There were a lot of eyes on some new faces for the Boston Bruins in their season-opener against the New York Rangers at TD Garden on Tuesday night. Two of those players were JJ Peterka and Will Borgen.
Both were acquired in the offseason through trades: Borgen with the Rangers and Peterka with the Utah Mammoth for a pair of first-round picks. Borgen was paired with Hampus Lindholm and played 17:43 in time on ice with a plus/minus of plus-2 in the 3-0 Black and Gold win. As for Peterka, things were a tad different.
He was better than some fans had hoped, playing on the top line with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak. Fraser Minten gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead late in the third period before Peterka added some insurance. He took a pass from Lindholm, entered the Rangers' zone, made a move through Braden Schneider's legs, and beat Igor Shesterkin for a 2-0 lead. Second-year head coach Marco Sturm had a subtle response to why Peterka was acquired early in the summer.
“That’s why we got him, right?” asked Sturm after Tuesday night's game, per Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe.
Peterka was flying around all night with Pastrnak and creating scoring chances. Hopefully, for Sturm and the fans, this is a sign of things to come this season.
Marco Sturm addresses defensive structure in win over Rangers
Last season, the Bruins were a surprise team that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs. A lot of that had to do with the system that Sturm put into place. That was again on display against New York on Tuesday night, but there was one part of the game that Sturm was less than thrilled with.
“The only stretch I didn’t like was the start of the third period,'' said Sturm, per Jack Studley of Boston Hockey Now. "I mean, yeah, they maybe pushed a little bit more, but I think it was just us not being dialed in right away. So it took us a little bit, a few minutes, to get out of there, and that’s why we have a really good goalie.''
During that stretch, the Rangers had five shots that landed on the net, but Jeremy Swayman was up to the challenge on all of them. Boston does have a really good goalie, and he made up for some mistakes that his teammates in front of him made in the opener. It's a team game.
Hit the road, Jack!
Boston will head out for a two-game road trip to two places that haven't been too kind to them over the years. On Friday night, they will visit the Winnipeg Jets, then have a quick turnaround on a back-to-bakc with a game Saturday night in Minnesota against the Wild.
As if the trip isn't already tough to begin with, Boston will still be without defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who still has five games to serve of his six-game suspension to begin the season. After that, the Black and Gold return home to host former goalie Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators.
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