Boston Bruins: B’s Get Two Players Back, Beat Columbus 2-1
The Boston Bruins got back two of its players just before going into last night’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Forward Patrice Bergeron and defenseman Adam McQuaid were given the go-ahead to join the team on the ice, and both players were able to contribute in the B’s 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets. Last night’s win gives the Bruins 68 points and sole ownership of the second place in the Atlantic Division.
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Bergeron ended the night with 19:44 in ice time, putting up four shots on goal, had a takeaway, and won 71 percent of his faceoffs. Bergeron also put up the Bruins regulation goal, putting the puck under the blocker of Columbus goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
“I wanted to play, you know, I wanted to be out there,” said the B’s alternate captain postgame. “It was hard to miss the last two games, so I was kind of hoping they were going to let me get out there and when you’re out there, you don’t want to think about it. You know, you want to try and play your game and feel good about it.”
McQuaid finished the night with 14:51 in ice time. During that time, he put up three hits and two blocked shots. He played most of the night alongside Torey Krug.
“Obviously felt good to be back out there and definitely at times, felt like I had missed the amount of time that I missed, but overall, it felt good to get back out there,” said McQuaid, who had missed 18 games since getting an upper body injury on January 5. “The only way you can get into game shape is playing games and getting into those game situations… Definitely some rust, but good to be back in the mix and in the fold.”
“I thought he was good there for his first game in five, six weeks there and I thought he handled himself well,” said Julien of McQuaid’s effort tonight. “Kept it simple, and couple of glitches here and there, like everybody else, but he actually surprised me how stable he was for his first game back.”
“I love playing with him,” said Krug. “He knows what he’s doing out there and never strays too far away from the net and he wins his battles, so I thought he did a good job, thought he was moving the puck well and that’s all you can ask for after being out for so long.”
While the Bruins earned the two points, it was far from a clean victory. The Bruins gave up two shorthanded breakaways while on the power play, and at times they just seemed listless on the ice. At one point in the third period, the Blue Jackets (who are near the bottom of the Eastern Conference) out shot the B’s 8-1 in the third period. Had Tuukka Rask not played one of his better games this season, the Bruins could have easily given up these two points to Columbus.
“You know, in the third period, you like to go out there and kind of take the game over and we didn’t,” said Rask of the team’s play later in the game. “But it doesn’t matter because we won, so that’s two points.”
The Bruins are now 3-1 on their current road trip. The B’s have 19 wins while away from the TD Garden, good enough to tie for the second place fore most away wins for a team this season. The Bruins now head out to Nashville to take on the Predators on Thursday.