Talking Points: Boston Bruins Falter Amidst Krug, Tarasenko Heroics

BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

GOLD STAR: Torey Krug returned to his former NHL home in Boston and showed the Bruins and their fans exactly what they were missing with his play from the back end. Krug scored the game-tying goal in the final five minutes of the second period when he grabbed a puck, knifed through a couple penalty killers and then roofed a wrist shot top corner for the PP strike. Then Krug added a strong defensive play in the third period when he thwarted Charlie Coyle trying to make a power move on him, knocked the puck away at the St. Louis defensive blue line and then kick-started a 3-on-1 odd-man rush that led to a Vladimir Tarasenko insurance goal that made it a 4-2 game. Torey Krug finished with a goal, two points, a plus-2 rating in 14:04 of ice time, six shot attempts and one hit in a very impactful game where he also got a nice video tribute on the scoreboard in the first period.

BLACK EYE: Trent Frederic looked like he had turned a corner last month while playing some of his best hockey on a new-look third line with the Boston Bruins. But this month has been a crash-landing back to Earth as he took a bad roughing penalty in the second period that ultimately led to the game-tying power play goal in the second period. Frederic tried to put a bump on Vladimir Tarasenko, and instead got knocked off his skates and lost his cool when Tarasenko was gesturing with his gloves to get back up. Frederic ended up getting into it with Colton Parayko and took a roughing penalty leaving the Bruins shorthanded while protecting a slim 2-1 lead. The rest, as they say, was history and not the good kind for Frederic or the Black and Gold.

If I’m Trent Frederic I’m retiring after this. Also worth noting St-Louis immediately scored on their PP. pic.twitter.com/zmvwX1jvtD

— Karl Havoc (@karlhavoc_) April 13, 2022

TURNING POINT: It was the 1-2 combo in the second period of a Trent Frederic penalty that led to the game-tying goal, and then a Brad Marchand turnover that opened up the Blues to come rushing at the Boston Bruins net. Vladimir Tarasenko was the trailer and fired a bullet past Jeremy Swayman for the go-ahead goal that became the game-winner. In short, the Bruins game totally fell apart with a couple of big mistakes compounded over each other in just a three-minute span toward the end of the second period.

HONORABLE MENTION: Vladimir Tarasenko was the other dangerous Blues player in this one as he cranked out the game-winning goal as the trailer on an odd-man rush, and then he once again took advantage of a 3-on-1 odd-man rush for the insurance marker after Torey Krug was able to get a puck away from Charlie Coyle near the St. Louis blue line. Tarasenko finished with the two goals, a plus-1 and eight shot attempts in 17:47 of ice time while now on the cusp of a 30-goal season for the Blues after he went through trade requests with them last summer. Both the player and team sure looked like they’ve figured things out at this point.

BY THE NUMBERS: 13 – the number of 20-goal seasons for Patrice Bergeron after his first period score, with only Alex Ovechkin (17), Sidney Crosby (14) and Patrick Kane 14) ahead of him among active NHL players.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s not very intelligent hockey. You’re not going to beat the good teams if you’re not playing intelligent hockey. We’re working hard, but we’re just not playing very smart right now. We need to play smarter, plain and simple.” –Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy on what he didn’t like in a game during which the Bruins held a 2-1 lead after the first period.