The B’s win an ugly game where the Captain pulled the team ahead in a big win for the Sacco Bruins!
How’s that for a win in the clutch?
1st Period
The game started a bit slow, but the B’s about halfway through the period got a power play, and Tyler Johnson threw a shot on Talbot that was deflected off of Justin Brazeau, who opened the scoring at 1-0 Bruins!
Unfortunately, the Wings rebounded. They spent a good portion of the rest of the period in control of the puck, and as the period wound down, the Red Wings executed a near picture-perfect passing play to even the game at 1 with Lucas Raymond’s laser of a shot.
Dunno if that play gets off the ground if Marchand can get the body on Tarasenko, but otherwise that’s just a real good play.
Onwards to the 2nd.
2nd Period
No scoring of note happened, but the Bruins had a much improved shooting period from the first, putting 11 shots on goal to Detroit’s 7.
Regardless, we move on to the 3rd.
3rd Period
This is where the Bruins really came to life with their biggest push of the game; hammering Talbot with shot after shot, until finally, the Bruins were able to crack the Wings netminder as David Pastrnak kept a puck in the zone, and Andrew Peeke was able to push the puck to Brad Marchand, who roofed it on Talbot to get the B’s up 2-1!
The Bruins held the fort, and they walked away from this game with a 2-1 Win!
Game Notes
- Your TOI leader was Charlie McAvoy, who logged 26:16 tonight.
- Special teams was the decider in this one: Once again the Bruins had some penalty trouble, but a major improvement from the Monty regime is that they ensured that the Red Wings didn’t get a damn thing off of them. They kept the Wings 0-for-4, and critically were able to pull a power play goal off of the Wings. Given how badly both of those things have been going for Boston lately, that’s the kind of improvement they can hopefully build off of.
- Swayman had an absolutely exceptional night in a real goaltending duel of a game; He finished the night with a .950 SV% and saved the B’s bacon more than once. Given how rough his season started, it’s good to see him start to rebound like this. We’ll see how he does down the stretch, but this is a major improvement for him!
- I think the general feeling on this game, as well as the general feeling from the fanbase, is that this is a good start. While they’re winning more, and their 5v5 defense seems improved, the B’s still are having trouble with actually capitalizing on their chances, and a number of players are still having some real struggles on being effective. They’re also playing a number of fairly mediocre teams for the next week or so, so there’s very little to suggest the Bruins are going to be seriously tested beyond what they see in Vancouver this tuesday. Given how gormless they looked coming into Coach Sacco’s tenure, I think the Bruins could stand to find their footing with a number of steps in the right direction, and games against these lesser foes is a great way to do that.
- One of these days the Red Wings are actually gonna try to be good again without cramming a bunch of bad ideas into it. Thank god we don’t live in those days. That Yzerplan needs some serious revision.
The Bruins come home on Tuesday to face the Vancouver Canucks, and that game drops the puck at 7pm PT.
We’ll see you there!