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BHN Talking Points

Talking Points: Bruins Open It Up In Outdoor Win Vs. Flyers

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Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 7-3 outdoor win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe on Sunday night.

GOLD STAR: It’s got to be David Pastrnak based on the hat trick and based on the two goals he scored early in the game before the Bruins offense really got cranking in the middle period. Pastrnak certainly has enjoyed his times playing in the outdoor games after scoring and doing the bird dance a couple of years ago in Notre Dame, and this time wearing the Randy “Macho Man” Savage sunglasses during the pregame warm-up before turning into a scoring machine. Pastrnak finished with the three goals and the plus-4 rating with four shots on net and six shot attempts in 18:09 of ice time and continues to be the star powering things for the Black and Gold. It’s good to see No. 88 rising to the occasion in a big moment as he’ll need to continue to do this season as things get a little more important later in the year.

BLACK EYE: A rough night for one of the NHL’s best defensemen in Ivan Provorov. He was a minus-2 in 22:02 of ice time, didn’t hit the net with a single shot in seven shot attempts and had four giveaways in a rough, rough performance against the Bruins. He wasn’t alone, of course, as Carter Hart was pulled after two periods and Andy Andreoff took a stupid cross-checking penalty against Sean Kuraly that quickly led to a power play goal for the Bruins in the second period. But Provorov is one of the best D-men in the league and he was terrible for the Flyers in the outdoor game.

TURNING POINT: For the Bruins, it was simply turning up the volume in the second period. The Bruins outshot the Flyers by a 15-3 margin in the middle 20 minutes and scored four unanswered goals to blow the Flyers completely out of the water. It was a dominant, dominant stretch for a Bruins team that’s used to these outdoor games and really stuck with the program after a few breaks went against them for Philly goals in the first period. Once the ice chips had settled in the middle period, the Bruins had a four-goal lead, and it was pretty much all over for an undermanned Flyers group still dealing with COVID-19 protocols.

HONORABLE MENTION: Credit Urho Vaakanainen for stepping up and playing over 23 minutes of ice time in his first NHL game of the season with so many injuries hitting the left side of the Boston defense. Vaakanainen picked up an assist on one of the B’s power play goals and had six shot attempts along with a blocked shot in his 23:28 of work. Vaakanainen needed to be good as Jeremy Lauzon went down with an injury during the game and joined Matt Grzelcyk and Jakub Zboril among the injured ranks on the B’s back end. Between Vaakanainen and John Moore, the Bruins had a couple of D-men really step up into the void with their entire starting defense on the left side out with injuries right now.

BY THE NUMBERS: 7 – the Boston Bruins tied the New York Rangers (2014) for the most goals scored in an outdoor game with their offensive outburst on Sunday night at Lake Tahoe.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “We turned to each other when we were walking in here and said, ‘We’d better win.’ You wouldn’t want to walk out dressed like this [otherwise]. I can’t say this is gonna be a staple in my wardrobe. We were just having some fun” –John Moore, wearing a cross between a Snugee and Zubazz, on the 1990’s wardrobe the Bruins wore headed into the Lake Tahoe facility.

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