By: KG Follow me on Twitter: @kgbngblog
PREGAME NOTES
Bergeron, who was day-to-day (Multiple days ago), is still not back in the lineup. David Backes will still be on the IR for a while. Frank Vatrano, who hasn’t been great in the games he’s played in, was replaced on the third line by Austin Czarnik. Bruce Cassidy hopes that this will help the team’s struggles that have been happening lately. Khudobin was called to start after Rask gave up 8 goals to the Avalanche over 5 periods (Back-to-Back games)
What I Am Looking Forward To
I usually never get a chance to watch the Coyotes, so I will definitely be watching Max Domi and Clayton Keller. I’ll also try to catch a glimpse of the Keller/McAvoy relationship. They played together at Boston University, and have kept in touch since. Always fun to see former teammates play against each other.
PERIOD ONE
Not a great start, but eventually it started to get better as time went on. The Bruins seemed to be able to break into the zone a bit more. Anthony Duclair/Mario Kempe broke the scoring with a big one-timer from Duclair off of Kempe that beat Khudobin’s blocker. Domingue looked a little shaky at first but still kept everything out of the net until Chara used David Pastrnak as a human target to ricochet his shot off of. Pastrnak was credited for the goal, and looked hurt, but powered through. After that, the Bruins controlled the puck more and got some good zone time. Definitely an improvement from the last two games.
Scoring
BOS – Pastrnak (Chara, Carlo)
ARZ – Kempe (Duclair, Schenn)
PERIOD TWO
The Bruins got on the power play early in the third. Krug was back playing the point/QB as he does. We saw Bjork give up another good shot opportunity, but the man advantage ultimately ended up in a goal. Another tipped one-timer, but this time Krejci shooting and young Jake DeBrusk tipping it. But after that, the Bruins seemed to once again not be able to break out of the zone as effectively as they were before. Another big thing that was confirmed this period was how out of place Riley Nash looks alongside Marchand and Pastrnak. Anyone watching could tell you he was the odd one out. They kept setting him up left and right but he just can’t do anything with the puck. We have seen the end of Chara-haters, at least until tomorrow’s game. Chara crashed the net for a goal and also sprung Marchand for the 4-1 lead. Overall one of the Bruins’ best periods of the young season.
Scoring
BOS – DeBrusk (Krejci, McAvoy), Chara (Marchand, Pastrnak), Marchand (Chara, McQuaid)
ARZ – N/A
PERIOD THREE
Right out of the gate Arizona came swinging. Anton Khudobin had to stay on his toes to keep it a 4-1 game. Charlie McAvoy showed his ability to find passing lanes that few others can in the first few minutes of the period with some fancy passing. The Bruins continued to try to spring quick players for odd-man rushes, which would sometimes work, but often fail. Chara took a bad penalty and ended up forcing Khudobin to come up clutch again while flopping around like a fish out of water, which is always entertaining/scary. He looked a lot like a former B’s goalie who would make those kinds of saves regularly (Mr. Tim Thomas). McQuaid was sent to the box for trying to fight a Coyote who wanted nothing to do with him, and because of that penalty, it brought the lead to 4-2 from an Oliver Ekman-Larsson powerplay goal. But then the Bruins took off and scored back to back, including Anders Bjork’s first career NHL goal. 6-2 final from the desert. Overall, it was a good game. Definitely better to see this kind of play then what we saw when they played the terrible back-to-back with Colorado.
Scoring
BOS – Schaller (Heinen, Kuraly), Bjork (Heinen, DeBrusk)
ARZ – Ekman-Larsson (Demers, Stephan)
POSTGAME
KG’s Three Stars Of The Game
1st: Zdeno Chara – It feels great to be able to say that Chara played well again. He was all over the place in the offensive zone. He even scored a goal. With his feet in the crease. And not because he was screening. He also assisted on a pre-drawn play to Marchand, as well as mildly, not really injuring Pastrnak in a goal. Zdeno Chara is my first star of the game because of his play. Wow. What a time to be alive.
2nd: Brad Marchand – Marchand was doing Marchand kind of things on the ice tonight. Blowing by the D and getting shots from areas no one else could. He also somehow managed to see the very small and not noticeable at all Zdeno Chara charging in from the point to pass to for his only assist of the night. Let’s hope we see this Marchand more nights than not.
3rd: Charlie McAvoy – Chucky McAvoy was easily one of the best players on the ice tonight. He had an ok night in the stats department, but anyone watching the game will tell you how he had the vision of a hawk. Just putting pucks on tape everywhere he went. It was a huge factor in the Bruins offensive attack since they figured out how to effectively break out of the zone when he was on the ice.
MUP (Most Under-Appreciated Player): The Fourth Line – The entire fourth line was solid tonight, and did exactly what a good fourth line does. Get chances when they are out on the ice, and provide a spark for the other players on the bench. Great job by them, scoring a line total of four points combined. Great effort.
BIRDHOUSE – Round-up of the best Tweets during the game
NEXT GAME
Sunday, October 15th, 2017 at Vegas Golden Knights
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