The Boston Bruins went to Madison Square Garden tonight to take on the New York Rangers last night. It was a tough matchup due to a flurry of recent injuries and a collapse beginning in the second period.
After getting pumped by the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night with some inexperience in net, the Boston Bruins had yet another ugly game last night. They fell to the New York Rangers by a score of 5-2. The B’s have now lost their last three games and are seriously missing Tuukka Rask in net. Former University of North Dakota goaltender Zane McIntyre looked to help them get back in the win column. With a regulation win, the Bruins could have jumped into a tie for fourth place in the Atlantic Division with the Ottawa Senators.
Austin Czarnik was recalled from Providence yesterday due to the David Backes injury. Backes missed his second straight game last night. Czarnik struggled in his short time in Boston to start the season, tallying zero points and a -3 rating in just two games. That changed last night when he scored his first career NHL goal last night on an ugly one that barely squeaked by Henrik Lundqvist.
An interesting thing to note is that there was no morning skate in New York, instead, Claude addressed the media. While doing so, he confirmed McIntyre would start and that the lines will not be finalized until after warmups. It was also mentioned that Rask could possibly return on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit, to the joy of countless Bruins fans. Here’s what the lineup looked like last night.
Forwards
Spooner-Krejci-Czarnik
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Beleskey-Nash-Hayes
Schaller-Moore-Acciari
Heinen
Defense
Chara-Carlo
Krug-McQuaid
Liles-C. Miller
Morrow
Goalies
McIntyre
Subban
After being snake bitten on the scoreboard in Minnesota, adding Austin Czarnik to the lineup added a little bit more offensive upside with Danton Heinen out of the lineup. Both had zero points in the respective amount of games they’ve played before Czarnik scored last night. Krejci got on the board with an assist on Czarnik’s goal, Krejci has struggled out the gate this year. The B’s looked to the first line to rekindle their scoring prowess as well, after being shut out in Minnesota. The defense was much of the same and Rask and Khudobin were still injured.
Takeaways
The main storyline heading into last night’s game was the first career NHL start of Zane McIntyre. McIntyre was drafted in the sixth round, 165th overall by the Bruins in 2010, so he has had to work quite a bit to get here. He had a great college career at the college hockey powerhouse University of North Dakota and has amassed an impressive 0.44 GAA and .977 save percentage in Providence in three games this season. Fun fact: his last name used to be Gothberg, but he changed it to McIntyre, his mother’s maiden name, in 2014. Zane “Zano Insano” McIntyre made 26 saves on 31 shots last night and looked good out of the gate, but struggled late in the game. His difficulties began when the Rangers came to life in the second period and took a stranglehold on the game.
On the New York Rangers side, it’s Jimmy Vesey. The coveted Harvard Crimson alum snubbed the Bruins over the summer and chose New York. This game was his first time playing the Bruins since. Lucky for him, if he would even care, he doesn’t have to hear the boo’s he would likely receive at TD Garden until next Saturday, Nov. 5. Vesey tallied three goals in the first six games of his NHL career, tied for the most on the team with former BC Eagle, Chris Kreider. Vesey had fun last night and put up a goal and an assist against the B’s. He’s now tied with Brandon Pirri, rather than Kreider for the most goals on the Rangers, as Pirri had two goals last night.
The B’s finally scored the first goal of the game for the first time all year. Through the first six games of the season, the Bruins failed to score the first goal in every game. That needs to change in the future in order for them to establish momentum against tougher teams down the road.
Get Jimmy Hayes out of the lineup, please. Seven games in, zero points, minus-7 rating what are we waiting for here? The guy is on an electric pace for zero points and a minus-82 rating. No excuses. He’s 6 foot 5, 215 pounds and he doesn’t use his size. Guys with that size should be running people over. He does nothing for me and I’m sure I’m not alone. It’s not like he hasn’t had an ample amount of chances to change his game around and prove himself worthy.
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The first line looked good, per usual. With Pastrnak’s early goal it looked like the B’s had full control. The NBC announcers, particularly Pierre McGuire, who everyone loves, mentioned the solid neutral zone structure the Bruins used. They were constantly in the faces of Rangers players as they tried to create offense, cutting off angles consistently. Unfortunately, it didn’t continue much throughout the rest of the game.
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All in all, a win to get back on track against a tough New York Rangers team would’ve been huge. They needed to get back on the score sheet, as they have scored a measly four goals in their last three games. Two goals won’t get it done on most nights. Everyone needed to come to play to in order make Zane McIntyre’s NHL debut a good one, and they didn’t. Although McIntyre wasn’t great for the second half of the game. This team needs Tuukka Rask, hopefully, he will be back in Detroit on Saturday.