Boston Bruins: B’s showcase inconsistency in a tale of two games
By Sam Minton
In back-to back-games the Boston Bruins had mixed results.
The Boston Bruins played their second game of a back to back versus a very tough opponent in the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
On Wednesday they faced the struggling Detroit Red Wings. They both had rather different results.
When the Bruins played the Red Wings on Wednesday it was a hard-fought battle. It wasn’t necessarily even the Bruins best effort. They were held scoreless until the third period when Noel Acciari scored his second goal of the season. It was a blue-collar goal with Acciari fighting in front of the net and then finally muscling home a rebound. Then after a goal from Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin the Bruins were down 2-1.
With two and a half minutes left Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy decided it was time to pull the goalie and get the man advantage. Then the game became the Brad Marchand show.
“Marchy” made a beautiful pass to set up David Pastrnak for the tying goal, Pastrnak’s 15th of the season. The game went to overtime and Marchand continued to assert his dominance.
The Bruins had a 2 on 1 advantage early in overtime and Marchand was able to speed past the defenseman. It was just him and Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard. Marchand then unleashed a beautiful backhand and the victory was secured. It was his 12th goal of the season.
Tuukka Rask also continued his quality play stopping 31 shots.
Struggles versus the Capitals
On Thursday night the Bruins didn’t have the same luck as they did previously as they lost 5-3 to the Capitals. The Bruins were just unable to keep up with the high scoring Capitals.
The Caps were able to maintain a lead ever since they went up 1-0 late in the first period. There was one bright spot for the Bruins as Patrice Bergeron had one of his best games of the season. He scored two goals and now has seven goals so far this season. It was also a record-breaking night for Bergeron as he passed NHL legend Bobby Orr and is now in 8th place on the team’s all-time goal-scoring list.
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Even though they were playing back to back games it doesn’t seem like the Bruins have any excuses for the loss.
"“I mean, we’re professionals,” said Brad Marchand. “We’re all in good shape. We can play in back-to-backs…it’s never fun getting in at 3 a.m. and playing the next day, but it is what it is, and we gave ourselves every opportunity to win. We just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities.”"
Marchand had an okay game assisting on Bergeron’s first goal. It was a monumental night for him as well with the assist being his 400th point of his career.
Unfortunately for Anton Khudobin, his struggles continued. He lost his second straight game and was only able to stop 17 shots. He made some impressive saves but seems to have lost the ability to just take over games like he did during his winning streak while Tuukka Rask was benched.
The Bruins have struggled as of late when playing the Capitals. This is the 11th straight time that they have been beaten by the Caps.
The Boston Bruins are right back at it as their next game is on Saturday versus the New York Rangers.