Bruins Close Out a Successful Homestand (3-1-0) With Another Solid Win, 4-1 vs. Golden Knights

Naturally, after Thursday night's ugly 8-5 loss to Vancouver (10-6-2), many feared that debacle (how head coach Bruce Cassidy would later describe it) for the Bruins (10-5-2) would send the Black and Gold over a nearby cliff. Goaltender Tuukka Rask taking an unexpected leave of absence from the team on Friday sent another shockwave through the naturally Debbie Downer fanbase. Of course, there was nothing to be worried about at all as Boston rattled off an easy 5-1 win on Saturday vs. Toronto (11-6-0)-the team right ahead of them for 2nd place in the Atlantic Division-thanks to David Pastrnak's hat trick and then they showed that wasn't a fluke by capping off the weekend back-to-back with a 4-1 victory vs. Vegas (7-10-1) this evening at TD Garden.

It turns out that at least for now, all the B's need is a healthy Jaroslav Halak (6-1-2) as everyday Jaro made 37 saves vs. the Golden Knights for yet another impressive performance by the veteran netminder. Do you realize how good he has been in his first season as a Bruin? He's tied for second in the NHL in goals against average (1.77) and save percentage (.945) plus he's tied for the lead in shutouts (2). As we all know, besides Halak the other major reason that the Bruins are even over .500 is their peerless top forward line (Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak). Thankfully, the rest of their underachieving forwards have started to come around over the last few games.

Facing former Bruins draft pick and bust Malcolm "yes I'm P.K's much less talented brother" Subban (33 saves), the B's scored a pair of goals in the first period and another early in the second period to take a commanding 3-0 lead. They improved to a perfect 8-0-0 this season when they are up by 2+ goals. The most promising part about that burst was that two guys outside of the top line tallied the first two goals: after driving to the net, Danton Heinen tipped in a gorgeous backhand pass from Anders Bjork at 2:54 then rookie defenseman Jeremy Lauzon took advantage of a brutal misplay on the puck by Subban for his first NHL goal at 17:51. Heinen's goal was his second of the season while Sean Kuraly and John Moore (team-high 22:35 of ice time) had the assists on Lauzon's goal.

Not to be left out, Boston's top line still managed to chip in with the final two goals of the contest. Right as a power play expired, Marchand knocked in a slow-motion pass from Bergeron and Pastrnak for his sixth goal of the season 58 seconds into the second period. Cody Eakin had the lone goal for Vegas as he finished a one-timer from BC's Alex Tuch at 10:55 of the second that cut it to 3-1 Bruins. Boston's No. 3 ranked power play didn't have a banner night (1-for-7 even though they had a trio of 2-man advantages) but they made their last 5-on-3 count as Pastrnak beat Subban for his NHL-best 16th goal of the season from Torey Krug and David Krejci at 16:08 of the third period. Bergeron leads the NHL in points (9 goals, 16 assists) so I have to wonder when the last time was that the B's had the the top goal-scorer and points leader at the same time? I'm guessing that it's been a minute.

It's hard to believe but Boston won't play another game here until after Thanksgiving (they host the Penguins on Black Friday). They get another lengthy four-game road trip that will last over a week since they leave on Tuesday after practice and won't return until late the following Wednesday. The itinerary is about as random as they can get too since they start in Colorado (8-6-3) on Wednesday (10, NESN), go to Dallas (9-6-2) on Friday (8, NESN) then Arizona (8-7-1) the next night (8, NESN) and conclude with their somewhat customary Thanksgiving Eve (7:30, NESN) meeting in Detroit (7-8-2). They will have plenty of time to continue to bond on the road since after that Penguins tilt, they travel to Montreal (9-5-3) and Toronto before closing the month on November 29 (7, NESN) against Halak's most recent former employer-the Islanders (8-6-2). A great home team (7-2-0), they are squarely .500 on the road thus far (3-3-2) so that will have to pick up if they want to go anywhere.

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The Undermanned Bruins Find a Way to Hold Off the Golden Knights, 2-1 at TD Garden

David Backes is out for eight weeks after colon surgery and David Krejci missed his fifth straight game with a back injury so it's understandable that Boston (5-3-3) wasn't expecting a work of art as they hosted Vegas (8-4-0) tonight at TD Garden. It wasn't an instant classic unless you love boring defensive hockey but the B's will happily take the two points as they beat the Golden Knights 2-1 thanks to goals by Riley Nash and Sean Kuraly. Since Vegas had nearly blanked Boston back on Oct. 15 (3-1 at T-Mobile Arena) in their first ever meeting, the Bruins needed to do whatever it took to avoid the series sweep (which would have been Vegas' first).

The Golden Knights weren't feeling sorry for the Bruins' recent rash of injuries since they are currently starting their fourth goaltender of the young season-your boy Maxime Lagace (26 saves)-backed up by Dylan Ferguson who was just called up from juniors. Having to play four goalies in less than a month of existence is borderline insane. The B's are the same club that was nearly shut out by their former first round bust Malcolm Subban so I guess we should have expected a similar pop gun performance by their middling offense that is trying to find their way with one legitimate forward line at the moment.

After a scoreless first period, Boston got on the board first as Nash's first shot hit the post but then he stuck with it long enough to knock the loose puck in for his first goal of the season at 3:24 of the second. Austin Czarnik (recalled earlier today from Providence) notched his first assist of the season and Torey Krug had the other helper (only his 2nd of the season). The Golden Knights answered a little over six minutes later as Cody Eakin one timed a pass from Nate Schmidt for his second goal of the season. Bruins rookie Jake DeBrusk coughed up the puck in his own end, putting his teammate Tuukka Rask (28 saves) in a vulnerable position.

Boston's penalty kill went 3-for-3 this evening and Kuraly scored the game-winning goal at 9:53 of the third period after some fine work by Krug and DeBrusk. Krug had the initial shot that was blocked in front but DeBrusk fought down low to force a save by Lagace and Kuraly crashed the net (and ran into the post) leading to the memorable tally (his 1st NHL regular season goal; he had two including the 2OT GWG vs. Ottawa in Game 5 last spring).

On Saturday night (7, NESN), Boston hosts Washington (6-6-1) who is off to a puzzling start themselves to say the least. Backes had surgery today and I doubt that Krejci will be back by then so the B's will have to continue to find a way to grab points while they have this mish-mash of a lineup. The good news is that even when the Black and Gold aren't playing particularly well in 2017-18, multiple times they have still recorded points when it was less than their best effort-Monday's 4-3 shootout loss at Columbus (9-4-0) being a perfect example after they trailed 3-0 but rallied for the still disappointing point.

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Time For Some Rest: Capitals Beat Bruins 5-3 In Final Game Before All-Star Break

It is cliche to say it, I think every announcer in each professional sport is obligated to roll out this line but the All-Star break really couldn't come at a better time for the Boston Bruins.

After falling 5-3 tonight to the Washington Capitals (26-19-3) at the Verizon Center, the B's (31-14-2) completed a very tough stretch (6 of 7 on the road) with an uneven 3-4 mark.

Now, most of the team (except Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Tyler Seguin, head coach Claude Julien and his assistants) get almost a week off since their next game isn't until next Tuesday against Ottawa. That kicks off a three-game stretch at TD Garden, a place that they haven't occupied too much lately.

The Caps got a hat trick from Mathieu Perreault in an exciting contest that wasn't decided until former Bruins scapegoat Dennis Wideman scored an empty-netter. It was an impressive win for Washington considering that their superstar Alex Ovechkin was out due to a suspension.

Thomas took a seat on the bench this evening, giving him more time to write some vital Facebook posts and Tuukka Rask (18 saves; 11-5-2) got the start.

Rich Peverley (8th of the season) gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first period at 17:46 when his centering pass deflected off a Washington stick and past Tomas Vokoun (29 saves). Patrice Bergeron and Dennis Seidenberg had the assists.

Depending on how much you enjoy defense, the second period was either thrilling or frustrating. Cody Eakin (4th of the season) tied it at 1 when his easy shot dropped off Rask's blocker and slowly crossed the goal line at 2:14. Just 41 seconds later, the Capitals did a solid Bruins impersonation as Perreault (5th in the season) struck in the vulnerable minute (copyright New Jack Edwards), at 2:55. It went off his skate but for some reason, it wasn't reviewed.

Tyler Seguin (19th of the season) tied it at 2 thanks to an ugly turnover by a Capitals defenseman. Seguin walked in on Vokoun and beat him with a sweet roofed backhander. Steven Kampfer (taking Andrew Ference's place-serving his second game of a three-game suspension) had the assist.

Johnny Boychuk handed a breakaway to Perreault at 14:23 and he was able to score his second goal of the game.

President Obama's favorite Bruin Brad Marchand (17th of the season) tied it at 3 late in the second thanks to a power-play goal. He followed Seidenberg's shot from the point and flipped in the rebound. Bergeron had the second assist.

At 3-3 heading into the third and with only 20 minutes before the All-Star break, the Bruins had a nice opportunity to earn two points on the road but they couldn't do it. Perreault completed his hat trick at 7:18 from Roman Hamrlik (2 assists) and Marcus Johansson. Perreault was in the right place in front of Rask since the puck found him by the net and he reacted quickly.

Wideman's (9th of the season) length of the rink clear came with 27 seconds left, a nice moment for him against his old team and a proper send-off as he goes to Ottawa this weekend for the All-Star game (really).

The Fantasy Draft is on Thursday, the skills competition is on Saturday and the game is on Sunday. I'll keep you posted with any notable information about the aforementioned Bruins that will be in Canada's capital.

After a nightmare in October, the B's were spectacular in November, December and early January. I'm confident they'll come back fresh and ready to tackle the final 35 games in the regular season as they get ready for the stretch run and the playoffs.

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