Early on in the 2015-16 season, the Boston Bruins have played well in spurts in front of the loyal 17,565 at TD Garden. The one thing that has plagued the Black and Gold on Causeway Street, however, has been their inability to finish the job.

Entering Saturday’s contest against a Red Wings squad that was playing their second game of a back to back, the Bruins were 1-5-1 at home. They scored the first goal in five of those seven contests but often have let their strong starts slip away.

The Bruins scored first again when Patrice Bergeron followed his own shot from the point and banked home his rebound past Red Wings netminder Peter Mrazek at 7:18. This time, they extended their lead after highlight reel goals from David Krejci and Torey Krug at 11:10 and 17:00 of the second period, respectively, and got that solid 60-minute effort they’ve been preaching.

“Much better,” head coach Claude Julien said about the B’s effort in the 3-1 win. “I think our compete level was good tonight. Like I said, every team in this league is good, and you can’t expect to dominate the whole game. But overall, I thought that we played well, and we got the lead and when it was time to defend, we defended well.”

Despite playing back to back nights, the Red Wings did get a push in the third and cut the lead to two on Justin Abdelkader’s backhander at 6:37 of the third. But timely saves from Tuukka Rask, including one on Abdelkader on a 2-on-1, and clutch penalty killing sealed the deal for the Bruins’ second home win this year.

Here are some other things we learned from the Bruins’ eighth victory of the season.

Shorthanded unit quietly progressing

With Chris Kelly out, the already Bruins struggling penalty kill was shorthanded entering their three-game road trip. In two of those games, the B’s took untimely penalties and allowed the Capitals and Canadiens to score crucial goals.

Since the third game of the trip against the Islanders, things have been much better for the Bruins PK. Aside from Abdelkader’s power play goal on Saturday, and a Johnny Boychuk tally last weekend in Brooklyn, the B’s have been successful in their other 11 attempts while shorthanded.

So what has changed over the last three games?

“We’re a lot tighter in our box, and we’re not forcing things,” said Bergeron, who tallied 2:09 of shorthanded time on ice in the victory. “I think we’re in sync, and a lot more aggressive. We have to be, I guess, aggressively smart and if one guy goes [and chases the puck] then we know we have to take away a lot of the other options away. I thought that was better today, and it showed.”

With a healthy Dennis Seidenberg, the penalty kill will have a little more stability once he gets into a rhythm. Still, this begs the question: is the last three games a blip on the radar screen for the Bruins shorthanded unit, or will they continue to improve? With their league-leading power play — that didn’t score for the first time in eight games on Saturday —the B’s could use the other half of their special teams to help out.

Pregame tribute to Paris

The Bruins held a moment of silence and played the French national anthem in a touching pregame moment to honor the victims of the tragedy in Paris. (Photo by Joe Makarski/Bruins Daily)

We’re just hours removed from the tragic attacks that happened in Paris. Hundreds were killed, and several more are wounded from the unfathomable events that occurred in France’s capital city.

Thirteen games took place in the National Hockey League. Each arena hosting a game on Saturday night symbolized in solidarity to honor the victims and those affected by the Paris tragedy.

During pregame of Bruins-Red Wings, the Garden held a moment of silence and followed that with the playing of the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise, and the Star Spangled Banner. Brookline’s Sol Feder (age 12), the Bruins’ honorary kids captain, skated to the blue-line carrying the French national flag and was joined by the B’s starters. A nice touch and a job well done by Boston’s game night staff.

From everyone at Bruins Daily, our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and all those affected by the tragedy in Paris.