BSJ Game Report: Bruins 8, Devils 1 - Bruins bounce back with beatdown against New Jersey

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 8-1 win over the Devils, with BSJ insight and analysis:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES 

B’s bludgeon Devils: Well, if you were looking for a rebound performance after Tuesday’s disappointing loss to the Maple Leafs, you sure got it tonight.

Yes, the New Jersey Devils stood as a tomato-can foe after Tuesday’s heavyweight matchup against Toronto, but the Bruins — as they’ve done most of this season — didn’t let a setback snowball and promptly took care of business by beating the snot out of a cellar-dwelling New Jersey club.

New Jersey didn’t have much of a chance with the tandem of Nico Dawes / Jon Gilles in net, but the Bruins simply ripped them to shreds — with three of Boston’s lines cashing in over the course of an 8-1 beatdown.

By the time the dust had settled, the Bruins submitted a stat sheet that featured 12 different players with at least one point scored — with five of those skaters submitting multi-point performances. 

While a certain rookie stole the show, Boston’s top-six unit went on a warpath against the Devils, with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak submitting three-point nights on the first and second lines, respectively.

A progressional, throughout smackdown tonight from Bruce Cassidy’s club. On to the next one.  

McLaughlin makes his mark

Marc McLaughlin’s profile as an NHLer might paint the picture of a hard-nosed, two-way grinder — but the former BC captain and Billerica native sure didn’t look like a checking-line foot soldier when he rifled a puck past Gillies at 12:04 in the second.

It was about as impressive of an NHL debut as you could want from the undrafted college free agent, with McLaughlin lighting the lamp for his hometown club with over 50 friends and family in attendance at the Garden. 

McLaughlin might have just been a temporary third-line addition on Thursday after Craig Smith was ruled out due to an illness, but the 22-year-old forward did a bit of everything in his first game up in the bigs — winning races to pucks, throwing his weight around on the forecheck and making simple, crisp plays in transition.

A lot to like, to say the least. 

Lineup switches provide positive results

Aside from McLaughlin’s obvious breakthrough night, the Bruins also benefited from Cassidy juggling his lineup a bit — with McLaughlin and Anton Blidh slotting in for Smith and a banged-up Nick Foligno, and Mike Reilly and Josh Brown replacing Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton.

Brown was as advertised in his limited minutes, ingratiating himself to the Garden crowd by dropping the gloves with Mason Geertsen, while Reilly was very impressive after being the odd-man-out of Boston’s D-corps rotation. However, Brown did have to exit the game a bit early due to an upper-body injury.

Add in Blidh putting forth a typical performance as a straight-line agitator on that checking unit, and the Bruins should continue to brew up some much-needed internal competition as we get closer and closer to the postseason.

FIVE UP

Marc McLaughlin: When you score a goal in your NHL debut — especially for the team you cheered on as a kid — it’s pretty much a lock you’re gonna end up on this list. Still, as noted above, McLaughlin was fantastic in just about every area of his game, and was a very effective complement to that third line next to Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic.

Bergeron Line: After some up-and-down performances over the last couple of weeks, it’s good to see Boston’s first line impose their will against an opponent. Both Brad Marchand (two goals) and Bergeron (one goal, two assists) were effective, but Jake DeBrusk had his feet moving for most of the night — bouncing on a juicy rebound for his 18th goal of the season in the first before setting up Marchand’s first tally of the evening.

Haula Line: This second line just continues to rip things up in the O-zone. While Taylor Hall’s 16th goal of the season came off another rush chance, Cassidy has to be pleased that Erik Haula’s rebound tally was the byproduct of another hard-working shift in the O-zone.

Mike Reilly: Reilly sure looked like a guy who doesn’t want to go back to the ninth floor any time soon. Along with a crisp set-up on Marchand’s second goal of the night, Reilly will also likely earn a few stick taps for coming to the defense of Charlie McAvoy and getting into a scrap with Miles Wood. 

Linus Ullmark: Granted, the Bruins took care of business down in the offensive zone — but Ullmark was still steady down the other end of the ice. The veteran netminder stopped 23 of the 24 shots that came his way in the victory. 

ONE DOWN?

Uhhh… Maybe François St-Laurent for calling off Marchand’s hat-trick tally due to an offside ruling — even after dozens of hats had already hit the Garden ice? Other than that, I’m not going to waste much time focusing on the negatives here. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

I mean, what else was it going to be?

LOOSE PUCKS

The Bruins honored Tuukka Rask, the organization's all-time winningest goalie, with a special pregame puck drop ceremony. After his sudden retirement back in early February, good to see Rask finally get a proper send-off from a loud TD Garden crowd. 

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will close out their five-game homestand on Saturday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at TD Garden. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.