Boston Bruins: B’s win 10th Straight Game

The Boston Bruins looked to win their 10th straight game earlier today when they hosted the New York Rangers in a Saturday matinee at TD Garden. This is the first time these two teams have faced each other since their additions during the week of the trade deadline. The Rangers sit in 6th place in the standings and want to try and get home ice for the first round of the playoffs. Boston has done well against New York beating them both times in their own barn at MSG this season.

The Bruins struggled to create space from their defenders early on and as a result, most of their shots were blocked in traffic. Boston only had 3 shots on goal registered in the first 15 minutes of the period. The game got a little chippy when Jacob Trouba laid a hit on Tomas Nosek at the Bruins’ blueline.

Boston would go on the powerplay for a penalty that occurred prior to the scrum. The first period was mostly back and forth but Boston broke through with a goal from Charlie Coyle late in the period. Boston would go on the penalty kill with 7.7 left in the period when Tyler Bertuzzi got called for a “slash” on Artemi Panarin.

Boston started the second period on the penalty kill but you wouldn’t have known it because Tomas Nosek buried a short-handed goal after faking out Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin to make the lead 2-0 in the first minute. Boston started to come alive in the second period getting more shots on goal and pushing the game on the Rangers. New York brought itself within one with a powerplay goal from Alexis Lafreniere. That shook the Rangers a bit and they upped the pressure after that. Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark made a great save on Alexis Lafreniere

Boston killed a penalty early in the second and gained some momentum which led to Jake DeBrusk drawing a tripping call to put the Bruins on the powerplay for just the second time where the Bruins were able to sustain pressure for most of it but broke down towards the end of the 2 minutes only getting 3 shots on goal. Jacob Trouba couldn’t get out of the way so the Bruins got another chance with a man advantage where again they were able to put some pressure on the Rangers’ defense but were not able to capitalize.

The Bruins came out to finish the game strong outshooting New York 8-2 in the first 15 minutes of the third when the captain Patrice Bergeron scored from the slot on a pass from Brad Marchand and Dmitry Orlov. That assist is Orlov’s ninth point in 4 games. David Pastrnak scored his second goal in as many games when he rifled a shot past Igor Shesterkin for his 44th goal of the season. Alexis Lafreniere had no quit in his body and skipped a shot by Linus Ullmark to make the game 4-2 which is what the final score would turn out to be. Pushing the Bruins to 10 straight wins which is the longest streak in the league.

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Boston is Deep

Boston had periods of possession where they just flat-out refused to get out of the offensive zone New York was short a defenseman and Boston was able to wear down their depleted blueline with their intense forecheck which eventually led to Boston coming out with the victory after playing 40 minutes of subpar hockey.

The Bruins improve their goal differential to a historically league-leading +105. The broadcast said that Boston is +51 in the third period alone, that is not only absurd but that is the exact goal differential that Carolina has who is second in the league in points. New Jersey has the next-best goal differential at +52. just another absurd stat for this Bruins group. These Boston Bruins are on a 10-game winning streak while adding 3 players to their roster and getting acclimated to the team and playstyle.

Boston’s Additions Keep Adding

Tyler Bertuzzi started in his Bruins debut. The Bruins acquired the 28-year-old on Thursday morning from Detroit for a pair of draft picks. The sandpaper forward wasted little time getting on the scoresheet with an assist.

Dmitry Orlov notched his 22nd assist today on the game-winner from Bergeron which adds to his total over his short but impressive tenure with the Bruins. Orlov has been a breath of fresh air for this D-core and his ability has been able to afford coach Jim Montgomery the luxury of giving other blueliners time off. Since Orlov has come aboard Matt Grzelcyk has gotten 2 games off, while Derek Forbort, Brandon Carlo, and Connor Clifton all got a game off over the last few games. Nobody wants to sit a game and watch your team go play but in the grand scheme of things, this is great for the playoffs.

Ullmark Continues Dominance

Linus Ullmark has had a great season so far. It has become quite apparent that the Vezina trophy is his to lose at this point in the season. He gave another example of why today against the Rangers making 24 saves on 26 shots. Boston allowed a lot of shots to get to the net. Ullmark entered today’s game coming off a 54-save performance against Calgary on Tuesday. Ullmark leads the league in save percentage, goals allowed and goalie goals. Saturday afternoon’s victory was Ullmark’s 7th straight win. his third longest win streak of the season.

Boston will be off on Sunday and will play Edmonton on Thursday after 4 days off where they will try to keep the streak alive and push it to 11 straight! This team is a wagon we should all sit back and enjoy the ride.