Well last night's game was quite the... adventure. The Bruins managed to pull out a 2-1 win over the Rangers last night, giving them a two game winning streaking and bettering their record to 14-6-1.
But it's difficult for me to say we earned that win. Because in all honesty, if we didn't have Tuukka Rask in net, carrying the whole team on his back, we would have lost (and it probably wouldn't have been a close loss either). The Rangers came out flying, creating great opportunities and continually firing on Rask. The return of Rick Nash definitely vitalized the Ranger's offense and as a result, the Rangers dominated puck possession. It was a pretty solid game for the Rangers.
But it's difficult for me to say we earned that win. Because in all honesty, if we didn't have Tuukka Rask in net, carrying the whole team on his back, we would have lost (and it probably wouldn't have been a close loss either). The Rangers came out flying, creating great opportunities and continually firing on Rask. The return of Rick Nash definitely vitalized the Ranger's offense and as a result, the Rangers dominated puck possession. It was a pretty solid game for the Rangers.
The Bruins, meanwhile, just couldn't get it out of the offensive zone or really protect Rask from much of anything. Now, it didn't help that Dennis Seidenberg got hurt 2:16 into the first period with an undisclosed lower body injury. (update: D-man Kevan Miller has been called up from Providence on an emergency basis for Seidenberg). Or that Matt Bartkowski hurt his knee during the second period and wouldn't return to play until the third. Or that Adam McQuaid is still out with an undisclosed lower body injury. Because that meant, for a period, the Bruins were running two lines of defensemen, which is never an ideal situation.
But it's also not an excuse for the level of play we saw last night either. Granted, Zdeno Chara played 31 minutes last night when basically all season he hasn't seen more than 25. But we all know Chara has played more minutes a game in the past and that he's capable of it. The same goes for the other D-men. Torey Krug actually saw less ice time (15:44) last night than he has the rest of the season (average of around 18 minutes/game in the last four games). Boychuk saw the same amount of time (23:52) as he always does. If anything, the only one with any sort of excuse was Dougie Hamilton, who played 24:24 last night after only playing an average of 18 minutes/per game in his last four. So in reality, as much as running two lines of defense wasn't a good thing, it doesn't excuse what we saw.
But it wasn't just the defense that looked tired all game, it was the whole team. It was like we were only half there. We played like we were a man down for all the second period and most of the third. We couldn't clear our zone and when we did we sent the puck down ice without any effort to make a play on it. We weren't at all aggressive in those puck battles or in play making. The Rangers finished the game with 44-22 advantage in shots on goal and 83-51 advantage in attempted shots. They basically dominated us offensively, which is not okay for a team that is currently first in the East.
We also kept taking stupid penalties, one of which cost us that 33 PK streak after Brassard scored with three seconds left on a goalie interference penalty against Krejci. Now I just want to say it is pretty bad that we needed to kill that many penalties in the first place, but it is pretty impressive that we managed to do it. But on a broader scale, we're lucky only one of those penalties resulted in a goal. Again, without Tuukka Rask, we would have been in some major trouble.
But it's also not an excuse for the level of play we saw last night either. Granted, Zdeno Chara played 31 minutes last night when basically all season he hasn't seen more than 25. But we all know Chara has played more minutes a game in the past and that he's capable of it. The same goes for the other D-men. Torey Krug actually saw less ice time (15:44) last night than he has the rest of the season (average of around 18 minutes/game in the last four games). Boychuk saw the same amount of time (23:52) as he always does. If anything, the only one with any sort of excuse was Dougie Hamilton, who played 24:24 last night after only playing an average of 18 minutes/per game in his last four. So in reality, as much as running two lines of defense wasn't a good thing, it doesn't excuse what we saw.
But it wasn't just the defense that looked tired all game, it was the whole team. It was like we were only half there. We played like we were a man down for all the second period and most of the third. We couldn't clear our zone and when we did we sent the puck down ice without any effort to make a play on it. We weren't at all aggressive in those puck battles or in play making. The Rangers finished the game with 44-22 advantage in shots on goal and 83-51 advantage in attempted shots. They basically dominated us offensively, which is not okay for a team that is currently first in the East.
We also kept taking stupid penalties, one of which cost us that 33 PK streak after Brassard scored with three seconds left on a goalie interference penalty against Krejci. Now I just want to say it is pretty bad that we needed to kill that many penalties in the first place, but it is pretty impressive that we managed to do it. But on a broader scale, we're lucky only one of those penalties resulted in a goal. Again, without Tuukka Rask, we would have been in some major trouble.
Can we just talk about Tuukka Rask for a second though? As I've already said, he came up HUGE for us last night. He faced 43 shots and only allowed one in for a SV% of .977. One of the most important saves of the night was on Kreider's penalty shot. It was quite literally a game changer because had that gone in, paired with the goal in the second, the outcome of that game could have been severely different. So, call him the Grinch because Tuukka Rask stole that game for us. If this game doesn't convince Finland to make him their starter in the Olympics, they need to re-think their life choices because Rask is the best they are going to get.
It also doesn't hurt to mention: King Lundqvist who? Lundqvist only faced 20 shots on goal last night but allowed two of them through, from our fourth line (the best fourth line in the league) no less. It's true that our goalie may have saved our game for us, but at least our goalie was saving something because Lundy walked out of that game with a .909 SV% and was one of the only reasons the Rangers lost. Looks like the Bruins are going to keep up our streak of dethroning the king.
This is why we love our fourth line though. Gregory Campbell may not have scored, but he at least tried to energize the team with a bout against New York's Derek Dorsett. He may have lost but us Bruins fans always appreciate the effort (and a good fight). Then along came Thornton. His goal was a beaut, a perfect top shelf snipe from the circle 4:58 into the second period that gave us the 1-0 lead but also registered as his third goal of the season. Paille quickly followed suit with a short handed goal of his own 10:33 into the second period that turned out to be the GWG and his third goal of the season.
So all and all, this game was a heart attack waiting to happen for Bruins fans. It's obvious the Bruins need to keep working on finding that energy, sustaining it and playing the full 60 minutes. It's also obvious they need to continue working on becoming more self aware and avoiding those penalties. They should probably also buy Tuukka Rask a car or something because he saved them in a big way. But no really, they need to work on helping out the goalie because Rask may be god-like, but he can only do so much. We'll see how they put this all into play on Thursday.
It also doesn't hurt to mention: King Lundqvist who? Lundqvist only faced 20 shots on goal last night but allowed two of them through, from our fourth line (the best fourth line in the league) no less. It's true that our goalie may have saved our game for us, but at least our goalie was saving something because Lundy walked out of that game with a .909 SV% and was one of the only reasons the Rangers lost. Looks like the Bruins are going to keep up our streak of dethroning the king.
This is why we love our fourth line though. Gregory Campbell may not have scored, but he at least tried to energize the team with a bout against New York's Derek Dorsett. He may have lost but us Bruins fans always appreciate the effort (and a good fight). Then along came Thornton. His goal was a beaut, a perfect top shelf snipe from the circle 4:58 into the second period that gave us the 1-0 lead but also registered as his third goal of the season. Paille quickly followed suit with a short handed goal of his own 10:33 into the second period that turned out to be the GWG and his third goal of the season.
So all and all, this game was a heart attack waiting to happen for Bruins fans. It's obvious the Bruins need to keep working on finding that energy, sustaining it and playing the full 60 minutes. It's also obvious they need to continue working on becoming more self aware and avoiding those penalties. They should probably also buy Tuukka Rask a car or something because he saved them in a big way. But no really, they need to work on helping out the goalie because Rask may be god-like, but he can only do so much. We'll see how they put this all into play on Thursday.
Until tomorrow my fellow heart attack-havers,
Keep calm and Bergeron!
Keep calm and Bergeron!