The Boston Bruins are wrapping up their West Coast swing Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. Before their game Tuesday, the Bruins went through California, facing off against the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, and Los Angeles Kings.
Well, they definitely went through California. The Bruins went on to sweep their California trip, going 3-0, with two comeback wins and getting back their best defenseman, Charlie McAvoy. This is a much different outcome from their West Coast trip last season, where the Bruins went 0-3 during the trip. After last season, the Bruins were sitting at 3-4-0; this season, the Black and Gold are sitting at 7-2-0.
The Good
The Bruins outscored their opponents 14-6 during the series. 10 different Bruins scored a goal during the series, including McAvoy in his first game back from the six-game suspension.
The goaltending was also a bright spot. Jeremy Swayman and Michael DiPietro combined for just six goals against them when they had faced 38, 28, and 26 shots in each game, respectively. DiPietro picked up his first NHL win against the Ducks, rebounding from his game against the Wild. Swayman looked just like he did last season, keeping the Bruins in the game and staying in the Sharks game, even when the Bruins went up 5-3.
The other bright spot has been the late answers and finishes, last season, when the Bruins were down by a goal or two, it seemed like there was nothing they could do to get back into the game. This season is a different story; the puck just seems to find the back of the net as long as the team keeps the game close and sticks to their identity.
The Bad
While the Bruins looked like a powerhouse, the turnovers have slowly been creeping up on the team. The team lost the puck some way 55 times in the three games, the most coming with 24 against the Kings. This is the one trend the Bruins do not want to keep up, as they typically like giving up the puck in their own zone, which leads to shots on net that Swayman and DiPietro can not keep stopping, upwards of 40 shots a game. There has only been one game where the Bruins have allowed fewer than 20 shots on goal, and that was against the Philadelphia Flyers.
If the Bruins clean up the turnovers and keep the shots and attempts low, then this team may actually be a very scary team.
The Ugly
While its not a crazy amount of penalty minutes, in the three games the Bruins accumulated 38 penalty minutes. 15 of those 38 came from Nikita Zadorov, who actually was a healthy scratch in the game against the Kings.
Marco Sturm said to the media about the scratch that, "“Z’s a tremendous player and leader for our team. I think we’ve been mentioning for a while his discipline on the ice. That’s something that just needs to be better. He was not happy. But he’s a great human being and he’s a competitor. I do believe he’ll become stronger after this message, be back to normal and be even better after that.”
This came from when Zadorov took a very undisciplined double minor in the game against the Anaheim Ducks, where he elbowed Frank Vatrano before getting a second penalty for roughing Vatrano. He bounced back from that penalty in the third, but it still was not something the Bruins needed when they were already struggling against the Ducks' constant pressure.
What's Next
The Bruins wrap up the full West Coast trip against the Stars, who will not be a cakewalk either. They then head back home for a two-game homestand against the Nashville Predators, and another bout with the Sharks. It will be interesting if they can push their win streak to six and build a bit more point difference in the Atlantic Division, where they sit at the top for the first time in three years.
Add us as a preferred source on Google