As I just wrote on the post below this, the Celtics are suddenly going nowhere fast this season, the Patriots don't have much hope unless they can unearth a legitimate quarterback in free agency, the draft or via trade and the Red Sox are sure to be awful once again just like last year which no one watched and/or will remember. That leaves the Bruins (11-3-2) to shoulder the weight of expectations for Boston sports teams right now while all the other ones sputter at best. The good news is that at least in the regular season (get back to me when they are ready to win another Cup), they are not only going to win a bunch of games but they are also going to have fun doing it: see the above picture filled with fantastic 90s outfits that they all wore this afternoon to the rink. Tonight at Lake Tahoe (yes that one), they pummeled the poor Flyers (8-4-3) 7-3 in the NHL's latest outdoor game. It wasn't even that close as B's superstar David Pastrnak potted a hat trick as Boston improved to 5-0 against Philly this season with three more meetings left to go with their East division punching bag.
With no fans in this spectacular setting, except a few randoms in boats and kayaks floating nearby, the Bruins had to manufacture their own excitement and boy did they ever particularly in the second period where they took a 2-2 tie and turned it into a 6-2 blowout. Pasta understandably will get most of the attention but plenty of other Bruins did good things too: left wing Nick Ritchie had a goal and an assist, left wing Brad Marchand and right wing Craig Smith along with defensemen John Moore and Connor Clifton each had two assists, left wing Trent Frederic scored his first NHL goal and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen recorded his first NHL assist/point.
As you can imagine, Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask (16 saves, 7-2-1) was barely required to do anything while the Flyers goaltending duo of Carter Hart (17 saves, 6 goals allowed before he was pulled) and Brian Elliott (11 saves, 1 goal allowed) still can't figure out a way to beat Boston this season. Perhaps the most promising aspect of this victory for the Black and Gold was that they only scored one power play goal meaning that six of them came 5-on-5. It was also a hell of a night for Boston University hockey since they had three guys (Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle on Boston; Joel Farabee on Philadelphia) all score goals in this event that the entire hockey world was watching on national TV during an otherwise sleepy Sunday night sports-wise. Somewhere former Terriers head coach Jack Parker was surely smiling while he thought about how much this will help recruiting efforts for future teams on Comm. Ave.
Pasta scored 34 seconds into the game because of course he did and from there, Philadelphia briefly led 2-1 (haha for 39 seconds!) before McAvoy tied it up at two heading into the first intermission. Boston could no wrong in the second period as Pastrnak, Coyle, Frederic and Ritchie (on the PP) all tallied goals with the final three coming in a span of 1:39. It might have been the thin mountain air but the Flyers' collective heads were no doubt spinning by that point. UNH's James van Riemsdyk (goal, 2 assists) would be in the Hockey Hall of Fame if he only played the Bruins, the guy always seems to show up against them. All that was left to do in the third period was for Pasta to get his 10th career NHL hat trick. He also paces the B's with nine goals in only nine games.
With a long flight home late tonight, Boston will return for a few days and then they will go back to New York for the weekend just like they did two weeks ago. That sounds like a cruel joke, with the only difference being that they play at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday (7, NESN) vs. the Islanders (8-6-3)-who have won both meetings in 2021-before a two-game set at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers (6-7-3) on Friday (7, NESN) and Sunday afternoon (12, NBC). With no practice tomorrow, they can catch up on their sleep and become reacclimated to the Eastern Time Zone before getting back to work. They should also savor all the sweet pictures and memories that they created these last few days in Lake Tahoe; if they do win that elusive Cup this summer, you can bet that this bonding trip will be prominently featured in the DVD celebrating the championship season and often cited in numerous stories as a key moment.
UPDATE 2/24/21: More bad news for Boston's defensive corps as Jeremy Lauzon broke his left hand on Sunday, he had surgery today and he's expected to miss at least the next four weeks.
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