I've already talked extensively this season about how the Bruins (13-6-3) own the Flyers (12-7-3) for whatever reason (4-0!) while the Islanders (15-6-4) similarly have some sort of spell over the B's. As you can tell from all three of those records, they are all good teams therefore at least you can fall back on that fact and there's no shame in losing to them even if the series is one-sided at least for the moment. Conversely, the Devils (8-11-2) blanked the Bruins 1-0 tonight at the TD Garden to improve to 3-0-1 against them in 2021. Nobody could argue that New Jersey is anything more than a bottom-feeder in the East Division, in the Eastern Conference and in the NHL but I guess that when they see the Black and Gold none of that seems to really matter. Boston fired 40 shots on the Devils' backup goaltender Scott Wedgewood (2-3-1) but he stopped all of them for his second shutout of the season.
The Bruins outshot New Jersey in every period particularly in the third when they had three times as many (18-6) but that couldn't matter less since the Devils found the only goal of the game late in the final frame. Right wing Kyle Palmieri crashed the net then deflected a shot by center Pavel Zacha from in close at 15:23. Defenseman PK Subban added the second assist on Palmieri's fourth goal of the season. Boston's offense went 0-for-2 on the power play and despite right wing David Pastrnak's career-high 10 shots on goal, they failed to find a way to beat a journeyman goalie. Just like a starting pitcher that loses a pitcher's duel 1-0 (or by a similar low score) in MLB, you had to feel bad for B's goaltender Tuukka Rask (24 saves, 8-4-2) who made one mistake the whole night. Needless so say, it's hard to win when your teammates can't get a single goal for you vs. what should be an overmatched opponent.
Next week is another one filled with opponents from New York: the Bruins go to Nassau Coliseum to face the Islanders on Tuesday (7, NESN) followed by a two-game home set vs. the Rangers (10-10-3) on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (1, NESN). The Isles have won five games in a row to take over first-place in the East Division, they are also 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Boston is 4-5-1 in their last 10 games with a 7-4-2 road record while the Islanders are 10-0-2 on Long Island. Today's loss dropped them to 6-2-1 at the Garden while the Rangers are 5-4-1 on the road. The B's are 0-3 against the Isles in 2021-oddly all in Uniondale, NY-so they are due for a win there. They are 3-1 against the Rangers so hopefully that roll continues.
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