Boston Bruins Week 2 Roundup: That could have gone better edition

Time to review the week that was for the Boston Bruins.  Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping for.

Welcome back folks to the weekly Boston Bruins recap.  Last time I wrote this, the Bruins were 1-0-0, coming off an impressive win against the defending Western Conference champions, the Nashville Predators.  They had an good chance to keep the good times rolling because they were playing some of the worst teams in not just the Western Conference, but the whole league.

They had a home and home series with the lowly Colorado Avalanche, then a quick visit to the desert, to play the Arizona Coyotes, and for the first time ever, the Bruins faced off against the newly created Vegas Golden Knights.  A quick glance at this week, it would be easy to imagine it was an easy week for our Bruins; alas, that was not the case.

The Bruins played just bad hockey for a majority of the week, and it led to many struggles for the whole team.  I guess it’s time to jump in and hopefully they can get back on track soon.

Game 1: Colorado Avalanche

For the second game of the season, the Bruins welcomed the Avs to Boston for a Columbus Day matinee.  After a couple days off after the Predators game, the Bruins came out slow and lethargic, and they payed for it giving up two first period goals to the visitors, courtesy of Sven Andrighetto and J.T. Compher.  After a scoreless 2nd frame, the Bruins still couldn’t deliver anything resembling an offensive attack, and 2012 #1 overall pick Nail Yakupov potted 2, 3rd period goals to finally finish off the B’s as the home squad fell to the Avalanche 4-0.

Full recap can be found here.

Game 2: Colorado Avalanche

After the thrashing the Bruins took on Monday afternoon, the B’s visited the Avs in Denver on Wednesday night, hoping to return the favor.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.  They came out flat again and were once again chasing the score as Harvard product Alexander Kerfoot tipped home a point shot to give the Avs a 1-0 lead.

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Only after a superb shot by Brad Marchand, gave the Bruins some hope as the 1st period ended tied at 1.  In the second however, that’s when the wheels fell off.  Just one minute into the period, Nail Yakupov scored to regain the lead for the Avalanche.  Then just after halfway into the frame, Sven Andrighetto put one home on the PP to give the home team a 3-1 lead.  Minutes later Matt Duchene added to their lead to 4-1 and seemingly put the game to bed.

Going into the third, Tuukka hit the bench in favor of backup Anton Khudobin.  Halfway through the final frame, the game was still 4-1 Avs, when the Bruins scored two quick goals less than two minutes apart, courtesy of Tim Schaller and Torey Krug on the PP.  But, that’s all they would get as the Avalanche got two late empty netters from Andrighetto and Tyson Jost, resulting in a final of 6-3 Avalanche.

Full Recap is here.

Game 3: Arizona Coyotes

The Bruins hit the desert for the first time this season, giving Anton Khudobin his first start of the young season.  After an almost identical first period occurred in Arizona, where the Bruins went down first after a goal from Mario Kempe, the Bruins equalized off a goal from David Pastrnak.  But, unlike Colorado, the second period was possibly the best period of the season so far.  They scored three times in the period from Jake DeBrusk, Zdeno Chara, and Brad Marchand to end the period up 4-1.

In the third, things were looking just peachy, until Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored on the PP to cut the B’s lead to two goals.  Seconds later, Tim Schaller scored to go back up three goals.  The final nail in the coffin came courtesy of Anders Bjork scoring his first career goal on the PP to wrap up the game and give the Bruins a much needed victory over the Coyotes 6-2.

Full recap of the the victory for you.

Game 4: Vegas Golden Knights

On the final game of the road trip the Bruins woke up In Vegas, preparing for an actual hockey game in Vegas, on the second night of their first back to back of the season.  A relatively uneventful first period, where neither team could maintain any offensive momentum.  Not much happened in the second until a great individual effort play by former Boston College Eagle, Alex Tuch scored his first career goal to give Vegas a 1 goal lead.  Three minutes later, Vegas doubled their lead from Vadim Shipachyov scored his first career goal to double the lead at the end of two.

In the third the Bruins didn’t get on the board until there was 30 seconds left, when David Pastrnak banked the puck of a Vegas defender into the net to cut the defect to one.  However, Oscar Lindberg scored an empty netter making it 3-1, capping off a very frustrating road trip for the Bruins.  To make matters worse both Ryan Spooner and Adam McQuaid left the game with injuries and did not return.

If you really want to relive this loss, recap is here.

Bruins current 2017-18 record: 2-3-0.

The Road Ahead

Finishing the week a miserable 1-3-0, the Bruins return home on Thursday to play the Vancouver Canucks and then on Saturday, they host North Chelmsford, MA native and Boston University alum Jack Eichel to town for a quick two game week.

Next: Vegas attempts to troll Bruins and fails

Predictions

Last week I predicted the B’s to go 3-1-0 against weak Western Conference teams, I was really, really, really wrong.  I hope to bounce back this week, as do the Bruins, so that’s why I believe the Bruins will finish the week 1-0-1, defeating the Canucks on Thursday, but falling in OT to the Sabres, on a goal from Boston boy Jack Eichel.

P.S. Patrice if you’re reading this, come back soon we miss you bad.