Bedard's Weekend Briefing 05.03.19: Bruins make a statement ... Red Sox do not

Good morning!

A few random thoughts while I wonder what conspiracy theory we'll all glom onto now that the Bruins overcame a net-aided goal to beat the Blue Jackets last night...

• Huge 4-1 win for the Bruins last night in Columbus. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead, saw Columbus cut the lead in half on a puck that went out of play, survived some furious action from the Blue Jackets thanks to Tuukka Rask, Brad Marchand playing out of control and David Pastrnak providing multiple mite-level whiffs to win 4-1 on the road.


• Rask was absolutely money. Lost the shutout on a goal that really shouldn't have counted, but we all know what we saw: Rask shut down the Blue Jackets with some help from Brandon Carlo (terrific) and Charlie McAvoy.


• His goal and an assist did nothing to dissuade me from thinking Pastrnak is a net negative. He was again atrocious for about 52 minutes last night. The goal was a little lucky because he didn't get all of it and the change of pace threw off Sergei Bobrovsky, and the assist came in a 3-1 game late when Columbus was being aggressive.


• Maybe last night was the baby step Pastrnak needed to get going the other way, but holy hell it was largely a trainwreck. It was so bad Cassidy had to take him off the top power play. He should tell Pasta to never handle the puck near the blue line until further notice.


• I've never seen an NHL player lose the handle this much, and just flat-out whiff on pucks that fell off his stick like 6 feet ago. It's like he has zero feel anymore. Maybe it's his thumb, maybe he's lost feeling there or something else. It's just not good.


• In any event, advantage Boston. Best of 3 starting Saturday night at the Garden, and the Bruins are home for two of them.


• By the way, on the net-goal thing ... Should the refs have seen it? Yes. Is it a stupid rule that needs to be fixed? Absolutely. But there's nothing Toronto could do about it. There's no conspiracy. It's the rub of the green. Calls are missed all the time. You just hope they don't happen late and decide a game (Saints).


• When it happened, the Bruins still had a 2-1 lead and there were 51 minutes of game-time left. It is absolutely pointless to moan and complain about it. They are not taking the goal off the board ever, so you either buckle down and finish off the game, or you feel sorry for yourself, blow the game and you're down 3-1 and making tee times. Luckily for Hub hockey fans, their team is a lot mentally tougher than some of the people I saw on Twitter last night that would just not let it go.


• Sorry to hear about Danny Ainge's heart attack. Wouldn't be surprised if the C's are playing a little harder for him tonight.


• Happiest people the Bruins played last night and the Celtics resume tonight? The Red Sox, who blew another game, this one to the White Sox.


• The Red Sox need to do something with Rafael Devers. Send him down or sit him for a week so he can work on his atrocious defense. It's not killing this team — that would be the overall malaise — but they're bleeding out.

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