BOSTON — It's been a long road back for Daniel Paille since a slap shot to the face sidelined him early this month.
Paille missed just three games after surgery to repair a broken nose. But while he returned to game action just 10 days after the frightening incident, his game has taken a little longer to return to its pre-injury form.
Friday afternoon against the Red Wings didn't appear destined to change that when he twice whiffed on shot attempts in the early going. But things turned around quickly, and Paille ended up playing a major role in the Bruins rallying for at a point before falling 3-2 in a shootout loss at the Garden.
"Every game I feel like I'm improving," Paille said. "I felt today was my best game since I've been back. Right now I just want to be better for tomorrow."
The Bruins hosts Winnipeg on Saturday, but before they could turn their attention to the Jets, they first had to deal with Detroit. Despite dominating most of the first period, the Bruins found themselves down 1-0 going into the second.
Just over three minutes into the middle frame, Paille was set up for a chance in front, but fanned on the shot. He stayed out as the lines changed though, and later in that same shift was in position again when Nathan Horton made a steal behind the net and fed it out front to Paille.
"I was thinking about changing and then I realized, I thought I'd try and stay on the strong side just in case the puck went there and Horty made a great play," Paille said. "He read the play and he gave it to me a lot sooner than I thought so I picked it up on my forehand and back to my backhand and it went in."
Paille's goal tied it, but only briefly, as Pavel Datsyuk answered for the Red Wings just 35 seconds later. Paille nearly evened it again on a partial breakaway later in the second, but he had to take the shot a little further out than he would have preferred as he was being pressured from behind and Jimmy Howard made the save.
Paille still finished with a season-high four shots and was a plus-1 in 8:45 of ice time. In his first four games back from his injury, Paille had managed just one shot total, so Friday's performance was a welcome return to form.
"He's come along and it's been a bit of an adjustment for him because of the fact that he's wearing a full facemask and you've got to get used to that," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "At first he was having trouble seeing the puck, so it was a little tough for him. But every time Dan skates like we know he can, he makes things happen. He wins races, we can chip pucks behind their D, we can ice it and a lot of times he'll get to that puck first. I think his confidence is coming and it was nice to see him score that goal. He almost had a second one there with that shot in the second period."
Paille admits that he still isn't completely comfortable with the full cage he has to wear to protect his surgically repaired nose, and doesn't plan on making that a permanent accessory.
"As soon as I can get that off, I will," Paille said.
But Paille also wasn't using the cage as an excuse for his early whiffs on shot attempts.
"I was just unfortunate on a couple plays," Paille said. "I tried to get the puck on net and just missed a couple. Those plays happen, but there's no excuse. Just something else to work on at practice."
Hard work is one thing Paille never shies away from. He attributed Friday's success to that work ethic.
"Just persistence I guess," Paille said when asked what helped him turn things around in this game. "You just want to help the team out with something, whether it's scoring or not. I think one thing for me is it's always about effort, and I wanted to do more today."
