Boston Bruins

Game 18 Live Blog: Boston Bruins @ New York Rangers

Published

3 years ago

February 26, 2021

Here are five thoughts from the second period with the Bruins trailing the New York Rangers by a 4-1 score after the opening 40 minutes at Madison Square Garden.

The Bruins have been outscored 9-to-1 in their last three periods after once again allowing a couple goals in a short burst of time at the end of the second period. It’s too bad because the Bruins were a much more competitive hockey team in the middle 20 minutes and had put themselves in a good position before a couple of breaks caught them right before the intermission.

Soft, soft tripping call on Nick Ritchie leads to a Rangers PP goal for Andover’s Colin Blackwell tipping an Adam Fox point shot. Ritchie barely made contact with the skates and it looked like the Rangers player tripped and fell after kicking the plate on the end boards. The Rangers PP goal seemed to stagger the Bruins as they allowed another goal 12 seconds later.

Chris Kreider just shrugged off Urho Vaakanainen behind the Bruins net before wheeling and scoring the final goal of the second period. That’s the knock on Vaakanainen as he’s not physical enough in the defensive zone, and that’s the reason why he was still in Providence to start this season. You can say he’s young going up against NHL veterans, but Vaakanainen is 21 years old at this point and shouldn’t be getting overpowered like that if he wants to be a regular in the NHL.

Good job by Brad Marchand stepping up and going after Ryan Lindgren when he threw a hit at Patrice Bergeron in front of the benches. The Bruins needed somebody to step up physically with Kevan Miller out of the lineup, and Marchand did it in sparking the Bruins a bit.

First NHL assist for No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere, who showed some silky hands throwing a cross-ice feed to a wide open Ryan Strome for the Rangers goal. Lafreniere hit the crossbar on a slick backhanded top shelf finish in the first period as well, so his skills are on display in this game.

Here are five thoughts from the first period with the Boston Bruins trailing the New York Rangers by a 1-0 score after the opening 20 minutes at Madison Square Garden.

Not enough of a response from the Boston Bruins after an embarrassing third period in last night’s loss to the New York Islanders. It was good to see Brad Marchand and Adam Fox tangle on the Perfection Line’s first shift of the game, and one might have thought that was the kind of surly attitude we’d see after that. Instead, the Bruins have played passive while the Rangers have won the battles, puck possession, the physicality department and playing with an attitude.

Ryan Lindgren making some statement hits on David Pastrnak to let him know it’s going to be a long night after the Isles roughed No. 88 up last night as well. The final one was a big hit as Pastrnak dumped a puck into the offensive zone at the very end of the first period. Somebody from the Bruins needs to step up and protect their top scorer. Instead, the Bruins have played pretty soft hockey the last couple of games. Kevan Miller has been absent the last couple of games as well. Coincidence between the B’s soft play and Miller not being in the lineup? I think not. Time for Nick Ritchie and Trent Frederic to step up.

Opponents roughing David Pastrnak up the last few games. Time for somebody on the Bruins to do something about it https://t.co/8gkmz5Upfn

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) February 27, 2021

Rangers outhitting the Bruins by a 17-8 margin. Does this feel like a broken record?

Tuukka Rask with a strong first period where the Rangers could have been up by a couple goals, at the very least. He made some quality saves on some weird bounces with the puck, and he was the beneficiary of Alexis Lafreniere going off the crossbar with a nasty top-shelf backhander in tight by the net. The only goal allowed was a Julien Gauthier shot through heavy traffic in front of the net that he never was able to track.