BSJ Game Report: Bruins 3, Flyers 2 - Rask wins season debut, Pastrnak scores hat trick

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 3-2 win over the Flyers, complete with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

For the first time in 218 days, Tuukka Rask manned the net for the Bruins.

And aside from some expected rust here or there, the franchise’s all-time winningest goalie didn’t look out of place — stopping 25 of 27 shots and snuffing out any semblance of a Flyers third-period rally in what was a 3-2 B's win at TD Garden.

David Pastrnak led the way down the other end of the ice for the Bruins, burying his 11th career hat trick.  With the win, the Bruins (21-11-2) have now won four straight and seven of their last eight games since the new year. 

The Bruins made things easy on Rask in the early going, building a two-goal cushion before the Flyers even landed a shot on net against their own netminder. 

A hardworking shift from the Hall-Haula-Pastrnak trio led to an opening tally just 1:51 into the contest — with Pastrnak snapping a puck past Carter Hart in the slot to put Boston ahead.

Less than four minutes later, Pastrnak struck again, with the B’s top sniper gathering a slick feed from Brad Marchand on the power play and rifling another biscuit past Hart to make it a 2-0 game. 

The Flyers did manage to wake up in the middle frame, with Cam Atkinson tipping a puck past Rask on the power play at 8:02. A defensive breakdown from Charlie McAvoy orchestrated the equalizing goal for Joel Farabee with five minutes to go in the second.

But Pastrnak broke the deadlock once again at 16:45, uncorking a shot from the slot on a 5-on-3 sequence to send the hats flying at the Garden.

With Brad Marchand securing a hat trick of his own on Wednesday night, this stands as the first time that the Bruins have buried hat tricks in back-to-back games since Sergei Samsonov and Steve Heinze scored a pair on April 7-9, 1998.  

Philly made its expected push in the third — outshooting Boston, 12-7 — but Rask and the B’s stood tall, negating a 5-on-3 Philly power play and close to four minutes of frantic action after Hart was pulled from the net. 

FOUR UP

David Pastrnak: Yep, after an awfully slow start to the season, I think I can comfortably say that you don’t need to fret about Pastrnak’s O-zone production anymore. Only Phil Esposito (26), Cam Neely (14) and Johnny Bucyk (12) have buried more hat tricks in a Bruins sweater than Pastrnak’s 11.  Have to like his chances of moving up on the leaderboard. 

Tuukka Rask: He wasn’t taxed early, but Rask made up for it as the game went on, turning aside a pair of breakaway looks from Farabee and Atkinson before locking things down in the third period. He was huge down the stretch.

Nosek Line: You’re starting to see this crew land on this list quite a bit these days. Once again, Boston’s fourth line was as advertised when it came to stifling its matchup thanks to a punishing forecheck. In the 7:24 of 5v5 ice time that the Blidh-Nosek-Lazar crew logged, the Bruins held a 5-0 edge in shots on goal.

Penalty kill: Philly’s first tally might have come on the power play, but the B’s clamped down as the contest went on — especially on that critical 5-on-3 sequence in the final minutes of the third period. One guy worth singling out was Urho Vaakanainen — who logged a team-high 4:13 of shorthanded TOI in the win.

ONE DOWN

Charlie McAvoy: It’s not too often that you see McAvoy land on this list, but he was off for extended stretches in this one. Even with a two-assist night, McAvoy’s defensive lapses and questionable decision-making either led to goals on the board or a couple of breakaway chances for the Flyers. 

LOOSE PUCKS

B’s D corps takes another hit 

Rask wasn’t able to get a game or two down in Providence to get reintroduced to pro competition — but Thursday’s D corps still had quite the AHL feel due to an unfortunate stretch of injuries and COVID complications for the Bruins.

While the plan was always for AHL regular Tyler Lewington to draw into the lineup in place of John Moore (upper-body injury), the B’s were dealt another setback when they announced a few hours ahead of puck drop that Matt Grzelcyk was entering COVID protocols.

With both Connor Clifton and Derek Forbort still stuck on the COVID shelf, Thursday’s news prompted the B’s to call up Jack Ahcan on an emergency basis — slotting him next to Lewington and bumping Vaakanainen up to McAvoy’s pairing. 

Not exactly the defensive composition you want for Rask’s season debut, but all things considered, it was guys like Ahcan and Vaakanainen that actually managed to hold their own — while McAvoy and a few other regulars had disappointing showings. 

We’ll see if Forbort/Clifton might be cleared in time for Saturday’s matinee matchup against the Predators, because the B’s could certainly use the help. 

No Marchand for All-Star Game? 

Patrice Bergeron getting named to the 2022 NHL All-Star Atlantic Division Team on Thursday was far from a surprise — and well-deserved. 

But no sight of Brad Marchand on the All-Star roster — even in the NHL’s “Last Man In’ vote? (McAvoy was the lone Bruin on that limited ballot). 

That’s a tough look for arguably the B’s top player — and one of the best left wings in the game. And all things considered, Marchand is just one of many deserving candidates across the league that were left off respective All-Star rosters. 

Frankly, considering the NHL is set to squeeze as many games as possible into February now that the Olympics are off the table, All-Star Weekend really shouldn’t even be happening. But alas, money is money. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

 QUOTE OF NOTE

PARTING THOUGHTS

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will continue their seven-game homestand at TD Garden on Saturday afternoon with a matinee matchup against the Nashville Predators — who are now 12-2-1 since Dec. 4. Puck drop is set for 1 p.m.