It might be a stretch to call a game on Dec. 14 a “must-win,” but Saturday night in Vancouver felt pretty close to that for the Boston Bruins after an abysmal first two games on their western road trip.
To the Bruins’ credit, they responded in emphatic fashion, dominating the Canucks right from puck drop en route to a 5-1 victory. They took an early 2-0 lead on goals from Brad Marchand and Morgan Geekie, outshot Vancouver 16-4 in the first period, and then just kept piling on from there.
“This was massive,” Charlie McAvoy told NESN after the game. “This really kind of had the vibe in the room of almost a do-or-die game. Certainly didn’t want to lose three in a row. Can’t do that in this league. Two that we wanted to flush and get behind us. Playing a good Vancouver team, we really needed this one, and I think that we played desperate. Welcome to the trip.”
Here are four takeaways from the win:
Pastrnak takes over
Teams go as their best players go. On Thursday in Seattle, David Pastrnak set a bad tone when he took a double-minor high-sticking penalty just 16 seconds into the game, setting up the Kraken’s first goal.
On Saturday in Vancouver, Pastrnak bounced back in a big way, leading the Bruins to victory with a dominant four-point effort. He assisted on the Bruins’ first three goals, then scored the fifth. It was Pastrnak’s 16th career four-point game, and his first since April 9, 2023.
Pastrnak picked up the secondary assist on Marchand’s opening power-play goal, feeding the puck down to Elias Lindholm, who then hit Marchand backdoor. The next two assists were primary, and pretty.
A few minutes after Marchand’s goal, Pastrnak took a pass from Pavel Zacha behind the net, quickly pivoted to the far post, and threaded a pass through a defender to Geekie in front for the finish.
Early in the second period, Pastrnak won a battle in the neutral zone and laid out a nice pass into space for Pavel Zacha, who finished on a breakaway to push the lead to 3-0.
On the opening shift of the third period, it was Pastrnak’s turn to score. He took a drop pass from McAvoy, drew Thatcher Demko out of position, and then beat Demko to the far post for a wraparound finish.
The goals haven’t been coming for Pastrnak this season at the rate that he’s used to. He leads the NHL in shots on goal, but has an 8.7% shooting percentage that is way below his 13.7% career average. The points, however, are starting to come. After Saturday, Pastrnak now has 10 assists and 13 points in the last nine games.
Power-play breakthrough
It was just about impossible to find any positives in Tuesday’s 8-1 loss in Winnipeg, but perhaps the only one was that the top power-play unit scored for the first time in nine games, and did so while the game was still at least somewhat competitive.
They scored again Saturday, this time to open the scoring and set the tone for the game. It came off some great movement of both bodies and the puck, something that unit just hasn’t had enough of this season.
It’s worth breaking that play down. Marchand starts with the puck at the left point, dishes it to Pastrnak in the left circle, and then, instead of standing still, makes a diagonal beeline to the right doorstep.
Pastrnak moves the puck down to Elias Lindholm, who started in front of the net before popping out to the left doorstep. Pavel Zacha feigns a move into the slot, only to peel off as Marchand moves through instead.
The end result was a confused Canucks penalty kill that couldn’t keep track of where everyone was going. Lindholm and Marchand end up with a 2-on-1 down low, and Lindholm hits Marchand for the goal.
That’s what great power plays do. That’s what the Bruins’ 31st-ranked power play needs to do a lot more often.
Easy night for Swayman
The Bruins needed to bounce back as a team, and Jeremy Swayman definitely needed to bounce back individually after allowing a career-high eight goals in Winnipeg on Tuesday.
He did on Saturday, with a lot of help from a much better defensive effort in front of him. Swayman faced just four shots in the first period and had a 3-0 cushion to work with before the Canucks could muster anything resembling an offensive attack.
They did put some pressure on in the second period, though, but Swayman was ready for it. He made 12 saves in the period, including three on high-danger chances. His best saved came a minute after the Bruins’ fourth goal, when he sprawled out to rob a Kiefer Sherwood rebound chance with his left leg.
Swayman probably should have had the shutout. The Canucks’ lone goal came with 9:47 left in the game off a sloppy “oh well, we’re up 5-0” turnover from Lindholm on the breakout. Max Sasson’s shot off a 2-on-1 feed just squeaked through Swayman’s five-hole.
McLaughlin makes case to stay after Wahlstrom addition
The Bruins made an interesting move earlier Saturday, claiming 24-year-old right wing Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the New York Islanders. Wahlstrom, a Maine native and Boston College product who famously scored a lacrosse-style goal during a mini 1-on-1 at TD Garden when he was nine years old, is expected to report to the Bruins Sunday or Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game in Calgary.
Wahlstrom was the 11th overall pick in 2018 and certainly possesses some offensive talent and creativity, but he really struggled to produce and stay in the Islanders’ lineup the last few years. He had just two goals and two assists in 27 games this season before getting waived.
The Bruins are obviously hoping that a homecoming and a change of scenery will get him on track. They will have to keep Wahlstrom on their NHL roster or else waive him, so sending him to Providence is not an option. The Bruins have enough cap space to keep 14 forwards on the active roster, but whether or not they do remains to be seen. It can be hard enough to get 13 forwards enough playing time, never mind 14.
Which brings us to… one move they could make would be sending Marc McLaughlin back to Providence. McLaughlin, however, is making a case of his own to stay in Boston. He scored the Bruins’ fourth goal Saturday, firing a shot to the net that deflected off a Vancouver defender and in.
The Bruins’ fourth line of McLaughlin, Johnny Beecher and Cole Koepke was very good all night. Boston outshot the Canucks 5-1 with them on the ice and had a 4-0 advantage in high-danger chances. That’s been a good fourth line for the Bruins in general. In six games together now, the Bruins have out-attempted opponents 35-25 (58.3% Corsi) with them on the ice, and they have an expected goals share of 69.7%. McLaughlin has done what’s been asked of him, playing good defense, getting pucks to the net when he’s had chances, and bringing some physicality.
Using that as the fourth line has also allowed Joe Sacco to put Mark Kastelic with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic, which has provided a necessary jolt to the third line and helped drag some more assertive play out of Coyle and Frederic.
Where, how and when Wahlstrom fits into all of this remains to be seen. He’s not a fourth-line type of player, so he probably needs to be on one of the Bruins’ top three lines if he’s going to have a shot at success. It’s also worth noting that if McLaughlin spends one more week in Boston, he would require waivers to be sent back to Providence, so a decision on him is coming soon one way or another.
If McLaughlin sticks around, I wonder instead if the writing might eventually be on the wall for Tyler Johnson, who just hasn’t fit the way the Bruins were hoping he would. Like Wahlstrom, Johnson is a (mostly) right wing who needs to be in a more offensive, top-nine role rather than a defensive, fourth-line spot. He has been a healthy scratch in six of the last seven games, and was a minus-4 with an offensive-zone penalty in the one game he did play.