Talking Points: Ullmark, Hall Shine Bright For Bruins In Shootout

BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 2-1 shootout win over the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden on Thursday night.

GOLD STAR: Linus Ullmark has been brilliant in the early going for the Boston Bruins and he was that again on Thursday night making 30 saves and stopping every shot he saw in the shootout to take the one-goal victory. He was arguably at his best in overtime as he stuffed an Anaheim breakaway chance after all three Boston Bruins players got caught down low by the net but was steady throughout a game where the B’s weren’t really capitalizing on their offensive chances against the Ducks. Ullmark is sporting a .927 save percentage and a 2.58 goals against average at this early juncture of the season and could play his way into more playing time if he continues this current trend.

A huge stop by Ullmark in overtime. pic.twitter.com/uoJfYBx09H

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 21, 2022

BLACK EYE: As good as some Boston Bruins players were, Jack Studnicka really struggled in his regular season debut for the Black and Gold. He was stripped of the puck on the the play that led to Frank Vatrano’s goal in regulation, and he took a pair of penalties including what could have been a costly one in the third period. He finished with just 8:05 of ice time and played just a couple of shifts in the third period while finishing with the minus-1 rating and a pair of losses in the face-off circle. Sitting with sporadic playing time is a difficult situation for Studnicka to be in right now, but he’s going to have to figure out a way to be more effective for the Bruins when he’s called upon.

TURNING POINT: The turning point was pretty clearly overtime when Ryan Strome had a breakaway chance after Matt Grzelcyk gambled at keeping the puck in the offensive zone and ended up down on the ice. That gave the Ducks a clear breakaway at the Boston Bruins net that Ullmark turned away when the Ducks forward tried to give five hole on him for the game-winner. Then Ullmark made a diving play to clear the puck out of the zone when Pavel Zacha fell behind on a play where the Ducks were taking it straight to the Boston net. That allowed things to remain scoreless in overtime and then set up the shootout where Taylor Hall was the only player to score a goal.

HONORABLE MENTION: Taylor Hall enjoyed his best game of the season, by far. He was all around the puck, so it was appropriate that the puck found when John Gibson bounced a clearing attempt off him. Hall collected the puck and then scored on a quick turnaround shot that appeared to surprise the Ducks netminder. Then Hall scored a five-hole bid on Gibson in the shootout for the eventual game-winner. Hall finished with four shot attempts in 18 plus minutes and also crushed Cam Fowler with a massive hit behind the Ducks net that knocked the Anaheim defenseman out of the game.

BY THE NUMBERS: 9 – the number of shots on net for Jake DeBrusk in 21:13 of ice time as he had a first period goal called back when the Anaheim Ducks coaches challenged that the play was offsides.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “I thought Taylor Hall was our best skater. Linus [Ullmark] was our best player, I thought he was hard on it & he protected pucks. I’ll bet you he had the puck on his stick for 45 seconds tonight. When a gifted player like Taylor Hall has the puck on his stick a lot he feels better about himself.” –Jim Montgomery on Taylor Hall, who provided all the offense Boston would need with the regulation score and the shootout winner.