Where to start? Both Boston goaltenders were truly awful, Jaroslav Halak gave up five goals in his first poor performance as a Bruin before he was pulled and Tuukka Rask allowed three more (including a brutal shorthanded goal). It didn't help that their defense was pathetic too as the Canucks scored five goals on them in the second period alone. The B's can only hope that this was a one-off disaster (burn the video!) and not a harbinger of things to come with two good teams coming to town this weekend for the dreaded three games in four days: Toronto (10-5-0) on Saturday night (7, NESN) followed by Vegas (7-8-1) the following night (7, NESN). It isn't all doom and gloom for the Black and Gold though since four of their five goals came from guys not on their annoyingly perfect top line and they also scored two power play goals.
The first period was routine enough in a sense as both teams scored a lone goal. Bo Horvat (2 goals, 2 assists) got an unassisted tally (his 8th of the season) just 2:46 into the contest as a fumbled pass from Danton Heinen to David Backes resulted in a rare soft tally allowed by Halak (hey, that's Tuukka's thing!). Torey Krug Jr., I mean Matt Grzelcyk tied it with a bomb at 13:41. His first goal of the season was assisted by David Krejci (3 assists) and Jake DeBrusk (2 goals). Believe it or not, the Bruins actually led for a few minutes as Patrice Bergeron put in a rebound from a Krug shot 36 seconds into the second, his eighth goal of the season. The Canucks scored a pair of goals 1:26 apart to take a 3-2 lead. Bruins legend Loui Eriksson banged in a loose puck at 7:02, his second goal of the season was assisted by Erik Gudbranson and Markus Granlund. Maine's Ben Hutton's screened shot on the power play found its way past Halak through traffic for his fourth goal of the season, assisted by Horvat and Nikolay Goldobin.
DeBrusk tied it with a nifty tip in at 9:00, his fourth goal of the season came from Krejci and Joakim Nordstrom. It was basically a carbon copy of the same Krejci sauce connection to DeBrusk that worked on October 25 vs. Philadelphia as well. Boston's three penalties in a row in the second period didn't help matters as Vancouver once again cashed in on another power play opportunity. Hutton's shot from the point was tipped in by Eriksson at 13:23, Brendan Leipsic had the second assist on Eriksson's second goal of the night. Halak's outing was over 1:30 later as Antoine Roussel beat him with a tip-in from a bad angle, his third goal of the season was assisted by Granlund and Michael Del Zotto. DeBrusk cut it to 5-4 with his new favorite move (say it with me kids, tip-in), the power play goal was assisted by Krug and Brad Marchand at 17:18. The excitement caused by that goal which trimmed Vancouver's lead to 5-4 lasted for a little over two minutes of game action as Gudbranson beat Rask with a long-range wrist shot with 31.9 seconds left in the frame. His first goal of the season was assisted by Horvat and Eriksson Ugh, that was so deflating.
Tuukka did his best to make sure his team had no chance to rally in the third as he handed Horvat a shorthanded goal by passing the puck right to him for essentially an empty-netter at 9:40. Something called Jake Virtanen doubled up Vancouver's advantage (8-4) at 11:12, his sixth goal of the season was assisted by Goldobin and rookie phenom Elias Pettersson (who wasn't even a factor in the blowout). What's even scarier for the Bruins is that Vancouver's other stud young forward Brock Boeser (groin injury) didn't even dress, so if those two guys had been on, you'd figure they would have reached double-digits easy. Fitting for a guy that's been so invisible to begin this year, Danton Heinen finally got his first goal, a power play strike from Grzelcyk and Krejci in extended garbage time (at 13:38). All that was left was a short (no pun intended) bout between Krug and good old Darren Archibald after the Canucks' fourth liner blasted Nordstrom.
You figure that Rask was scheduled to start vs. the Maple Leafs and I suppose that Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy will stick to that plan but how do you feel confident about either him or Halak? It'll be the first meeting between Boston and Toronto since their epic seven-game playoff series last spring. Also, Saturday represents John Tavares' first game for his hometown team against their new biggest rival (sorry Montreal). Auston Matthews is out with a shoulder injury so that takes away a tiny bit of the anticipation and truth be told, like last season these clubs figure to be playing for second place behind Tampa Bay (12-3-1) in the Atlantic Division. The Golden Knights have predictably gotten off to a sketchy start after their unfathomable success in their inaugural campaign. They are at Montreal (8-5-3) on Saturday night so Sunday could be a bit of a slog for each team. It is the end of Vegas' four-game road trip that lasted over a week so I'm sure they'll be ready to get back to the sun in the desert and out of this crappy weather.
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