It certainly has been a road trip for the Boston Bruins. They are currently 0-4-0 on their five game road trip with four losses coming on the West Coast. All four, except for one, came in ugly fashion for interim coach Joe Sacco and his team.
On Saturday night, the Black and Gold will wrap up the trip with a stop in Detroit against the Red Wings. Just how the Bruins respond after spending nearly two weeks on the road will be interesting, to say the least. It does appear that they will have a key piece of their defense in Nikita Zadorov, who missed Wednesday night's 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
“It’s good to have Z back with the group again,'' said Sacco after Friday's practice. "He skated today and was able to get a practice in before tomorrow. We need him back in there.”
Zadorov made some interesting comments following Sunday night's 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings before departing back to Boston for personal reasons.
NHL fines defenseman Michael Callahan
The NHL fined Bruins defenseman Michael Callahan $2,018.23 for a cross-checking incident in Wednesday's game against the Ducks. In the second period, Callahan cross-checked Anaheim's Jansen Harkins and he was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking.
David Pastrnak continues to join franchise elite company
This season, David Pastrnak has carried them offensively and honestly, let's say it again, if they didn't have him, they might be sitting behind the Buffalo Sabres in the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Against the Ducks, he scored a goal and it was another goal that allowed him to join some of the franchise elite players.
With his goal against Anaheim, which was Pastrnak's 35th of the season, it's the fourth consecutive season he's reached that mark, joining Phil Esposito, Rick Middleton, Peter McNabb, and Cam Neely. He's only breaking the surface when. It comes to joining the franchise elite during his career wearing the Spoked-B.