Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
For what seemed like the first time all season, the TD Garden erupted in chants of “TUUKKA”. The Boston Bruins goaltender won just his fifth game of the year, and second at home, but he was almost unbeatable on Saturday. Rask was solid in the Bruins 3-1 win, stopping 20 of 21 shots fired on net by the Red Wings to give the Bruins their fifth straight win against Detroit. The Bruins will need Rask to play at this level for the remainder of the season to help steal some games for the Bruins, but his support from the defense and on the penalty kill from the rest of the team clearly made his job much easier than it’s been to start the season. With a .933 save percentage over his last four games, it looks like it’s “Tuukka Time” once again.
Puck Prose
The Bruins killed off two of their three penalties on Saturday with a Zac Rinaldo tripping call leading to Detroit’s only goal of the game by way of Justin Abdelkader who is fresh off of his new contract extension with his team. The Bruins have struggled mightily on the penalty kill up to this point of the season, ranking dead last in that category, so tonight was a step in the right direction for a team that is usually known for their penalty killing prowess. Other than the one penalty kill that led to Detroit’s goal, the Bruins played a far more complete game than they have in just about any other game to start the season, which means Claude Julien might finally be getting through to his team to be consistent.
Following the Bruins 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday — a game in which they held a 2-0 lead in first period, Claude Julien had this to say. “We have to take, I guess, the responsibility of it that goes along with it. We have to be better. Ten minutes of good hockey is not enough to win in this league. We’re getting good starts, but we’re not sustaining that part of our game through the whole 60 minutes. We can talk about a bunch of different things but it all boils down to that.”
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The Boston Bruins played nearly flawlessly for the first 40 minutes of the game, and the final 20, though a little bit rougher, were still solid enough to earn the win. Every aspect of the Bruins game deserves a share in the credit from Saturday’s game, from the defense making plays along the board, to the offense clicking to the tune of three goals in the second period from Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Torey Krug respectively, and all at even strength. The Bruins were only on the power play one time throughout the game, so the top ranked unit in the league didn’t get a chance to show off their talent as much as they’d have liked to. As mentioned, the penalty kill was able to kill of two of the three penalties in the game which is a significant step in the right direction for the Bruins.
The Bruins are 1-1 so far on their five game home stand and will look to improve upon that record on Tuesday when the San Jose Sharks come to town.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen on Twitter @BShareCohen to discuss all things Bruins and sports