ST. LOUIS — Temptations can bring out the worst in teams.
Through three games, the Boston Bruins resisted the temptations thrown at them from the St. Louis Blues.
David Perron and Pat Maroon attempted to goad the Bruins into retaliatory penalties in Game 3. Maroon succeeded when he skated to the box with Zdeno Chara following a faceoff altercation. Perron, not so much, especially during his altercation with a calm Tuukka Rask between the pipes.
The Bruins, for the most part, didn’t take the bait. And that composed physicality through three games separates the Bruins — with five players still leftover from their 2011 Stanley Cup triumph and subsequent run to the Cup Final two years later — from the Blues just three games into the series.