Talking Points: Boston Bruins Dominate Avs in Strong 5-1 Win

Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden on Monday afternoon.

GOLD STAR: In his final game in the Brad Marchand spot ahead of the end of No. 63’s suspension, Taylor Hall went out with a bang collecting three assists and finishing with a plus-3 in 16:39 of strong ice time in a dominant win over a quality team. Hall was probably under the microscope headed into Monday’s proceedings after his hard hit took out, albeit accidentally, Nathan MacKinnon the last time these two teams met, but he played with confidence. Accused at times of being too much of a playmaker and pass-first player, Hall played that role to a tee serving up passes to David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron from his left wing spot.

Patrice Bergeron doubles Boston’s lead.

Taylor Hall with a slick feed to set up the tally. pic.twitter.com/8BZcsPKcZ7

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 21, 2022

BLACK EYE: Speaking of Nathan MacKinnon, how about this two-handed to the referee after a particularly nasty faceoff with Tomas Nosek in the faceoff circle?

Avs Forward Nathan MacKinnon appears to take a swipe at the referee after the faceoff

(via @ryancopyme)pic.twitter.com/uPws03QCiq

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 21, 2022

I’d imagine MacKinnon is going to try and say he was looking to target Nosek with that two-hander, but I don’t know if I’d buy that if I was running the league. One thing is for sure: Brad Marchand would be up for lifetime ban from the NHL if the cameras ever caught him doing something like that. One would suspect this was out of frustration while going 5-of-13 in the faceoff circle and finishing a minus-1 even though he scored Colorado’s only goal of the game.

TURNING POINT: The Bruins big response in the second period to the Avs getting on the board is really where this game tumbled out of hand. After MacKinnon scored on the power play to make it a 2-1 game, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk scored within 67 seconds of each other to make it a commanding 4-1 lead for the Black and Gold. It was all over that point with the Avalanche completely stunned by Boston’s second period knockout punch.

HONORABLE MENTION: Certainly it could be David Pastrnak for scoring a pair of goals and closing in on 30 goals for the season while clearly busting out of his mini-slump. But Patrice Bergeron was also outstanding for the Boston Bruins in one of his best and most efficient games of the season. Bergeron scored his 13^th goal of the season and added an assist in 17:26 of ice time to go along with seven shots on net, nine shot attempts overall, one takeaway, two blocked shots and 14-of-19 faceoff wins in a dominant all-around game. Bergeron has returned from missing three games with a pair of very strong performances and hasn’t missed a beat after taking that nasty backwards spill into the boards.

BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – the number of giveaways for Cale Makar, who was effectively bottled up by the Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “I love afternoon games.” –David Pastrnak, after snapping off a pair of goals in Monday’s matinee win.