BSJ Game Report: Bruins 3, Jets 2 - 3rd line shines, Marchand returns as B’s hold off Jets

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

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

What a difference a few days can make. 

After fretting for most of Friday about the long-term health of Brad Marchand, the B’s top winger was back on the ice Saturday — helping the B’s put forth a professional 3-2 win over the Jets in a matinee matchup at TD Garden.

Oskar Steen, Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak all scored for the Bruins, who have won 10 of 12 games since the new year and improve to 24-12-2 on the season.  

Tuukka Rask stopped 22 of 24 shots in the win.

The Jets drew first blood on a rush opportunity just 2:46 into the game — with Jansen Harkins firing a shot past Rask that the B’s netminder will almost certainly want back.

Boston countered later in the first with a couple of scraps courtesy of both Connor Clifton and Brandon Carlo — while Steen eventually knotted up the score with a tally from the slot at 11:37.

The B’s were unable to escape a sleepy opening period with that deadlock in place, however, as a pass from Andrew Copp bounced off of Urho Vaakanainen’s skates and past Rask to give Winnipeg a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.

Boston’s third line of Steen, Coyle and Jake DeBrusk teamed up for another tally in the middle frame — with Coyle tipping a Derek Forbort shot past Connor Hellebuyck for his first goal since Jan. 1, knotting things up at 2-2 once again. 

Pastrnak gave Boston the lead for good with a power-play blast at 3:59 in the third — with the B’s limiting the Jets to just seven shots on goal for the remainder of the evening to close out the win. 

FOUR UP

Oskar Steen: Quite the response from the rookie after watching Thursday's win over the Caps from the ninth floor. Along with his second career goal, Steen was active across the O-zone, helping force turnovers and generate looks with DeBrusk off of a frantic forechecking effort.

Charlie Coyle: A much-needed offensive breakthrough for Coyle, who entered the game with zero points in his last nine games. If I’m the Bruins, I keep this DeBrusk-Coyle-Steen trio together for the time being. 

David Pastrnak: No. 88 is showing up on this side of the list quite a bit these days. With his power-play blast in the third period, Pastrnak has now tallied 11 goals and posted 14 points over his last 10 games. 

Penalty kill: Boston’s PK was stout all afternoon with a perfect 4-for-4 showing — including a great effort on a 6-on-4 sequence to close out the game after Hellebuyck vacated his net.

TWO DOWN

Brandon Carlo: Carlo gets some brownie points for dropping the gloves with Austin Poganski, but the defenseman has strung together a couple of ugly showings in the D-zone as of late, including the sequence that led to the Jets’ opening tally in the first. 

Tuukka Rask: He tightened things up as the game went along, but Rask was awfully rusty in the first — beyond that soft tally relinquished against Harkins. Rask also jettisoning a puck into the 15th row during the third period was also a tough break — putting Boston back on the PK. 

LOOSE PUCKS

Brad Marchand returns

I think we all assumed the worst when Marchand exited Thursday’s game against Washington — with the tough-as-nails winger unable to even lift his arm above his head.

As we noted on Friday, considering the optics of Marchand’s injury, even a two or three-week absence would likely be viewed as good news for the Bruins.

Turns out, it was just one day of optional practice that Marchand missed — as the B’s forward took part in warmups and was right back out on the ice for Saturday’s matchup.

And while it would be perfectly acceptable if Marchand was limited out there considering the quick turnaround, he didn’t look any worse for wear — logging 19:35 of ice time (tops among B’s forwards) and getting a secondary assist on Pastrnak’s blast.

Crisis averted. 

B’s have injury scare with Grzelcyk

Even though the Bruins dodged a major bullet ahead of puck drop with Marchand returning to the B’s lineup, Boston nearly lost another lineup regular shortly into Saturday’s contest — with Matt Grzelcyk heading down the tunnel in the first after getting knocked into the boards by Pierre-Luc Dubois.  

Be it his wrist or shoulder, it certainly didn’t look good for Grzelcyk before he eventually made his way down the tunnel — but the puck-moving blueliner was right back out there on the ice at the start of the second period, finishing the game with 13:35 of ice time and setting up Pastrnak’s go-ahead goal. 

All things considered, you couldn’t ask for a better result on the injury front for the Bruins.

PLAY OF THE GAME

QUOTE OF NOTE

"I didn't really expect to play either." - Brad Marchand 

PARTING THOUGHTS

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will close out their seven-game homestand on Monday night with a matchup against the up-and-coming Ducks. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.