If You Come to TD Garden This Season to Play the Bruins, You Better Hope That It's a Night Game

You can find a stat for basically anything these days in sports, good or bad so here goes: with today's 6-3 win for the Bruins (23-18-5) at TD Garden vs. Flyers (22-17-6), Boston improved to 5-0-0 in matinees this season. The good news for them is that they have eight more of those remaining this season. The win also put their home record back at .500 (10-10-0 overall, 6-10-0 at night) so if they know what's good for them, they should try to get all their home games changed to afternoon starts (like the Cubs used to have).

Brad Marchand (2 goals, 3 assists) matched his career-high with five points (he's done that 3 times now) and Torey Krug scored a goal for the third straight game as five different Bruins scored goals (2nd time they've done that this season). Boston also matched it's season-high with six goals scored. Philadelphia had a 10-game win-streak earlier this season but they have really cratered since then. Steve Mason was winless in his last seven decisions (0-5-2) so backup goaltender Michal Neuvirth stayed in for the entire beating. Even weirder, Philadelphia defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was a healthy scratch. Huh? Explain that one to me, head coach Dave Hakstol.

The Bruins' power play also scored two goals, that unit has picked it up recently with goals in nine of their last 12 contests. Finally, Tuukka Rask (21 saves) was back in net after leaving Thursday's 2-1 loss at Nashville where he took a puck up high and had to leave the game (he was checked for a concussion). The Flyers actually scored first as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (with a name like that, how is he not on the Canadiens?) tipped in Ivan Provorov's shot from the point at 2:05 of the first period. Chris VandeVelde notched the other assist on Bellemare's third goal of the season.

Boston used some good old puck luck to tie it up at 7:48 of the first period. Marchand skated in on a breakaway but lost control of the puck yet it still managed to go by Neuvirth. Marchand's shorthanded goal was unassisted and his 16th goal of the season. He has two shorthanded goals this season (tied with teammate Dominic Moore and many others for the NHL lead) and 21 in his career (most in NHL since 2009-10). The second period was one of Boston's best in 2016-17 and undoubtedly the most entertaining as the B's scored four goals and the Flyers netted a pair themselves.

David Krejci has been playing well lately (4 goals, 5 assists in his last 11 games) and his power play goal gave the Black and Gold a 2-1 lead that they would never relinquish. Krejci's goal was an absolute snipe, his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Austin Czarnik at 2:00. Exactly four minutes later, Krug tipped in a pretty passing sequence from Marchand and Pastrnak for his fourth goal of the season. It was a big day for special teams as Philadelphia also scored two power play goals. Brayden Schenn tipped in a shot by Mark Streit at 8:16 to cut it to 4-2 Bruins. Claude Giroux picked up the second assist as Schenn extended his point-streak to five games (4 goals, 1 assist) with his 15th goal of the season.

Bergeron tallied Boston's second power play goal as his one-timer from Marchand and Krug was also deflected by Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald's stick. It was his ninth goal of the season and he has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) in his last six games. Zdeno Chara's blast extended the Bruins' lead to 5-2 at 15:18 of the second. Pastrnak and Marchand had the helpers on Chara's third goal of the season. Pasta now has seven assists in his last six games which makes up for the fact that he hasn't scored a goal in a long time.

Philly had a 5-on-3 late in the second and Wayne Simmonds (I always say it but how good would he look in a Bruins uniform?) jammed in a pass from Jakub Voracek. Giroux assisted on Simmonds' team-leading 18th goal of the season. Not much happened in the third period besides Marchand bagged an empty-netter, he's only two goals behind Pastrnak for the team lead and has a 10-point edge over Pastrnak for the team lead (43-33).

Boston is still in second-place in the Atlantic Division and their next few games are very favorable as they host the Islanders (16-16-8) on Monday afternoon (1, NESN) and go to Detroit (17-19-6) on Wednesday (8, NBC Sports). At this moment, the Islanders and Red Wings are tied for last-place in the Eastern Conference so these are the garbage teams that they have to beat no questions asked.

Tweet

Capitals Earn Two Points The Hard Way

If you fell asleep or passed out for the first 2+ periods of tonight's Boston Bruins-Washington Capitals game, you're in luck if you woke up in the third period.

That's when the action really picked up as a scoreless game became 2-2 in a span of less than 11 minutes. Boston (45-28-4) rallied from a 2-0 deficit that looked fatal but Washington (39-31-8) held on in overtime and won 3-2 in a shootout at TD Garden.

Matt Hendricks, Alexander Semin and Brooks Laich (game-winner) scored in the shootout for the Capitals while Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron had the Bruins goals.

Boston picked up a point but their three-game winning streak was snapped just the same. Washington ended the season series 3-1 against Boston, something which should give them confidence should these teams meet in the postseason (a first-round date is certainly possible).

Believe me when I tell you that nothing happened in the first two periods save for Adam McQuaid getting hurt (concussion?) on Jason Chimera's charging penalty in the first (14 strides!) and Caps goaltender Tomas Vokoun left with an injury (groin?) of his own.

Boston was also missing Dennis Seidenberg who was out with an infection from a cut on his leg.

Chimera got a 5-minute major and a game misconduct but the B's weren't able to take advantage of the extended power-play opportunity.

Two mistakes by Boston led to both Washington goals in the third. At 7:59, former Bruin Dennis Wideman (11th of the season) was allowed to slip into the offensive zone and he wristed a shot by Tim Thomas (21 saves; 33-20-0). Marcus Johansson and Alex Ovechin assisted on the goal.

Just 1:55 later, the Capitals seemed to put this one away and get back into eighth place in the Eastern Conference thanks to a 2-on-1 finish by Johansson (14th of the season) from Ovechkin.

The Bruins beat the Capitals by one second as they scored a pair of goals in 1:54. David Krejci (21st of the season) was the first to solve Michal Neuvirth (19 saves) as he redirected Zdeno Chara's shot at 16:50. Milan Lucic had the second assist.

Andrew Ference (6th of the season) tied it at 2 with a slap shot at 18:44. Krejci had the lone assist on the rare Ference goal.

Chris Kelly forced a solid stop by Neuvirth shortly after Ference's strike. Boston had all the momentum going into overtime but they weren't able to score in the extra frame.

Boston will get a full dose of New York this weekend as they travel to Long Island on Saturday to meet the Islanders then they face the Rangers at MSG on Sunday night.

Surprisingly, the Bruins are 1-1 against the Islanders with New York winning 3-2 on March 3 at the Garden. They haven't given up on this season either (even though they aren't going anywhere). The Islanders beat the Penguins 5-3 both nights of a home-and-home this week. Expect Marty Turco to get a start this weekend, more likely Saturday.

UPDATE 3/30: McQuaid didn't make the trip to New York so he's out for this weekend's games. Seidenberg is day-to-day meaning that he could potentially play.

UPDATE 3/31: With Buffalo's loss to Pittsburgh tonight, the Bruins clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight season under Claude Julien. He has never missed the postseason in Boston.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate