Causeway Crowd
Fansided

Boston Bruins: The Good and Bad From January

By Scott Roche

BOSTON, MA - FEBRUARY 04: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins reacts with his teammates after scoring in the second period of a game against the Vancouver Canucks TD Garden on February 4, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - FEBRUARY 04: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins reacts with his teammates after scoring in the second period of a game against the Vancouver Canucks TD Garden on February 4, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 2
Next
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 16: Matt Grzelcyk #48 of the Boston Bruins skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on February 16, 2020 in New York City. The Bruins defeated the Rangers 3-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 16: Matt Grzelcyk #48 of the Boston Bruins skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on February 16, 2020 in New York City. The Bruins defeated the Rangers 3-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

It was a quick season-opening month of January for the Boston Bruins. They went 5-1-2 and are sitting in third place in the top-heavy East Division. Considering who they were missing and the injuries they dealt with, a 5-1-2 record is not all that bad considering.

Let’s take a look at the month for the Black and Gold with some of the good and the bad and we’ll get the bad out of the way first.

The bad for the Bruins in January.

Considering how things went, there was not all that bad for Boston. One of the biggest stories of the month was the injuries that occurred.

  • Already missing David Pastrnak because of offseason hip surgery for the first seven games, Matt Grzelcyk was hit with not one, not two, but three different injuries in a short span.

The first injury was an upper-body injury in the third game of the season against the New York Islanders when he fell to the ice after a board battle with the Isles Jordan Eberle. He missed the rest of the period, but he wasn’t so lucky when he had the first of two lower-body injuries against the Philadelphia Flyers. He missed two games, returned against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then suffered a different lower-body injury, which still has him currently sidelined.

Jake DeBrusk, Craig Smith, and Ondrej Kase also suffered injuries. It is too early in the season for the Bruins to already have a mash unit.

  • Another issue that Boston endured was scoring issues, especially on the road. They went scoreless in their first nine periods 5-on-5 against the New Jersey Devils and Islanders. Two power play goals and a shorthanded tally were the only lamplighters by the Bruins on their season-opening road trip.

Both goalies, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak played well enough on the road for the Bruins to win all three games, but they were let down by the offense, which failed to solve Mackenzie Blackwood of the Devils and Semyon Varlamov of the Islanders.

Home/Bruins News