Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 6-4 win over the Flames in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Shorthanded woes continue for Bruins: Thursday was another encouraging statement win for the Bruins against the current points leader in the Western Conference, but another recurring issue once again reared its head for Boston during the first period at TD Garden. Gifted with a prime chance to build an early lead with a 5-on-3 stretch for 1:55, Boston squandered the opportunity after Calgary killed its first penalty, with Michael Frolik jumping out of the box and beating Jaroslav Halak with a rebound in front after outracing both David Krejci and Torey Krug to the slot. That marks the ninth shorthanded goal surrendered by the Bruins this season, tops in the NHL. Not great, especially for a power-play unit that ranks in the top five league-wide in terms of efficiency.
But Boston’s power-play production continues to keep team afloat: For as disheartening as Frolik’s opening goal was, Boston managed to right the ship just 1:16 later while still on the man advantage, with John Moore ripping home his second goal of the season to tie things up. Moore’s tally seemed to get Boston back on track, with the club outshooting Calgary 5-1 since the midway point of the opening stanza, while adding another goal off a redirection from Jake DeBrusk. Boston finished the night 2-for-4 on the man advantage, with Torey Krug setting up David Pastrnak’s 25th goal of the season off of a fantastic 150-foot feed off the boards that bounced back to Pastrnak in the slot. Boston still needs to shore up its defensive coverage during shorthanded chances, but the Bruins’ continued production in the o-zone is at least assuaging some of the team’s miscues on the man advantage.
B’s starting to heat up: Brad Marchand said it best postgame: “We’re kind of rolling right now.” It wasn’t pretty at times, but Boston did what it had to do to earn two points against a loaded Flames club — with 11 different skaters registering at least a point in the victory. Even with all of their injuries, the Bruins are still on a 100-point pace at the midway mark of the 2018-19 season. Not bad.
THREE UP
Bruins penalty kill: They might be in the middle of the pack when it comes to season-long performance (T-14th in NHL with 79.8 percent success rate), but Boston’s PK group has started to string together some strong showings over the last couple of weeks. Even with some big guns in front in Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary went 0-for-4 on the man advantage Thursday. Over the last three weeks, Boston’s penalty kill has turned aside 25 of its opponents’ 27 bids on the power play.
Jake DeBrusk: The 22-year-old winger continues to stay hot since returning from a concussion — tallying a pair of goals in Thursday’s win. Perched in his usual spot in a scrum out front, DeBrusk tipped a shot from Krejci home at 14:19 in the first before beating Mike Smith again with a nifty backhand finish at 13:46 in the final stanza. Despite missing 10 games due to injury so far this year, DeBrusk is still on pace to flirt with a 30-goal campaign.
David Krejci: Missing practice earlier this morning to attend the birth of his son, Krejci jumped right back into the lineup on Thursday and didn’t miss a beat — recording a pair of assists in the win. Krejci led all Bruins skaters in 5v5 Corsi For Percentage with a mark of 46.15 Thursday.
TWO DOWN
Power play: Well, at least when it comes to handling shorthanded chances down the other end of the ice. He might be a new All-Star and tallied his 25th goal of the season Thursday, but Pastrnak was on the wrong end of that sequence leading to Frolik’s shorthanded goal — skating into the crease and well, kind of just standing there as the Calgary forward buried the second chance in front.
I think David Pastrnak ran out of batteries here pic.twitter.com/8xXuL714TL
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 4, 2019
What a set-up feed in front by Torey Krug.
David Pastrnak does the rest.
4-2 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/TW6JzFuefD
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 4, 2019
Michael Frolik wanted absolutely no part of Kevan Miller. pic.twitter.com/ao3ee4zRkU
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 4, 2019