If one thing is evident this season, if the Boston Bruins were going to beat the New York Islanders, it’s going to take a full 60-minute team effort.
That was the case Thursday night at the TD Garden when the Bruins beat the second-place Islanders for the first time in six tries, 4-1. In the victory, the Black and Gold put together an effort from start to finish with plenty of players contributing to the win.
Here are four Bruins’ studs that helped the Bruins win their 23rd game of the 2021 season.
Craig Smith
Is there anyone hotter right now than Smith? Late in the first period, he scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal when he one-timed a pass from David Krejci on the power play for a 2-0 lead. In his last 14 games, Smith has six goals and 10 assists.
In Tuesday night’s win over his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, Hall looked like a player that had missed 10 days prior to the trade deadline when Buffalo shut him down until a deal was made. Thursday night was different.
Hall scored his first goal for the Bruins early in the third period when he scored off a stretch pass from David Pastrnak for a 3-1 Boston lead. In 13:21 of ice-time, Hall looked better in his all-around game than he did 48 hours earlier. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come.
Reilly is having quite the start for the Black and Gold. He played just over 23 minutes against the Islanders and played well in all three zones. He is a good puck-moving defenseman who has been on the top power play unit in the absence of Matt Grzelcyk.
Reilly assisted on Brad Marchand’s first period when goal when his shot from the point (surprise, surprise) was deflected by Patrice Bergeron and hit Marchand in the back before going in the net 1:49 into the game.
Rask returned for the lineup after missing six weeks (he did return for one period March 25 against the Islanders before leaving after re-aggravating his upper-body injury) and looked his normal self, cool, calm, and collective.
He made 22 saves for his ninth win of the season and his 300th of his career. If he’s able to stay healthy, this will be a big boost to the Bruins going forward.