Player of the week: March 10th-16th
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During a current eight game win streak, it isn’t easy to pick out a player who is playing above everyone else.
We can look at Tuukka Rask and his recent dominance or David Krejci’s uncanny playmaking ability, but the man who has been simply on a roll and now leads the team in scoring with 23 goals on the year is Jarome Iginla. Over his last 18 games, Iginla has 10 goals to go along with 14 assists.
Iginla finished the week with three goals and one assist while posting a plus-4 rating. His two goals against the Carolina Hurricanes helped the Bruins to a 5-1 win Saturday at TD Garden while his deflection goal off a Johnny Boychuk rocket turned out to be the game-winner Thursday night against the Coyotes.
The first-line winger’s success of late would not be possible without the dominant play of his line mates. Krejci had three assists in the team’s win Saturday while Milan Lucic recorded two goals and three assists on the week.
Krejci (59), Iginla (53) and Lucic (52) are the B’s top three point-getters respectively heading into their final 15 games of the year.
Iginla had a very slow start to the season going scoreless through the team’s first eight games, but has he ever turned on the jets. It seems like Iginla finds the score sheet every time he hits the ice for the Black and Gold.
Claude Julien had nothing but praise for his leading goal scorer after the B’s 5-1 Saturday.
“He’s exactly what he was advertised as, as a good team player, a hard worker, competitive guy and again I can see why he had a letter in Calgary because he’s got that leadership quality in him,” Julien said. “As I mentioned before, we have a lot of guys here that could easily wear that letter, but he’s part of our, what we call, our core group. When there’s some decisions to be made between the coaches and players he’s part of that group. It’s been around a long time, but he’s exactly what was advertised, there’s been absolutely no surprises with him.”
Iginla again reiterated that his success is in direct correlation of the play of his line mates.
“Krech (David Krejci) and (Milan) Looch (Lucic)-it’s been fun playing with them all year and they have great chemistry with each other and they have been great to join,” Iginla said with all smiles after his two goal performance. “And Krejci can pass it anywhere, you know he has his sauce, and he can shoot he can score. And Looch competes and works as hard as anybody and he’s fast. You know we’ve been building chemistry throughout the year and it’s been fun as a group.”
Lucic spoke after yesterday’s game of how much Iginla’s presence solidified the line that they play on.
“Yeah, it’s been great having him here,” Lucic said. “You can see he’s obviously come to his own here and starting to feel good about himself as he has the last I’d say then, twenty games and you know we all know what he can do from what he’s done in the past and you know he’s definitely a confident guy that’s always pushing for more and you see the little things in him that has made him so successful throughout his career. I think it’s starting to show more and more as the season’s gone on.”
Iginla ranks seventh in the NHL with a plus-28 rating and 10th in the NHL with six game-winning goals. Look for those numbers to rise in the last 15 games of the season. At this point, he looks like he can’t be stopped.
Iginla will look to add to his point totals as he and the B’s take on the Minnesota Wild tonight at TD Garden.