BSJ Game Report: Bruins 5, Red Wings 1 - Marchand returns with a bang, Krejci injured as B’s win 4th straight

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 5-1 win over the Red Wings, with BSJ insight and analysis:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Marchand returns with a bang: Despite returning to the TD Garden ice more than a month ahead of schedule from his arduous road back from hip surgery, Brad Marchand looked like he didn’t miss a beat on Thursday night — scoring two goals and posting three points en route to a 5-1 win over the Red Wings at TD Garden.

While conventional thinking would have Boston showing some restraint when it comes to Marchand and his reps in his first taste of NHL action since May, Boston threw Marchand into the fire against Detroit — with the 34-year-old forward logging 17:31 of ice time, the second-most minutes of any B’s forward.

Along with his two tallies (both on the power play), Marchand was once again stellar with his board work and overall details — winning a puck battle on a sequence that eventually led to a first-period snipe from Charlie Coyle, while also recording 1:34 of shorthanded TOI. 

Marchand’s return makes an already imposing top-six unit even more dangerous moving forward, while it was also encouraging to see bottom-six regulars like Coyle and Craig Smith (who buried his first goal of the season at 3:30 of the third period) also get rewarded.

A power-play snipe from David Pastrnak from his office at the left circle was the icing on the cake.  

Jeremy Swayman bounces back: Lost amid the hoopla regarding Marchand’s return and another offensive explosion for Boston was a much-needed rebound performance from Jeremy Swayman in net.

With Linus Ullmark (5-0-0, .936 save percentage) off to a hot start, Swayman has been lost in the shuffle as of late, with Thursday standing as his first start since Oct. 18 — while he was pulled after giving up six goals to Ottawa through two periods of action.

Clearly, that time off (along with Ullmark’s extended run of starts) helped Swayman re-focus, as the young netminder was poised in net and tracked pucks well throughout the night, stopping 27 of the 28 shots that came his way in the win.

“We never had any doubt that when he got back in, he was going to turn in this kind of performance,” Jim Montgomery said of Swayman’s performance.

David Krejci exits with injury:  It wasn’t all good news for the Bruins on Thursday, as David Krejci exited the game midway through the second period after getting hit up high by Michael Rasmussen. Krejci, hunched over in pain while making his way down the tunnel, finished with zero points over just 6:53 of ice time.

Postgame, Montgomery noted that Krejci will not travel to Columbus and will be ruled out for Friday’s road game, but did not offer any clarity beyond that. 

Between Coyle and Pavel Zacha — who both took turns centering Pastrnak and Taylor Hall for the remainder of the night — the B’s do have some options down the middle who can step in if Krejci does need to miss some time. 

That being said, the Bruins will be hoping that their veteran 2C will not be on the shelf for long. You can’t replicate the type of playmaking prowess that Krejci can offer on that high-octane line.

B’s trade Studnicka to Vancouver: We’ll have more on this in a separate story, but the Bruins also made a move to free up some space on the roster during Thursday’s win — trading Jack Studnicka to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for goaltender Michael DiPietro and defenseman Jonathan Myrenberg.

Between the looming roster decisions that come with Marchand’s return, coupled with Studnicka’s lackluster showing in his first game of the season back on Oct. 20, it seemed like the writing was on the wall that Studnicka was going to be assigned to Providence, so Boston at least managed to get some prospects in return here.

DiPietro, 23, played 34 games last season with the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL, where he was 15-14 with a 2.95 GAA and .901 SV%. Myrenberg, 19, is currently playing in Sweden for Mora IK, where he has one goal and two assists in nine games this season.

Again, we’ll have more on this trade later tonight. 

THREE UP

Brad Marchand: Looked like he never left, despite undergoing major surgery on BOTH of his hips back in May. Marchand’s impact was felt in just about every facet of the game — but especially on the power play, which went 3-for-5 and welcomed the return of his dangerous wrist shot and playmaking ability from his usual spot on the half-wall. 

Derek Forbort: Forbort’s strong season continued on Thursday, with the blueliner finishing with two helpers and logging over 4:00 over shorthanded TOI. Given his skillset, the points are just icing on the cake for a stay-at-home stalwart like Forbort — who also broke up a 3-on-1 opportunity for Detroit back in the first period.

Jeremy Swayman: The final score was lopsided in favor of Boston, but this one easily could have gotten away from the B’s in the early going — especially in a first period where the Red Wings generated eight high-danger chances at 5v5 play. But Swayman was up to the task, with his lone goal against coming off of a fluttering puck that also bounced off of Connor Clifton before sailing into the net.

ONE “EH"

Craig Smith: Smith finally deserves credit for getting off the schneid and burying his first goal of the season on Thursday, but the veteran also set up the sequence that led to Detroit’s lone tally with an errant pass off a breakout attempt that the Red Wings quickly recovered. 

ONE DOWN

Jakub Zboril: After sitting out a game earlier this week, Zboril didn’t exactly help his case in terms of more ice time — with the blueliner knocked for a brutal turnover in Boston’s own end that required a quick stop by Swayman to keep Detroit off the board in the first period. 

PLAY OF THE GAME

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will open up a four-game road trip on Friday when they head to Columbus to take on Johnny Gaudreau and the Blue Jackets. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.