This season has become so much about favorable and unfavorable matchups with certain teams in the East Division: the Bruins (14-6-4) for instance improved to 4-1 against the Rangers (10-12-3) thanks to an easy 4-0 shutout victory this evening at the TD Garden. For all of their noted struggles (0-3-1) against the first-place Islanders (17-6-4) in 2021, the B's are perfect (4-0) against the Flyers (13-8-3) and they are also consistently good against the Rangers too. With Tuukka Rask still sidelined with a mysterious injury (back?), Boston is lucky to employ one of the best backup goalies in the NHL: Jaroslav Halak (6-2-2) who made 27 saves in his second shutout of the season and the 52nd of his career. After being a healthy scratch on Tuesday at the Isles, left wing Jake DeBrusk responded in the proper fashion with a goal while center David Krejci added a goal and an assist of his own.
Do I even have to mention the latest exploits of Boston's superb top line? Of course I do. Right wing David Pastrnak got it started with a goal, center Patrice Bergeron had a power play tally and left wing Brad Marchand notched three assists in the win. The Rangers dropped their third straight game as they fall further towards the stinky basement of the East Division. They were never really in this one as they gave up a pair of goals in the first period and then it was 4-0 less than five minutes into the second period. In other words, goodnight everybody!
For the second game in a row, Pasta has added a new wrinkle to his offensive attack as he cranked a one-timer from some distance for a 1-0 lead 4:14 into the contest. Marchand and Bergeron provided the assists on Pastrnak's team-high (tied with Brad) 12th goal of the season in just his 17th outing. It was 2-0 late in the frame as Marchand made a ridiculous spin move then pass in front to Bergeron for a close range one-timer. Oh and it was shorthanded, so that was extra fun. Yup, the captain's 10th goal of the season came at 17:34 and if you listened closely, you could already hear the spirit leaving New York's bodies. With a quick flurry of goals in the second period, it was all over even with a ton of time left in regulation.
Krejci blasted a one-timer on the power-play for his first goal (um yikes!) of the season at 3:31. Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk had the primary assist and Marchand added the secondary assist on the goal that made it 3-0 for the Black and Gold. Before former BU head coach Jack Quinn had any time to update his resume on LinkedIn, the B's had increased the lead to an insurmountable 4-0. DeBrusk one-timed a sweet pass from Krejci who had stolen the puck on a strong forecheck behind New York's goal. For years, secondary scoring has been a major issue for Boston and those two guys in particular represent some of their best hopes to get anything offensively from their forwards outside of Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak.
For whatever reason, these teams have played nothing but two-game sets this season and that continues with a Saturday afternoon matinee (1, NESN) at the Garden. Unless Rask returns to practice tomorrow, I'd expect Halak to start that tilt as well unless Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy feels so confident against the Rangers that he can give rookie Dan Vladar his first NHL start. The only real hope for New York is that they can get their star forward Artemi Panarin back then but the reality is that they have plenty of other issues that he simply can't solve all by himself.
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