Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
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Hayes scored his first goal as a Boston Bruins Wednesday night on the road against the Colorado Avalanche. Zdeno Chara ripped a shot on net and Hayes recovered the rebound and stuffed it past Semyon Varlamov. Hayes had been held off the scoresheet over the previous three games, and once the “monkey was off of his back”, Hayes seemed much more comfortable and was the Bruins best player. Hayes also added three assists to his point total, resulting in four points on the night – a new career-high for the Massachusetts native. Hayes wasn’t the only player on the Bruins third line to find the back of the net Wednesday night as Chris Kelly scored a goal and Ryan Spooner posted a goal and an assist. The entire line combined for eight shots on net, which eventually led to the Bruins blowing out the Colorado Avalanche 6-2.
The Boston Bruins needed to get on track, and Wednesday night gave the team and fans a lot to be optimistic about. Jonas Gustavsson showed he could play a quality game when Tuukka Rask needed a game off, the offense clicked to the tune of six goals from six different players, and the defense held the Avalanche to only 22 shots on net. Hayes knew that the 0-3 start was unacceptable, and that the third line wasn’t playing to expectation to start the season. “We need to start contributing” Hayes said. “That was our game plan.” and contribute they did. “I just think we (had) a lot of communication (Wednesday night) from our line.” he continued by saying “We just simplified our game, big time. Just playing a north-south game and trying to execute plays, and finally, the execution was there. It’s a good feeling.”
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Head coach Claude Julien indicated that he saw signs of this type of performance being possible. “I could see it coming in practice,” Julien said in a post-game interview. “He started shooting the puck a little bit more. I told him that he had to have confidence in himself, and that any time he had a chance to shoot, get in there and shoot those pucks. The first one’s always a tough one, but once you get it, all of the sudden you could see the pressure was off him. He seemed to relax a little bit in his decision-making and have more confidence to produce for us (Wednesday night) in different ways.”
As Claude Julien said, the first one’s always tough. He was clearly speaking about the first goal for a player, and in this case Hayes, but the same rings true for the season. The Bruins finally won their first game, and they will look to build on that win on Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes who have been off to a surprisingly good start to the season, sitting with a 3-0 record. Tuukka Rask should get the start in net, and the Bruins franchise goaltender will be looking for his first win of the season.
Other Notes:
Five of the Bruins goals scored on Wednesday marked the first goal of the season for the respective scorer.
Kevan Miller caught the Avalanche players in poor position and found the back of the net after a screen from David Krejci blocked Varlamov’s line of sight.
Jimmy Hayes, Chris Kelly, and Ryan Spooner all scored their first goals as mentioned.
Tyler Randell found the back of the net courtesy of a tip-in. It was nice to see Randell going right to the net to make a positive impact in his first NHL game
Colin Miller posted his first NHL point in the form of an assist on the Jimmy Hayes goal, so it was the night of firsts in many ways for the Boston Bruins.
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