Photo Credit: @bluinsfan2017 on Twitter
By: KG Follow me on Twitter: @kgbngblog
PREGAME NOTES
This will be the first time that the Bruins have ever played the Golden Knights, and their first time playing a game in the new T-Mobile Arena in Nevada. Yet again, there will be the absence of both Patrice Bergeron and David Backes as they are still on the IR. The lineups are almost exactly the same as last night, but Frank Vatrano has regained his spot in the roster from Austin Czarnik. An interesting move, but we’ll see if it pays off for bench boss Bruce Cassidy. Malcolm Subban, former Bruins first-round pick, will make his first start tonight as a Golden Knight while Rask starts for the B’s.
What I Am Looking Forward To
It’ll be interesting to see how Malcolm Subban does tonight. He has zero wins in his first two NHL games played. But he is going up against the team that waived him, which could be a good or bad thing. The Bruins should know where to shoot on him, but Subban should also know the tendencies of the players on the Bruins. It’ll definitely be fun to watch this matchup unfold.
PERIOD ONE
The Bruins started off the game where they had left off last night against Arizona. They clearly had the momentum, keeping the Knights on their heels. A recurring theme was pucks put in front of the net in the offensive zone. Bruins couldn’t convert though. We had a faceoff violation about halfway through the period. It was riveting. David Perron tried to pull a fast one on the ref by placing his foot about two inches out of the designated area. But ol’ stripes was having none of it. Thank goodness we have these guys cleaning up our rinks and making them a safe place to correctly take a faceoff. Still the dumbest rule out there. On the ensuing power play, the Bruins had a lot of troubles setting up in the Knight’s zone. The Knights even sprung a player for a breakaway, but Brad Marchand made sure to put an end to that. Stand out player for me so far is David Krejci. I’ve seen him multiple times break into the zone and dance around with the puck, and then finding an open passing lane. Hopefully, he can continue to do so. Overall, it was a meh period for both teams.
Scoring
BOS – N/A
VGK – N/A
PERIOD TWO
As of 26:28 into the game, the shots are split at 6 each. For those who don’t know, that is not a lot. Not even close. It may be due to the amount of time each team is spending slapping the puck around in the neutral zone. Later in the period, VGK started to heat up. Alex Tuch picked Sean Kuraley’s pocket and walked into the zone untouched and beat Rask. The Knights came back down the ice again and scored on a scramble play. Adam McQuaid made a heroic leap to try and block a shot but ended up just flopping onto Tuukka Rask’s pads and stopping him from getting back up. The Bruins were definitely outplayed that period. They still only have 15 total shots on Subban after two. Not ideal to let a young, inexperienced goalie be eased into a game like that.
Scoring
BOS – N/A
VGK – Tuch, Shipachyov (Tuch, Engelland)
PERIOD THREE
The third period started just as the second ended. Terribly. The Bruins could only get very limited shots and net and when they did the majority of them were so easy you could put in one of those shooting dummies that you put in the net for road hockey as your goalie and it would still save it. One of the few “Highlights” in the third for the Bruins was when Kevan Miller tried to fight David Perron. And there were no punches thrown. That was how un-exciting the period was. Scary moment with McQuaid going down and not getting up to quick after taking a shot to the leg. With 30 seconds left, the Bruins had four shots in the third. And they had just gotten that fourth shot for a very greasy goal that was put in the net by Karlsson on his own team. But of course, it was too little, too late. Vegas got the empty-netter and the Bruins finish their Western road trip at 1-2 after a very disappointing game. The four-day rest will hopefully do them well.
Scoring
BOS – Pastrnak
VGK – ENG Lindberg
POSTGAME
A textbook example of what NOT to do. Really only 5 shots from below the top of the circle since Pastrnak shot from behind the goal line and banked it in on his goal. This is exactly why Subban, a goalie who has 6 professional hockey shutouts almost got another tonight.
KG’s Three Stars Of The Game
1st: Tuukka Rask- Rask saved 24 of 26 shots tonight. Not his best, but he was the only thing that kept the game somewhat close. He made some key saves, mainly the one against Reilly Smith on a breakaway.
2nd: Torey Krug – Krug was one of the better players in a terrible game by the Bruins as a whole. When Boston did have the puck in the offensive end, he was doing his usual thing of getting pucks to the net and make passes to open up the zone.
3rd: David Pastrnak – Pastrnak had a decent game, but I should probably have him in the Three Stars just because he was credited with the goal. Other than that, not much to rave about.
MUP (Most Under-Appreciated Player): Malcolm Subban – I try to only have Bruins players in my Three Stars/MUP, but this game shows that in the right situation, Subban could be pretty good. It sucks that the Bruins couldn’t find a scenario that they could work with him and that they lost him for nothing.
BIRDHOUSE – Round-up of the best Tweets during the game
NEXT GAME
Thursday, October 19th, 2017 in Boston VS Vancouver
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