Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ win over Arizona, complete with BSJ insight and analysis:
HEADLINES
Linus Ullmark saves Bruins from letdown loss, could be starter for a while: Linus Ullmark made 30 saves — including many big ones in the final three minutes — in Glendale, Ari. to help the Bruins avoid an embarrassing loss to the 10-win Coyotes after Boston predictably had a letdown from its tough OT loss to the Avalanche. He's now 11-2-1 dating back to Nov. 20.
"His game was excellent tonight," said Bruce Cassidy. "Finding pucks, tracking pucks with a lot of traffic, recovering, playing inside the posts ... he did a real good job, was a good defensive game for us."
Tuukka Rask dealing with an injury: Things got curious before this game even started when Jeremy Swayman was a late scratch for Providence, and then the Bruins announced they had recalled goaltender Troy Grosenick from the team’s taxi squad to back up Ullmark against Arizona. Something was going on with Rask, who hasn't started since Jan. 24 after starting his comeback from offseason labrum surgery 2-2 with a 4.28 GAA and .844 save percentage. Cassidy would only reveal after the game that it was lower body.
“He came out of his last start and felt a little something but we thought he would be fine for the trip," Cassidy said. "That’s what he indicated to us but I guess not as much a few days later. Didn’t come around as much as he’d like so that’s the situation there.” The team hasn't ruled out Rask yet for Sunday's game in Dallas. "We haven’t ruled him out for anything,” Cassidy said. “We’ll see how he is tomorrow at practice and see how is availability is."
Sure seems like the Bruins still have a bit of a jumbled mess in net.
"We're pretty happy with the steadiness that Linus has, has carried himself within the midst of all the goaltending questions that have kind of swirled around you guys over the past few weeks," Cassidy said. "We've had two guys here. You know, we're reintegrating Tuukka after surgery, so we know there's gonna be some ups and downs. You know, Swayman and was sent to Providence. He's getting some quality starts there. Linus his job is when he's in there is just give us the best chance to win as possible. ... Anything else that's going on around them... We made a commitment to (Ullmark). He made a commitment to us. So that's the way I look at it.
"The biggest thing we always look for with goaltending is timely saves, trying not to let any kind of soft ones in and … really, really limiting second chances. Make that key first stop. And he was able to do a lot of that tonight."
Bruins 25-13-3 (53 points) at halfway mark after the win: David Pastrnak posted two assists, and Charlie McAvoy and Erik Haula each scored for the Bruins, who beat the Coyotes for the 17th straight time. Boston is 11-3-1 in their past 15 games. They have one loss in their last 13 road games.
"it's a solid season," said Cassidy. "There were some hiccups early on we went through some I think some new bodies that are still getting acclimated doing a much better job with that, we shuffled some things around. ... All in all, I think we're trending in the right direction. Second half is when we want to be playing our best hockey hopefully that's the case for us. So we've put ourselves in a position to go into the second half and in a good spot and standings still chasing teams, we would love to catch them. But we'll make sure our game keeps trending in the right direction."
THREE UP
Linus Ullmark: Most of the Bruins were average tonight and probably deserved to lose (I mean, look at this gameflow chart in 5v5):
But Ullmark kept bailing them out. Stopped all seven power play shots.
David Pastrnak: Not only did he have two assists, but was one of the few Bruins active all night and his shifts had an 18-7 shot differential.
Matt Grzelcyk: His return made a big difference. In 18 minutes of his ice time, the Bruins only allowed three shots and got off 13.
Matt Grzelcyk put Nick Schmaltz in a blender: pic.twitter.com/2SBSflzVhr
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) January 29, 2022
TWO DOWN
Brandon Carlo: Followed a rough showing in Colorado with another here as he was on the ice with Mike Reilly for the only Coyotes goal. Would be nice to see him answer with a few physical confrontations too.
Derek Forbort: Even with an assist, he was tagged with a team-high 16 shots allowed in his shifts, and the Bruins got off just six in the same time.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Leaving David Pastrnak this open? Bad idea.
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) January 29, 2022
Then leaving Erik Haula open in front of the net? Also a bad idea: pic.twitter.com/ZT8ECVnFBT
QUOTE OF NOTE
"Oh, it's a lot more fun winning games on a daily basis." - Ullmark, who was playing for the dead-end Sabres a year ago.
PARTING THOUGHTS
I love Linus Ullmark pic.twitter.com/LWqWhgq5tj
— Hannah (@babybergy37_) January 29, 2022
LOOKING AHEAD
Bruins will practice in Glendale at 3 p.m. ET today, and then travel to Dallas to take on the Stars at 7 p.m. Sunday.
