Boston Bruins Weekly: Setting The Pace

The Boston Bruins certainly had a great start to the season. Winning their first three games. Many fans are impressed with the start this team has had. With 3 key players missing and a new coach, everyone knew how crucial a good start would be to have any chance at competing this season. Boston couldn’t have asked for a better one after this week. Looking to build off their wins against Washington and Arizona last week, they took on division rivals Florida and Ottowa this week and are in the middle of a 4 game homestand.

Game Recaps

Monday night started off right with a goal 21 seconds into the game with the Birthday boy Jake DeBrusk wristing one by Sergei Bobrovsky to start the party to celebrate his 26th year. DeBrusk was the star of the game with 2 goals and an assist, Goalie Linus Ullmark was lights out making 38 saves. Jim Montgomery has brought a new life to this team that is playing with grit and speed at the start of this season. The Bruins take a 1-0 season series lead against a fellow division rival in Florida. They will meet again in Florida on Wednesday, November 23.

Tuesday night the Bruins found themselves in Ottowa in the second game of a back-to-back. The Bruins lost the game 7-5 but the final score doesn’t reflect the actual gameplay. The Bruins outshot the Senators 34-31 and came back to tie up the score from a 3-0 deficit. They continued their scoring diversity with goals from Captain Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, David Krejci, Aj Greer, and Nick Foligno. The Bruins would have been in this game if it wasn’t for the obvious holes on the ice left by those on IR.  The Bruins meet up with Ottowa again on December 27 at the Canadian Tire Center which is right around the time the Bruins should be expecting McAvoy back with Marchand set to come back in November. This is a game to look for in the future because the Bruins and Ottowa could be fighting for a playoff spot or positioning later in the year.

Thursday night was the start of a 4 game homestand and was one of the more evenly played games this week. The Bruins and the Ducks took turns gaining momentum. Taylor Hall and Frank Vtrano each put a goal up in the second period. The game ended in a tie so we went to overtime. The OT buzzer went off and we went to a shootout. Taylor Hall snuck one through John Gibson’s 5-hole for the win.

Saturday afternoon was the first matinee game for the Bruins and they made it a show. The Bruins continued their powerplay woes by letting up a short-handed goal to Wild forward Brandon Duhaime two minutes into the game. But Nick Foligno was able to tie it up to match his goal total from last year just 6 games into the season. David Pastrnak potted one in the first also to put the Bruins up 2-1 going into the second. Hampus Lindholm put the Bruins up 3-1 with a goal from the slot from Matt Grzelcyk. The Wild would climb back to even with a power play goal from Massachusetts native Matt Boldy. The Bruins couldn’t hold the lead and we ended regulation in a tie. Going into overtime the Bruins had a power play for 1:22. They weren’t able to capitalize again and the game was back at even strength. The Bruins used that power play to take complete control of the game in the overtime period outshooting the Wild by a margin of

9-1. Kirill Kaprizov took a penalty halfway through the period which led to Taylor Hall scoring his second game-winning goal in as many games.

Injury Report

Jake DeBrusk returned from a minor upper-body injury to help beat the Panthers on Monday.

Brandon Carlo skated on Friday after taking a hard hit in the game against Arizona last week.

Matt Grzelcyk made his season debut Thursday night after having surgery in the offseason and made an immediate positive to the roster adding an assist and 4 blocks in 20 minutes of ice time.

Brad Marchand was a steady participant in practice throughout the week and didn’t seem to have any restrictions. Many reports said that he looked good in his return to practice. We should see a return to in-game action in the next few weeks as he ramps up his recovery from hip surgery.

Charlie McAvoy also hit the ice this week in a non-contact sweater as he starts his on-ice recovery from shoulder surgery. There is no updated timetable for his return but his prognosis was for a return sometime in December. Hopefully, he can come back to get the chance to play in the Winter Classic.

Who’s The New Guy?

Aj Greer signed with the Bruins this summer on a 2-year $1.5 Million contract and has been really good for the B’s. Most notably kissing the B’s logo on his sweater after scoring against Arizona in Boston’s home opener. In 4 games played, Greer has 3 goals and 2 assists. if Greer can keep up this level of production, the Bruins might have found an answer to their secondary scoring woes for an amazing deal.

Power Play: 404 Not Found

The Bruins were 6/29 on the powerplay in the series against Carolina last spring. This season they have come out of the first five games 3/17 on the powerplay. The Bruins need to find some consistency on the powerplay, last season a lot of their regular season success came from the power play, their main concern was secondary scoring in 5-on-5 play. It’s still early in the season but Montgomery has to find something to spark the powerplay. Boston was able to break through on the power play in overtime on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, this is the spark they need to get the power play going.

Player of The Week

The Player of the week is Undoubtedly Linus Ullmark. The Bruins goalie started 3 games this week and went 3-0-0 with a 2.06 GA and a 9.38 save percentage. His most notable performance was standing on his head to keep the Bruins in the game against the Ducks on Thursday night and making the game-winning save.

That was the week on Causeway Street! The Bruins end the week 5-1 and are in first place in the league. The Boston Bruins have a busy week this week for more on that take a look at our Hub of Hockey preview for all info you need.