Boston Bruins: Goaltending and Penalty Killing Coming To Life
Boston Bruins: Goaltending and Penalty Killing Coming To Life
Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins have been one of the best teams in the NHL as of late. Entering Saturday’s matinée game with the Florida Panthers with a 7-1-2 record in their last 10 games, the Bruins have found ways to win games almost routinely. In that time-span, the Bruins have outscored their opponents 31-21 which has been the story of the season with the Bruins offense scoring at a torrid pace through the first quarter of the season. One of the other major headlines of the season was how poor the Bruins penalty killing was performing in comparison to it being one of their usual strengths. In the last 10 games, however, the Bruins have found a way to rectify their penalty killing woes and have killed off 92.1% of their penalties — 35 of 38 — and have scored three short handed goals in that time.
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Tuukka Rask has been absolutely stellar for the Bruins as of late. After a disappointing start to the season, Rask has finally found his stride and entering Saturday’s game against the Panthers, Rask has shown his former-Vezina trophy winner form. In his previous seven games, Rask posted a 5-0-2 record with a 1.60 Goals Against Average, .964 Save Percentage, and two shutouts. The Bruins are going to need Tuukka Rask to continue playing at this rate if they intend on playing competitively throughout the course of the regular season and potentially the playoffs. Tuukka Rask hasn’t been alone in back-stopping the Bruins to wins this season, as Jonas Gustavsson has also been playing exceptionally well for most of the season. In the last ten games, the Bruins’ goaltending has combined for a 2.05 Goals Against Average with a .932 save percentage and two shutouts.
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The Bruins still have a lot of work if they do intend on making a run at the Stanley Cup this season. Finding ways to win games is a valuable trait in the NHL, but the same can be said about consistency. The Bruins have found ways to make comebacks multiples times as of late, which also means they’ve found ways to be down in games multiple times this season. The Bruins need to start finding ways to take leads and hold them in games as opposed to finding ways dig themselves out of a hole. Regardless of how the Bruins are getting points however, it’s encouraging to see that they aren’t giving up until the last siren sounds on each game. The Bruins are trending upwards right now, and it will be interesting to see if they can continue to build on this hot streak to find more consistency in all areas of their game.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen on Twitter @BShareCohen to discuss all things Bruins and sports