Mark Recchi is glad he stuck around. (AP)

Bruins assistant captain Mark Recchi made his decision to return for a 22nd season in the NHL last summer, electing to re-up with the B’s after the team was eliminated in the second round by the Flyers. Now that his team is in the Stanley Cup finals, the two-time Cup winner said after Friday’s Eastern Conference-clinching victory over the Lightning that this is what he had in mind when he decided to return.

“This is what I play for, to get this opportunity one more time, and probably my last time is pretty special,” Recchi said. “WIth this group of guys, right from Day 1 in training camp we put a lot of belief in each other, a lot of trust, and a lot of working together. I’m going to end my career at some point and say this is one of the better groups I played with. I’m proud to play with them regardless of what happens.”

At 43 years of age, Recchi may very well be in his last season, as he said late in the regular season that he would retire if the Bruins won the Cup. Now, he’s glad he made the choice to go one more year.

“It’s been a fun year for me,” he said. “This is what I came back for. I’m proud to say I’ve played with these guys.”

At 19 years old, Tyler Seguin may be as close to the Stanley Cup as he’ll ever be.

Well, at least that’s a possibility. With the Bruins one game from a trip to the finals against the Canucks, the cliche of “you never know when you’ll be back” rings true.

“You know that that’s the case, but you’re going to do everything you can to seize the moment, seize the opportunity,” Seguin said after Friday’s morning skate in anticipation of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. “Obviously it’s a great opportunity, and it could be the only conference final Game 7 I ever play in, but who can predict that? Every year you just go out, work your hardest, stay focused and see what happens.”

Soon-to-be 23-year-old Milan Lucic is in a similar boat. He said after Game 6 that Friday’s game was the biggest of his and many of his teammates’ careers, and reiterated his point on Friday. In his case, there’s even more incentive to take down the Lightning at TD Garden, as a win at home would take him to his real home in Vancouver for the finals.

“You never know what can happen in the future. You look at myself, as young as I am even, you never even know if you’ll get another chance like this,” Lucic said Friday. “Especially for myself it’s a chance where if you win a game here, you get to play in your home town for the Stanley Cup. You’ve got to go out there and have fun with no regrets, and lay it all out on the line.”

In Seguin’s case, his rookie campaign has him somewhere where many of his veteran teammates have never been. He isn’t surprised by that, but he knows he and his teammates have to make the most of it.

“Obviously, coming into this year, I knew the Bruins were a Cup-contending team, and you never can predict or know what’s going to happen,” Seguin said. “You’ve just got to take advantage of everything you have, every opportunity you have. That’s what I’m doing and that’s what the team’s doing.”

The Bruins are able to appreciate that this isn’t just any opportunity. Regardless of age, it could be the only time (or the last time) they come this close to playing for a Stanley Cup. They have perhaps the best man for getting that message across to the youngsters.

“We’ve talked a lot about it. You just don’t get that opportunity all the time,” 43-year-old Mark Recchi said. “It’s tough to get to this point in this league. It’s a hard league, and there’s a lot of parity in the league. We have a chance to grab it and run with it. It’s just something you’ve really got to enjoy.”

None of the Bruins know whether they’ll ever come this far again in their careers. Their job now is to take it further.

Versus NHL analyst and former NHL center Ed Olczyk joined the Mut & Merloni show Friday to talk about the Eastern Conference finals Game 7 showdown between the Bruins and Lightning. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

Olczyk made a comment during the Game 6 broadcast on Versus about Bruins coach Claude Julien needing to mix up the lines to get more consistent offense. While he acknowledged Friday, “I think Claude has pushed a lot of the right buttons,” he stood by his analysis.

“If you look at the [David] Krejci line, with them having the majority of the success at even strength, I just kind of felt at that time, when you look up at the shot [totals] and there’s not a lot of generating going on, you look to try to change it up,” he said. “You look to add a little spark somewhere.”

Olczyk also suggested making a change on the Bruins’ power play, which has struggled all postseason.

“If you are struggling — and I think at times the Bruins have done all the right things, they just haven’t been able to score,” he said. “So, the issue is, the check and balance is, do you drastically change your personnel and load up? I think for me, I think at some point if you’re going to play Big Z [Zdeno Chara] in front of the net, I think you’ve got to put Patrice Bergeron on a point on the power play if you’re not going to play him down low because you’ve got Krejci and [Nathan] Horton and Chara down there and you’ve got [Dennis] Seidenberg and [Tomas] Kaberle. I think you load up. I think you put Patrice Bergeron on a point on the power play with Dennis Seidenberg — if that’s my first unit.”

Added Olczyk: “I would suggest loading up your first-power-play unit. And Patrice Bergeron’s got to be on that first power-play unit. I just think he has that ability. He had a quiet game [Wednesday]. I think he’s been terrific since he’s come back, but he was very quiet, probably a little too quiet in Game 6. But for me, I would put Bergeron on a point with Seidenberg. I would put Kaberle on the second unit. And I would load up with Chara, Krejci and Horton on that first power-play unit. If you’re going to go down, go down with your best guys. Go down swinging.

“But if the Bruins can play well defensively, and I think they will, I think they’ll take on the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals.”

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Bruins forward Mark Recchi has barely made a peep in the Eastern Conference finals, totaling zero point and just six shots on net in the first six games of the series. Asked Friday to evaluate his performance thus far, the 43-year-old admitted that his play has been subpar, but that the past doesn’t matter with the Bruins in a do-or-die Game 7 vs. the Lightning.

“I think the first game, I wasn’t good,” Recchi admitted. “I think after that I’ve been OK. I haven’t been good, I haven’t been bad. You know what? That’s all washed away. One game now tonight. We’re going to lay it out on the line and go out and have fun with this and get back to the Stanley Cup finals.”

Recchi’s line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand was strong in the first round vs. the Canadiens, and the winger had four points, including a goal in Game 7, in that series. While his line and Recchi in particular has been more quiet in the third round, Recchi pointed to the different lines stepping up (as it did in Game 6) and invited all four lines to do the same in in Game 7.

“We’ve been together all year. Obviously you like to have an impact, but at the same time, teammates, that’s why we’re here for each other,” Recchi said. “I think earlier in the playoffs, our line was terrific and carried a lot of the burden of the team. Other guys have stepped up and been terrific now. Now it’s one game, and let’s all do it together. That’s the important thing, is we all have one opportunity here to get to the Stanley Cup finals, and we’ll do it together.”

Recchi has two goals and five assists this postseason for seven points and a plus-4 rating. He is a minus-5 in the conference finals.

Mark Recchi was the only Bruin to not take the ice in Friday’s morning skate in anticipation of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. Recchi generally takes his veteran option for morning skates, leaving a “Recchi’s dozen” of the remaining 11 forwards plus healthy scratch Shawn Thornton out there for forwards.

Defensively, everyone was out there, including healthy scratches Shane Hnidy and Steven Kampfer. Hnidy did not participate in Wednesday’s morning skate.

Check back following the skate for updates from players and coach Claude Julien.

It’s only appropriate that we get carried away with the number seven with the Bruins and Lightning set to square off in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday. Here are seven players to keep an eye on.

- Dwayne Roloson: Make no mistake about it – Roloson was bad in Game 6. So bad that the Bruins really have to be frustrated that Tampa limited them to only 19 shots. Asked after the game to assess his goaltender’s performance, Guy Boucher replied, “we won.”

- Tim Thomas: The Vezina favorite has allowed at least four goals in four of the series’ six games thus far, but his Game 5 performance was even more impressive than his Game 3 shutout. Thomas has been human too often in this series, and he’ll need to rise to the occasion with an otherworldly performance in Game 7.

- Steven Stamkos: Look who woke up. After being a ghost in Game 3 and going both Game 3 and 4 without a point, the Lightning’s leading goal-scorer in the regular season contributed a goal and a pair of assists in Game 6. It marked the second time this series that Stamkos has had three points in Game.

Here are the numbers for Stamkos in Games 2 and 6: 2 G, 4 A, 11 SOG.
And the his stats in Games 1, 3, 4 and 5: 0 G, 1 A, 7 SOG.

- Tyler Seguin: Remember him? Seguin scored his first postseason goal in Game 1, took over the second period in Game 2 and looked like a savvy veteran in Game 3. Since then, he’s done little and has been given the appropriate ice time as a result. He might be the most talented player in this series, but he needs to stop going out of his way to avoid contact. If Seguin’s gift can take over, he could be Boston’s secret weapon again. Otherwise, it could be back to the fourth line for the rookie.

- Johnny Boychuk: Oof. It’s been bad for Boychuk this series. The 27-year-old was on the ice for all five of Tampa’s goals in Game 6, and his shakey showing in the second round also led to a minus-3 rating in Boston’s 6-5 win in Game 2.

- Sean Bergenheim: Before leaving Game 5 with a lower-body injury, Bergenheim led all postseason players with nine goals in the playoffs. He missed Game 6 with the undisclosed injury, but skated earlier in the day on Wednesday. If he returns to Tampa’s lineup, the B’s would have to worry about a guy who’s already burned them twice this series. Boucher said Thursday that Bergenheim’s status “doesn’t necessarily look like something positive” for the Lightning.

- Mark Recchi: This could very well be Recchi’s last game should the Bruins lose and he opt to retire in the offseason, and it would be a tough way to go if he kept up his production-less streak. The second-line winger had zero points this series, is a minus-5 and has totaled just six shots on net in six games.

TAMPA — Claude Julien meant nothing personal at all by his comments but the Bruins coach was clear Tuesday that he doesn’t want his team putting everything on the shoulders of Tim Thomas as they try to advance to the Stanley Cup finals with a win Wednesday night in Game 6 at St. Pete Times Forum.

Clearly, that would be easy to do when Thomas was the single-biggest reason the Bruins stole Game 5 on home ice Monday night. But that’s also a good way to get pounded and wind up with a Game 7 Friday in Boston, something every Bruins fan, player and coach wants to avoid.

“You don’t want to rely on your goaltender,” Julien said. “He’s an important part of our team, and it’s nice to be able to rely on him, but you don’t want to go into the game relying on him.

“You want to do your job. And there’s going to be some games, like we said yesterday, that what’s important is a win is about finding a way. And you fall down 1-0 in the first two minutes of the game, and, you know, it’s a team that usually shuts other teams out pretty good. We stayed the course. We weren’t our best, but we stayed the course, and we found a way to get back into the game.”

Then there was the take of veteran Mark Recchi, who realizes the Bruins were extremely fortunate to ride their hot goalie to a win.

“Right off the bat, we have to be a lot better. The first period was not our hockey club. Give them credit, they came out to win and Timmy gave us that opportunity and he shut the door. We had a little tension last night and it showed in our play.

“We know we got away with one [Monday] night but at the same time, we found a way to win and the guys’ attitudes are great like that way. We’re going to have to be a lot better in Game 6 if we expect to finish this series.” Read the rest of this entry »