March 9, 2013; Boston, MA USA; Philadelphia Flyers center Danny Briere (48) tries to get the puck past the pad of Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) while defenseman Andrew Ference (21) defends during the second period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
THAT’s what a sixty minute game plan looks like ladies and gentlemen! I only got to watch the first period of the game live, but those first twenty minutes showed explosive offense, and the Bruins showed a total commitment to their two-way defensive play. Three goals in under two and a half minutes. For those of you who were doing double duty watching the game and typing away on Twitter, the goals were coming in as fast as we could report them. Andy Brickley and Jack Edwards were still talking about the Chris Kelly goal, and the announcer was still trying to get the Kelly goal out when Daniel Paille scored.
Welcome back Tyler Seguin! Your hands arrived from Switzerland last week, and it’s great to see you use them. He scored the first goal of the game, and made one of the best defensive plays of the game in the third period. When Tuukka was out of the crease and the Bruins had an open net, Tyler Seguin made a full-out dive to protect Rask’s shutout, and earned himself a legitimate save. Nice to know that Seguin could always sign up to be a deputy in the crease police. Rask was certainly surprised.
Oh, that was Tyler?” asked Rask, when he found out Seguin was the one who bailed him out, since he hadn’t seen which of his teammates kept the shutout alive. “It was great. He was telling me he would have caught the guy when I sprinted out of the net. But, it’s good to see he’s got my back and he’s got those goalie skills too. I don’t think they marked a save for us. I think that should be a save, right?”
Coach Claude Julien was cautiously optimistic about the Bruins game today. Tonight we were , but I don’t know if I can say back on track until I see it on a consistent basis,” explained Julien. “Today was probably the first day that I felt much better about our game without the punk in our defensive zone. We didn’t give much. They didn’t have a ton of scoring chances, and obviously we’ve got two tough games . Ottawa, who’s playing extremely well, still, and Pittsburgh on the road. We’ll need that kind of game to win those.”
We’re now 16-3-3, and still a point behind Montreal. Tuukka got his second shutout of the season, and his thirteenth of his career. He’s now 12-2-3, and his GAA is back below 2.00 (1.97). His save average is climbing up again. It is up to .927, and Rask is proving that ‘Tuukka Time’ is twenty four hours a day.