For 53 minutes, Tuesday night’s Bruins-Predators game was a 0-0 goaltending duel between Linus Ullmark and Juuse Saros. Apparently not content with just shutting down Nashville’s offense, Ullmark took it upon himself to help ignite Boston’s.
Brazeau injured, Ullmark shuts out Nashville
With the Predators on the power play and under seven minutes to go in regulation, Ullmark got the puck behind his net and fired it off the glass to a waiting Brad Marchand in the neutral zone. Marchand then sent Charlie Coyle in on a shorthanded breakaway, and Coyle roofed a shot past Saros to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
Pavel Zacha made it 2-0 four minutes later, and David Pastrnak sealed the impressive road win with a late empty-netter. While the Predators had lost two in a row entering Tuesday, they’ve still been one of the hottest teams in the NHL since the All-Star break overall, with a 16-3-2 record in their last 21 games.
With the win, the Bruins improved to 3-2-0 on their road trip, with one more to go Thursday in Carolina. They also moved four points ahead of the Panthers, who lost to Montreal Tuesday night, for first place in the Atlantic Division with six games remaining.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Ullmark strengthens his case to start Game 1
Game-winning assist aside, Ullmark was nails Tuesday night. He stopped all 32 shots he faced, including 15 in the third period alone, to pick up his second shutout of the season.
Two of his best saves came on point-blank chances from Ryan O’Reilly – one in the first period and one in the third. He also robbed Roman Josi with the glove in the third while the game was still 0-0, bailing out Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm after a defensive-zone miscommunication in the process.
“Spectacular,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of Ullmark. “I thought their goalie was really good, too, but our goalie, it was like an onslaught.”
Since the trade deadline, when he reportedly exercised his no-trade clause to block a move, Ullmark is now 4-2-0 with a .950 save percentage. Jeremy Swayman is 3-2-0 with an .858 save percentage during the same time period.
If the playoffs started today, Ullmark would have to be the Game 1 starter. Whether the Bruins would rotate goalies or ride one guy or try a hybrid in-between plan can continue to be debated, but which goalie is playing better right now really isn’t debatable.
Even their season-long stats, which favored Swayman all year, are now virtually identical. Swayman is 24-8-8 with a .916 save percentage and 2.56 goals-against average. Ullmark is 20-9-7 with a .916 save percentage and 2.57 GAA.
Pastrnak leads professional closeout
OK, so the Bruins got a third-period lead. The big lingering question all season: How do they protect it? Too often this year the answer has been “not well enough,” but on Tuesday they followed the blueprint to a T, with their best players leading the way.
Ullmark made a few saves in the minutes after Coyle’s goal, but none really needed to be of the 10-bell variety that some of his earlier saves were. Then the Danton Heinen-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak line stepped up to add some insurance.
Pastrnak set up the goal that made it 2-0 with a great three-zone effort, stealing the puck in the defensive zone and then leading the transition through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. He then saucered a pass over to Heinen, who set up Zacha for the finish.
That trio struck again against the empty net. Heinen and Zacha combined to work the puck out of the defensive zone and up to Pastrnak, who then took aim at the open cage and fired a strike.
That line was excellent all night, dominating several shifts even before the late goals. The Bruins outshot the Predators 7-2 during their 7:30 of 5-on-5 ice time. They have now outscored opponents 12-4 during that line’s 131 minutes together overall.
And, contrary to certain narratives, Pastrnak continues to show why you want him on the ice when trying to close out a win. He has bought in defensively this season and is Boston’s most lethal scoring threat – against a goalie or an empty net. When Pastrnak has been on the ice against an empty net this season, the Bruins have scored seven goals and given up just one. He wasn’t the issue when it came to blowing leads, no matter how much some in the media wish he was.
Brazeau leaves with injury
The one negative note for the night: Justin Brazeau took a hard hit from Predators defenseman Luke Schenn late in the first period and did not return. The Bruins officially ruled him out with an upper-body injury. Montgomery did not have any further update after the game and said they would know more in the coming days.
Brazeau had just chipped the puck into the offensive zone when Schenn stepped up on him. Brazeau actually avoided a full-body hit, but unfortunately it appeared his right arm jammed into Schenn’s body as he flew by. Brazeau was clearly favoring that arm as he went to the bench and then went right down the tunnel.
It would be a major bummer for both Brazeau and the Bruins if he has to miss time. The 26-year-old right wing has been one of the feel-good stories of the season, earning his first NHL contract and a regular spot in Boston’s bottom six after nearly five years in the minors.
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Brazeau’s size and possession skills around the net and down low in the offensive zone have been a welcome addition to the Bruins’ fourth line, and he has earned some power-play time and even a couple looks higher in the lineup.
Pat Maroon, who has started practicing with the team, can bring some of those same elements when he returns, which could be sometime next week. But there’s nothing that says you can’t have two players like that in your lineup, so Brazeau would still be missed regardless.