Here are the Talking Points from the Bruins’ 2-1 overtime win over the Blue Jackets:
GOLD STAR: Tuukka Rask finished with 28 saves, and was at his best in the second period playing behind a mistake-prone Bruins defense that allowed a number of quality chances for Columbus. Rask stopped Matt Calvert on a shorthanded breakaway, stuffed Alexander Wennberg on a rush through the Bruins defense and shut down the post on a Cam Atkinson bid set in motion by a Brandon Dubinsky feed from behind the net. The ten saves in the second period for Rask were all high quality, and kept it a 1-1 game when the Blue Jackets very easily could have broken things open. On a night when the Bruins were doing a lot of icing the puck while experiencing trouble breaking the puck out of their zone, Rask wouldn’t let things get out of hand. The game represented a nice rebound from getting pulled in the sloppy loss to the Red Wings on Sunday.
BLACK EYE: Tough night for the future No. 1 defenseman in Columbus, as Seth Jones played a lead role in giving up both of the Bruins goals. He threw a desperate clearing attempt off the boards that was picked off by Patrice Bergeron, and the Bruins center snapped it through the leg pads of Joonas Korpisalo. Jones was then too lax on the 3-on-3 defensive coverage in OT. This allowed Loui Eriksson to sneak in behind the Columbus defense, and get into position to tap home a Torey Krug feed at the doorstep. Otherwise, Jones didn’t have much of an offensive impact in his nearly 25 minutes of ice time while showing he still has plenty of development left ahead of him.
TURNING POINT: Rask’s ability to keep the Blue Jackets off the board in the second period while making his 10 saves, including the Matt Calvert shorthanded breakaway and Cam Atkinson bid near the left post, was one of the biggest factors in Boston coming away with two points. The Bruins weren’t very good for long stretches of the second and third periods, but Rask’s ability to stop anything and everything kept the Blue Jackets at bay until Boston could finally finish off a play in overtime.
HONORABLE MENTION: Patrice Bergeron returned from injury to score Boston’s only goal in regulation, finish with five shot attempts, and win 20-of-28 face offs against the Blue Jackets in the kind of dominant center performance they had been missing the last couple of games. Even better, the most important player on the B’s roster didn’t look slowed or hampered by injury, and instead look every bit his normally dominant two-way self. That’s good news for the Bruins, with challenging games against Nashville and Dallas still on the schedule at the end of their six game road trip.
BY THE NUMBERS: 6 – the number of 20-goal seasons for Loui Eriksson after his overtime game-winner helped him reach the plateau for the second straight time with the Bruins.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It was a tough game to gauge. There were a lot of battles along the walls. The first period we were decent, and the second period they won too many battles for our liking. We needed a big play in overtime to secure that crucial point, and we were able to do it.” – Claude Julien to reporters, on a game that definitely wasn’t one of Boston’s best against Columbus despite earning the two points.