The Bruins are discovering methods to win. They’re 9-2 within the month of January, which has put them again within the playoff bracket because the second wild card, one level behind the Montreal Canadiens, who they vanquished in opportunistic style Saturday night time with three power-play targets.
Per week that began with a lopsided loss to the Dallas Stars wound up as a reasonably first rate week and has coach Marco Sturm feeling fairly good about his staff with wins over the Habs and Golden Knights.
“We are able to play in opposition to any staff,” mentioned Sturm on Saturday. “After Dallas, an actual playoff staff, everybody got here again and was dissatisfied. After which to play virtually the identical type of a staff, a Vegas staff, and we beat them. In the present day, we needed to beat a very good, high-end expert skating staff. Completely reverse of Vegas. In order that confirmed us, that provides me the arrogance that we are able to play completely different kinds, too.”
The B’s hit the skies on Saturday night time after their recreation to beat the pending blizzard and maintain their date with the New York Rangers at Madison Sq. Backyard on Monday night time. As they try to get again to NHL .500 on the highway, listed below are just a few notes, quotes and ideas:
Minten’s ‘it’ issue
Depend this observer as somebody who wasn’t so positive in regards to the Brandon Carlo commerce. Proper-shot defensemen who cowl loads of floor, kill penalties and eat minutes aren’t that simple to search out as of late. And, reality be informed, the B’s are nonetheless seeking to bolster their proper facet, as evidenced by their pursuit of Rasmus Andersson.
However the commerce now appears to be like like a house run, even when it solely included Fraser Minten. Throw in Toronto’s 2026 first rounder and it’s a grand slam. The 21-year-old could not convey a wow-factor to anybody specific talent, however he has a sure “it” issue, the place he has a knack for anticipating the play and the place the puck goes as a substitute of the place it’s.
There may be some query regarding his offensive upside, however he’s now as much as 13 targets after his late third interval equalizer.
“(His hockey sense) elite, even for a younger child like him,” mentioned Marco Sturm on Saturday morning. “You possibly can inform already when youngsters are coming in at a younger age, as a result of that’s one thing you’ll be able to’t train to loads of them. And he simply has it, he has that intuition. He’s sensible sufficient, a two-way (participant), and typically that hurts him offensively. However I’m good with that as a result of what’s he? Twenty-one years outdated? So we nonetheless have time and he’s doing the fitting factor proper now and we need to maintain it that approach.”
Any sensible, defensively sound centerman understandably attracts a direct comparability to Patrice Bergeron, particularly one who comes by way of Boston. Offensively, Minten will not be there but. When Bergeron was 20, earlier than his career-altering concussion, he notched 31-42-73 and had some spectacular moments in that in any other case misplaced season after the 2004-05 lockout.
However Minten can nonetheless add offensive instruments. When Bergeron got here into the league, he didn’t have that half-turn snapshot from the bumper that he lived on for some time. And it could be laborious to consider however David Pastrnak didn’t have his one-timer when he got here into the league. If Minten can add a go-to weapon, he may be fairly a participant.
Rangers up subsequent
The Rangers have misplaced three straight, are 2-7-1 of their final 10 and have formally waved the white flag with The Letter 2.0. But when they’ll muster a aggressive recreation in opposition to anybody, you’d assume it could be the Bruins. The Blueshirts had been totally embarrassed by the B’s on January 10, 10-2, on Causeway Road. And with the blizzard that has rocked a very good chunk of the nation, there is probably not a lot of these imply followers which have brought about the Rangers to go 5-13-4 at Madison Sq. Backyard.
It wouldn’t be a shock if Ranger robust man Sam Carrick would request a rematch with Mark Kastelic, who scored a knockdown punch on Carrick in that romp.
Zadorov damage
Although not completely a shock, Nikita Zadorov didn’t observe with the Bruins on Sunday at MSG. The massive defenseman suffered what appeared like a severe damage when, within the second interval of the B’s win over Montreal, he was checked into the boards by Montreal’s Zach Bolduc and elevated off the ice. When he got here down, his proper skate blade planted within the ice and, below the load of his 255-pound body, his knee torqued in an unhealthy approach. He wanted assist to get off the ice and down the tunnel.
It was a shock – a shock, actually – to see him return to the sport within the third interval. However he was laboring and you bought the sense he was working on adrenaline. Sturm mentioned that he’ll be re-evaluated on Monday.
“He’s a giant man, in order that’s loads of weight on his two legs there. We’ll see how (Monday) goes. We really feel assured. We’re truly actually wholesome. We nonetheless have (Henri Jokiharju) able to go, too. He’ll be a game-time determination,” Sturm informed reporters in New York.
After a mercurial first season with the B’s, Zadorov (plus-16) has been a rock this season, regardless of who his companion has been. The B’s have 5 video games left earlier than the three-week Olympic break. Relying on the severity of the damage, it could be prudent to see if they’ll get to the three-week hiatus with out him. Together with the right-shot Jokiharju, left-shot D Jordan Harris is at present on a conditioning project in Windfall. He hasn’t performed an NHL recreation since struggling a damaged ankle on Oct. 21.
Whereas January was comparatively gentle, March can be a problem. They play 16 video games in 29 days with 4 units of back-to-backs.
Penalty-kill woes
Slowly however absolutely, the penalty kill has change into a problem once more. They’ve allowed seven power-play targets of their final 5 video games and have dropped to twenty fourth within the league (77.4%) after giving up a pair in opposition to the Montreal Canadiens. The B’s offensive output – ninth total in goalscoring (3.31) and third total in energy play (26.6%) – has been a welcome shock. However the PK is an space that was hoped to be certainly one of power. It has not been for some time now. In the event that they need to keep alive on this ultra-competitive season, that must be rectified by some means.
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