The Boston Bruins kicked off a four-game road trip on Tuesday night in Northern California against the San Jose Sharks. Boston is getting their California trip out of the way early this season, as well as their lone trip to Texas to play the Dallas Stars. It's a brutal trip, but it's great to get it out of the way.
San Jose is a young, up-and-coming team, but they entered the game 3-2-0 with all three wins coming in overtime or a shootout. The Sharks entered the game as winners of three straight games against the Black and Gold, but two goals in each period by Boston were enough to begin the trip with a 6-3 victory. Here are three takeaways from the win that improved the Bruins' record to 5-2-0.
Welcome back, Charlie McAvoy
You knew that Charlie McAvoy was going to make an impact in his first game of the season, coming back from his six-game suspension to begin the season. That was the case and he proved how valuable he is for the Black and Gold.
He broke a 1-1 first-period tie when he scored from the top of the Sharks' crease at 18:43. However, his impact on the ice as a whole was what Marco Sturm was missing. He logged well over 20 minutes as usual, 24:41 against San Jose, playing in all situations, registering three shots on net and dishing out four hits. Paired with Hampus Lindholm, they played well together.
Jeremy Swayman continues a strong start to the season
One teammate who was happy to have McAvoy back was goalie Jeremy Swayman. This season, with the schedule beginning earlier and spread out more than in previous seasons, Swayman has a chance to play a lot more. So far, that has been the case.
Swayman got the call to begin the trip again, his sixth start in seven games, and was once again sharp. He turned back 35 of the 38 San Jose Sharks' shots and really had no chance on any of the goals, two of which were on the power play and one seconds after a Boston penalty expired. After making just seven first-period saves, he made 17 in the second and 12 in the third. He is now 5-1-0.
Marco Sturm's questionable decision backfires
There haven't been many times since being hired when you can question any decisions from Sturm, but in the first period was one of those times. With seven seconds remaining on a Nikita Zadorov penalty, the faceoff was outside the Bruins' defensive zone. Sturm decided to send David Pastrnak and Matthew Poitras out to kill the remaining seconds. It didn't work out well.
Poitras was tossed from the faceoff, and Pastrnak took it, and the puck immediately went into the Boston zone. As Zadorov was released from the box, Jacob Trouba scored on a slap shot from the blue line to tie the game 1-1. Given how often the Bruins take penalties, killing penalties before getting offense might be the way to go next time.
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