Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-0 win over the Wild in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
B’s are rolling:
The Minnesota Wild might have been hot coming into this game with four straight wins on the road, but the writing was on the wall for Boston to take care of business on home ice. After all, Minnesota was coming off of a game against Montreal on Monday — a tilt in which defenseman Ryan Suter logged over 32 minutes of ice time.
Sure enough, a red-hot Bruins club more than handled its own against the Wild at Garden — opening the scoring just over five minutes into regulation and not looking back in what was a 4-0 victory.
Tough to find much to complain about in a win like this — with representatives from Boston’s top-three lines all lighting the lamp in the win, while Tuukka Rask continued his recent torrid stretch with a 24-save effort and his first shutout of the year.
Since that comeback win over Buffalo back on Dec. 29, Boston has outscored its competition, 16-7, while regaining its third-place spot in the Atlantic. With Charlie McAvoy inching closer and closer to a return this week, there’s not much to harp on with this club at the moment. They’re rolling.
Defense generating scoring chances
While both of Boston’s strikes on the power play found their way past Alex Stalock off of some lucky bounces, the B’s five-on-five tallies in the opening stanza were a direct result of some great play with the puck from the blue line.
Bruce Cassidy has often harped on the need for his team to generate its looks at even strength from its D corps and low-to-high plays. With that being said, he has to be happy with Boston’s opening tally on Tuesday — with Torey Krug keeping a puck in along the boards and feeding it over to John Moore, who then fired one in that was tipped home by Danton Heinen.
The same two blue liners were at it again later in the period, with Moore recovering a puck along the boards and feeding it to Krug at the point. While his shot sailed wide, Brad Marchand was there to bury the rebound to make it a 2-0 game.
Great stuff all around from Boston’s D corps tonight.
FOUR UP
Danton Heinen
After sealing off the puck from Joel Eriksson Ek behind the Wild net, Heinen was rewarded for his efforts on the forecheck seconds later — tipping a shot from Moore past Stalock to open the scoring at 5:23 in the first. Heinen has to be breathing a deep sigh of relief after that tally — which stood as his first since Dec. 11 against the Coyotes.
John Moore
Moore is certainly playing like a defenseman that wants to stay in the lineup once McAvoy is cleared for a return. Along with a pair of helpers in the victory, Moore ranked third on the club in ice time among defenseman at 16:03, including 2:11 on a PK unit that went a perfect 3-for-3 on the night.
Tuukka Rask
The Wild were lifeless for most of Tuesday’s matchup, but Rask still made plenty of saves when he needed to in a shutout showing — highlighted by a glove stop on a breakaway chance by Eric Staal in the first period. Since that five-goal meltdown against Carolina just before Christmas, Rask is 4-0-0 with a .959 save percentage.
Great stop by Tuukka Rask on Eric Staal. pic.twitter.com/AiTMeBFBnp
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 9, 2019
Brad Marchand makes it a 2-0 game.
John Moore with two helpers already tonight. pic.twitter.com/Umj5NFCRcf
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 9, 2019
Jake DeBrusk: "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
3-0 #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/iT0v8ZzukU
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 9, 2019