Want to see what a relentless, four-line offense looks like? The Bruins showed you Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. Six different players scored goals, 10 recorded a point, and five registered multiple points in a dominant 6-3 win over the New York Islanders.
Five of the goals came at even strength, one came on the power play, and all six came during the first two periods before the Bruins put it in cruise control a bit in the third. They registered 36 shots on goal through the game’s first 40 minutes, as they consistently followed up one offensive-zone shift with another and just peppered Semyon Varlamov.
It was the Bruins’ fourth straight win and fourth straight game in which they’ve scored at least three goals. They’re now 14-2-1 in their last 17 games and have climbed into second place in the division ahead of both Tampa Bay and Toronto -- at least until the Maple Leafs play Saturday night. And if beating the Islanders (a team out of the playoffs) doesn’t look too impressive on paper, it’s worth noting that New York was on a 7-1-1 run coming in and was allowing under two goals per game during that stretch.
"I think every night we expect to win," Taylor Hall said after the game. "It doesn't matter who we're playing, where we're playing. It's a really fun feeling to have. Every line's contributing. I think you've seen a lot of balance with the four lines."
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead 4:03 into the game on the kind of shift we’ve come to expect from the third line. Craig Smith helped force a turnover in the defensive zone with a good backcheck, which led to Charlie McAvoy springing Charlie Coyle the other way. Coyle ran over Adam Pelech with a vicious reverse hit to maintain possession before feeding Brandon Carlo at the point. Carlo fired wide (maybe intentionally?), but Smith was right there at the side of the net to bury the putback.
The Islanders made a strong push after the goal, recording nine of the next 10 shots on goal, but then the Bruins started to take control again as the first period went on. The fourth line -- the only line that didn’t actually score -- drew a pair of late penalties, first with Tomas Nosek getting hooked while crashing the net for a rebound off the rush, and then with Nick Foligno getting tripped on a strong drive to the front of the net.
The Bruins put a ton of pressure on the Islanders on the first power play and landed four shots on goal, but couldn’t score. It took them just seven seconds to score on the second power play. Patrice Bergeron won the faceoff, Brad Marchand worked the puck back to McAvoy, and McAvoy made a nice slap pass down to Hall on the doorstep for a tap-in goal.
The Islanders immediately killed some of the Bruins’ momentum, as they took advantage of a late Boston icing and scored with 12 seconds left in the period when Brock Nelson buried the rebound off a Zdeno Chara shot that had hit the crossbar. New York had appeared to score another goal earlier in the period, but Kyle Palmieri was deemed to have deflected it with a high stick upon review.
Whatever momentum the Islanders may have stolen did not carry into the second period. The Bruins’ top two lines made sure of that, combining for four goals in the middle stanza.
The second line struck 2:13 into the second when Hall won a puck in the corner and fed Erik Haula for a shot that produced a juicy rebound for David Pastrnak to bury for his fourth goal in the last two games. Just under two minutes later, it was the first line’s turn. Marchand got knocked down trying to split two defenders, but got right back up and went to the front to take a pass from Patrice Bergeron (playing his 1,200th career game and back after missing four games with an infection) and score.
After the Islanders cut the lead to 4-2, the second line restored the three-goal lead with 5:27 left in the second. Hall made a great play to cut inside a defender and carry into the offensive zone before dishing over to Pastrnak, who then found Haula for the goal. Haula now has a goal and six assists in three games since the Bruins didn’t acquire a “true second-line center” to replace him at the trade deadline.
Next it was Jake DeBrusk’s turn to join the fun. Bergeron won an offensive-zone draw and Marchand took a shot that deflected wide, but DeBrusk was waiting to bank the rebound off Varlamov and in. While it may not have been a big goal within this one game, it was pretty important for DeBrusk to end that slump considering he’s now locked in as the first-line right wing as long as he plays well enough to stay there.
When it was all said and done, Marchand and Hall both had three-point games, and Pastrnak, Haula and McAvoy all had two. And the Bruins had another big win heading into a battle with the Maple Leafs in Boston on Tuesday.
"I think everyone's playing the right way, contributing," Bergeron said. "I feel like I can see the growth in our team in the way that we're playing. Guys owning their roles, playing the right way, and doing it for the right reasons."
Related
