Tuuka Rask steals a win for the Bruins on the Road versus the Florida Panthers
The Bruins were out skated, had far less time of possession, had far fewer scoring chances, had far fewer shots, also had far fewer power play opportunities but still won the game. How? Well the starting Goalie Tuuka Rask stood on his head for the second straight game and posted a 1.00 GAA, and stopped 33 of 34 shots for a ridiculous .971 Save percentage. If Tuuka plays like that every game, the Bruins may never lose a game. This may have been the Bruins second worst effort of the year, and they won the game simply because they had the better goalie. Bruins record with Tuuka in net so far this season is 5-0. Also the Bruins Penalty Killing crew was excellent again last night, and scored the winning goal.
Luongo is cursed by the Bruins
LUONGOOOOO! I can still hear the calls from the Bruins fans echoing through my memories during the 2010-11 finals as they taunted the "NHL's best goaltender" from the stands. Those finals officially were the end of the reign of Luongo as the NHL's premier goaltender. Since those finals began Luongo has been cursed by the Bruins, and last night it continued. First when Marchand got a penalty shot opportunity and Luongo was way out of position, way to far out, and Marchand did an easy head fake to get an easy backhand in by Luongo.
Marchand Penalty Shot
Then the Goal by Dominic Moore on Luongoooo, in the second where the Bruins were short handed and for the second straight game a shot from near the corner boards found the back of the net. Dominic Moore played a great game and showed a lot of veteran savvy as one of the Bruins only decent players on the night other than the goalie.
The Bad: Third line, 47 Torey Krug and 46 David Krecji played like Crap and Chara looks slow
Just calling it like it is. Torey Krug was the worst player on the ice, the stats probably don't reflect it but he was. He was getting shoved around in the defensive zone, he was on the ice for the only goal against late in the third and he is terrible. Like honestly it might be addition by subtraction to trade him away. I would rather have Rob O'Gara back in the lineup, at least he can actually play the position of defense. David Krecji also played horrible, basically every time the puck went near him he one touch passed it away, instead of taking possession and making something happen. The Bruins third line basically Beleskey, Nash, Hayes right now (Nash hasn't always been on this line), still have not scored a singe goal this season! Lastly, Chara looked like a giant orange cone with a huge stick last night, he is moving at almost record slow speeds even for him. I think this may be Chara's final season.
Pastrnak coming back from Suspension
With the return of David Pastrnak, the Bruins stupidly dropped Danton Heinen from the lineup. They should have dropped Hayes. However, they should switch third line up and put the three fastest guys on a line and have a speed line. I would go with a line of Schaller, Spooner, Acciari for the time being, when Backes returns I would swap Acciari for Czarnik. If they smartly brought back Heinen my ideal 3rd line would be Heinen, Spooner, Czarnik. That would be a very fast line of forwards. Of course Julien would never put that much speed together on a line because Julien hates fun. They should switch it up because so far the 3rd line has not scored a goal this season.
Fighting, You Win some and You Lose Some
The Bruins won the fight when Adam Mcquaid stepped in to beat down Shane Harper for laying a hard hit on Torey Krug. Basically Krug was skating with his head down and Shane Harper drilled him, and then got drilled by Darth Quaider repeatedly. Putting the Bruins on the Penalty Kill with about 3 mins left in the game, a terrible time to take a penalty. However since they won anyways, this was totally worth it.
Earlier in the game Jimmy Hayes tried to get the Bruins going (even though they were up 2-0, Florida was running all over them at this point) by taking on Derek Mackenzie the Captain of the Florida Panthers. Well Jimmy Hayes who has a massive height advantage lost this fight kinda. Mackenzie who is a far better fighter threw the vast majority of the punches. Hayes just sort of mauled him with his larger frame, not really throwing any punches kind of trying to tackle him or something. It was kinda a draw, but I have to give the win to Mackenzie because he at one point looked like he attempted to kick Hayes in the head, and that is unique and wins the fight in my mind. You know how hard it is to kick someone in the head on skates during a fight? Though he missed, it was worthy of the win...
Czarnik and Carlo have Impressed
Austin Czarnik #27 and Brandon Carlo #25 have been very impressive this season. Carlo especially so, other than one mistake in stick positioning last night that lead to a Reilly Smith scoring chance he had a really strong game. Brandon Carlo is a big young defenseman and seems to be the perfect fit opposite Chara on the top defensive pairing. It has been a huge surprise how well he has played to me. The other player that has impressed me is Czarnik, the young forward is a very fast skater, who plays with two hands on his stick, and seems to be in position more often than not. Czarnik has made David Krecji floundering around seem almost bearable. Czarnik has got to be the fastest skater on the Bruins right now other than maybe Pastrnak, I would absolutely keep him on the NHL roster for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion from this Game
Bruins won a tough game on the road and that is worth two points even if they looked terrible. However unless Rask is going to set a NHL record in save %, and win the Vezina this season, the Bruins will need a much better effort than last night to win games. The next game is versus the Tampa Bay Lightning and they will need to bring a much better game, because if they give Tampa 34 shots on net, you can be rest assured Stamkos and crew will get more than one goal. The Bruins special teams are half excellent and half terrible, if they can just fix the Power Play while also keeping the Penalty Kill working so well, they will be a tough team to beat. However the Bruins Power Play is 30th, dead last in the NHL because they have 0 movement on the PP in the offensive zone. So the Bruins have some work to do, and hopefully they can fix some of these issues before the next game. Or Bruin's fans will need another great performance from Rask in net.
Image Credit
- Rask Versus Panthers 11/1/16 Image 1
- Dominic Moore Scores versus Panthers 11/1/16 Image 2
- Torey Krug losing a puck battle 11/1/16 Image 3
- Claude Julien Image 4
- Austin Czarnik Image 5
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