It doesn’t mean all the Boston Bruins problems have been completely fixed by a long shot, but they at least managed to stop the bleeding with a “get right” game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Bruins pieced together a strong defensive effort, got a stellar performance between the pipes from Joonas Korpisalo (20 saves) and received goals from Matt Poitras, Justin Brazeau and Brad Marchand in a solid 3-0 shutout win over the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon.
It at least temporarily checked a lot of boxes that the Bruins hadn’t been close to accomplishing in a very underwhelming opening 10-game block to the season.
The victory certainly doesn’t signify an end to some of the head-scratching performances we’ve seen from the Bruins in the opening month, and it needs to be viewed through the prism of coming against a Flyers team that’s been amongst the worst in the Eastern Conference in the early going this season. But it importantly stopped some concerning trends cold for the B’s, most vitally a reversal from the poor play of some very key core guys on the Boston roster that finally played closer to their level on Saturday.
Brad Marchand headlined the formerly struggling group with a banner multi-point performance that included creating Brazeau’s goal with a strong take behind the Philly net before feeding his big winger, and then an empty netter in the closing minutes that iced the game for the Black and Gold.
Make that three goals in the last five games for Justin Brazeau. pic.twitter.com/SgOBKUhYKL
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) November 2, 2024
But it was also Charlie Coyle, who played strong two-way hockey with three shot attempts and 5-on-7 faceoff wins in 19:12 of ice time, Morgan Geekie hustling and finishing with an assist while the all-important second-and-third effort was back in his game and Poitras scoring his first goal of the season on a gritty effort right at the net. Trent Frederic was active offensively and nearly got into a brawl with Travis Konecny as the two forwards threw gloves punches at each other in the third period.
"The 5-on-5 goals that we got are the kind of 5-on-5 goals that we're going to have to score, where it's at the goal line, we outnumber people, and we find someone in the slot and or we crash the net," said Montgomery.
The investment, the hard work, the urgency and the recognizable Bruins style of play was back, at least for a game anyway, and the results predictably followed as they will when this team plays up to their potential.
“It was a big win for us. I really like the way that we played and the way that we started. They had a couple of good pushes, and we did a good job of weathering them,” said Marchand to NESN after the win. “Lately we’ve been breaking, but we didn’t [against the Flyers] and that’s something that we can build on.”
None of it should underrate Korpisalo’s play between the pipes either as he stopped 20 shots in his first shutout with the Bruins, and that included a five star stop on Morgan Frost on a 2-on-1 with Owen Tippett in the second period when the game was very much hanging in the balance. It was exactly the kind of performance that some Bruins fans felt like was beyond the Finnish netminder when he was part of the Linus Ullmark trade with the Senators last summer, but what he’s shown he was capable of throughout his long NHL career.
"You can see him get more and more confident," said Montgomery. "When you see a goalie really be square and compact to the puck, not a lot of movement, you know he's finding his groove."
The challenge now, of course, is to repeat this performance with a Sunday afternoon home game against the Seattle Kraken. With one victory the Bruins pushed themselves into the middle of the Atlantic Division standings and they quieted those voices legitimately concerned about the rudderless way the B’s have played in the early going this season.
But they’ll need to keep building on one Saturday matinee victory if they hope to show this bad stretch is fully behind them. That’s truly what’s important now as they’ve stopped the bleeding, but need to show that their recent struggles are truly in the rearview.
ONE-TIMERS
*Justin Brazeau is beginning to get hot for a Bruins team that really needs some production from their wingers. After just one assist in his first five games of the season, Brazeau now has three goals in his last five games including a great finish of a nice play by Brad Marchand where he wheeled behind the net while carrying a defender and then fed the big, rangy winger for the finish.
Brazeau also only had two shots on net in those first five games as well but had four shots on net in Saturday’s win over the Flyers and has 11 shots on net in the last five games while generating lots of scoring chances.
“Obviously when you’re struggling the confidence isn’t that high, so you’ve got to do that stuff,” said Brazeau when asked about getting to the gritty areas for offense. “You’re not going to make the nice play all the time. You’ve got to be able to put pucks in dirty areas, battle to get it [to the net] and do all of those kinds of things.”
For a Bruins team in the bottom third of the NHL in offense with a 2.64 goals per game thus far this season, they could use all the help they could get right now while adjusting to life with a new forward group and Brazeau is certainly doing his part to help.
*Love seeing the Bruins set up a day to pay tribute to longtime NESN play-by-play guy Jack Edwards, whose personality and flair for the poetic is sorely missed on the beat since his retirement due to health issues. Here’s hoping Edwards enjoys every minute of it and continues to post great Cameo videos where he does things like announce starting lineups for hockey teams upon request. That is all kinds of fun and who has more fun than Jack, after all?
On Sunday, we celebrate @RealJackEdwards and all of the special moments he brought into our lives and our homes throughout the years 🖤💛@NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/X99CPxA4oZ
— NESN (@NESN) October 30, 2024