Talking Points: Boston Bruins Break Through With Six Goals

Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 6-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden to give the B’s a sweep in the two-game series at home.

GOLD STAR: What scoring problems? Brad Marchand finished with a pair of goals in the win, both of them in the third period, that really iced the game for the Black and Gold. The first score was a nice play by Patrice Bergeron winning a puck battle against Erik Gustafsson before feeding it to a wide-open Marchand at the backdoor. Then Marchand added a sniper shot from the right face-off circle with a puck right under Carter Hart’s glove hand off a slick cross-ice feed from Nick Ritchie. Marchand added an assist for a three-point night on Patrice Bergeron’s power play strike late in the third period as well. Marchand had five shots on net and eight shot attempts overall as he was a threat in the offensive zone all night. Given some of the offensive struggles that we saw out of the Bruins in the first few games, it feels like the Saturday night win was a bit of a breakthrough performance.

Nick Ritchie ➡️ Brad Marchand.

5-1 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/3pauPJRvD9

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 24, 2021

BLACK EYE: Not sure what the issue was with Jake Voracek in this game, but he was pretty out-of-control for the second half of the game. He was incensed in the second period after getting the worse of a collision with Brandon Carlo and jumped on the Bruins defenseman’s back and began cross-checking him down to the ice after the puck was long gone. Voracek took a penalty for that one and then he had a dangerous play in the third period where he sent Craig Smith head-first into the boards without it being called by the refs. Voracek picked up an assist, but he was on the ice for a pair of goals against as well with just a single shot on net. Voracek was probably the best Flyers player on the ice on Thursday night, but he was a little too much of a Flyers hot head on Saturday night.

TURNING POINT: Things looked like they might be turning away from the Boston Bruins in the waning minutes of the second period when Patrice Bergeron headed to the dressing room after diving to break up a 2-on-1 Flyers rush. Jaroslav Halak made the stop to keep it a 2-1 game and Patrice Bergeron eventually returned to the game a few minutes later. But in the interim Charlie Coyle scored a goal to make it a 3-1 lead for the Bruins and didn’t allow any room whatsoever for the game’s momentum to change despite the game’s circumstances. That was essentially it for the game as the Bruins scored three unanswered goals in the third period to take it from competitive to blowout territory. But things could have gone a lot differently if things didn’t turn out so well for the B’s during an important sequence of the game.

HONORABLE MENTION: There were several top performers for the Black and Gold in this one, but Charlie Coyle deserved some recognition for a dominant performance from the third line of Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith. Coyle fed Smith in the second period for his first goal as a member of the Boston Bruins, and then later that period Coyle made a lunging one-handed poke goal off a Trent Frederic lead pass at the Philadelphia net. Coyle finished with three shot attempts, a hit and a takeaway along with a goal and two points in 13:56 of quality ice time. The Bruins really look like they’ve got the makings for something very good with the third line pairing of Coyle and Smith along with a big body like Frederic or Nick Ritchie.

BY THE NUMBERS: 1 – the first NHL points for both Trent Frederic and Jakub Zboril as both youngsters continue to play impressively well in the early going for the Black and Gold. Frederic got the primary helper on Charlie Coyle’s goal and Zboril got an assist on Brad Marchand’s power play goal in the third period.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “The abrasiveness, we welcome it. It’s one of the things we’ve talked about. You don’t have to go out there and be a goof, but get to the net, finish your checks and be ornery. Piss some people off. Whatever it needs to be. .” –Bruce Cassidy, talking about some of the instructions they have been giving to rookie forward Trent Frederic as he carves out a role for himself at the NHL level. He drew two penalties that led to power play goals for the Bruins in the win after doing the same against PK Subban last week.

Second time this season that Trent Frederic draws a penalty by irritating the opposition. pic.twitter.com/MOPAgzBqul

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 24, 2021