After a dominant first period against the San Jose Sharks, the Boston Bruins just beat them by a final score of 4-3. Moving forward, the Bruins will need to end games in a stronger fashion, but alas, they still secured two points this time.
Without any surprise, the first line was sensational Sunday afternoon. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak each had two points. They also dominated the play the majority of the time they stepped on the ice. It seems that the top line has not lost a single ounce of chemistry from last season, so the Bruins should once again be in good shape.
Yet, although they were all brilliant, there were a couple Bruin firsts from the contest as well.
Free agent signing Derek Forbort scored his first goal as a member of the Bruins with a perfectly placed wrist shot from the point. He also added an assist in the second period of the contest. He’s not a defenseman who is known for producing a lot of offense, so it was nice to see the 29-year-old get on the scoresheet twice.
With the Bruins having multiple injuries after upfront, they had to call up Jack Studnicka and Oskar Steen. Studnicka may not have gotten on the scoresheet against San Jose, but Steen recorded his first career NHL point. The young forward would make a sweet saucer pass to Jake DeBrusk, which led to the latter scoring top shelf with a beautiful wrist shot.
Forbort was signed by the Bruins this summer to a three-year, $9 million contract. His primary task with the team is to provide reliability on the backend. However, Sunday’s matinee showed that he can provide a little bit of offense in the process. Fans shouldn’t expect multi-point games to become the norm with him, but he does have two 18-point campaigns under his belt. That’s not bad production at all from a defensive defenseman.
Steen deserves a lot of credit for his play, too. Craig Smith was a game-time decision, so Steen ended up being a late call-up by the Bruins. Yet, the 23-year-old didn’t look too out of place – especially when it came to his nice saucer pass. Although he was just sent back down to Providence, he did his job with the Bruins.
Nonetheless, Sunday was another solid win for the Bruins, but man, things got a bit too close for my liking at the end there. They will have to have a complete 60-minute effort against the undefeated Florida Panthers Wednesday night if they hope to maintain this winning streak.