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BHN Talking Points

Talking Points: Boston Bruins Home Streak Ends With Cassidy Return

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Boston Bruins

BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 4-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night in Bruce Cassidy’s return to TD Garden.

GOLD STAR: It was old friend Reilly Smith that finally won it for the Golden Knights when he buried a five-hole shot past Jeremy Swayman during the shootout after an exciting back-and-forth affair between the Golden Knights and Bruins. That was only his second-best play of the night, though, as Smith also offered up a towel to former Boston Bruins head Bruce Cassidy when he was clearly getting emotional after the video tribute and ovation for him during the first period. Smith finished with four shots on net in 19:57 while not scoring in regulation as Paul Cotter had two goals. But it was Smith that came back to take a possible happy ending away from the B’s in the shootout.

BLACK EYE: Tough night for David Krejci, who was a minus-2 in the loss without any points, and was part of a second line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak that didn’t do much during the game. In fact, it was Pastrnak slotted in with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand at the end of the second period when he scored his goal that really stole the momentum for the Black and Gold. Krejci also finished with a 4-for-11 performance in the faceoff circle as he absolutely did not have his best against the Golden Knights.

TURNING POINT: The Boston Bruins were good to salvage a point after falling down 2-0 in the first period, and things really turned on David Pastrnak scoring a goal right in the closing seconds of the second period on a nifty turnover laser shot from the left faceoff dot. That carried over into the third period where a pair of quick Vegas penalties turned into a Bruins 5-on-3 with Taylor Hall scoring the tying goal. That quick sequence allowed the Boston Bruins to at least carried a tie score into overtime and the shootout before they eventually fell to the Golden Knights.

HONORABLE MENTION: The honorable mention goes to Bruce Cassidy for getting the goodbye moment he deserved as head coach of the Boston Bruins after being summarily dismissed last summer. It was good on the Boston Bruins fans for recognizing all the good that Cassidy did while he was here and showering him with the appreciative ovation that he deserved for guiding the Bruins to play appearances and a Stanley Cup Final run while he was Boston’s bench boss. Clearly it meant a lot to him as he showed while being choked up and emotional on the Vegas bench after the video played.

BY THE NUMBERS: 1 – the number of losses for the Boston Bruins at home this season after their NHL-record 14-game winning streak to start the year was snapped on Monday night.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “That’s something I’ll obviously get choked up about in about 3 seconds. I appreciate it. It’s that simple. I appreciate it. I did what I could here to help the team win and now it’s on to Vegas to help that team win” –Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy on the video tribute and long, warm fan ovation in his return to TD Garden.

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