47 seconds of pain: Joakim Nordstrom’s gutsy shift draws praise from Bruins

Patrice Bergeron might have been the man of the hour, but the B’s longtime pivot was quick to note that his record-setting outing was far from the only talking point tossed around in the locker room following Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Islanders.

Sure, there was plenty to process — Bergeron’s 1,000th career game, the Patriots’ post-parade appearance on the TD Garden ice and of course, two points in the standings.

But one thing that wasn’t lost on Bergeron — a player who has built a Hall-of-Fame resume for himself by excelling at the finer details of the game — was a singular shift by one of Boston’s bottom-six contributors in the third period.

On a night highlighted by a pair of tallies from Bergeron, 28 timely saves from Tuukka Rask and 23:52 of ice time for Zdeno Chara, Joakim Nordstrom’s final stat line might seem rather pedestrian.

12:40 TOI — the third-lowest mark among all Bruins skaters. One shot on goal. A 29.41 Corsi For Percentage during 5v5 play.

And yet, it was the play of Nordstrom — specifically a 47-second shift near the midway point of the final stanza — that also garnered plenty of recognition in the aftermath of a hard-fought win.



Just a few games removed from a return after missing close about a month due to a fractured fibula, Nordstrom once again put his body on the line — absorbing a pair of blue-line blasts to his legs and keeping the puck away from Grade-A areas in a painful stretch for the 26-year-old forward.  

“Amazing. He was right in front of it,” Bergeron said of Nordstrom. “They have some really good shooters back there, too. He was definitely paying the price. That sends a tremendous message to the bench and in the locker room. The guys talked about it and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Those little details go a long way and it was a great game by him and a great way to sacrifice his body.”

After the Islanders opened the third period with an offensive-zone salvo of four attempted shots through 2:07 of play, Boston eventually took itself off the ropes — regaining the lead at 6:34 off of Peter Cehlarik’s third tally of the season.

Just eight seconds later, Boston and its slim one-goal cushion suddenly found itself in the defensive zone off of a puck caught up in the netting. An opportunistic Islanders club that had won 16 of its last 19 games seemed poised to pounce.

Just seconds after the puck was dropped, Nordstrom found himself grimacing on the ice, favoring his leg after challenging a slap shot from Ryan Pulock. Clearly hurting, Nordstrom didn’t have time to skate to the bench, let along get back to his feet, before he had to spring into action.



While Pulock’s shot was deflected, it sailed back over to Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech, who coasted the biscuit back to Pulock — granted with an open lane with Nordstrom down on the ice. Getting back on his feet, Nordstrom managed once again to put his body in the blue liner’s sights, with Pulock's wrister sailing wide of Rask.

As Boston failed to clear the puck and New York cycled it back up to the blue line, Nordstrom put himself in harm’s way once again, dropping to a knee and taking a one-timer from Pulock that clanged right off of his shin. Like clockwork, Nordstrom again found himself back on his skates after a few painful seconds, hovering around the right circle and challenging any Islanders skater that came his way.



By the time the puck was finally cleared, Nordstrom used his last reserves of energy to return to the bench — nursing a pair of major welts to his legs just five weeks removed from his previous injury. (Which, of course, occurred while blocking a shot in the Winter Classic).

It might have been lost in most of the fanfare from Tuesday night, but Nordstrom’s effort on that shift certainly wasn’t unnoticed by his coach. 

“It just tells you what he wants to do to keep the puck out of the net and contribute in the lineup,” Cassidy said. “He’s a role player for us. He can contribute offense. We use him in a lot of different roles, but that’s one that we want to be able to use him in checking roles or be a good, solid defensive player.

“Don’t forget, this guy just came off an injury blocking a shot. So, he’s going to put himself in harm’s way. Sometimes that does result in injuries. We’ve seen that around here but also results in winning hockey, so hopefully, he’s okay.”

Even after taking a beating, Nordstrom wasn’t knocked out of the commission on the night — contributing to a penalty kill that staved off a four-minute stretch later in the period, snuffing out the Islanders’ final push on the way to a win.

He may not be flashy, but Nordstrom’s versatility and penalty-killing skill has been a welcome addition to this club — with the Swedish forward leading all Bruins forwards with 3:27 shorthanded TOI during Tuesday's win.

Nordstrom may not be a guy that pots you 10-plus goals every campaign, but when the playoffs arrive and the games get tighter, sometimes it’s the skaters that are there for that extra block or poke check that can change the outcome of a game.

From that standpoint, Nordstrom is more than earning his keep in his first season in Boston.

“They have a lot of big bodies, they play a pretty hard game,” Marchand said of the Islanders. “We have a lot of guys that can play that way too, we knew that it was going to be a battle and we’d need to compete that way all the way to the end. They’ve been playing very well lately, this was a game that was a matter of inches, you saw that tonight.”