loss. The way the Rangers were limiting chances and the way Henrik Lundqvist was playing, the odds of three goals over the course of 60 minutes looked slim, let along three goals over less than nine minutes. 

Yet the B’s – as they did against the Rangers in New York, the Devils last month and the Canadiens last week – managed to get it done with a well-executed third-period comeback. David Krejci got the B’s on the board after the expiration of a Bruins power play, while Horton and Marchand scored with Rask pulled in the final 1:31 of regulation.  

“That doesn’t happen too often to that goalie and he’s getting a really big help from his defensemen,” Krejci said. “They block everything so it’s kind of hard to shoot around them but we did a good job at it in the third period and we stuck with it and it was too bad we didn’t get the two points but the one was pretty big.”

With the shootout loss, the B’s have now gotten points in 10 of the 11 games they’ve played (8-1-2). The fact that they were able to get anything out of what seemed like a lost effort was big, and it was the fourth time the B’s have come back to tie the game in the third period this season. Erasing a three-goal deficit, which they pulled off over the final 8:44 of regulation, made for their biggest comeback of the season. 

It could just be the Bruins’ third-period prowess, or it could be something else, but it’s hard to watch the Bruins come back time and time again without thinking that they’re very aware that this is a 48-game season. Everyone had said prior to the season that the games would mean more, and the B’s are clearly desperate to at least salvage something each night. 

“Every point counts,” Marchand said. “You see teams are on rolls right now, and you don’t want to be left behind. Especially, we’re about to go on a stretch here—and we’ve had a stretch here—where we haven’t played a whole lot and we’re a few games back. We want to continue to remain in a playoff position. To do that, you have to get a point every night. It’s tough to lose, but at least we got that one point.”

Look at teams like the Sabres, who are 5-8-1 and have had two three-game losing streaks this season. Teams like that will be kicking themselves in April if and when their inability to pick up points early on keeps them out of the postseason. Not only have the Bruins played winning hockey most nights, but they’ve been able to get points out of a pair of games that seemed like lost causes against a very good Rangers team. 

“With a lot less games, a lot less points on the table, you want to get any points that you can,” Lucic, who finished the game with two assists, said. “It was good to see the guys battle all the way through to the end and pick up that point. That’s the thing we have in this room is we’ve got a lot of character, and we have guys who aren’t going to quit no matter what the situation is, and we proved that tonight.”

Some uncharacteristic play put the B’s in that 3-0 hole, so the two points may have been there for the taking had they brought a stronger overall game. Andrew Ference was in the midst of a rough shift when Rick Nash beat him to set up Carl Hagelin’s first goal, while the Rangers took a 2-0 lead thanks to a turnover from Lucic in the second period. Rask then allowed his softest goal of the season when he let a wrist shot from Anton Stralman trickle past him and into the net. 

“I didn’t think we competed as well as I’ve seen us compete since the beginning,” Claude Julien said. “I thought that was probably down a notch, we needed to compete a little bit more if we wanted to win this hockey game. To gain a point after being down 3-0 in the third is certainly something to be happy about, but I don’t think we’re going to get carried away with thinking this was a great situation. I think we’re fortunate to get this point and we’ll take it and hopefully learn from it.”

More often than not, a team that falls into that sort of hole against a team as good as the Rangers isn’t going to come out of it with any points. The Bruins don’t want to continue putting themselves in the situation where such a comeback is necessary, but the fact that they’ve been able to salvage games in the third period in impressive fashion should at the very least be encouraging.

Had the Bruins failed to complete comebacks in their two overtime losses to the Rangers, they would be tied with the Maple Leafs and Senators (both of whom have played two more games) in the Northeast Division with 16 points. Their resilience has earned them some separation in the standings (they sit atop the division with 18 points and two games in hand), and it should pay off later in the season when teams are scrounging for points.