BSJ Game Report: Bruins 2, Senators 1 - Rask bails out B’s in comeback win over Ottawa

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 2-1 win over the Senators in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

TWO THINGS TO KNOW

B’s looked like a team on the second leg of a back-to-back: Perhaps the Bruins were already feeling the effects of some tryptophan off of some pre-Thanksgiving grub, but when it comes to identifying another slow start for Boston on Wednesday night — we’ll chalk it up to a club playing on the second leg of a back-to-back slate. Still, even if Boston trounced the Canadiens less than 24 hours prior to the puck being dropped at the Canadian Tire Centre, you’d have to think that Bruce Cassidy’s club would have shown a bit more jump than what transpired through the first 20 minutes of Wednesday’s snoozefest. One would think that Boston’s sluggish start against the Sabres last week — in which Buffalo landed 14 straight shots on goal before Boston fired one in on net — was going to be the low point of the season.



But Wednesday was another brutal stretch for the B’s, who only attempted five (5!) shots in the opening stanza. As was the case for most of the night, Tuukka Rask bailed Boston out from its sleepy start, but these stretches of poor play need to be curtailed. This team might be talented enough to bounce back mid-game from these ugly stretches, but Boston can’t keep playing with fire night in and night out. 

B’s mount a comeback, but give most of the credit to Rask: The Bruins didn’t have it for most of the night, but what they were able to muster in the third period was enough to come away with two points on the road — as Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara both lit the lamp just 3:30 apart in the final stanza to erase a one-goal deficit and come away with a 2-1 victory. You can tab it as another “character” win for Boston — its fifth straight victory — but don’t get it twisted, this regulation victory was only possible thanks to the efforts of Rask in net, who was under siege for most of the evening. As you can see from the heat map below, Rask was a busy man down low against the Sens, who peppered the B’s goalie throughout the night from Grade-A areas of the ice.



Rask, who already leads all NHL goalies in save percentage on high-danger shots (.897), faced 12 high-danger looks from a hungry Ottawa club on Wednesday, turning aside all but one of them — a tally from Thomas Chabot just 41 seconds into the third. Boston will have plenty of flaws to sort out upon watching the film from tonight, but the play of Rask (33 saves) was certainly not one of them. 

THREE UP

Tuukka Rask: Rask came up big throughout the night for Boston, especially in a first period in which the B’s rarely tested Anders Nilsson down the other end of the ice. Rask has now won his last five starts, generating a save percentage of .933 during that stretch. 

Brad Marchand: Who else was going to give the Bruins a shot in the arm after a brutal 40 minutes of play? Marchand cashed in after Anders Bjork generated a scoring chance off of a clean entry and crisp feed, beating Nilsson with a nifty hesitation move. The B’s winger has now scored a goal in four straight games. 

Zdeno Chara: Don’t look now, but a 42-year-old Chara is … heating up on offense? With his game-winning tally in the third period, Chara is now on a four-game point streak — the oldest defenseman in NHL history to reach such a mark. After tallying 14 points over 62 games last season, the B’s captain is now up to 12 points through 25 games in 2019-20.

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1199883107475832832

TWO DOWN

Brandon Carlo: It was a rough night for the defenseman, who was knocked for a couple of turnovers during Boston’s sluggish start to this matchup. In Carlo’s 19:30 of 5v5 ice time, the Senators attempted 22 shots against Boston while converting on Chabot’s Grade-A look in the third. 

David Krejci: After helping drive Boston’s top line on Tuesday while filling in for Patrice Bergeron, Krejci wasn’t able to get much traction with the same linemates over in Ottawa. After a 2:52 stretch in which the Marchand-Krejci-Pastrnak line was out-attempted, 4-0, Cassidy yanked Krejci off the top line and slotted in Charlie Coyle, who helped the new combination generate seven 5v5 scoring chances for the rest of the night. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

A fantastic sequence all around on Marchand’s goal, with plenty of credit reserved for the playmaking prowess of Bjork, who continues to look more and more comfortable at the NHL level.  

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1199875767833964544

PARTING THOUGHT

A nice moment in the early going of Wednesday’s game, as Chara’s former club recognized the B’s defenseman for reaching 1,500 career games earlier this season. 

https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1199851218488696832

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will now return to TD Garden for a Black Friday matinee, as the B’s will host the New York Rangers for a 1 p.m. puck drop. Boston will don their new alternate jerseys for the afternoon matchup.