In a vacuum, beating the lowly Blue Jackets is nothing to get excited about. In context, the Bruins’ 4-0 win in Columbus Friday night was yet another impressive performance in a season that has already featured a bunch of them.
This could have easily been a “scheduled loss,” or at least a “scheduled subpar performance.” The Bruins were playing the second night of a back-to-back, with travel in between. The Blue Jackets were on home ice and well rested after two days off. And the Bruins didn’t have Brad Marchand or David Krejci.
No problem. Not even a slow start. The Bruins took a 1-0 lead in the first period and then poured it on in the second, increasing their lead to 4-0 and wrapping up two more points with 20 minutes to spare. They outshot the Blue Jackets 29-19 through two periods, including doubling them up in the second, chased starting goalie Elvis Merzlikins from the game, and inspired the Columbus crowd to boo the home team off the ice.
It was the kind of pain great teams inflict on bad teams, and right now the Bruins look like a great team. They continue to have the best record in the NHL at 8-1-0, and they now have the best record through nine games that any Bruins team has ever had.
Matt Grzelcyk became the 15th different Bruin to score a goal this season, as he opened the scoring by stepping up from the point and snapping a shot over Merzlikins’ glove. He now has four points in five games since returning from offseason shoulder surgery.
Charlie Coyle scored the Bruins’ first shorthanded goal of the season, winning a board battle against Johnny Gaudreau at one end and finishing on the backhand at the other. The penalty kill has been great regardless of shorthanded goals; the Bruins killed all three Columbus power plays on Friday and have now killed 31 of 33 penalties (93.9%) on the season.
Jake DeBrusk continued his great all-around play, best exemplified by his third goal of the season. DeBrusk blocked two shots in the defensive zone, the first of which hobbled him for a second, and the second of which he took the other way for a breakaway goal.
Of course David Pastrnak scored again as well. He netted his seventh goal of the season and the Bruins’ fourth goal of the game, using a defender as a screen before beating Merzlikins with a shot that probably should’ve been saved. Pastrnak is now alone atop the NHL points list with 16… at least until Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (15 each) play on Saturday.
And then there’s Linus Ullmark. What more is there to say about his early-season play? He stopped all 30 shots he faced for his first shutout of the year. He’s now 6-0-0 with a .945 save percentage. Even when the game was all but over, Ullmark was flashing the glove to twice rob Patrik Laine on a third-period Columbus power play.
So, that’ll do it for October. Most people’s expectations going in were for the Bruins to just keep their head above water until Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy. Instead, their head is above the whole rest of the league as they enter November.
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