While Bruins continue to shake off rust, Jaroslav Halak provides steadying presence in net

At the end of the day, the Bruins packed their bags and left Gila River Arena on Saturday with two points. 

Case closed — and now it's on to the next one. 

It’s the mentality that the Bruins need to take in order to steady themselves over the long haul of an 82-game regular season.

But when asked about his takeaways from a 1-0 victory against the Coyotes, Brad Marchand was frank. 

“We still didn’t play the way we can. It’s early in the year. We’re a little rusty. We’ve got to be better than what we’ve been — all the way around,” the winger said. “This wasn’t our best game, but we win. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters at this time of year. But we’ve got to continue to improve. We were a little bit better, but we still weren’t very good.”

Even though Marchand managed to light the lamp in the closing minutes of the first period, there were very few discrepancies in Marchand’s recap of the night’s events.

While Boston might have emerged on the right side of the scoreboard, a number of other stats were tilted firmly in favor of the Coyotes — whether it be shots on goal (35-24) or high-danger scoring chances during 5v5 play (12-6).

And yet, despite finishing the night with a 5v5 expected goals mark of 1.96, Arizona exited its home ice with a goose egg. For as much as the stats favored the ‘Yotes, all of them fell to the wayside thanks to a dominant performance in net from Boston’s backup netminder.



Jaroslav Halak more than held his own in his first taste of action in the 2019-20 campaign, as the veteran goalie turned aside all 35 shots that came his way in the victory. He certainly had to work for that clean sheet, as very few of those 35 shots were generated away from Grade-A areas of the ice. 



In total, the Coyotes attempted 27 shots that came within 25 feet or closer of the Bruins' net. While a few managed to get absorbed by a body or skate before careening to Halak, plenty more reached their target, putting the Bruins' goalie under duress early and often.

It didn't seem to rattle Halak all that much, however. With the goalie preventing any rebounds from leaking back out to the slot, he was able to stand tall in net, denying plenty of low chances with some lateral maneuvers — headlined on a stop on Clayton Keller right at the doorstep during the second period.

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"It’s always good to get into a game early and if you get tested, you stay focused more," Halak said. "That’s what happened tonight. First two periods, we kind of gave them a little bit more than we wanted to and the third period, even when they had some shots, they were from the outside. I think the third period was our best in terms of details, working hard, getting back and like I said, not giving them any second chances."

Even as Boston managed to tighten things up defensively over the final stanza, Bruce Cassidy did note that there's plenty of tweaking on the back end for Boston to focus on — especially with a pair of upcoming matchups scheduled against clubs that are much more unforgiving in the O-zone in Vegas and Colorado.

"We had a few breakdowns with rush reads and they chipped it behind us," Cassidy said. "They got some odd-man rushes, so I thought we were fortunate in the first two periods. We got away with some of those decisions — part of that was goaltending and part of that was that they were a little bit off with their shooting as well. We'll work to clean that up."

Boston's 2-0-0 start this season is due in large part to the production found in net, with Halak and Tuukka Rask combining for a sterling .984 save percentage. Production down the other end of the ice has been much harder to come by so far in 2019-20.

Boston's top forward trio in Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak managed to break through on the box score, but it was far from a perfect showing from a B's offense designed to strike in a variety of ways.

Some of that can be chalked up to rust, as David Krejci — playing in his first game of the season after dealing with a lower-body injury — labored when it came to driving Boston's second line with Jake DeBrusk and Karson Kuhlman. 

Other results might be a tad more discouraging, as Boston's top power-play unit once again failed to cash in — with Arizona even holding a 2-0 edge in shots on goal when the likes of Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak were out on the ice during 5v4 play.

Cassidy was quick to note that it's not time to hit the panic button when it comes to Boston's sluggish showing in the O-zone — at least not yet.

"They've got some work to do in that area," Cassidy said of Lines 2-4 and their struggles with generating offense. "Charlie (Coyle)'s line was real good the other night doing it, tonight, they were quieter. (Sean) Kuraly, a little bit as it went along, they started to find their game, but still, they gotta work to get inside and get their 2-for-1s. That's where it starts for them. Krech, a couple outside drives, but I thought he was a little rusty with the puck tonight, because he hasn't played. We expected that and hopefully he's better Tuesday."

With Vegas next up on the docket, the Bruins need to have a short memory when it comes to this 1-0 victory — with Boston looking to work out the kinks upfront and get an offense that has only averaged 1.5 goals per game back on track.

But even if it takes a week or more for this rust to fully come off, Boston still stands a good chance of closing out this road trip with plenty more points in hand — especially if this is the type of play it's receiving in net.