6 things we learned from the Bruins’ 3-1 win over the Red Wings
COMMENTARY
The weather outside Saturday afternoon was, indeed, frightful. Inside TD Garden, however, the Bruins’ faithful were feeling quite delightful.
Pick any number of reasons for such in the last game before the Christmas break with a matinee meeting against the Detroit Red Wings.
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The Bruins taking points in 12 of their last 13 games against the Red Wings at 11-1-1, including a current 5-0-1 streak? Make that 13 of 14 and 12-1-1.
Here’s what we learned from the Bruins’ 3-1 win over the Red Wings:
1. Backes is back after the birth of his son.
We welcomed our new addition this morning at 1:12am. Dawson Michael Backes. 8 lbs 9 oz. Mom is an absolute warrior and I have never been more proud of someone. By far the toughest in the family. pic.twitter.com/s4fkkb0Lpg
— David Backes (@dbackes42) December 23, 2017
Thursday’s confluence of date and event was Charlie McAvoy scoring the winning shootout goal on his 20th birthday. Saturday brought another as David Backes and his wife, Kelly, welcomed the best gift of all at 1:12 a.m. Saturday: Dawson Michael.
“He was great — inspirational on the bench,” Bruce Cassidy said. “Big smile on his face coming in today, and why not? A nice, healthy baby boy and everyone is doing well. He was really dialed in.”
Backes missed Friday’s practice, but he was back with 21 shifts and 19:07 of ice time — and had two assists.
“I got about four hours [sleep] two nights ago and about three hours last night,” he said. “After what I saw my wife go through birthing that baby, I figured I could come on a few hours of sleep earlier today and get it done.”
2. Veterans led the way.
While the rookies took many of the headlines all week, Saturday it was the Bruins’ three leading scorers teaming up at 6:11 of the third period to give Boston a 2-1 lead. Brad Marchand (31 points) threaded a pass across to Patrice Bergeron (24), who fired it home from the slot to former UMaine standout Jimmy Howard’s left; David Pastrnak (33) also assisted.
“We have talked a lot about the young kids,” Cassidy said, “but our veterans — we addressed after the game — they are the guys that were dialed in today. It was definitely our older guys that did the lion’s share of the work.”
Bergeron sealed the deal with 14 seconds left into an empty Wings’ cage off a Backes’ assist.
The foursome accounted for all of Boston’s offense.
6️⃣3️⃣ + 3️⃣7️⃣ = 💯 pic.twitter.com/gjekkm5mix
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 23, 2017
3. A rare pair got the teams on the board.
It’s not often that a power-play goal is followed by a short-handed tally. That happened when Detroit took two consecutive penalties at 12:47 and 13:19 of the first 20 to give Boston a 5-on-3 advantage. Marchand took Howard to school with a 10-foot bullet short-side off a Bergeron pass to tie Pastrnak for the team lead with 15. Backes had the assist and an early gift.
“[Marchand] did steal [the puck],” Backes said. “I was wondering why he was grabbing it. It was my first point with the new baby. We’ll find a special spot for that in his new room.”
A minute later, Frans Nielsen rifled a 15-footer five-hole past Rask for the shorthanded goal at 14:38.
4. You can’t take Zdeno Chara for granted.
“I think a lot of people [take Zdeno for granted],” Cassidy said. “I don’t. You can’t say enough about his ability to defend. He starts transition; he wants to be involved in that part of the game. He is just a guy with a lot of pride, a lot of character, a lot of heart, knows how to win. I think that permeates throughout our lineup. Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] is the same way up front. I think these young guys are learning lessons every day on this.”
Gustav Nyquist, another former UMaine standout, rolled one behind Rask for the lead goal halfway through the second period. But B’s captain Zdeno Chara reached behind and guided the puck away to preserve the deadlock.
The game’s No. 1 star played 21 shifts in 22:52 of ice time and a plus-1 — at age 40.
“I knew [Tuukka Rask] didn’t have full control,” Chara said, “and it’s going to happen – you’re going to have to make that save occasionally and that was the time that I did.”
5. Tuukka Rask keeps rolling along.
“Well, got rid of the [bad] bounces,” Rask said about his recent run. “Finally they are going our way a little bit. I think we are playing such a good team defense that it helps my job a lot.”
As Tuukka Rask goes, so go the Bruins.
That Rask task in full momentum with No. 40 earning points in nine straight games (8-0-1). He has now played in 10 of the team’s last 12 games with a sparkling 1.45 goals against average.
“There were some funny goals going in off our guys,” Cassidy concurred, “ones rattling around; you don’t see many of those. There were some posts and in, now they are posts and out. He was playing fairly consistent hockey, just wasn’t getting a lot of breaks.”
6. It’s still time for a break, though.
“When you are winning, you always want to be out there,” Cassidy said following the 13th B’s win in 17 games. “… I think it comes at a good time for us. We have had a heavy workload.”
