B's Fast Start to the Season Continues as Pastrnak Scored a Career-High 4 Goals In 4-2 Win vs. Ducks

Columbus Day afternoon home games are a New England tradition for the Bruins (5-1-0) and thanks to star right wing David Pastrnak, they made sure that the 2019 version was extra memorable for fans at TD Garden and across the world. Pasta notched his fifth career NHL hat trick which is nice and all but he topped that with his first career four-goal performance en route to a 4-2 victory against Anaheim (4-2-0). Like his linemates (Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand), Pastrnak didn't exactly have the greatest Stanley Cup Finals in June but the shortened summer break seems to have helped them all turn the page rather quickly.

The Ducks entered as one of the early surprises in the NHL as they had won the first three games of the season but they predictably started slow in this the finale of their first road trip (4 games) of the campaign. The B's made the most of their body clock advantage (this would feel like a 10 am start for the West Coast Ducks) as they jumped out to 2-0 lead midway through the second period which ballooned to 4-1 early in the third. Pastrnak scored twice on the power play and twice even strength as the trio of Bergeron, Krug and Marchand were credited with all the assists on his goals. Talk about top heavy: 11 of Boston's last 14 goals this season have been scored by their top line. David Krejci leaving twice today with an undisclosed injury (groin?) and eventually not returning doesn't bode well for the sputtering second line to get untracked anytime soon.

When you score four goals in a single contest, I would assume that they are all sexy in their own right but for my money, the first one was the best. Krug shuttled the puck to Bergeron in the slot who fed Pasta for a one-timer that he straight up obliterated (witness how fast it bounced back off the net) at 4:18 of the first for his third goal of the season. Boston led 1-0 after the first period and made it 2-0 at 11:38 when Brad and David worked a 2-on-1 shortly after a successful Bruins penalty kill (4-for-4 on the day). Anaheim goaltender John Gibson (19 saves; 3-2-0) wasn't able to slide across in time as Pasta one-timed a quick snap shot. The Ducks woke up in a big way in the second though as they outshot the home team 16-6 and were finally rewarded at 17:52 as Rickard Rakell's shot was touched by Jaroslav Halak (30 saves; 2-1-0) but he couldn't keep it out of the net. Rakell's second goal of the game was assisted by Adam Henrique (playing in his 600th career NHL game) and Cam Fowler. Up until then, Halak was playing incredible as he made multiple five-star saves that defied logic and left the Ducks in disbelief.

Boston's penalty kill unit had to start the third period nursing a one-goal lead (2-1) but soon it became 3-1 after Bergeron won an offensive zone faceoff that caromed off an Anaheim defenseman's skate directly to Pastrnak. Gibson was no match for Pastrnak's incredible release from that type of close range. That goal was unassisted for Pastrnak at 2:20 but the fourth and final one came from Marchand and Krug at 4:34. On the power play, Marchand slid the puck to the far post where Pasta was stationed to redirect it in. Halak suffered an unfortunate gaffe (that was something out of a soccer game) as Nick Ritchie (Brett's brother) stole the puck from him next to the net and passed it to Henrique for an easy one-timer from a short distance away at 16:08. Henrique's second goal of the season and second point of the day cut it to 4-2 but that's as close as it would get for Anaheim. Who could blame them at that point for wanting to get on their team charter back to Cali (Biggie voice)?

These first two home games against overmatched teams-New Jersey stinks and Anaheim will come back to Earth right about now-were merely an appetizer as the Bruins have their first marquee home tilt of the season when Tampa Bay (2-2-1) comes here on Thursday (7, NESN). The Lightning will almost certainly be one of the top contenders in the Atlantic Division, the Eastern Conference and NHL in general and their meetings with the Black and Gold tend to almost always be physical, emotional and entertaining affairs. Boston is off tomorrow and returns to practice on Wednesday. According to head coach Bruce Cassidy, that's when they'll have a better feel for Krejci's status. If he can't go vs. Tampa, Par Lindholm (a healthy scratch for the last 4 games) would slide in since he's naturally a center.

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The Bruins Better Hope That They Don't Meet the Ducks In the Stanley Cup Final This Summer

They sadly dropped the Mighty part from their team name ages ago but whenever the Ducks (25-17-9) have met the Bruins (29-11-8) in recent years, they still resemble that youth hockey juggernaut from the Disney movies of our youth. Anaheim kicked off the second half of the regular season with a 3-1 win at TD Garden this evening that laid to rest Boston's remarkable 18-game point streak (14-0-4) which was tied for the second longest in franchise history. The Ducks swept the two-game season series with Boston, outscoring them 7-2 so I'd say that neither result was what you would call a fluke. In fact, the B's are winless in their last eight games against the Ducks (0-7-1) with their last victory coming on October 21, 2013 (3-2 in Boston).

In many ways, the Ducks are a throwback to a bygone era in the NHL: they play what everybody and their mother terms a "heavy game" meaning that they have many bigger players that like to be physical. Besides them the Kings (27-18-5) and Blues (31-18-3) are two other notable clubs to favor that style that used to be so ingrained into Boston's DNA. There is a reason that no team in NHL history has ever earned a point when they have allowed the first goal in eight straight games. That was the mountain that the Bruins built for themselves right off the bat as they allowed a pair of goals in a lifeless first period for the home team. Oddly enough, the B's had a power play 27 seconds into the contest (slashing on Ryan Kesler) but couldn't generate any shots on goal from it (their PP was 0-for-4 in the game). Anaheim's first goal was downright ugly as Anton Khudobin (24 saves) dropped a routine backhand flip into his glove which allowed the puck to bounce in the net off of Zdeno Chara's skate at 9:04. Jakob Silfverberg was credited with his 12th goal of the season (which had to be the easiest of his life), from Cam Fowler and Rickard Rakell. Adam Henrique (6-game point streak)-who has been a great pickup for the Ducks-made it 2-0 with a power play tally at 13:59, an absolute snipe (his 14th goal of the season) that was assisted by Rakell and Fowler once again.

After they were outshot 15-5 in the first period, Boston flipped a switch and outshot Anaheim 13-4 in the second but they simply couldn't find the back of the net as they missed some of their top-end talent. The same was true for much of the third period as John Gibson (25 saves) didn't allow any goals but left late in the frame (for the 2nd straight contest) with an injury. Backup goaltender Ryan Miller allowed a goal to birthday boy Ryan Spooner with 40.7 seconds left in regulation when Khudobin was off for an extra skater but Henrique sealed it with an empty-netter from deep in his own end. Spooner's goal was his eighth of the season, assisted by Torey Krug and David Pastrnak (6-game point streak). The point streak had to end at some point for the Black and Gold but they had nobody else to blame for such an uninspired start that ultimately cost them two points.

Brad Marchand was serving the second game of his five-game suspension, Charlie McAvoy remains out after his heart procedure (the good news was that he skated this afternoon for the first time since last week's surgery) and Noel Acciari (lower-body injury) is also sidelined. Boston lost two more guys during the game as Anders Bjork (upper-body injury) left early in the first after a slight cross-check by Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin to what I guess was a vulnerable spot in his back. Late in the third period, Ducks left wing Nick Ritchie caught David Backes up high with a shoulder right to the face that dazed Backes. It was a dirty hit that should be looked at closely by the NHL's Department of Player Safety. That set off a chain of events that included Zdeno Chara crushing Henrique with a borderline check in the neutral zone followed by Ryan Getzlaf slashing Chara in the legs. Both captains barked at each other as they went to their respective penalty boxes. For what it's worth, you rarely ever see Chara that fired up about anything. He was clearly upset with the officials for the no-call on Ritchie.

Coming directly off of the All-Star break, the Bruins are well-rested since only Marchand was a part of the festivities in Tampa Bay this past weekend. They'll need that extra reserve of energy as two more quality teams visit the Garden later this week: St. Louis is here on Thursday (7, NESN) before Toronto (28-18-5) stops by on Saturday night (7, NESN). The Maple Leafs game is especially important since they are really the only team that can realistically catch the B's in terms of second place in the Atlantic Division: Toronto is five points back with two more games played. Plus the Leafs swept the home-and-home with the Bruins way back in November. Tuukka Rask will make the start in both games which is always a good thing, Khudobin was noticeably rusty against Anaheim particularly in the early going.

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Bruins Run Out of Gas, Fall 4-3 to Devils in Role Reversal from Thursday

The way it played out, Boston choking away a game tonight vs. New Jersey seemed like some sort of cosmic retribution for them stealing two points from San Jose on Thursday. Make no mistake, the Sharks are excellent and the Devils suck but both teams are still in the NHL so on any given night yada yada. The Bruins (7-3-0) should have hung on but the Devils (2-5-4) were able to score two power play goals 23 seconds apart in the third period en route to a gut punch of a 4-3 win at dejected TD Garden.

Two factors: it is October and 2) the way they won with 0.8 seconds left vs. San Jose made this a little easier to take than the normal anal probe. Boston actually came out in the first period like a refreshed team that wasn't playing its third game in four nights (for the first time this season). They pumped three goals behind Martin Brodeur (25 saves) who is just a shell of what he used to be even a few years ago let alone a decade. It's tough to pin this on Tuukka Rask (28 saves) since all four of New Jersey's goals came on the power play including the tying goal which was a 6-on-3.

Power play specialist Torey Krug fluttered a wrist shot past Brodeur 7:52 into the contest, his fourth of the season from Jarome Iginla and David Krejci. The fun times continued as Iginla scored his second in as many games 1:27 later off a Devils skate. Dougie Hamilton and Rask both assisted on that fluky goal. Adam Henrique answered at 11:24 after Rask kicked a rebound right to him. Granted, his defensemen didn't do their job to clear the puck out of the zone. It was all good though (or at least we thought) as Lucic barreled down the left wing and snapped one past Brodeur for his sixth point (3 goals, 3 assists) in his last four games. It was also his team-leading sixth goal of the season from Krejci and Iginla.

Rask is human so you can't expect him to only give up one or two goals every night. The backhander that Damian Brunner snuck by him had to be the softest that the animated Finn has allowed in his nine starts. Not only was it weak but the timing was rough since New Jersey climbed back in at 3-2 with 28 seconds left in the second period.

Boston's meltdown started when Krug was rightfully called for a four-minute penalty (high sticking that drew blood). Before that was halfway through, Patrice Bergeron of all people accidentally flung the puck in the crowd in Boston's own end. Yikes, Zdeno Chara had done that earlier which led to Brunner's goal. New Jersey pulled Brodeur and quickly cashed in. Marek Zidlicky's shot from the point got by Rask who was completely screened by Steve Bernier at 18:52. Before the Bruins had a chance to recover, they were out of position and Rask was fishing the puck out of the net after Andy Greene's one-timer at 19:15. Goodnight everyone and drive home safely!

The B's are nice enough to let us really focus on the Patriots and Red Sox tomorrow then Red Sox on Monday before they return on Wednesday (8, NBCSN) in Pittsburgh (7-3-0). That'll be the first meeting of the Bruins and Penguins since Boston swept them in the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Gee, that'll be an entertaining game. NBCSN must be drooling for their rivalry night, it's a little better than Bruins-Sabres from last week.

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