He finished the week with two goals and two assists with a plus-4 rating. Milan Lucic and his line mates have been a force to be reckon with since the end of January.

It is a very tough time for the Bruins first line to have an extended break, but the chemistry between the three will for surely pick up once the team takes the ice again in 16 days against the Buffalo Sabres. Lucic has been solid all season long and he has been his “big bad self” lately playing that power style of hockey his coaches and teammates love.

With the absence of Zdeno Chara in the last few games, Lucic has established himself in front of the net creating numerous chances for his teammates by obstructing opposing goalies views. It is usually the job of ‘Big Zee’ but Lucic stepped right in and got the job done.

In a game versus his hometown team, Lucic brought his ‘A’ game. He set the tone from the start scoring the first goal of the game while assisting on another. He established his physicality dropping five hits on the Canucks and won each of his three faceoffs he took on the night.

Claude Julien is very impressed with Lucic and his line, but indicated this is nothing new and Lucic has been great since the first game of the year.

“Looch (Milan) has been as good from the start of the year until now,” the Bruins’ coach said after the team’s 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. “He’s been skating so well.”

Lucic will head into the Olympic break with 17 goals 24 assists and a plus-21 rating. Additionally, his five game-winning goals rank him 10th in the National Hockey League.

The left-winger, who has 41 points on the season trails both his line mates in points as well as Reilly Smith for the team lead. His 17 goals and 24 assists are tied for third in both categories.

These may be pedestrian stats for a first line winger on a first place team, but Lucic stresses it is a team game with everyone contributing. Eight players on their roster have double digit goals and that is most important.

“It’s huge because it doesn’t put so much emphasis on one guy scoring all the goals,” said the Vancouver born forward. “We’ve never been a team with a 50-point goal scorer or anything like that. We’ve always had success by having different guys stepping up at different times, and our team play is what has given us the most success.

“It seems like the lines are clicking and the line combos that are together right now I think that’s why like you said eight guys have been able to hit that double-digits in goals. But in saying that, we want to keep pushing for more. I think it’s great that almost seems like we’re pushing each other to want more and I think that’s a good thing to have in this room.”