Talking Points: Boston Bruins Take Rangers, 10th W in a Row

Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 4-2 win over the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.

GOLD STAR: Charlie Coyle hadn’t scored in a while, so it was a welcome development to see the Weymouth native factor into both of the first two goals that staked the B’s out to a two-goal lead over the Blueshirts. The first goal was Coyle’s after Tyler Bertuzzi carried a puck behind the New York net before feeding Coyle in the slot for the strike during the final few minutes of the first period. Then Coyle was right in the middle of things again in the opening minutes of the second period when he tossed a pass to open space that Tomas Nosek was able to corral and then put a move on Igor Shesterkin before dumping a backhander past him. That was a shorthanded back-breaker that the Blueshirts never fully recovered from. Coyle finished with a goal and two points, a plus-2 rating in 14:54 of ice time and two shot attempts, two hits, a blocked shot and 6-of-11 faceoff wins.

Tomas Nosek with a shorthanded beauty from Charlie Coyle to make it 2-0. pic.twitter.com/GoMPyMnQmg

— Patrick Donnelly (@PatDonn12) March 4, 2023

BLACK EYE: Where was Patrick Kane? Or Artemi Panarin? People were anointing this Rangers team as an unbeatable juggernaut after they brought in both Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko for scoring punch, but the truth is that oft-times creating an All-Star team of goal-scorers doesn’t work. True hockey people know this and were tremendously curious as to whether there was going to be enough net-front presence, grit and blue collar play to go along with their star power. Panarin finished with a minus-3, zero shots on net and had six giveaways in a horrible performance. Kane was only slightly better. It sure looks like they have a lot of work to do.

TURNING POINT: Once again the Boston Bruins pulled away from an opponent in the third period. While the Rangers were short a couple of players because of salary cap issues after piling up all the trades at the deadline, the B’s used their depth to build a 2-1 lead and then outshot the Blueshirts 9-3 in the third period while dominating and eventually busting through for Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak goals at the end. The NHL’s best third period team by a wide margin once again showed why

HONORABLE MENTION: One of the only players that showed up for the New York Rangers was Alexis Lafreniere. He scored both of New York’s goals including a nifty high top on a Jacob Trouba shot in the second period and a third period shot on net that was deflected by a Boston Bruins defender on its way past Linus Ullmark. Lafreniere finished with two goals, four shots on net, and a hit in 13:28 of ice time for the undermanned Rangers group.

BY THE NUMBERS: 6 – the number of giveaways for Artemi Panarin in a miserable game for the Rangers forward.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “For us it’s the Stanley Cup. That’s the only thing. Records are meant to be broken, but once you have the hardware, they can never be taken away from you.” –Linus Ullmark, on the focus of this Boston Bruins team as they go on smashing regular season records.