Cardiac Bruins? 4 takeaways from Bruins vs Blues

On the second half of a back-to-back following a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime, the Boston Bruins made the trek to the Midwest, facing off against the St. Louis Blues. The Bruins once again prevailed, winning 4-3 in the shootout, which was big for a few reasons I’ll get into later.

Jake DeBrusk, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Oskar Steen had the regulation goals for the Bruins, with Charlie Coyle scoring in the shootout. Steen became the 25th position player to score for the Bruins and 26th overall, including Linus Ullmark’s goalie goal.

With that, it’s takeaway time!

Stacking up wins

The win over the Blues marked Boston’s third win in a row. The team reached 60 wins as well with the shootout winner from Coyle. The 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings, and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning are the only other teams in NHL history to reach 60 wins in a season. The wins and points the Bruins have accumulated are the most in their history as well.

A little payback

With the win, the Bruins not only reached some league history, but they got a little payback as well. We all remember when the Blues beat the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final in 2019 in game seven on TD Garden Ice. They also signed away Torey Krug in free agency after the bubble season ended in Toronto.

So, this game didn’t reach payback of that magnitude, but the Bruins took a chunk of flesh. With the win, the Bruins officially knocked the Blues out of playoff contention, as the Blues didn’t get the two points they needed to stay in the race. Take that, Blues!

The power play is back, baby

Bertuzzi’s goal in the second period came on the power play, making the lead 2-0 at the time. It was the latest in a run of success for the Bruins power play, the subject of much scorn over the past month or so. The Bruins power play has now scored in four of seven attempts, which is a good sign of progress for this unit. Is it back? It’s back.

A Frederic homecoming

Trent Frederic, he of breakout season under Jim Montgomery, is a St. Louis native and a first round draft pick of the Bruins in 2016. His line with Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen got the start in Frederic’s return home to St. Louis. Frederic got two assists in this game, one of which was changed to an assist after it looked like he scored. Alas, DeBrusk got the goal instead.

Up next

The Bruins have a bit of a layoff before getting back in action. They face the Toronto Maple Leafs at TD Garden on Thursday night as the regular season starts to wind down.