After Tuesday’s loss against the Anaheim Ducks, the Boston Bruins had made it clear that their eight-game streak of giving up the first goal needed to stop. While they had managed to take points out of the previous seven, they realized it was just a matter of time before they wouldn’t be able to come from behind. Of course, that was just one of the problems with their game against the Ducks, and it was evident as the puck dropped at the beginning of the game against the visiting St. Louis Blues, that Bruins were determined to play hard and fast.
During the first period, the Blues were outshooting the Bruins, but this was one of those situations where the shots on net statistic belied what was really going on between the two teams. The Bruins were moving fast and finishing checks; as were the Blues. In a rather bizarre and somewhat messier than usual goal for him, David Krejci put the puck in the net at 12:32 of the first, though he and the team would have to wait after Blues head coach Mike Yeo used his Coach’s Challenge suggesting there had been goaltender interference.
After the video review, the call on the ice stood and the Bruins were on the scoreboard, though it was clear that no one on the Blues bench agreed with the decision. And while the explanations of the reviews usually offer some insight, what was published in this case didn’t really clear anything up. However, in re-reading the actual challenge as stated in the explanation, the assertion was that Boston’s Jake DeBrusk had interfered with St. Louis’ Jake Allen. Perhaps the review took into account how DeBrusk ended up sliding into Allen in the first place, though their final answer did not include anything about that.
“You know I had no idea. It was kind of 50/50 when I saw it on the replay. It was really close but you know sometimes you need bounces to go your way and it was one of those nights and I’m happy it went in,” Krejci shared after the game.
Going into the first intermission, while the Blues had outshot the Bruins 14-9, it was Boston who was leading 1-0.
“I thought it was good. I’m not sure the shot clock accurately portrayed kind of the pace of the game and how it was playing out,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought we were pretty good – a couple of turnovers that kind of came back at us, but other than that, I thought we managed the puck well, we were on our toes, trying to close off space and forecheck hard and get pucks to the net.”
Though Boston had done a solid job in the first period, it was during the second that they absolutely dominated the play—yet they would have nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. They outshot the Blues 22-6 in the middle frame, and it was due to Allen’s impressive play that Boston hadn’t run away with the game.
Jake Allen watching Bergeron’s goal.
For the Bruins, the way they bounced back from Tuesday’s loss and continued to make it hard for St. Louis to get any momentum spoke to their commitment as a team. Going into the third period, they still only had the one goal, and they knew the Blues would push back. Patrice Bergeron got the go-ahead, and what would ultimately be the game-winning, goal 9:05 into the final frame. Not surprisingly it was from his favorite spot—the right circle.
“Well we obviously don’t plan to get scored on but there was a reason why we fell behind a few games. I think we wanted to correct those issues and I think we did tonight. So, we got to be ready for next game, to get a good start, games have been playing for 60 minutes so we have to be ready to play them for 60 minutes,” Bergeron stressed. “Guys are obviously very competitive, we want to win every game, there were a lot of battles. You could see the guys were really stepping out of their comfort zone, skill guys making some big plays, determined to win the battles along the wall. Guys were physical, but also making plays so that’s what you need from a team.”
Another familiar issue for the Bruins was once again losing a player to injury. Defenseman Kevan Miller’s last shift ended just 2:27 before the end of the second period. He did not return to play in the third. Having lost Anders Bjork early in Tuesday’s game and then to be playing with just five defensemen for the third period of Thursday’s game shows how important the depth of the Bruins organization becomes. Postgame, it was announced that Miller had an upper body injury and more would be forthcoming probably on Friday.
For David Backes, this was the second home game as a Bruin against his old team. And while he may have many friends off the ice who wear the Blues colors, on the ice it is a completely different story. Backes had eight shots on net, including his empty netter that sealed the 3-1 win for the Bruins, along with six hits. The pride he takes in his role on the ice was on display Thursday night, and the rest of his teammates in black and gold were happy for him to get that final goal.
Torey Krug
“Yeah, we were all excited. Everyone was jumping up on the bench. He’s a guy that brings a lot to the table and it was pretty clear early on in the season without him what our team looked like – didn’t have the depth upfront and the way that he plays, just has so much jam and he never shuts up on the bench, so he’s a great guy to have on your side,” Torey Krug shared.
Backes did share that this second go round against his old team in Boston was a little easier, but he recognized the efforts of Blues goaltender Allen and the overall style of play of this Central Division team.
“Yeah the guys really battled. It was probably our most complete game where we had to battle and win pucks all over the ice. They make you play that way or else they are down your throat and not letting you out of your own end.,” Backes stated. “For stretches both ways I thought [we] occupied zones and we threw a lot of rubber at the net. Jake [Allen] made a lot of good saves. In the end, we get a power play and that’s the difference-maker. Our penalty kill did a good job when they got one with five minutes left or so. Two points against a tough central division team that I know pretty well, hopefully the start of another streak where we put a few together – but one at a time. We’ll enjoy these two points then get ready for our next opponent whenever we play on Saturday.”
And Saturday the Bruins will play host to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are just three points behind the Bruins, though Boston does have four games in hand on them. The important thing will be if they can carry the positives of Thursday’s win over the Blues right into the start of Saturday’s tilt with Toronto.
Tuesday night was the first game back after the All-Star break for both the Boston Bruins and the Anaheim Ducks. The Bruins were riding an 18-game point streak and the Ducks were beginning their five-game road trip against Atlantic Division teams. The previous seven games between these two teams had seen the Bruins lose 0-6-1. Their last victory against Anaheim came in a 3-2 shootout victory in Boston on October 21, 2013. Boston also was missing Brad Marchand, who was serving the second of a five-game suspension for his elbowing of Marcus Johansson of the New Jersey Devils on January 23, 2018.
As things got underway, the Bruins would go on the man advantage just 27 seconds in, when Ryan Kesler was whistled for a slashing on Matt Grzelcyk. The fact that it was the Ducks with the two shots on goal during Boston’s power play would sort of define the opening twenty minutes for the Bruins. In fact, the Bruins wouldn’t register a shot on Anaheim’s goaltender, John Gibson, until 8:18 of the first, by which point Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin had already stopped five.
“We just didn’t have it early. I don’t know if it’s credit to them, or just our guys, or the break, whatever the case was, wasn’t good enough. We addressed it. I thought we were a lot better after that,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said postgame.
It was disappointing, the way we came out. And we got the result that shows it. – Patrice Bergeron
Given that the Bruins were on the streak they were, it perhaps shouldn’t have been such a big surprise to them that the opposing team was planning on playing tough from the first puck drop.
“The way we were playing going into the break, you know, you want to find a way to continue that after a few days off, so I thought we did a good job of that, controlling the play and obviously coming out with the lead, so especially against this team at home with the way they’ve been playing for a really long time, so it was a big start for us,” shared Ducks forward Adam Henrique who had two goals on the night, including the game-winner.
Even with Marchand out, the Bruins had found a way to get that 18th win going into the All-Star break, but it was also the seventh game in which they had given up the first goal of the game—a Russian roulette that shouldn’t be played too often. As their streak had continued, opposing teams were determined to hit them hard, but the Bruins didn’t seem to be prepared for that approach in the last few games.
Torey Krug
“At the end of the day we just need to focus on ourselves and get the start that we want. I thought they did a good job of coming out and punching us in the mouth metaphorically speaking,” explained defenseman Torey Krug, who had a team-high six shots on goal in the game. “There were times that it seemed like they were hitting us and we weren’t hitting back and we’ve got to focus on ourselves and make sure that we’re using our legs. It’s pretty clear that they are a bigger team and that’s the style of play they want to be but if we come out, use our legs to check, then we can be more effective.”
By the end of the first period, the Bruins were in a two-goal hole and had been outshot 15-5. And it didn’t help that Anders Bjork, who had been recalled and slotted in to take Marchand’s place on the top line, went down early in the game, having been out for only four shifts. The play, which didn’t look dangerous, ended with him on the ice and having to be helped off by the trainer. It was later announced that he would not return and was listed as having an upper body injury.
It did look like the Bruins picked the pace up in the second period. Undoubtedly things were said during the first intermission by the leadership core, as the Bruins went on to outshoot the Ducks in the final forty minutes 26-12. However, the Ducks may have taken their foot off the gas a little too.
Tim Schaller and Adam Henrique
“Yeah, we had a few turnovers, obviously, neutral zone, kind of, offense and blue line, we weren’t kind of controlling the puck like we were in the first, where they seemed to gain some momentum,” Henrique offered. “I think there was maybe a penalty kill and then a power play, too, where they gained some momentum, so, you know, those are just areas of the game where we just have to be able to control. I think we’ve been doing a much better job of that the last few weeks, too, so that’s an area we’ve talked about improving on, and I thought we’ve done a good job.”
For Boston, though they managed to keep the Ducks from getting much on net after the first, their own chances just refused to go in.
“A lot of good chances, a lot of good looks. If you bury a few of those, it’s probably a different game and we feel better, more confident. That being said, I think it was a tough start and a good way to come back. Like I said, you have to learn that you have to play 60 minutes in this league,” assistant captain Patrice Bergeron stated after the game.
In addition to Bjork, David Backes would take a hit from Nick Ritchie and go down on the ice like a ton of bricks, with 5:13 remaining in the game. Once again, the Bruins’ trainer would head out onto the ice. There would be no call on the play, though many believed it was a late hit. And for the Ducks, they would see Gibson give in to a lower body injury with just 5:25 remaining in the game, being replaced by backup Ryan Miller.
In the end, it wasn’t a good start for the Bruins and they couldn’t seem to solve Gibson. And while many were talking about the streak and its end, for the Bruins, it was more about this one game than those 18 games before. They will regroup, look at what they need to do differently and expect another hard game on Thursday when the St. Louis Blues, who garnered their third straight win Tuesday night, come to Boston.
Imagine being a 19-year-old hockey player and you’re out on the ice, when all of a sudden you realize that something is wrong, that your heart beat feels out of whack. Such was the experience for Boston Bruins rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who had a cardiac ablation last week to ensure that he would no longer experience such an event.
“I’ve had occasional – I’ve probably four times where I’ve felt it before. Didn’t really know what it was, it was a little bit scary. The November episode was a little bit longer than all the other ones,” McAvoy described of what he was experiencing. “Dr. Finn was there that night and Donnie Del Negro [the Bruins trainer], and we were able to monitor it together and kind of figure out that, hey we should go see the doctors at Mass General and see what it is. Right from the start, we were on top of it, and we were able to diagnose it and take care of it.”
Knowing that there is something that is affecting your heart beat can be nerve-wracking. With the events that happened with former NHLer Rich Peverley and AHLer Craig Cunningham, it can be career ending. When you have just begun your professional career, this can really cause additional stress.
Dr. David Finn and Charlie McAvoy
“I think it was relief, first off, to find out that it was not life threatening and not dangerous to my overall health. That was my best take away from that to realize that obviously, because I’m in there, I’m kind of nervous, that this is going to be something that is really bad, that I might not be able to play again or anything like that,” McAvoy stated at the start of the press conference. “To find out that it was something that was not dangerous, not life threatening, something that I could still continue to play with, that was a good take away right away from the overall situation.”
It was the fact that it wasn’t life threatening that allowed the doctors, McAvoy and his family, and the Boston Bruins to schedule the surgery for the week that included the All-Star break. This allowed McAvoy to miss fewer games during his recovery.
When considering that the issue had to do with his heart, perhaps one has to wonder why he might be concerned with the number of games he misses. However, he’s a hockey player, and they are a breed that is seldom happy unless they can be out on the ice giving it their all. McAvoy’s opportunity to return to the ice on Monday was met with smiles. Having spent the previous week doing nothing it was clear that he was happy to be back on the ice even if just for a short period.
The operation itself is not a major surgery. Dr. David Finn explained what was done, and affirmed that once done, the issue would not return.
“It’s done through a smaller catheter that goes into the vessels around the canal area around the lower abdomen that goes up into the heart, and then they are able to isolate a bundle of extra electrical tissue circuit that creates this abnormal heart rhythm. They’re able to find that and basically ablate it. They can destroy the extra tissue there, and once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back again,” Dr. Finn described.
For McAvoy, the goal now is to get himself back up to playing level, but his understanding of what that might take and the commitment to doing it properly belies his youth.
“That’s what coach’s decision is, but we have a strategy for getting back up to speed, and I feel comfortable with it, starting with today being the first day,” McAvoy answered. “We’re going to go at it with open communication, with Doc, the doctors at MGH, Donnie, obviously everyone involved. I’m not afraid to tell them exactly how I feel, if I’m ready, if I’m not, and we’ll go about it together.”
“Charlie has a follow-up appointment this week, and that will clarify when his return to play. He’ll start the skating process, and really, it’s about how he feels. Once he is 100% medically cleared, later on we’ll have more information in that regard,” stated Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney. “We had always said it was likely a two-week [recovery], and we’ll give you more information when we have it, but a lot of it will be determined how Charlie feels.”
Now I can go through not only sports, but life and I won’t have to worry about it ever again. – Charlie McAvoy
There were some strange things that took place during the Boston Bruins game against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. By far, the strangest had to be the penalty clock adding seconds to two penalties on the Devils instead of counting them down and then while the referees and off ice officials were getting that settled the scoreboard all of a sudden showed the Florida Panthers logo instead of the Devils. Couple that with the fact that Miles Wood was called for a cross-checking and a simultaneous interference call for a double-minor and it’s hard not to be scratching your head and wondering if Mars was in retrograde.
The Devils came into Boston after having been shutout in Detroit on Monday night. It shouldn’t have been surprising that they were going to throw everything they had at the Bruins from the first puck drop. In fact the shots on goal at the end of the first were 20-9 in favor of the Devils, though somehow they had been unable to find the back of the twine.
Tuukka Rask
Certainly, Tuukka Rask was a factor in the Devils not getting on the scoreboard in the opening twenty minutes, but even he was uncharacteristic in net. Rask is known for his rebound control, and it wasn’t there Tuesday night. He’s usually a goaltender who is quiet and settled in his crease, but in addition to letting up some juicy rebounds he was quite active between the pipes. Many of the rebounds were batted out of the way by his fellow teammates. Of course, it was those same teammates that were struggling to keep the Devils from firing all those pucks on Rask in the first place.
“They were more urgent than us, more urgency, wanted to play behind us, get on us, create some anxiety in the forecheck, and I think they did a good job with that. I don’t think we executed as well as we needed to early on to sort of suppress that,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “Eventually we found it. Part of that was in our D not getting back there quick enough; part of it is the forwards not getting some bumps so their D can’t get back there, and winning the wall battles. I think when we started winning the wall battles, more pucks, we got a little cleaner.”
Asked after the game about their tough start, David Pastrnak, who notched another point bringing him to 3-3-6 in the last four games, wanted to concentrate on the win.
“Well, we won right?” he countered.
And to be honest his enthusiasm for the game and for a win is usually infectious, but the Bruins didn’t do themselves any favors offering a motivated team so many shots on Rask in the first period.
“Yeah, we didn’t have a great start. We didn’t have a great game,” Brad Marchand shared. “They publicly had an open, or a closed-door meeting last night, so we knew they were going to come out hard and play a good game and they did; you’ve got to give them credit. But, luckily we found a way to win and that’s all that matters.”
Patrice Bergeron
While the first period saw no scoring, the second period saw it all. The Devils got on the board first when Manchester by the Sea native Wood deflected a puck past Rask at 2:05. The Bruins tied things up five minutes later as Riley Nash somehow squeeked the puck past Cory Schneider after the Bruins put together a solid, blue-collar, effort along the boards to gain the puck in the first place. Two minutes later the Devils were back on top off the stick of Damon Severson, who put away his own rebound.
Almost four minutes later while, Wood was sitting for the odd double minor, and his teammate Marcus Johansson had joined him on a tripping penalty, Patrice Bergeron tied things up while the Bruins were on an extended 5-on-3 situation. As the play was stopped for the goal, the clock issues were examined—for approximately 13 minutes—before the proper remaining times were posted for Wood and Johansson, and the Bruins were back to the 5-on-3.
Bergeron’s goal was his 20th on the season. He joined his linemates Marchand and Pastrnak as 20+ goal scorers. And the Bruins are the first team this season to have three 20+ goal scorers. The fact that they are linemates, makes them formidable against all the teams in the league.
Some felt that had Wood only been given a two-minute penalty that perhaps the Bruins wouldn’t have scored. However, Bergeron’s goal took place before the first two-minute penalty on Wood had expired. And after the clock issues, and a possible loss of momentum for the Bruins, the Devils were able to make the kill on the remaining time.
Zdeno Chara and Miles Wood
“[The ref] came back to the bench and he just said sorry that they screwed up,” Wood offered. “But that’s what it was. [It should have been] just one penalty.”
At that point the game was tied, and it looked like it would remain that way going into the second intermission. However, Pastrnak and Marchand found themselves on an odd-man rush and Marchand was able to freeze Schneider and put the puck in the goal with 32 seconds left in the second period. That would turn out to be the game-winning goal.
In addition to the odd things that were taking place, a number of the New Jersey Devils ended up taking trips down their tunnel after hits in which they were slow to get up. The hits, with one exception, looked like typical plays, but body parts were clearly being tweaked and at one point the Devils were playing with just four defensemen. The third period saw the Devils back-up goaltender, Ken Appleby, between the pipes, after Schneider apparently suffered a lower-body injury on Marchand’s goal. Even one of the linesmen got knocked over by Pastrnak and the Bruins’ trainer rushed out to attend to him. Fortunately, he was soon back on his feet.
Toward the end of the game, Marchand was skating fast and trying to get between Johannson and Appleby, when Johannson’s stick may have tripped up Marchand. No call was made, but it was the contact of Marchand’s elbow to Johansson’s head as Marchand was falling that the league has already announced they are taking a closer look at. Many are waiting to hear if Marchand will receive supplementary discipline, though there was no call on that aspect of the interaction either.
In the end the Bruins garnered the two points and added a 17th game to their streak of not losing in regulation. They are now 13-0-4. The last time they accomplished such a streak was in 1983, before some of their current players were even born.
They will practice Wednesday morning and then catch a plane to Ottawa, where they will take on the Senators on Thursday night. The Bruins need to work on fixing some of the issues they had Tuesday night. Their goaltenders can only bail them out for so long.
Wednesday night’s game had so many moving pieces, and that was even before the first puck was dropped. Earlier in the day it had been announced that this would be the final season for Rene Rancourt who would be retiring as the anthem singer. It was the return of former head coach Claude Julien—who was bench boss for the Stanley Cup-winning Bruins team in 2011. And the Boston Bruins were honoring Willie O’Ree and the 60th anniversary of his first NHL game, when he broke the color barrier in hockey. Not surprisingly O’Ree was on hand for a ceremonial puck drop.
And while that was a lot of emotion for any game, it was also the second meeting of the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens in four days. On Saturday, in the shootout, the Bruins had come away with the two points at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Tuukka Rask and Carey Price would again be in their respective nets, and the game was being televised on NBCSN as one of their Wednesday Night Rivalries. Certainly it is one of the biggest rivalries in the NHL, especially given how long the two teams have been playing against each other.
The Canadiens came off the first puck drop with spirit, and just 31 seconds into the game they were already celebrating their first goal of the game. The goal scorer, Jakub Jerabek, playing in his 19th game of the season, got his first NHL career goal. An important milestone for any player.
“Yeah, even though they scored first early, they got a bit of a break going to the net,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “It wasn’t like it was this huge breakdown or we lacked passion or energy.”
In fact, while the Canadiens scored the first goal of the game, it would also be the last goal they scored in the game. The Bruins, who were riding a 13-game point streak, were not fazed by that goal. They responded a little more than six minutes later, as Brad Marchand—from his knees—got a pass off to Patrice Bergeron, who saucered it over to David Pastrnak. Pastrnak put it in a wide-open back door, and the Bruins never looked back.
Nicolas Deslauriers and Adam McQuaid
“Yeah, especially that early in the game it’s not that big of a deal being down by a goal, but yeah, we have a lot of character in here,” Marchand said after the game. “We’ve shown that plenty of times throughout the year. We saw almost 60 minutes left in the game. We can battle back and we did.”
Battle back indeed. The team limited the Canadiens to six shots on net in the first period. Perhaps more impressive was how they held Montreal to just seven shots in the second period, especially considering that Charlie McAvoy got whistled for holding and 1:11 later Brandon Carlo took an ill-advised slashing penalty. This offered the Canadiens 1:09 of five-on-three time, and yet the Bruins—with the return of Adam McQuaid—stood tall, denying the Canadiens a lane to shoot for a good portion of that time.
“Yeah, it’s nice to be in those situations—you don’t want to be—to be put in that situation. I think guys thrive off of wanting to kill that and be in those situations,” McQuaid shared about being down two men. “Even though I was a little winded at the end of it, it was a good feeling for sure.”
He also complimented his defensive partner on making his return after an extended time on the sidelines from injury so easy.
Matt Grzelcyk and Ryan Spooner
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, just went with the first shift and then the second and just went down from there,” McQuaid shared. “I wanted to try to keep things really simple, [Matt Grzelcyk] made life pretty easy to play with—he played really well. All the guys did so it was nice to be back; be a part of the win. I’m happy to be back.”
By the time of that extended power play time for Montreal, the Bruins were already leading 2-1, as Ryan Spooner had given Boston what would ultimately become the game-winning goal at 2:37 of that middle frame.
Marchand got the Bruins a power play goal 3:40 into the third with assists from Bergeron and Torey Krug, and then David Krejci would seal things up with the emptynetter, just 19 seconds after Price had vacated the goal.
Marchand talked of character, but certainly the Bruins are also feeling confident.
Alex Galchenyuk and Torey Krug
“We feel so good about our game that we know over the course of 60 minutes that we’ll get our chances if we’re working hard and stick to our layers and stick to our defensive posture that will turn into offense for us,” Krug offered. “It’s just confidence in our system and the way that we’re rolling right now and guys are stepping up. We’re getting contributions from everyone and that’s a big part of it.”
The Boston Bruins have little time to enjoy the victory, as they hopped a plane heading to Brooklyn after the game, where they will take on the New York Islanders on Thursday night in the second of three games in four nights. The third game? That will be back in Montreal for what could be quite a third game against the Canadiens.
The Boston Bruins have had to go to extra hockey in both of their most recent games, coming off their bye weekend. Saturday night they took the two points in a shootout at the Bell Centre in a game with the Montreal Canadiens. Monday’s matinee at home in Boston against the Dallas Stars did not turn out as well—though Boston has now gone 13 consecutive games where they have earned at least one point from a game.
When the Dallas Stars come to town, for some reason everyone starts talking about Tyler Seguin. He’s been gone from Boston for five years now and, like or hate the trade that July 4th of 2012, it really is time to let this one go. Of course, when Seguin notched the overtime winning goal for the Stars, it did send the fans into a bit of a frenzy. However, the concern should have been how the Bruins played, not who scored that goal for the other team.
Stephen Johns and Ryan Spooner
The reality is that the Bruins came out flat in the first period, and gave the Stars a two-goal lead. The Stars had twelve shots in the opening ten minutes of the first period, while the Bruins had just one. It looked like Boston had finally gotten their legs as the period progressed because they proceeded to deny Dallas any additional shots for the remainder of the first and the first almost four minutes of the second period. Regrettably, on their first shot of the second Dallas notched a marker, and the Bruins found themselves playing from behind.
Nine minutes into the second, the Bruins were down two goals. Still plenty of hockey yet to be played, and captain Zdeno Chara would get one of those back with 3:32 remaining in the middle frame, and the teams would go to the second intermission with Dallas ahead by one.The third period saw Ryan Spooner blast a one-timer that ultimately went in off the stick of the Stars’ Esa Lindell and in at 11:21 to tie the game.
Unfortunately, Brad Marchand got whistled for a slashing penalty just 24 seconds later. The Bruins backup goaltender Anton Khudobin had made some major saves to keep the game low scoring up to that point, but a man-advantage late in a game that saw many of the Bruins flat-footed seemed like a possible recipe for defeat. The Bruins managed the kill, and of particular note was the fact that Chara—who many believe is either over-the-hill, or should simply be traded—was on the ice for the entire two minutes of that kill. He continues to lead by example.
In the end, the buzzer would signal the end of regulation and one second shy of the three-minute mark of the overtime period, Seguin would send everyone home with his goal.
Frankly, the Bruins were fortunate to get a point from the game given their many lapses in offensive momentum. There were glimmers of solid plays, but in the NHL, give an inch and the opposition will often take a goal.
The Bruins will face the Canadiens on Wednesday in the second of three games against their rival in eight days. It will be the first time that former coach Claude Julien has returned to Boston in a regulation game—his prior appearance having been during the pre-season. The Bruins are notorious for struggling during matinees, which may explain some of their lifelessness on Monday, but they would do well to come out fast on Wednesday night against Montreal. Much better to be ahead of a game than playing from behind.
When a team is on a winning streak, it is sometimes easy to forget some of the things that were done that put the team on that streak in the first place. Winning is fun. And when a team wins players often overlook the mistakes they made on certain shifts. Sometimes a player’s mistake can be fixed by a line mate before the opposition capitalizes on it. After all hockey is a game of mistakes. Fan on a pass in the offensive zone and a player may find himself having to rush back when the opposing forward takes the puck away and heads in the other direction. So, what happens when two teams on winning streaks meet in a two-game series? In the case of this past weekend’s series between the Northeastern University Huskies who played host to the University of Maine Black Bears, it meant two losses for Maine.
Despite the distance between these two schools, when they do meet on the ice the animosity is palatable. Words are said. Some pushing and shoving after the whistle or jockeying before a puck drop. However, the team that can rein that in and not let their emotions affect their actions on the ice is less likely to be shorthanded or have moments of questionable choices during a shift. Of course, even the most disciplined team will make mistakes. And when a team is on fire, such as the Huskies clearly are this season, they are likely to get the puck past the goaltender and into the net.
While Maine got on the board first on Friday night, many of the mistakes they made were exploited by Northeastern. In fact, Northeastern scored on their first two power plays. As the game progressed, the Huskies took a lead and despite a rally in the third by the Black Bears, Maine was handed the loss.
One of the issues that Maine’s head coach Red Gendron commented on was the number of penalties the Black Bears took on Friday (game summary sheet). He stressed that the players needed to stay out of the box. And while he certainly pointed that out to his players before Saturday’s game, the frustrations of the Huskies getting on the scoreboard first and perhaps a feeling that the referees weren’t seeing penalties made by the Northeastern players pushed the players in blue to take some ill-advised penalties. This included the ejection of one player who made his feelings known about the hooking penalty for which he had been called (game summary sheet).
Whereas Maine had six penalties in Friday’s game, none of them were more than two minutes each and were mostly hooking and slashing, Saturday night’s game saw roughing, elbowing, the above-mentioned game misconduct, as well as another game misconduct for a hitting from behind major penalty.
What does a team like Maine take away from back-to-back defeats at the hands of the same team?
“Well it’s really rather simple. Northeastern has a very good team. They have some terrific offensive players and they’re one of the best teams in our league for sure and they’re arguably one of the best teams in the country,” Gendron said postgame on Saturday. “And so, if you’re going to beat a team like that, your margins are quite a bit tighter. You can’t take a penalty you shouldn’t take. You can’t not get a puck in that needs to get in. So those are the lessons. And sometimes when you play teams with maybe a little less fire power than Northeastern, you can get away with those kinds of things, while certainly their team make you pay when you have a lapse of judgement.”
Jeremy Swayman
And if a team is going to have lapses in judgement, there is only so much that the goaltender can do, especially if his teammates are not putting many shots on the opposing net. On Friday night, freshman Jeremy Swayman faced 38 shots and stopped 33, while the Black Bears put 33 on the Huskies Cayden Primeau, who stopped 30. Saturday night was a different story. Swayman saw 36 shots and stopped 32, while his teammates put only 20 shots on Primeau who stopped 17. During the third period on Saturday, the Black Bears managed just three shots on net.
Losing is an adversity, but it should be a lesson as well. The Black Bears had little time to wallow in the losses, as they returned to Orono and faced the University of Massachusetts Minutemen on Tuesday night, but it would be hoped that they had learned. And while no one was ejected, they again had a few penalties (game summary sheet). They gave UMass a chance to get into the game at the top of the third period, by allowing the Minutemen a two-man advantage for 1:28. Perhaps more concerning though was another low-shot game for the Black Bears. While they won the game 3-1, they again managed only 20 shots on net—getting just four in the first period. Meanwhile the Minutemen peppered Swayman with 35, of which he saved 34.
Maine will play host to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday at the Harold Alfond Arena in Orono. It will be interesting to see if they can bring some forward momentum to these games and do a better job of staying out of the penalty box.
Hurricanes are something to be feared—at least the weather variety. But the Carolina Hurricanes came into Boston after having nullified the Pittsburgh Penguins just two days prior, but played nothing like they had in Pennsylvania. Leading up to the game on Saturday, both teams were experiencing similar streaks in their last ten games with the Canes record standing at 7-2-1 and the Bruins with a 7-1-2 record.
Cam Ward had often frustrated the Boston Bruins as a goaltender, but Saturday night he would last just 5:43 between the pipes before being replaced by Scott Darling. On their first two shots, the Bruins had scored a short-handed goal and an even-strength goal. Of course, after Darling took Ward’s place, the scoring by the Bruins didn’t actuall slow down. Going into the first intermission, the Canes were looking at a 5-1 score, their only goal coming from Jordan Staal on the power play.
Jordan Staal with a nifty redirection to put the @NHLCanes on the board! #Redvolution
Eleven minutes into the second period, the Bruins four-time Selke-winning center, Patrice Bergeron, had scored two more goals, for a total of four just from him, and the score was an insurmountable 7-1. That would ultimately be the final score.
“There was not a whole lot of good.” – Jordan Staal
“Well there’s no real momentum when we scored the goal, we didn’t really establish a game. So, there was no real momentum from the goal, but it gets you a chance to get back in it,” head coach Bill Peters summed up after the game. “It was a power play goal. It was good execution by our power play unit. I don’t think we had too many sustaining shifts where we had pressure and we actually won shifts and built a game.”
“We just didn’t compete. We gave them a lot of chances early and they capitalized on them. We hung our goalies out to dry. We didn’t give them a chance; we were leaving guys wide open and that’s pretty much just a lack of effort on our end, but that can’t happen,” defenseman Justin Faulk agreed. “You know, we like to take those big wins and those wins in your division and try to build off of it, but you can’t come in on the road and expect the win to be easy. Boston is a good team and they’ve been playing really well too, and we knew they were going to be tough to play against. Their top line has a lot of skill and they work hard, and we just made it easy for them.”
The Hurricanes have two days before they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Canes continue their third of four games on the road. At the present Tampa sits at the top of the Atlantic Division with 61 points in 41 games. For the Hurricanes, they certainly expected to be in a different position halfway through the regular season. Though they currently sit in the second wild card position, the Pittsburgh Penguins are just one point behind them, while the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders are breathing down their neck as well just two points behind. Carolina has to shake off this loss and refocus on playing hard and competing. Nothing good comes at this stage of the season taking losses such as the one they had in Boston.
The Boston Bruins were supposed to play the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, but mother nature and the bomb cyclone storm named Grayson had some other ideas. So the Bruins had an extra few days off after the New Year’s break. Such a situation can sometimes make a team a bit sluggish—seen often as teams returned last season from their bye week. Apparently the Bruins really missed playing hockey.
The Carolina Hurricanes arrived in Boston coming off a 4-0 victory over last year’s Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. And on paper the two teams were almost identical in their last ten games, with the Bruins record at 7-1-2 and the Canes at 7-2-1.
Danton Heinen in front of Scott Darling
It started out like many Bruins’ games—that is to say they were whistled for the first penalty. David Krejci was called for a high stick 2:20 into the opening period. Less than a minute into the penalty kill, Brad Marchand got the puck into the neutral zone and onto the stick of Patrice Bergeron, and it was quickly a 1-0 game from the Bruins’ first shot on net. Two and a half minutes later, with the Hurricanes having gotten four shots on Anton Khudobin who was in net for Boston, Riley Nash put the Bs up 2-0 on their second shot on net, and Carolina’s starting goaltender, Cam Ward, got the hook, replaced by Scott Darling.
Carolina’s woes, though, would not be solved by a goaltender change. And despite getting one goal back, off the stick of Jordan Staal, the Bruins would reclaim their two-goal lead two minutes later, as David Pastrnak—who had been going through a goal-scoring drought—notched his 16th of the season. The scoring didn’t stop there. Jake DeBrusk would make it 4-1 a little more than a minute later. And four minutes after that, Bergeron would get his second of the game and take the Bruins into the first intermission up 5-1 and garnered his 700th NHL point.
The second period saw Bergeron notch his second career hat trick—the first having come January 11, 2011, against the Ottawa Senators—at 5:36 of the middle frame, and the hats rained onto the ice. Bergeron wasn’t done though. Five minutes later he got his fourth goal of the game, giving the Bruins a 7-1 lead.
With the exception of Pastrnak’s goal, and Bergeron’s first, which was a short-handed goal, the other five had come when the teams were playing even strength, five-on-five.
Bergeron said after the game that the last time he could remember getting four goals in a game was when he was sixteen. And while he may have made it look easy, that accuracy comes from countless practice shots.
“It’s just amazing to watch [Bergeron] get a shot off from there.,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said of Bergeron’s first goal. “If you are at Warrior enough, you will see him working on it every morning skate – getting that quick release.”
“Yeah, I’ve taken those shots many, many times,” Bergeron shared. “Obviously, I can’t put a number on it, but it’s something that I work on almost every practice with [Jay Pandolfo], just taking some shots from the slot and you know it was nice to get rewarded I guess.”
Marchand was asked about Bergeron’s accomplishment Saturday night, and put it into perspective as only he can.
“It’s pretty impressive. Anytime you can get four goals in a game, three is impressive so being part of this one and seeing him have the game he had, it’s definitely up there,” Marchand expounded. “But you know, I think the Olympics and winning the Cup and him just being Patrice Bergeron is above that.”
Patrice Bergeron battles in the crease.
Having gone into the first intermission with a four-goal lead, it was always possible that they could have gotten a bit complacent, but with 40 minutes yet to go in the game, that could have been a recipe for disaster. Instead the team did what they do best—continued with what was working.
“Oh for sure and I think we often say that we have to stay humble and we have to keep playing the right way and be in the moment. You know that’s something that we’ve often said,” Bergeron said about staying focused on the win. “And, you know, if you stay in the moment, you’re going to keep doing the right things and I think we were scoring goals because we’re taking care of details; we’re taking care of the puck. And it starts in our own zone. So, you have to keep that going. If you get away from that, I guess, our identity, I guess, or the way that we like to play, it’s not going to … we’re not going to get the results.”
Some might wonder if there is a moment when the team considers showing mercy to the other team. Just as there is no crying in baseball, there is no mercy in hockey.
“Yeah we don’t want to let up. No team is going to let up on us if they get ahead like that. We don’t have that built into our game, it’s more about playing the right way and continuing to build,” Marchand expressed. “That’s kind of what we’re looking to do in here, is not to worry about other teams. We’re worried about playing our game regardless if we are up by five or down by five. We want to try and play the same way. It’s tough to do sometimes when you’re in a game like that but we did a pretty good job.”
As the clock ticked down to the final seconds of the third, the Bruins did just wait them out. In the end the team in black and gold had ten players with points: Bergeron (5), Marchand (4), Pastrnak (3), Nash (1), David Backes (1), Danton Heinen (1), Krejci (1), Ryan Spooner (1), DeBrusk (1), and Kevan Miller (1).
The Bruins take to the road for Sunday’s game in Pennsylvania against the Pittsburgh Penguins before going into their bye week. They have been playing extremely well, and want to go into that break on a winning streak.
During the second intermission of the tenth annual NHL Winter Classic game which saw the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Rangers taking it outdoors on New Year’s Day, the hockey teams that will represent the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held at Pyeongchang, South Korea were announced.
Unlike the past four Olympics which saw NHL players stepping away from their day job to don the jersey of their homeland and play for their men’s hockey team, this year the NHL announced its NHL players and any AHL players on a two-way contract would not be eligible for Olympic teams. This had many wondering who would represent the USA. There was speculation that there would be a number of AHL players for the men’s team. Well the questions have been answered.
The men’s team draws its players from the KHL, Swedish League, Swiss League, German 2nd League, German League, AHL, and NCAA. While it was expected that there would be some Americans from the KHL and AHL, it is suspected that few expected so many from the other leagues and that the team would include four college players. The roster is still lacking two goaltenders. Additional information can be found on the Team USA page at USA Hockey.
During the first period, the Blues were outshooting the Bruins, but this was one of those situations where the shots on net statistic belied what was really going on between the two teams. The Bruins were moving fast and finishing checks; as were the Blues. In a rather bizarre and somewhat messier than usual goal for him, David Krejci put the puck in the net at 12:32 of the first, though he and the team would have to wait after Blues head coach Mike Yeo used his Coach’s Challenge suggesting there had been goaltender interference.
Unfortunately, Brad Marchand got whistled for a slashing penalty just 24 seconds later. The Bruins backup goaltender 
One of the issues that Maine’s head coach 
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