Bs Chase Bobrovsky In 1st, Pummel Columbus 5-2 As Team Continues Solid Play
Last night at their home barn, the Bruins continued their march toward the consistently solid game they’ll need in order to make a playoff return as they drubbed the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-2. The Bs got goals from five different scorers, including Torey Krug and Matt Beleskey who finally broke into the goal column this session.
They sent Sergei Bobrovsky to the bench for back-up Curtis McElhinney 12:48 into the game when Tim Schaller’s sweet roof job (#2 on the year) made it 4-1 on just nine shots. Schaller has been a nice pick-up for the Bs with his versatility, penalty killing, and heart.
Austin Czarnik doubled his point total on the year with the eventual GWG that made it 3-1 and the lone helper on Beleskey’s tally. Last night was probably his best game of the season and you can see why the team’s college scouts were enamored with the Miami-Ohio product.
David Backes, who assisted on Krug’s goal, notched his third of the year to close out the Bruins scoring. The goal itself was a good sign for the team because it was the picture perfect set-up you imagine when you think of David Krejci’s playing with Backes. It something I expect to see much more of this year.
Tuukka Rask had a somewhat quiet night, seeing just 17 shots from a Blue Jackets squad that played the night before and looked like it most of the game. He was beat by a Nick Foligno snipe that Zdeno Chara’s shitty clearing attempt led to and a Colin Miller ‘whoopsie daisy’ playing the puck just to the left of Rask. The early Vezina candidate has won eight of the nine game he’s started to go along with a 1.76 and a .938 with two shutouts.
Most importantly, the Bruins are playing solid team hockey right now and finally getting scoring from players not named Brad Marchand. The defense has gelled since the first few bumpy games as Brandon Carlo continues to impress. They outplayed the Habs in Montreal Tuesday (but one mistake did them in). There’s just a completely different vibe around this team that there was a year ago. It’s obvious they care and you want to pull for them.
Still, they’re hardly outta the woods. They’re still a bottom rung playoff team and could easily slip in the standings with a losing streak. So it’s important that they just keep doing what they’re doing and creep their way up the division standings.
They’re back at it at 8PM tomorrow in the desert as they take on the Coyotes to kick off a week-long, three-game road trip that also has stops in Colorado and Minnesota.
Thank you to our veterans, today and every day.
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