There Was No Way That the Bruins Were Losing On Military Appreciation Night at TD Garden

When you normally play 82 games in a regular season, many of them can understandably start to blend into one another. That's not the case though on Military Appreciation Night, one of the best events that the Bruins (6-4-3) put on every season at TD Garden. Tonight they hosted the Wild (5-6-2) and put on a show for all the brave servicemen and women along with their loving families that deserved every bit of the 5-3 victory for the Black and Gold. Minnesota scored first before Boston rattled off four in a row then hung on until an empty-netter clinched it. Brad Marchand (upper-body) was the latest Bruin to be temporarily sidelined and he's not making the trip to NYC on Wednesday (8, NBC Sports Network) to face the Rangers (7-7-2) so no Times Square shenanigans for him.

When you have such a patchwork lineup, hell it feels like half of the Providence Bruins are currently here, you take regulation wins whenever you can get them. Tuukka Rask (24 saves) had arguably the play of the game when he stopped Mikael Granlund's penalty shot in the third period with Boston clinging to a 4-2 lead. Devan Dubnyk (20 saves, 4 goals allowed) wasn't anything close to the same guy from last season who blanked the B's both times that these clubs met. He was pulled after two periods by Angry Dad I mean Wild head coach Bruce Bouderau and replaced by Alex Stalock (9 saves).

Nino Niederreiter gave Minnesota a 1-0 advantage just 4:53 into the contest when the Bruins chose not to cover him for an easy putback on a rebound. His second goal of the season was assisted by that tireless American hero Ryan Suter (who skated a game-high 28:02) and Jared Spurgeon. Boston responded with two goals in the first period, both of the extra fluky variety. Jake DeBrusk tried to find Frank Vatrano with a pass from behind the net but it bounced in the net off of Suter's skate at 10:23. Zdeno Chara (team-high 25:48) and Jordan Szwarz (1st NHL assist) had the helpers on DeBrusk's third goal of the season. Later, Vatrano simple shot on goal from the blue line went off the post then Dubnyk's leg and in at 12:42. It was Vatrano's first tally of this campaign and first in 25 regular season games (he had 1 in the playoffs last season) with more assists to Szwarz and Chara. Matt Beleskey even made a contribution as he fought something called Luke Kunin shortly after Vatrano's go-ahead goal, good times!

At his post-game press conference, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy called the second period their best of the season as they outshot Minnesota 15-4 and potted two more goals to go up by three. Sean Kuraly put in a rebound from Danton Heinen and Tim Schaller at 5:34 for his second goal of the season. Boston's first line (which is basically all they have at the moment) finally got in on the action as Torey Krug (4-game point streak) one-timed a pass from David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron at 7:43 for his third goal of the season.

The B's have trouble putting games away (see the overtime loss to Buffalo a few weeks ago) and they certainly made their fans sweat on an unseasonably warm night as Pasta's brutal giveaway led to a one-timer by Granlund from Matt Dumba at 1:33. Eric Staal got a shorthanded breakaway after Pasta was stuck up ice on the power play and he beat Rask to cut it to 4-3 Bruins at 15:56. Cassidy took his timeout with 2:40 left and Stalock was pulled for an extra skater. Schaller caused a turnover and won a race for the loose puck, leading to the empty-net goal (his 3rd goal of the season) at 19:03 and his first multi-point performance in the NHL.

The Rangers and Bruins usually have entertaining battles and since it's Rivalry Night, you know that they'll pull out all the stops. Just kidding, hopefully it's a half-decent product in primetime. New York had gotten off to an awful start but they've reeled off four wins in a row to potentially save their season. It'll be only Boston's fifth game on the road where they have begun 2017-18 a little wobbly (1-2-1) while New York is 5-4-2 at Madison Square Garden-the world's most overrated arena.

Tweet

Can Anyone Play Goaltender for the Bruins Tomorrow Night at Madison Square Garden?

It didn't all happen at once but between injuries to goaltenders Tuukka Rask (general soreness, day-to-day) and Anton Khudobin (upper-body, out 3 weeks) over the last few days, this left the Bruins (3-3-0) in quite a predicament. Tonight, they were forced to suit up both of their Providence Bruins (AHL) goaltenders-Malcolm Subban (13 saves, 3 goals allowed) and Zane McIntyre (15 saves, 2 goals allowed)-against a decent Wild (4-2-1) team at TD Garden with predictable results: an embarrassing 5-0 Minnesota victory that was as ugly as you'll ever see in an NHL regular season game on home ice.

Like a fateful David Price start in the MLB playoffs, you quickly wondered why we ever thought for a second that maybe the B's could squeak out a point or two tonight. Subban, their terrible first-round pick from 2012 (24th overall) made his second NHL start and just like the last time in St. Louis (spring 2015), he was pathetically pulled in the second period. Where did it all go so wrong for Malcolm? It was 0-0 after a dull first period (save for a brief mauling of one Zac Dalpe by PC's own Tim Schaller). It all began when BU's Charlie Coyle managed to get a weak shot through traffic that Subban (who probably didn't see it) couldn't stop. Coyle's third goal of the season came at 5:07, assisted by Nino Niederreiter and Eric Staal. 12 seconds later Chris Stewart banged in the puck that came shooting out to him in front of Boston's goal, it had deflected off of Patrice Bergeron's skate. Stewart's second goal of the season was assisted by Joel Eriksson Ek and Jason Zucker.

Subban's night was prematurely over after he gave up the softest goal of the trio: Ryan Suter floated a one-timer by his glove (which seemed to be in the proper position). Suter's second goal of the season was assisted by Matt Dumba and Mikael Granlund at 10:36. McIntyre's first NHL appearance (in a regular season game) was a strange one and he didn't have that much more success although down 3-0 with a lifeless team in front of him (no David Backes either), what did you realistically expect? Boston's defense let Zucker park in front of McIntyre where he tipped in Suter's shot from the point. Eriksson Ek had the other helper on Zucker's first tally of the season.

If you were hoping for any kind of spark for the Bruins to build on from the third period, it wasn't your night. At least they showed some balls when Torey Krug stuck up for Noel Acciari who had been boarded by Dalpe. Former Sabre Jason Pominville deposited a rebound after McIntyre made an initial quality save on Eriksson Ek. Pominville's second goal of the season rounded out the scoring mercifully at 15:12 (by that time the Garden was so empty, on Hockey Fights Cancer night no less) with the other assist credited to Zucker.

Along with these key injuries that have piled up recently, the B's have no luck from the schedule as tonight kicked off their first of 14 sets of back-to-back games. Tomorrow is Rivalry Night on NBCSN so the entire hockey world will get to see another potential disaster as the Rangers (4-2-0) host the Bruins in primetime (8 pm). I suppose the team doesn't have a choice but to start Subban again for fear of losing him mentally if they started McIntyre over him. Then again, barring the return of Tim Thomas or some other Bruins legend from the past, it's tough to see a much different outcome playing out in the Big Apple. All we can hope is that Rask's injury is not that serious; obviously if it is, the front office can't sit by idly and watch all those points get flushed down the Black and Gold toilet.

Tweet

Loui Eriksson's Third Career Hat Trick (1st With Boston) Leads Bruins to A 4-2 Win Over Wild

In his third year in Boston and most importantly, with a clean bill of health, Loui Eriksson has been the Bruins' most consistent player so far this season. Tonight, he was rewarded with his third career hat trick (1st for the Bruins) as the B's (9-8-1) beat the Wild (10-5-3) 4-2 at TD Garden. Boston is 2-2 on its longest homestand of the season with the finale on Saturday night (7, NESN) vs. Toronto (6-9-4). This victory improved their wretched home record to 3-6-1.

Jonas Gustavsson (4-1-0) made his first start as a Bruin at the Garden and it was a good one since he had 24 saves to earn the third star of the game. Given how bad Tuukka Rask has been and the fact that Gustavsson hadn't played in nearly two weeks (11/7 at Montreal was his last outing) created an easy decision for Bruins head coach Claude Julien. I have no doubt that Rask will be back in between the pipes on Saturday but Gustavsson should be in action again on Monday when Boston travels to Toronto.

The Bruins still have the worst penalty kill in the NHL but it took a step forward tonight. They killed a Minnesota power play that started less than a minute into the game and went 3-for-3 for the duration of the contest. Brad Marchand made it 1-0 Boston at 5:30 when he wrapped around the net and beat Devan Dubnyk (34 saves) after Brett Connolly's shot from the slot had missed the net. It was Marchand's seventh goal of the season.

Boston showed some toughness (something which has been rare for them this season) as Matt Beleskey fought Brett Bulmer four seconds after Marchand's goal. Apparently it was a spur of the moment thing because Bulmer is a nobody who was just playing in his second NHL game of the year. Ryan Spooner had a great chance on a 2-on-1 late in the frame but his shot hit the crossbar.

The Bruins had a two-man advantage for 1:16 but they weren't able to convert as Dubnyk made a couple great saves. Jason Zucker tied it at 5:12 of the second period after Gustavsson gave him a juicy rebound. Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter assisted on Zucker's sixth goal of the season. Rookie Frank Vatrano got crushed along the boards by Minnesota defenseman Nate Prosser, he went to the dressing room and never returned because of he suffered a concussion (no word on the severity).

Loui's hat trick was the first for a Bruin since David Krejci's in 2014 (March 4, 2014 vs. Tim Thomas and Florida) and the fastest since Brad Boyes in 2006 (March 18 vs. Carolina). The Swede got it started when his centering pass to Connolly at 7:37 went off a Wild skate and in the net. Krejci and McQuaid assisted on Eriksson's seventh goal of the season. For a guy that's not particularly big or strong, Eriksson does a nice job of going to the net and using his hands to score many goals. He struck on the power play (Boston's PP remains No. 1 in the NHL) in that fashion at 11:21, assisted by Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug.

The Wild were playing in the final game of a four-game road trip without their star Zach Parise but they showed some heart by cutting it to 3-2 at 13:37 of the second. Jordan Schroeder tipped Ryan Suter's wrist shot from the point with the other assist going to Ryan Carter. One crazy note on Suter: he leads the NHL in ice time and he played 32:36 (32 shifts!) tonight. He must be a cyborg, that's not human.

Eriksson finished the hat trick at 4:14 of the third period with a one-timer from Krejci and Beleskey. Ironically, he and Tyler Seguin have the same amount of hat tricks at the Garden in 2015-16. For two teams that rarely see each other, there was some nastiness particularly at the end when Colin Miller got a game misconduct after a large scrum. After the final whistle, Zucker had to be helped off following a seemingly innocent tap by Beleskey behind his knee. I have no idea if he typically embellishes stuff but you would have thought that he broke his leg or something, very strange scene.

Not that it should matter since the Maple Leafs are still one of the worst teams in the league but Toronto is at Carolina (6-10-2) tomorrow night before coming to Boston. I've said it before and it hasn't happened thus far but this little stretch here before Thanksgiving is a perfect time for the B's to put a win streak together. We shall see, the first part is to win back-to-back games at home-a simple task which they haven't successfully completed yet this season.

Tweet