Boston Bruins: Takeaways from the Bruins-Islanders Game
Today the Boston Bruins faced of with the New York Islanders at home in the TD Garden. Today’s attendance at the Garden was 17,565 giving the Bruins their 290th consecutive sell out at home. The Bruins defeated the Islanders 3-1 in a game that saw the Bruins play their best 60-minute hockey of the season.
The Bruins started the game off with a great first period that had the team skating with energy, something they lacked in their last outing against the Hurricanes. The Bruins created turnovers in the Islanders zone that opened up good looks for the Bruins in the 1st. The defensive ability that the Bruins showed for much of the 1st period was phenomenal with the team not allowing the Islanders to get any looks in the center of the ice. The Bruin’s capitalized on their first power play of the game with Loui Eriksson recording his 26th goal of the season.
With Loui’s goal it is his 492 career NHL point and it looks highly likely that the Bruins may end this season with three 30 goal scorers in Bergeron, Marchand, and Eriksson. One of the biggest key takeaways from this game is the return of defenseman Kevan Miller who is coming back after missing 3 games after taking a hit from Ovechkin back in the Capitals game. Miller’s absence was missed as he came out with high energy against the Islanders and showed why he may be the best defensive player on this Bruins team.
John Tavares in the second period tied the game at 1-1 after the Bruins had several chances to clear the zone and failed to. The goal started with Martin successfully fore-checking Chara, this was the Bruins first defensive failure of the game. Not bad considering it took a period and a half to get to the first problem. The 2nd period ended with a goal by David Pastrnak with around 8 seconds to go in the period. This goal was Pastrnak’s 2nd goal in the last two games and his 11th goal of the season.
The 3rd started the same way the 2nd ended with the Bruins flipping the pace of the game into their favor. The Bruins 2nd period was mainly a weak period with the exception of the last 10 seconds, thankfully the team went back to their 1st period success by creating turnovers and creating opportunities in the offensive zone with smart passes. With just over two minutes to go David Pastrnak gets his 2nd goal of the game, his 3rd in the last 2 games with that goal being his 12th goal of the season. Nice to see Pastrnak getting two goals in this game, his development continues and he will only get better as the years go on.
There are plenty of positive takeaways from this game for the Boston Bruins. Kevan Millers return is much needed as his presence greatly helps the Boston defensive effort. His ability to win races to the puck and make good sound clean hits in both the defensive and offensive zone is something this team does not have win he is out of the line up.
Noel Acciari who is 7 games into his NHL career with the Bruins is another key takeaway for the Bruins. It is time for him to start getting recognition for his good positive play on the fourth line. Acciari has a high hockey IQ and players the center position well by always staying in the center of the ice playing his zone both on defense and on offense. Noel is not afraid to take or make a hit to make a play, it is nice to see players like him come up from the Providence Bruins and have the ability to make an impact right away with the team.
The last big takeaway from this game is David Pastrnak who is starting to get hot recording two goals in this game. Pastrnak who now has 12 goals on the season is starting to look like he can be the guy to solidify the top 6 forwards. Pastrnak might be the Bruins ace in the hole come playoff time being the player other teams leave alone till its to late.
Next: Boston Bruins first in Atlantic division
Great win by the Boston Bruins with a tough schedule coming up it is nice to get a win at home before the big western conference road trip that starts on Tuesday while playing their best hockey of the season.