Here’s What We Learned about the Bruins 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on early Sunday evening at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
1) The Bruins leaders recognized the importance of winning Sunday’s game, and stepped up in a major way. Patrice Bergeron had a big hand in both goals, scored the game-winner on a redirection off a Kevan Miller point shot, topped 21 minutes of ice time, had seven shots on net and won 20-of-32 face-offs. Bergeron’s will to win vs. the Islanders can’t be underestimated. Similarly, Zdeno Chara finished with 28:46 of ice time in the second night of back-to-back games in less than 24 hours and was one of the linchpins of a B’s penalty kill that snuffed out six of New York’s seven chances on the man advantage. Tuukka Rask stopped 36-of-37 shots in a brilliant performance between the pipes also aided by a strong defensive effort in front of him, and Brad Marchand played an energetic, active role at both ends of the ice despite being dropped to the third line for the bulk of the game. As much as the Bruins leadership failed them when it mattered Saturday night in Montreal, they showed up in Brooklyn on Sunday.
2) Claude Julien made the right moves this weekend. Dropping Brad Marchand to the third line seemed to snap him out of the three-game funk he’d been in, and Matt Beleskey was very effective paired with Patrice Bergeron as a battering ram forechecker of sorts. Marchand finished with four shots on net in 16:25 of ice time along with an assist, and there was one shift with Marchand/Bergeron/Jimmy Hayes that produced Bergeron’s game-winning goal. That might be something to keep an eye on in the future. Julien also made the right choices between the pipes where Jonas Gustavsson gave them a chance to win Saturday night vs. the Habs, and Rask continued his upward trend in November with a strong 36-save performance on the Island. The Bruins played hard for Julien on Sunday vs. the Islanders on the second night of a back-to-back effort after getting into New York at 3 a.m., and that speaks to a coach that still has the ear of his team. That’s a good thing for the Black and Gold.
3) The penalty kill wasn’t perfect as it gave up a 5-on-3 goal to Johnny Boychuk in the third period that nearly allowed the Islanders back into the game, but killing extended two-man advantages is difficult for any PK group. The Bruins did kill 6-of-7 Islanders power plays during the game, and were at their best in the third period when they killed four of the five power plays for New York, and still managed to protect a slim lead as the Isles threw everything they had at the Boston net. The David Krejci-Loui Eriksson pairing seemed to work well on the PK, and joined the Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand and Joonas Kemppainen/Max Talbot pairings in finally making some headway on the PK. Chara also finished with 5:22 of shorthanded time, and Zach Trotman was in the regular D-man rotation on the PK as the Bruins coaching staff continues to seek answers for those particular special teams questions.
Plus
*Patrice Bergeron finished with two points and key roles on both of the Bruins goals, won 20-of-32 face-offs, fired seven shots on net in 21:05 of ice time and was the best player on ice for either team in the Sunday win. Bergeron looked solid in a new line combo with Matt Beleskey as well, but the game-winning goal was scored with a Marchand/Bergeron/Hayes grouping on the ice.
*Tuukka Rask stopped 36-of-37 shots, was on his angles with confidence squaring up all the shooters and benefitted from the Bruins playing some strong defense in front of him. Most of Rask’s shots faced were from the perimeter, but the Bruins goaltender was able to step up on the occasional quality chance like Cal Clutterbuck’s partial breakaway wrist shot in the second period.
*Zdeno Chara finished with 28:46 of ice time, logged over five minutes on the Bruins penalty kill, blocked three shots and did all of the dirty work to make sure that the Bruins came out with a victory. For a 38-year-old Chara that struggled last season on the second night of back-to-backs and playing three games in four days, he triumphed in that same exact situation on Sunday.
Minus
*Ryan Spooner showed the two parts of his game right now: Spooner snapped home a power play goal in the first period on a 5-on-3 advantage that helped the Bruins win, but also finished 5-for-22 in the face-off circle with little involvement aside from the special teams score early. Spooner is still very much a work-in-progress in five-on-five play for the Bruins.
*Young players Brett Connolly and Colin Miller were among many that were left on the pine in the second half of the third period when Claude Julien shortened his bench in a hotly contested game. It’s no real black mark on those players given the schedule circumstances (days off coming up, so Julien was going to ride his veterans) and the game’s importance,
*Maybe the Bruins just have the Islanders’ number this season, but they have not looked all that impressive in either of the two games against the Bruins in Brooklyn. Credit the Black and Gold for putting up strong efforts in both of those games, but the Isles didn’t show much fight getting to the net in either of those games.