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Bruins Postgame Musings: Pasta Served Hot With Halak For Columbus Day

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BOSTON – David Pastrnak’s four goals and Jaro Halak’s 30 saves paced the Bruins to a 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks in a Columbus Day matinee at TD Garden. Brad Marchand and Torey Krug had two assists apiece and the Bruins have no gone 2-0-0 on their first homestand of the season that concludes with a big Atlantic Division tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night at the Garden.

Here’s your Bruins Postgame Musings from the David Pastrnak Show at TD Garden Monday:

Pastrnak Knew He Was In For A Big Game – David Pastrnak said he knew he would have a big game when he put on another one of his snazzy suits Monday morning and had breakfast before heading over to the Garden where he would have his first four-goal game and fifth career hat trick.

“As soon as I put the suit on today I knew it,” the always affable Pastrnak quipped. “I felt good after breakfast.”


Whatever he had for breakfast, he needs to have every game day going forward because Pastrnak was in the zone Monday and his one-timer was lethal. So lethal in fact, that he was being mentioned in the same breath as Alex Ovechkin by media and teammates after the game.

“Yeah, you can put him in there with ‘Ovie’ and Steven Stamkos,” Halak told reporters after the game.

Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy has had a front-row seat as Pastrnak has ascended into the same stratosphere as those elite scorers and watched that one-timer become almost impossible for opposing goalies to stop.

“He’s just a stronger person, works hard in practice,” Cassidy said after the game. “They have good chemistry, him and Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] on where he wants the puck. Torey [Krug] too, sliding it through there, so that’s part of it as well. I think it’s just practice and some god-given ability and a bit of maturity in his strength.”

Halak Strong Again – Halak bounced back from his first loss of the season with a 30-save outing and was absolutely clutch in the second period when the Bruins were out-shot 16-6. Halak got beat by Rickard Rakell at 17:52 of the middle frame but the game could’ve easily flipped on the Bruins if not for him.

“He was huge for us,” Marchand said. “He and Tuukka have been on every night and we just need to do a better job in those second periods so they don’t have to stand on their heads.

Halak now has 30 or more saves in all three of his starts and has one shutout, a 1-0 win at Arizona on October 5.

Strong Start, Shaky Second Again For Bruins – As Marchand referenced, the Bruins had another shaky second period and thus far, at least in the last three straight games, that has become their Achilles’ Heel. The good news is that their first periods have been great, but Cassidy and his players know the second period blues need to go.

“Our first periods have been terrific, we’re starting on time. You’re going to naturally have a push from the other team. We’ve got to get a little more into work mode in those second periods, focus on — it’s early in the year, maybe are we thinking it’s going to be an easy game?” Cassidy wondered to the media. “Are we not ready for the pushback to a certain extent because we’ve had the leads? It’s a bit of everything. I think it’s normal around the league, a team gets a first period lead, usually, the other team is going to give you some problems in the second period. But we do have to correct it.

Tonight was an exceptionally poor second period. We’ve had some stretches, in Dallas and Arizona, where we’ve had the lead, but tonight was probably the worst of our leads where we just sort of lost our urgency all over the ice.”

Krejci Injured Again – David Krejci already missed the season opener with what’s believed to be a groin injury and on Monday, the Bruins veteran center was injured in the first period, left the game, came back in the second briefly and then left for good. Krejci had just seven shifts and played just 4:43 Monday and after the game, head coach Bruce Cassidy said he would be re-evaluated Wednesday after a day off for the team on Tuesday.

Special Teams Dominating – The Bruins special teams were simply put, just that, special! The power play went 2-for-3 as two of Pastrnak’s power play goals came on the man-advantage. Meanwhile, the Bruins killed off all four of the Ducks’ power plays.

Kampfer In, Clifton Out – Steven Kampfer saw his first game action of the regular season Monday as he was a late insertion in the lineup, with rookie Connor Clifton sitting up top alongside David Backes and Par Lindholm as the healthy scratches. One of the latter forwards could well be in the lineup should Krejci miss any time. Here’s what the lineup looked like against the Ducks:

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk – David Krejci – Karson Kuhlman
Danton Heinen – Charlie Coyle – Brett Ritchie
Joakim Nordstrom – Sean Kuraly – Chris Wagner

Zdeno Chara – Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug – Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk – Steven Kampfer

Jaroslav Halak

 

 

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