Boston Bruins defeat LA Kings in David Krejci’s return

The Boston Bruins finally ended their four-game losing streak by beating the LA Kings 2-1 Thursday night.

On the same day that Boston lost two more players to injured reserve, the Bruins rallied behind the return of David Krejci to grab a much needed two points.  The team announced Thursday morning that forwards Brad Marchand and Anders Bjork were placed on IR.  The Bruins were also without defenseman Torey Krug, who is now day-to-day with an upper-body injury.  Despite the injuries, and coming off a loss to the Ducks, the Boston Bruins defeated the Kings in a very physical game.

1st Period

The first period was a grind.  The Kings came out of the gates hitting everything that moved.  Both teams had chances to score, however few and far between with only 13 total shots in the period.  Charlie McAvoy put the B’s on the board at 16:06 with a highlight reel goal.  Patrice Bergeron won an offensive zone faceoff back to McAvoy, who then took care of the rest.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/931378479135735809

The goal was the second of the season for the rookie, and the B’s took their 1-0 advantage into the intermission.

2nd Period

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The second period was when the majority of the action took place.  Down 1-0, Los Angeles seized momentum immediately with multiple flurries of shots on Bruins’ goalie Anton Khudobin.  About four minutes into the period, Danton Heinen was dropped with a huge hit from Christian Folin.  The hit was clean, but Bergeron and David Pastrnak took exception and went after Folin.  All three players would be assessed roughing penalties and the Kings went to the power play still down 1.

About 45 seconds into the power play, Drew Doughty tied the game with perfect shot to beat Khudobin.  After gaining entry into the attacking zone, Jussi Jokinen, who was just acquired by LA from Edmonton, found Doughty open in the high slot.  Doughty took the puck and rifled home the goal high glove-side.

Hindsight is 20/20, but it was a dumb penalty for Bergeron to take in the aftermath of the Folin hit.  The Kings already had momentum in the period and the B’s couldn’t afford to lose a man at that time.  I understand that Bergeron and Pastrnak were just sticking up for their rookie, but it was a clean hit from Folin.  They have to be smarter and take Folin’s number for a later shift.  See the hit for yourself below.

After the goal, the Kings continued to bombard Khudobin shot after shot.  Surprisingly enough, it took another Bruins penalty for Boston to get some energy.  Bergeron found himself in the box again after he was forced to take a hooking penalty in the Bruins’ defensive zone.  The B’s killed off the penalty this time and did so in impressive fashion, limiting the Kings to almost no chances at all.

Boston had life again and forced the Kings into a penalty when Anze Kopitar was called for holding on Heinen.  The Bruins had multiple good-looking scoring opportunities during the power play.  Zdeno Chara took the lead back for Boston just as the penalty to Kopitar expired.  Chara blasted one from the point, which hit a Kings defender and snuck past Kings’ goalie Jonathan Quick.  The Bruins once again took a one goal lead into the break.

3rd Period

After the second, the Bruins needed to finish the game strong.  They did just that in the third period.  In what looked like a mostly even period, the Bruins out shot the Kings 11-5.  Khudobin looked solid on the Kings’ scoring chances and closed out LA for a big 2-1 win on the road.

Next: Bruins will move Chara: A prediction

Looking Ahead

The Bruins will continue their four-game road trip when they take on the Sharks Saturday night at the SAP Center in San Jose.  Can they build on this win and string together some more now that that four-game losing streak is finally over? We’ll find out Saturday night at 10:30 pm.