Tag Archives: David Pastrnak

Bruins Fall To Preds Despite a Big Third Period

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The Bruins fell to the red-hot Nashville Predators on Monday night despite a big third-period push.

Tough Start

The Bruins were back in action on Monday night in Nashville where they fell to the Predators 5-3. The Predators scored the first goal of the game just 1:26 seconds into the contest, then again late in the first to lead 2-0. The Predators scored two more in the second period to go up 4-0. The Bruins struck back in the second with a power-play goal coming off a perfect shot from Charlie McAvoy. The Bruins trailed 4-1 after two periods. In the third the Bruins came out strong, and it paid off. Captain Zdeno Chara scored for the Bruins to get his team within two.

Then, just over a minute later, David Pastrnak Scored to make it 4-3 and a brand new game. Bruins fans had hope. Then less than a minute after Pasta’s marker, Predators forward Filip Forsberg scored on a breakaway to make it 5-3. The Bruins showed up to little to late in this one.

Goaltending Situation

Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin started the game but was lit up early. Dobby gave up four goals on 14 shots. It appears the red-hot Khudobin could riding the pine after this one. Tuukka Rask came into the cage after the Predators fourth goal. Rask only faced 11 shots and made 10 saves. The Bruins should run with Rask at this point.  He’s beaten the best team in the league in Tampa Bay, and recorded a shutout against the Flyers in recent days. Rask looks like the Rask of old, the one all Bruins fans love. Winning games, making big saves, and playing with confidence. Exactly why the Bruins need to roll with Rask from now on.

Comments

”Digging yourself a 4-0 deficit is certainly not a good recipe for winning games. The second half of the game was much better, but it was too little, too late. We need to start on time” said Bruins forward David Backes. Marchand also had some comments on the game. “The Predators are pretty deep, they play hard, but they didn’t really deserve a lot. We just kind of gave it to them. It’s tough to lose like that. We did a good job of pushing back and making it a game, but we need wins.”

Bruins Need Secondary Scoring

The Bruins top line, McAvoy, Chara and Pastranak, scored all three goals. If the Bruins want to win hockey games, it will take more than one line to score all the goals. The Bruins need players like Krejci, Backes, Spooner, and Anders Bjork to contribute on the score sheet on a regular basis. Bruins rookie Danton Heinen has quietly put up points, proving that he can contribute on offense. Heinen picked up an assist on McAvoy’s power play goal in the second, giving him nine assists on the year for a total of 14 points.

Home Stand

The Bruins will play five of their next six games at home, starting Thursday against the Coyotes, then Saturday against the Islanders. After that, they travel to Detroit for a Wednesday face off, then again at home Thursday against the Capitals. Then the Bruins will close out their home stand with games against the Rangers and Blue Jackets.

Bruins Inconsistencies Continue vs Capitals

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The Bruins have really struggled to string together a win streak so far this season. They haven’t won consecutive games yet, yet before the game against the Capitals, they actually went six consecutive games without a regulation loss.

Bad Starts are Hurting The Bruins

The Bruins were back in action on saturday evening in Boston, taking on the Washington Capitals. The Capitals haven’t had the greatest start this season, they are 7-5-1. Both teams have been inconsistent to start the season, both winning a game then losing a game. The B’s have been falling behind early in many of their games, and it happened again saturday against the Caps. They gave up the first goal about 7 minutes into the contest, coming off the stick of Tom Wilson. This goal was pretty weak, and Rask should have stopped it. The Capitals struck again in the period, with a one-timer goal, from none other than Alex Ovechkin.

However, Boston stepped up their play in the second period. They dominated most of the second period and it paid off. David Pastrnak scored the first goal of the game off a sick saucer pass from Patrice Bergeron. The Capitals held off the Bruins for the rest of the second period, and added another goal late in the period. This time from Tom Wilson, with a nifty tip on Brooks Orpik’s shot from the point.

Powerplays

Boston started off the third period strong. Brooks Orpik got a 4 minute double minor for high sticking Bruins forward David Pastrnak. This should have been enough for the Bruins to get back into the game, but it wasn’t. They were unable to capitalize on the powerplay. Boston was given another powerplay not long after, and again failed to score on that one also. The B’s started pouring on the pressure late in the third period. They received another powerplay with just over 3 minutes to play. Pastrnak potted his second of the game on the pp, and got the Bruins to within one with 2:30 remaining in the game.

Pastrnak, and the team, pushed hard in the final 2 minutes, but weren’t able to tie the game. The Caps reigning Vezina goaltender played outstanding, and came up huge for the Capitals in the final minute. The Bruins losing streak against the Capitals extended to 10 games after this loss. The last time the Bruins defeated the Capitals was in March, 2014.

Comments

“We had a bad start and you can’t have that especially against a team like Washington. They made us pay. Tough to play catch-up hockey.”  -Bruins Assistant Captain Patrice Bergeron, regarding their touch start. Bergeron played a good game and had a beautiful assist, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to score any points.

Positives

Some good things to take away from the game: Tuukka Rask stopped all 3 breakaways he faced in the game. This included one on Ovechkin, then Tom Wilson, taking away his opportunity for the hat trick, and Lars Eller on his shorthanded breakaway. The Bruins continue to not give up when they are behind. They came all the way back from 3-0 last Monday against the Blue Jackets. They nearly completed another comeback against the Capitals in this game.

The Bruins are back in action on Monday at the TD Garden in Boston. They host the Minnesota Wild. Hopefully, Boston can get Krejci back soon to give a boost to their lineup.

 

 

 

Bruins Fall 4-3 in Shootout After 3 Goal Comeback

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The Bruins fell to one of the Eastern Conferences top teams Monday night, The Columbus Blue Jackets.

Bruins Down Early

The Bruins fell behind early in the game, giving up the first goal only two minutes into the game. They gave up another goal in the final few minutes of the first period, and another in the second period. Bruins Captain, Zdeno Chara, gave the team a much needed boost by stepping up and dropping the mitts with Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson. As soon as Chara dropped the gloves, the Bruins completely changed their play. They played excellent in the second half of the second period, and excellent in the third. With this play, they stormed back with goals from Patrice Bergeron, Torey Krug, and Brad Marchand.  David Pastrnak added helpers on each of the goals.

TUUKKA?

Bruins Veteran goaltender Tuukka Rask has struggled so far this season–posting a .896 SV% and a 2.93 GAA through six games. Rask has only one win thus far, and it was nearly a month ago against the Nashville Predators. Rask had a rough start to the game in Columbus by giving up a goal on the first shot of the game, that he should’ve stopped. He gave up another that was tucked in beside him on the post, which he should have been covering. After the third goal Rask allowed, which was a breakaway, Tuukka played excellent in the second, third, and in overtime. In my opinion, Rask has never been the greatest in shootouts, so I’m not surprised with his performance.

Comments

“I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to win too many games if we don’t have all 20 guys going, and I don’t think that was the case pretty early on.”  -Head Coach Bruce Cassidy

”We didn’t show up, they were taking it to us, they were hitting us. We weren’t responding, Every second of that first period bothered me.”  -Assistant Captain Patrice Bergeron

”Z did an awesome job stepping up out there and our game started turning around there. Mills sticking up for Krug was awesome. We need that we need to show that we’re a team and a family in here. And we are, and that carries onto the ice and the guys did a great job standing up for one another.”  -Brad Marchand

“You never wanna see another guy get hit like that. Guys taking liberty out there so I kinda just reacted to be honest.”  -Kevin Miller

Next

The Bruins will be in action again on Thursday night, back in Beantown, taking on the Vegas Golden Knights. Forward Kenny Agostino, and Goaltender Zane McIntyre, were sent back down to Providence on Thursday. It looks like some guys may be getting healthy, and looking to make a return soon.

 

Bruins Exit Weekend With Two of Four Points

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The Bruins looked solid on Saturday night in the desert with a 6-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes. The same can’t be said for the Bruins on Sunday as the Boston fell to the Golden Knights 3-1. The Bruins are off until Thursday when they take the ice in Boston to host the Vancouver Canucks.

Saturday in Arizona

The Bruins really impressed on Saturday night skating to a 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes. Rookie Anders Bjork recorded his first career NHL goal.  Jake DeBrusk scored his second of the season and added an assist in the game. Some more noticeable Bruins on Saturday included Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Tim Schaller, and Danton Heinen.  The most outstanding Bruin on the night was captain Zdeno Chara.  Registering his first goal of the season in the second period, Chara added two helpers. Marchand scored a nifty backhand goal off a slick pass from David Pastrnak., who also added an assist in the game. Tim Schaller scored for the second straight game for the Bruins. Recent call up Danton Heinen got credit for two assists.

Dobby impresses

Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin got the start on Saturday night and played well enough to earn his first win of the season. Khudobin stopped 29 of 31 shots he faced against the struggling Coyotes. The Bruins needed Khudobin to step up for them with starter Tuukka Rask struggling, and he certainly did. With the Bruins wanting to rest Rask longer more this season, Khudobin will have to win some games.  He has proven he is the man for the job after watching him this preseason, and in this game.

”The ‘W’ is always great. No matter what the score, whether it’s 8-6 or 9-7. If you win then you win. Nobody talks about losers. Everybody talks about winners, right?” said Khudobin. “If you win, then you’re on the horse, and if you don’t then you’re under it. It’s great to get one at the start of the season, and so now hopefully it’s not going to roll like it did last year.”

Sunday in Vegas

The Bruins had a disappointing game on Sunday as they fell to the leagues newest team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Bruins managed to get only 23 shots on their old teammate Malcolm Subban. If the Bruins want to win games they will need to generate more shots on net. They must stop being so fancy all the time and just keep it simple to get those greasy goals. If the Bruins focus more on this, they will score more goals and win more hockey games. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask played fairly well in the game by stopping 23 of 25 shots that he faced.

The Bruins lone goal scorer on Sunday was David Pastrnak, who banked the puck off the Vegas defender in the final minute of the game. Brad Marchand who continues to put up points assisted Pastrnak’s goal. Rookie Charlie McAvoy also got an assist on the goal as well which now gives him assists in the last two games.

Injuries

The Bruins lost Ryan Spooner and Adam Mcquaid on Sunday due to injuries. I am unsure what happened to Spooner, but he is out with a lower body injury. Mcquaid, took a slap shot from ex-eammate Colin Miller off the side of his leg which didn’t look pretty.

Whats next?

The Bruins get four days off before their next match up at home against the Vancouver Canucks. If the Bruins want to make it to the postseason again this year, they have to improve — fast. They won’t make the playoffs as a 500 team. They need to put up points and do it now.  Boston may get a boost to their lineup on Thursday with Patrice Bergeron close to returning. I really hope Bergy gets back on the ice soon as a very important player on this team.