For The Fifth Straight Season (Since Bruce Cassidy Took Over), The Bruins Are Going To The Playoffs

 

    With the NHL regular season ending next week, at this time it's not hard to figure out which teams are fighting for spots in the playoffs while the rest are counting down the days until they can get away from hockey for at least a little while. Tonight, the Bruins (31-14-6 overall, 15-8-3 away) were lucky enough to find themselves in the front end of a back-to-back against one of those already checked out kind of teams. The host Devils (17-28-7 overall, 6-18-3 home) barely put up any resistance as they lost 3-0 to the B's. Boston outshot New Jersey 42-20 and goaltender Tuukka Rask (20 saves, 14-4-2) barely broke a sweat in his second shutout of the season and the 52nd (!!!) of his NHL career. Most importantly, with five games left on their schedule, the black and gold officially clinched a playoff spot for the fifth consecutive year. 

    The visitors dominated in the first period as the Bruins outshot the Devils 17-4 but had nothing to show for it. New Jersey's goaltender Scott Wedgewood (39 saves, 3-7-3) was one of the only guys on his team that bothered putting forth any sort of effort this evening. Boston stuck with it though and got a pair of goals in the second period to essentially put it out of reach. Left wing Nick Ritchie scored off a one-timer from defenseman Jakub Zboril and center Sean Kuraly that made it 1-0 at 9:08. It was Ritchie's 14th goal of the season which tied a career-high, I'm guessing he'll top that in the next week. Captain Patrice Bergeron doubled the Bruins' lead after a beautiful backhand feed from left wing Brad Marchand (who was behind the net) that led to the center's 20th goal of the season at 17:54. It is the eighth straight season that Bergy has reached 20+ goals and the 12th time in his career that he's done that. Not to sound too much like a homer but he's gotta be a Hall of Famer someday, right? 

    In the third period, BU's A.J. Greer (who was making his Devils debut) dangerously hit Zboril from behind a few feet away from the boards which led to Quinnipiac's Connor Clifton (Zboril's defensive partner) dropping the gloves with Greer. Thankfully, Zboril ended up being fine but it was nice to see such an immediate and strong response from a Bruin to his teammate taking an uncalled for cheap shot. Speaking of the Terriers, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk rounded out the scoring for Boston with a shot from the point that bounced off the ice (Mighty Ducks knuckle puck style!) then off New Jersey defenseman Ryan Murray's leg and into the net. Grzelcyk's career-high fifth goal was assisted by Marchand and Bergeron at 17:17. 

    This game could not have turned out much better for the B's since they took care of their own business plus they also got some unexpected help from the Sabres (14-32-7) of all teams who actually beat the Islanders (31-16-5) 4-2. That moved Boston one point ahead of New York and into third-place in the East Division. The Bruins only trail first-place Washington (33-14-5) and second-place Pittsburgh (34-16-3) by three points each with a game in hand on the Caps and two on the Pens. The B's get another possible gift of two points tomorrow night (7, NESN) back in Newark as they close out the season series with the Devils. Rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman (6-2-0) gets the start and defenseman Brandon Carlo will return from injury (again) so there will be some interesting things to watch in what should be another easy Bruins victory.

UPDATE 5/4/21: Jaroslav Halak will start tonight for the Bruins, not Swayman. Carlo & Mike Reilly are in for defensemen Kevan Miller & Zboril while Trent Frederic replaces Karson Kulhman at forward. 

I Don't Know Why But The Devils Have Owned The B's So Far This Season (3-0-1) After Today's Win

 

    I've already talked extensively this season about how the Bruins (13-6-3) own the Flyers (12-7-3) for whatever reason (4-0!) while the Islanders (15-6-4) similarly have some sort of spell over the B's. As you can tell from all three of those records, they are all good teams therefore at least you can fall back on that fact and there's no shame in losing to them even if the series is one-sided at least for the moment. Conversely, the Devils (8-11-2) blanked the Bruins 1-0 tonight at the TD Garden to improve to 3-0-1 against them in 2021. Nobody could argue that New Jersey is anything more than a bottom-feeder in the East Division, in the Eastern Conference and in the NHL but I guess that when they see the Black and Gold none of that seems to really matter. Boston fired 40 shots on the Devils' backup goaltender Scott Wedgewood (2-3-1) but he stopped all of them for his second shutout of the season. 

    The Bruins outshot New Jersey in every period particularly in the third when they had three times as many (18-6) but that couldn't matter less since the Devils found the only goal of the game late in the final frame. Right wing Kyle Palmieri crashed the net then deflected a shot by center Pavel Zacha from in close at 15:23. Defenseman PK Subban added the second assist on Palmieri's fourth goal of the season. Boston's offense went 0-for-2 on the power play and despite right wing David Pastrnak's career-high 10 shots on goal, they failed to find a way to beat a journeyman goalie. Just like a starting pitcher that loses a pitcher's duel 1-0 (or by a similar low score) in MLB, you had to feel bad for B's goaltender Tuukka Rask (24 saves, 8-4-2) who made one mistake the whole night. Needless so say, it's hard to win when your teammates can't get a single goal for you vs. what should be an overmatched opponent. 

    Next week is another one filled with opponents from New York: the Bruins go to Nassau Coliseum to face the Islanders on Tuesday (7, NESN) followed by a two-game home set vs. the Rangers (10-10-3) on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (1, NESN). The Isles have won five games in a row to take over first-place in the East Division, they are also 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Boston is 4-5-1 in their last 10 games with a 7-4-2 road record while the Islanders are 10-0-2 on Long Island. Today's loss dropped them to 6-2-1 at the Garden while the Rangers are 5-4-1 on the road. The B's are 0-3 against the Isles in 2021-oddly all in Uniondale, NY-so they are due for a win there. They are 3-1 against the Rangers so hopefully that roll continues.