The entertainment value of the Boston Bruins’ victory against the NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday was, on a scale of 1-10, a double-digit success.

The thrill-o-meter for Saturday night’s 1-0 victory against the New Jersey Devils? Well, the game barely registered a 2. But that doesn’t mean the Bruins don’t have a right to feel good about themselves after this one, too.

As Coach Bruce Cassidy talked about before the contest, this one had “trap game” written all over it.

There were no statements to be made in this one. The only things at stake were the two points that the Bruins still desperately need if they want home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Despite a points streak that is now up to 16 games (12-0-4), Boston is just three points ahead of the gum-on-the-shoe Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division.

The Devils are not going to the playoffs, and a win against them was expected. But they are a team of young, hard-skating, competitive players who are trying to impressive their coach and general manager, precisely the kind of team that can throw a playoff-bound opponent a curveball.

It wasn’t going to be a fun, razzle-dazzle night for the Bruins. But they settled into the kind of game it was going to be – a dreadfully boring defensive struggle that nonetheless takes quite a bit of effort on the players’ part to emerge victorious. They collected the two points and moved on, like true contenders do in these situations.

“We gave up very little,” Cassidy said. “They played a tight game. They’ve got a lot of young guys who are trying to stay in the NHL. One way to do it is to play good defense. The other way to do it is to light up the scoresheet, but the easiest way is to defend and be a part of a good team. That’s what they were trying to do. That’s their makeup over there. They did a good job with it. They didn’t give us much.

“When they did, their goaltender was there. It ends up being a more defensive-minded game on both sides. We didn’t seem to have the same pop we had this week. We talked about that. We might be a little emotionally not as invested, but again, enough to win. It’s too hard to win in this league to get picky. Of course, there’s stuff we’d like to do better. But at the end of the day, it’s two points. Now let’s get a day off and get ready for Carolina.”

The highlight of the night was Patrice Bergeron’s stunning backhand pass to Brad Marchand for a power-play goal just 2:37 into the game. Less than five minutes later, Marchand was granted a penalty shot that was stopped by Mackenzie Blackwood.

Midway through the third period, Tuukka Rask stopped Jesper Bratt’s breakaway attempt. In between, there was a whole lot of nothing. But while it was a essentially a one-shot game from the 2:37 mark on, this one never really felt like it was out of the Bruins’ control. After the quick goal, they quickly realized that it was going to be a slog, and they simply put their hip boots on and got to work.

“We’ve done a good job of staying within the games that we’re playing,” Bergeron said. “We’re trying not to get frustrated and we’re trying to build our game and find ways. If it’s going to be a 1-0 game, then so be it, and we play the right way and make sure we take care of every puck we have so we don’t turn it over.

“Obviously you want to extend leads, but when it’s one of those games, you have to close defensively and be smart.”

If the Bruins go on to win the Stanley Cup, this game will be completely forgotten. Well, actually, it will be forgotten as soon as they drop the puck for Tuesday’s game against Carolina.

But while the win against Tampa Bay said a lot about the Bruins’ skill level, the victory spoke more to the team’s character. And as this 82-game schedule grinds toward the brand new season of the playoffs, it appears the Bruins have some.

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