Talking Points: Bruins Beat Caps 4-3 But Lose Marchand On Dirty Hit

Here are your BHN Talking Points after the Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals with a dramatic 4-3 win on a Charlie McAvoy powerplay goal with 45 seconds left in regulation but lost Brad Marchand to an upper-body injury from a dirty hit by Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway.

David Pastrnak (two goals) and Patrice Bergeron also scored for the Bruins. Erik Haula had two assists and Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark made 14 saves on 17 shots.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, and Nicklas Backstrom scored for the Capitals and Vitek Vanecek made 29 saves on 33 shots.

GOLD STAR: David Pastrnak – Since snapping a nine-game goalless streak with a goal in a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils, Pastrnak has been on fire. With his two goals Thursday, Pastrnak now has 18 goals and ten goals in his last ten games. During that span, the Boston Bruins winger has four multi-goal games, including a hat trick in a 3-2 Bruins win over the Philadelphia Flyers on January 13. The Bruins will need him and that second line (if head coach Bruce Cassidy keeps it together), to keep clicking with Marchand potentially out for a bit.

Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak team up for the equalizer.

Quite the feed from Hall:

pic.twitter.com/diYKN6WLwS

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 21, 2022

BLACK EYE: Garnet Hathaway – Ironically it’s not Wilson that gets the Black Eye here because of a dirty hit but Hathaway, who is apparently trying to emulate Wilson’s dirty style this season. Hathaway absolutely could’ve let up and not hit Marchand smack in the numbers as the Boston Bruins winger was going down and sliding towards the boards but he just couldn’t resist. As far as the Bruins are concerned, this is becoming a pattern with the former Phillips Academy and Brown University star.

“He’s that kind of player. I didn’t like it. I think it was dirty,” Pastrnak said following the game.

Nasty Garnet Hathaway hit from behind on Brad Marchand, who had to leave with an upper body injury that sure looked like a right shoulder issue. Not good. pic.twitter.com/LFZN1065CJ

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) January 21, 2022

TURNING POINT: Nic Dowd Tripping Penalty – Dowd was called for the tripping penalty that enabled the McAvoy game-winner on the powerplay and was not happy after. Apologies here for not being able to find a video clip on Twitter but truth be told, the Capitals forward had a valid argument.

HONORABLE MENTION: Charlie McAvoy – Yours truly asked Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy after the game-day skate Thursday if he thought McAvoy could replicate the type of game Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman had (32:18, 2g, 1a, +2, 4 shots, 1 hit, 2 blocked shots) on Tuesday night when he propelled the Lightning to a 6-4 win with the Bolts playing with just four defensemen?

Cassidy said he felt McAvoy could do that and would welcome the challenge if it presented itself. Well, the Bruins weren’t down two d-men Thursday but McAvoy certainly stepped up. The likely Norris Trophy candidate scored the game-winner and played 24:35 with two shots, one thunderous hit, and four blocked shots.

Here’s that monster hit that came shortly after Wilson drilled Blidh with a clean hit.

And this was an absolutely clean hit by Charlie McAvoy on Trevor van Riemsdyk.

If only all good hits could be answered by another and not a challenge to drop the gloves or a cheap shot. This is hockey!#NHLBruins #AllCaps https://t.co/2JagNff8Tb

— MurphysLaw74 (@MurphysLaw74) January 21, 2022

And here’s his game-winner with a pumped-up Bruins bench:

Such a great bench reaction to Charlie McAvoy's (@CMcAvoy44) late GWG! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/pBWgFHt7o9

— NHL (@NHL) January 21, 2022

BY THE NUMBERS: 10 – The number of forwards the Boston Bruins were forced to play with after the Marchand injury in the second period and the Blidh injury in the first period.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “That Marchand one I didn’t like at all. The official was right there in front of it and didn’t call it. The trail official called it. I’m not sure why the guy watching it didn’t. (Hathaway) hit a guy in the numbers in a vulnerable spot. We’ve seen that from that player in the past, too. I didn’t like that one at all.

The league may or may not look at it when it comes with Marchy sometimes they kind of move on but in this particular case, it seemed like a vulnerable spot against the boards. Hopefully, Marchand is okay. Tough job for the officials to call those quickly like that, but that one I didn’t particularly like.” – Cassidy on the Hathaway hit on Marchand.