BSJ Game Report: Bruins 4, Lightning 1 - B’s cap nearly perfect February with dominant win over Lightning taken at TD Garden (Bruins)

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BSJ Game Report: Bruins 4, Lightning 1 - B’s cap nearly perfect February with dominant win over Lightning

By Conor Ryan

Feb 28, 2019 • 11:57 pm

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Everything you need to know from the Bruins 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis…

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

B’s take care of business in impressive fashion: The prevailing thought in the B’s locker room following Boston’s win over the Lightning was that it was just another regular-season game, even if the opponent and stakes might have said otherwise. The first matchup in NHL history in which both opponents held simultaneous point streaks of at least 14 games — Boston put together one of its best outings of the season against the top team in the NHL, outshooting Tampa Bay, 41-21, en route to a 4-1 final.

After a dominant first period in which Boston held the edge in attempts (29-12), scoring chances (16-4) and high-danger bids (6-0) but failed to get a puck past Louis Domingue in net, Boston continued to ramp up the pressure — opening the scoring on the power play with a tally from Jake DeBrusk while holding Tampa to just nine shots against Tuukka Rask through 40 minutes of regulation.

Boston put an end to any whispers of a Bolts rally in the third, with Noel Acciari, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand all lighting the lamp in the span of 1:28 to hand Boston its 15th straight game with a point. Already well on its way to establishing itself as one of the top contenders in the East, Boston passed another major test against a club that they will need to go through if it has hopes of hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup in June.

Still, it’s important to pump the breaks in some regards: Even with such an impressive showing on home ice, it is important to take some of Bruce Cassidy’s status-quo comments at face value. While Boston looked awfully good without David Pastrnak (Bruins are now 8-0-1 with No. 88 out of the lineup), Tampa clearly was gassed on Tuesday — with the matchup standing as the second leg of a back-to-back slate for the Lightning, as well as their third game in four nights. Add in the fact that Andrei Vasilevskiy didn’t get the call in net (although Louis Domingue was fantastic for most of the night), and it’s clear that this wasn’t the best indicator of what we should expect from Tampa Bay once the postseason rolls around.

"It’s a good team that we beat, but they’re on a back-to-back and three-in-four, so I think there might have been some tired legs and that’s alright," Marchand said. "But it was a good game, we just happened to get a couple late in the game. You know, one goal game up there until about the six-minute mark, so yeah it was a good effort tonight. It’s fun to win, but it’s one game and just move on now."


Still, given Boston’s
Tampa, Boston has to be feeling pretty good about the result on Thursday — and the addition of Pastrnak will be one hell of a pickup for the stretch run. Boston will have plenty of other chances to see how it stacks up against Tampa before the postseason commences, as they will meet for another two tilts over the final two weeks of the regular season.


FOUR UP


Jake DeBrusk:
After taking 18 games to tally his first seven goals of the season, it’s taken a red-hot DeBrusk just eight games to reach that same scoring mark so far this month. It may not have been a highlight-reel strike on Thursday, but DeBrusk still looked awfully good away from the power play, with the DeBrusk-Krejci-Johansson line generating 21 attempts and 12 shots on goal in 12:25 of 5v5 TOI.




Noel Acciari:
Believe in the fishbowl. Donning a full shield after undergoing extensive dental work on Wednesday following a puck to the mouth that he suffered Tuesday, Acciari certainly didn’t seem to mind his new headgear against Tampa. The pivot landed four shots on goal and buried a rebound past Domingue to give Boston some insurance on the night.


Bergeron Line:
Ho hum, another great outing from Boston’s top line, with the trio of Bergeron, Marchand and Heinen combining for two goals and four total points in the win. Bergeron and Marchand might have added some insurance in the third period, but Heinen continues to look solid on that line – adding a pair of helpers to give him 11 points in his last 11 outings. While primarily matched up against
Brayden Point
’s line, the Bergeron line feasted, holding a 13-3 edge in attempts and plus-8 shot differential in 10:36 TOI.


Charlie McAvoy:
McAvoy could have earned a spot on this list just for his efforts in the opening period, in which he was out for 14 Bruins attempts and zero (ZERO!) attempts for the Lightning over 6:40 of 5v5 TOI. In total, he finished the game with a CF% of 70.59 and a plus-12 shot differential in 16:08 TOI.


ONE DOWN


Third Pairing:
Bit of a so-so outing for Boston’s third pairing on defense in
John Moore
and
Matt Grzelcyk
— as the duo were out for Tampa’s lone goal of the night, while Boston was rare minus-4 in attempts during the 13:31 of 5v5 TOI in which both defensemen were out on the ice.


PLAY OF THE GAME


Another sweet set of moves from Marchand on a breakaway, and Domingue, as expected, was not thrilled.




PARTING THOUGHT


Hell of a way to cap off a great month for the Bruins, who closed out the month of February with a record of 11-0-2. It’s just the ninth time that Boston has capped off a calendar month without a regulation loss — and the first time since November 2011.


LOOKING AHEAD


The Bruins will continue their six-game homestand on Saturday night, with the B’s set to host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. One of the biggest surprises last season en route to a playoff appearance, the Devils have taken a major step back this year, as they currently sit in last place in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 25-31-8.

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