Boston Bruins: Lessons Learned
The Boston Bruins didn’t have success tonight against the Ottawa Senators. A few unlucky overtime pings led to Mark Stone getting one past Tuukka Rask on the third chance, giving Ottawa a 2-1 win. Even though the Bruins didn’t win tonight, several things were clear in tonight’s performance.
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Marchand isn’t getting the ‘A’ back. The last time the Boston Bruins played the Ottawa Senators, forward Brad Marchand wore a shiny new ‘A’ to replace the injured David Krejci. What did Marchand do with his brand new ‘A’? He wrapped it around a telephone pole, and got himself a three game suspension to boot.
To replace Marchand, the Bruins chose to give the ‘A’ to Loui Eriksson for the Winter Classic. (We all know how that went.) For the moment, the Bruins have decided that Eriksson will represent the Bruins on the ice when Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron are occupied, off the ice, or in the box.
David Pastrnak is back (and it’s about time). The Bruins have been missing the young Czech’s speed and firepower. Pastrnak tallied the only goal tonight, being paired on the Bergeron line (and as we all know, Bergeron makes everyone play better).
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Kevan Miller is still a top-two D? Kevan Miller led all Bruins players with 23:22 in ice time. That’s at best questionable. Miller is still being top-pair time when his work is at best left for the bottom-pair (some would go so far as having him guard the popcorn machine on the ninth level).
Ryan Spooner continues to improve. While Spooner was a -1 tonight, he was a very solid player for the Black and Gold. He had six shots on goal, had a takeaway, a blocked shot, and won 73% of the draws in the face-off circle. Spooner is becoming a very reliable forward for the Bruins (and he should be paired with David Pastrnak again!).
Don’t blame Tuukka Rask for this one. Rask stopped 38 of 40 tonight, and was the best player on the ice for the Bruins. Rask has been the B’s best overall player in the last few weeks. It’s a shame a lot of Bruins fans want to place this one on the goaltender. He kept them in the game tonight.
The Bruins have taken 3 out of 4 points in their current road trip and will try to take two more points from the Rangers when they visit them at Madison Square Garden Monday night.