Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bruins Would Like to Cordially Welcome You to Their Gongshow

Once in a while in every season for your favorite sports team, you are treated to a certified Gongshow. That denotes the type of game where everything goes off the rails early and just continues to devolve from there. Unfortunately for the Bruins (8-5-2), they found themselves on the wrong end of such a normally comical occasion (if you're winning) as the Canucks (10-6-1) came to TD Garden tonight and hung a snowman (8 goals) on them in a humbling 8-5 defeat. It was the most goals that Vancouver had scored in nearly nine years (Nov. 14, 2009).

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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Patrice Bergeron Returns to Save the Day for the Bruins as They Romp the Canucks 6-3

It was a great night to be Patrice Bergeron's agent as the Bruins (3-3-0) center made his 2017-18 debut with a vengeance: he had a goal and three assists (his 5th career 4-point game) as the B's returned to TD Garden and beat the lowly Canucks (2-3-1) 6-3. After losing to Malcolm Subban in their last game and coming off a very uneven 1-2 road trip, the Bruins were in desperate need of a complete performance and luckily for them Vancouver-who has to be one of the worst teams in the NHL-was on the schedule at just the right time.

Tuukka Rask was diagnosed with a concussion today after a collision at practice yesterday with rookie Anders Bjork. Anton Khudobin (26 saves) picked up his second win of the season and the Canucks actually scored first as Derek Dorsett used a knuckle puck type shot to beat Khudobin at 2:58 of the first period. Michael Del Zotto and Christopher Tanev assisted on Dorsett's second goal of the season. It didn't take long for Boston to wake up as Bjork cleaned up a rebound 31 seconds later for his second goal of the season. Bergeron and Brad Marchand had the assists on their rookie linemate's tally.

If you are a Canucks fan, and my sincere apologies if you call yourself that, you can easily pin this loss on one stupid guy: Erik Gudbranson. He hit Frank Vatrano from behind, leading to a fight with Tim Schaller. When the smoke had cleared, Gudbranson was tagged with a boarding major and a game-misconduct. The Bruins proceeded to reel off three power-play goals on the same five-minute major penalty for the first time since Oct. 28, 1998 (vs. Montreal). First David Pastrnak undressed Vancouver's sorry defense for a 2-1 Boston lead at 9:03, his fourth goal of the season. 23 seconds after that, Bjork took a feed from David Krejci and beat poor Anders Nilsson (4 goals allowed, 13 saves) top-shelf for a 3-1 B's advantage. Charlie McAvoy had the second assist. Finally, Krejci made it 4-1 at 10:40 after a juicy rebound from Nilsson (whose night ended after that). David's first goal of the season was assisted by Bergeron and Kenny Agostino (his 1st point in Black and Gold).

Up 4-1 after the first frame, Boston continued to pile it on in the second as Marchand sniped one past backup goaltender Jacob Markstrom (2 goals allowed, 16 saves). Bjork and Bergeron had the helpers as Marchand bolstered his four-game point streak. Other than Dorsett's goal, the Canucks showed only a brief glimpse of life in the second as they cut it to 5-3. Bruins killer Thomas Vanek who will no doubt still be scoring goals against them when he's living in a retirement home tipped in a power-play goal at 16:06. Sam Gagner and Del Zotto assisted on Vanek's third goal of the season. Bo Horvat, who honestly might be Vancouver's best player at the moment, tallied a goal 34 seconds later to cause some panic in the Garden crowd on Hockey Fights Cancer night.

Fittingly Bergeron put this one away for good with Boston's fourth power-play goal of the contest (matching their total from the first 5 games combined) midway through the third period at 11:53. Pastrnak and Marchand notched the assists on Bergeron's first goal of the campaign. David Backes also made his first appearance of the season for the B's and while he didn't record any points, like Bergeron he is known as one of the vocal leaders on the team. Adam McQuaid continued to display incredible toughness as well, blocking two shots on a late third period Vancouver power play before he had to be grabbed by Backes and pushed towards the bench by Zdeno Chara since he was gliding on one leg. Still, I'll bet that McQuaid suits up on Saturday (7, NESN) vs. Buffalo (1-4-2) since he didn't miss any time despite blocking a monster slap shot by former Bruin Colin Miller on Sunday night in Vegas. This was a nice way for Boston to kick off their four-game homestand, now they need to put together their first win-streak of 2017-18.

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