By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter/X @RyanJBosworth
The Boston Bruins have returned home after a long four-game road trip to the West Coast, where they posted a record of 3-0-1 and got strong performances from within their lineup — but most notably, from their young players.
Boston came into tonight with a record of 7-2-1 and an incredibly strong start to the season. Their top scorers coming into tonight consisted of David Pastrnak (4-8-12 through 10 games), Fraser Minten (4-4-8 through 10 games), and Morgan Geekie (1-7-8 through 10 games).
Nashville came into tonight’s game with an okay start to the season, with a record of 3-2-3. For the past few seasons they’ve definitely been a middle-of-the-road team, despite having some serious fire power in players like Steven Stamkos and Filip Forsberg, both of whom, along with Roman Josi, are among Nashville’s top scorers.
Continued Momentum
Boston didn’t miss a beat upon their return from their four-game road trip. It was certainly a road trip that consisted of good habits, and those good habits carried over into the first frame of tonight’s game. The Bruins managed to get themselves on the board inside of the first five minutes of the game, thanks to a snipe from Casey Mittelstadt off a cross-ice feed from David Pastrnak.
It wasn’t just the scoring that was going well for the Bruins, as they were doing the little things really well in the opening frame. The defense was keeping things simple, getting the puck up ice and establishing a presence in the offensive zone. It’s worth noting that both Frederic Bruent and Mason Lohrei have looked fantastic alongside one another to start the season, and tonight was no exception.
It would take over 16 minutes to see any sort of penalty tonight, and the first power play was awarded to the Bruins — and they wasted absolutely no time getting on the board. A feed from Pavel Zacha to Charlie McAvoy on the point, who sent the puck to the net — keeping the puck on the ice — for Elias Lindholm to tip it home, top shelf. With that, Boston was cruising with a 2-0 lead and absolute domination after 20 minutes.
The only downside to the opening frame? Morgan Geekie left the bench with just around two minutes left in the period after going down behind Nashville’s net. It appeared that he was in a fair bit of pain, as he wasn’t taking a single stride to get off the ice and got immediate attention on the bench before going down the tunnel.
Building on the Opening Frame
The Bruins came into the middle frame continuing to fire on all fronts, and Morgan Geekie returned to action. They added two goals to their lead — thanks to David Pastrnak and J.J. Peterka — and kept Nashville at bay, though they certainly ramped up their offense this period. However, Michael DiPietro slammed the door shut to keep their score at 0.
There wasn’t one line that was flat footed this period. Matt Poitras and his fourth-line linemates in Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic generated some strong scoring chances despite not finding the back of the net. The first line of JJ Peterka, Pavel Zacha, and David Pastrnak continued to dominate, and Charlie McAvoy built on one of his strongest starts in some time. All around, it’s hard to find any negatives apart from a couple of odd-man rushes given to Nashville.
Strong Finish
The Bruins definitely faced the strongest offensive push from Nashville this period. Charlie McAvoy took a high-sticking penalty just a minute and a half into the period, and Nashville had a lot of solid opportunities, but weren’t able to materialze any because Michael DiPietro stood tall in his crease, continuing his impressive evening.
Even after the power play expired, Boston was seeing Nashville’s strongest push all game, and just about halfway through the final frame, Nashville was even out shooting Boston (24-23). However, thanks to a gutsy effort from the Bruins’ fourth line of Jeannot, Poitras, and Kastelic, they’d extend their lead to five goals after Kastelic snuck in a weird bounce out in front of Justus Annunen.
The Bruins would go on to absolutely slam the door on the Predators, winning with a whopping score of 6-0, adding one more in the final half of the period thanks to David Pastrnak.
Boston scored six on 31 shots on goal, and Nashville wasn’t able to buy one despite putting 28 shots up on goaltender Michael DiPietro, who posted his first career shutout at 27 years old.
This was a huge win for the Bruins, as they returned home from a long and exhausting road trip and, where teams usually struggle, they posted one of their most complete 60-minute games from the entire lineup.
Stats from tonight:
- Boston, scoring six goals, have five different goal scorers in Casey Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak, JJ Peterka, and Mark Kastelic
- Michael DiPietro posted the first shutout of his career, stopping all 28 shots on goal
- Three Bruins players had multi-point evenings in Charlie McAvoy (0-4-4), Pavel Zacha (0-2-2), and David Pastrnak (2-2-4).
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