GOLD STAR: Jonathan Marchessault snapped home the game’s first score for his first career NHL goal on a roofed wrist shot that beat Tuukka Rask, and he also assisted on Tampa’s second goal in the shootout victory for the Lightning. It wasn’t a heavy-minutes night for the youngster, who was just called up from the AHL prior to the game, but all that mattered was the two points, the plus-2 rating, four generated shot attempts and three hits for the Tampa youngster. It would appear that an already offensively rich Lightning group just keep getting richer if this is the kind of talent that’s sitting in the minor leagues waiting to get plucked for the big club.
BLACK EYE: No shots on net for David Pastrnak in 11:32 as the 18-year-old might have hit a little bit of a wall in the last handful of games to end the regular season. The Bruins rookie was pretty quiet from an offensive standpoint as the team got so many other strong performances from the team up and down the lineup, even if they didn’t get more than the two goals they’ve been stuck on for long portions of the season. Pastrnak finished with no points in his last five games of the season, and one shot on net or fewer in four of those five games. One would imagine he’ll continue playing in the AHL playoffs to get some experience with the P-Bruins, but it’s also been a very long year for the youngster already.
TURNING POINT: One can’t help but be impressed that the Bruins knew their season was over midway through the third period after spotting the Pittsburgh/Buffalo final on the arena scoreboard, and still played it all the way to the shootout. They should have played better in umpteen games leading up to Saturday night’s disappointing and completely underwhelmed in a wickedly inconsistent season, but they were too stubborn to simply throw in the towel and stop caring once reality set in. I’ll give the Bruins credit for that, even if it did feel like Tuukka Rask finally said “enough is enough” when that Victor Hedman game-winning shot glanced off his glove hand. That seemed pretty halfhearted to me.
HONORABLE MENTION: Brad Marchand was a little dynamo all night for the Bruins, scored the game-tying goal in the third period and registered eight shot attempts while bouncing around all over the ice. He was active physically, created plenty of offensive chances for himself and was getting his nose dirty. At one point he knocked the stick right out of big Victor Hedman’s hands, and then turned that into an extended offensive zone possession for the Bruins. It didn’t end up turning into a goal, but that effort led to his team-leading 24th goal of the season that pushed the game to the shootout, and gave Boston their 96th point of the season. While there are many players on the Bruins that deserve criticism for uneven effort on the ice, my sense is that Marchand wasn’t one of those guys this season. He brought it many, many nights and was one of their best players, even though he hit a dry spell right at the end of the season.
BY THE NUMBERS: 96 – the number of points that the Bruins ended up with. It’s also the most points ever for an NHL team that didn’t qualify for the playoffs, so the Bruins get to hold that dubious hockey record.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I've never been through this, so it's tough. It's a terrible, horrible feeling. Sometimes you have to go through things like this to make sure it never happens again.” –Milan Lucic, whose stint with the Bruins had coincided with their string of consecutive playoff appearances dating back to his rookie season in 2007-08.