Boston Bruins: Talking Points Of the B’s 2-0 win over the Blues.

Nov 18, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins center

(37) congratulates goalie

(40) after defeating the St. Louis Blues 2-0 at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Patrice Bergeron does it again. It’s widely known that Patrice Bergeron doesn’t like it when the fans call him perfect. Then he goes and reads the Blues’ play and gives the Bruins the game winning goal just 5:45 into the first period. Bergeron was awarded Second Star of the Night honors for his game tonight Bergeron stands atop the B’s leader board for points (15), is tied for the lead in goals (5), and is the current assist leader for the Black and Gold.

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Adam McQuaid is hurt (again).  The current word is that McQuaid has a broken thumb. If that’s the case, he’s out for about a month. Just when you thought the Bruins were finally coming out of the injury tunnel, Amtrak sends it’s express route to Boston right back into the Bruins bench of blueliners.

The NHL needs to look at their refs. I’m not one to go jawing off at the refs. They’re paid to their job, and most of the time they do their job…adequately.  Tonight though, I had to wonder why there wasn’t any embellishment calls made against the Blues. In both cases (I’m not going to argue against the penalties against the Bruins themselves), Daniel Paille and Chris Kelly hooked the gloves of a Blues player. In both cases, the contact wasn’t even close to severe. It was enough to send both Blues players to sprawl to the ice in a way that would have made Tomas Plekanec blush. The ref chose not to hit the Blues with any time for either flop.

The Bruins should have won this game 3-0. Matt Fraser earned a goal in the last ten seconds of the second period, as a rebound from Blues’ goaltender Brian Elliott deflected off Fraser’s chest and into the crease. The refs once again stole a goal from Boston by declaring without thinking. Now the NHL reviews every goal in New York and Toronto. They stated there was no way they could argue the goal due to the referee’s call on the ice. The subtext of that statement revealed that they clearly thought the ref botched the job on that one.

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Two U’s, Two K’s, Two Points. Tuukka Rask was the most dominant player on the ice for either side tonight. He played with Vezina level skill, and all-star confidence. He stopped everything thrown at him tonight, and some of those shots were delivered by some of the best hands in the league. Tuukka has now been forgiven by the fan base for Toronto disaster. The Bruins were out shot two-to-one(33-17) by the Blues tonight, and Rask was outstanding as the final line of defense for Boston. Tonight’s shutout drives Rask’s goals against average down to 2.38, and raises his save percentage to a very reasonable .915. It was also Rask’s tenth win of the year.

Welcome back Matt Bartkowski! Matt Bartkowski has been the most polarizing player on the Bruins roster. You either stood up for him, or you screamed why Peter Chiarelli hadn’t given him a buss pass to Providence or out of the league. Bartkowski made a lot of silly mental errors. That those errors cost the B’s goals and games did him no favors. Coach Claude Julien kept cutting his ice time back and in exasperation resorted to benching him. Bartkowski was relegated to the land of the healthy scratch in the hopes that his game would improve.

When Bartkowski was put back on the ice, there were some grumblings among the fan base. Since his return, he has done everything possible to silence his critics and redeem himself. Tonight he truly earned Third Star of the Night honors for his game.  He was one of two players (Torey Krug was the other) with a +2 tonight. He had an assist on the Krug goal, and had two hits. He played over twenty minutes tonight.  Julien rewarded him with time on both the penalty kill (1:12), and the power play (1:01).  He’s playing like the reliable player he was in the regular season last year, and that’s what this depleted blue line really needs.