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Boston Bruins weekly review and preview – October 9, 2017

By Joe Szymanski

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 5: David Pastrnak
BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 5: David Pastrnak /
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A place to gather on Monday mornings to review all things Boston Bruins that occurred during the last week, and preview things for the week to come.  Expect these columns on the regular every Monday.

Howdy folks, welcome to the very first edition of the Boston Bruins weekly preview/review series.  On Monday mornings, this post will replace the usual “Early Morning Ice Time” that you’ve all come to know and love.

Throughout the season, I will be looking at the games the Bruins played in the previous week, and give a quick preview of the upcoming games in the coming week.  Since the season started a few days ago, the review portion will be shorter then usual, as Bruins only played one game so far this year.  Now with the introduction out of the way, let’s get it rolling.

Week in review

Boston Bruins
BOSTON, MA – OCTOBER 05: Boston Bruins left wing Anders Bjork (10) walks out to be introduced before an NHL game between the Boston Bruins and the Nashville Predators on October 5, 2017, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Bruins defeated the Predators 4-3. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

To open up the season the Bruins welcomed the defending Western Conference champion Nashville Predators to town.  This presented quite a difficult challenge to open up the year.  The Bruins opened up the scoring first after David Pastrnak blasted a shot by Preds goaltender Pekka Rinne on the PP to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately seconds before the period ended the Bruins couldn’t clear the puck after a defensive zone faceoff win, and Viktor Arvidsson put the puck past Tuukka Rask and the period ended tied 1-1.  The last second of the period goal has almost become a Bruins trademark in the last few seasons.

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In the 2nd, almost everything went the Bruins way.  After killing off a couple of early penalties, the Bruins took the lead off a great pass from Anders Bjork, that sent in Jake Debrusk and with a nice finish in front of the net slid the puck past Rinne.  Later in the period, stud prospect Charlie McAvoy, on a counter attack rush sniped one past Rinne and gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead after two periods.   Both goals in the period were first career goals for Debrusk and McAvoy.  DeBrusk’s goal came with some extra to it as well:

The third period was more of the same.  The Bruins controlled much of the play but the scored remained locked at 3-1.  After a late Kevan Miller penalty, the Preds decided to pull Rinne to go 6 on 4.  That immediately backfired as Brad Marchand hit the empty net to make it 4-1 Bruins.  Then things got weird.  Zdeno Chara takes another penalty and now they are down to 6 on 3.  And in quick succession the Preds get two PP goals to make it 4-3 with about one minute left.  But the Bruins held off the Preds and started the season off with a huge win over a quality opponent.

Bruins Record: 1-0-0.

The Road Ahead

The Bruins play 4 times this week, all against Western Conference foes.  They open the week on Monday afternoon with a nice matinee against the Colorado Avalanche.  On Wednesday the Bruins hit the road for the first time this season and weirdly enough, play the Avs for the second and final time this year.  They then have off days on Thursday and Friday before playing Coyotes on Saturday and for the for first time ever, the Bruins play the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.

Prediction

None of the teams the Bruins are playing this week are viewed as playoff contenders, so it looks like a favorable week for our hometown team.  I don’t like predicting perfect weeks for any team, but with this week of games, it is mighty easy to do so.  But I’ll stick with my gut and go with the Bruins finishing the week 3-1-0, with the loss coming Wednesday night to the Avalanche.

Next: Talking Duchene Trade on Twitter

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