GOLD STAR: David Krejci continued his mad offensive onslaught to the season with a pair of goals to extend his point streak to eight games to start the year, and make it seven goals scored in games this season. The difference this time around was that the B’s crafty center was producing goals during five-on-five play rather than cranking the power play offense. But the result was the same: Krejci has 14 points in eight games this season, and has been the trigger man for the ongoing Bruins offensive explosion this season. He also finished with four shot attempts, two takeaways, and 10-of-17 face-off wins in 19:15 of ice time, and has been Boston’s best player in this first month of the season.
BLACK EYE: Max Domi was pretty good in the first game against the Bruins, but he was 100 percent invisible this time around against the Bruins. He finished with two shots on net and a team-worst minus-3 rating for the Coyotes in the loss, and his partner-in-crime, Anthony Duclair, was even worse with zero shots on net, zero presence and a minus-2 for the game. They couldn’t get anything done missing Martin Hanzal, and also getting a full helping of Zdeno Chara for the entirety of the game with Boston holding the last change. That’s a tough day at the office for the “Killer D’s.”
TURNING POINT: The Bruins had a solid 3-0 headed into the third period, and that’s been a bit of a bugaboo for them this season. But the B’s took advantage of a Coyotes team playing their fifth game in eight days, and on the second night of back-to-backs, by running them out of the building and finishing strong. The Bruins allowed only five shots in the third period with the Coyotes looking for any way to get back into the game, and slammed the door on the blowout win by keeping the shutout intact that both the B’s defense and Tuukka Rask badly needed.
HONORABLE MENTION: There weren’t a ton of Grade A chances for the Arizona Coyotes, and that’s a credit to the Bruins defense. But Tuukka Rask also made all 24 of the saves that he needed to make without a single soft goal in the bunch, and didn’t give the Coyotes any chance of coming back after falling down by a 3-0 score after the first 40 minutes. Rask had been guilty of giving up at least one soft goal a game in the early going to give opponents a bit too much confidence, but that all changed on Tuesday night. The Bruins were stingy, Rask was stingy and it seems they finally have the defense/goaltending combination working properly eight games into the new regular season.
BY THE NUMBERS : 8 – the number of consecutive games that the Bruins have won over the Coyotes franchise dating back to the Opening night of the Premiere Games in the Czech Republic at the start of the 2010-11 NHL season.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It was important for us not to break, panic, or try to do something that’s not part of our game plan. We stuck with it and eventually we wore them down, and we scored on our opportunities. I like the way we finished strong in the third period, you could see they [Arizona] were running out of gas, but our guys kept pushing the pace. That was important too.” –Claude Julien, on the shutout and finishing strong with just five shots allowed in the third period.