Talking Points: Boston Bruins Give St. Louis Shootout Blues

Here are the Talking Points for the Boston Bruins in a 4-3 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues at the Scottrade Center on Sunday afternoon.

GOLD STAR: Once again Linus Ullmark stood up and became a huge factor in a win for the Boston Bruins where, at times, they were getting outplayed in a big way by a St. Louis Blues team that wasn’t throwing in the towel. The Blues struck for a pair of gut punch goals right at the end of periods that could have sunk the B’s, but instead Ullmark hunkered down and made 35 saves to help push the Bruins all the way to the shootout. There he stopped every shot that he saw including a flashy glove save on Brayden Schenn at the end that sealed the victory for the Black and Gold. Ullmark continues to put the finishing touches on a Vezina body of work this season. He also stands only two wins short of the B’s franchise record for a goalie. Will he get there?

Linus Ullmark has captured 38 of the @NHLBruins' 60 wins in 2022-23. Will he finish the season with 40 or more?#NHLStats: https://t.co/yWIVKZZtcP pic.twitter.com/Es1mxq0ISy

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 2, 2023

BLACK EYE: Not a lot of black eyes for the Boston Bruins, but the wild high stick from Tomas Nosek on Brayden Schenn while the B’s were already killing a penalty was both a dangerous play and a really bad judgement call with the Bruins already down a man. That turned into a 5-on-3 advantage for over 90 seconds for the St. Louis Blues where they somehow didn’t score against a Boston penalty kill that stood tall at that point.

TURNING POINT: The turning point was the overtime session where the Boston Bruins turned around the momentum and could have won the game on numerous occasions, including a breakaway all alone for Brad Marchand that Jordan Binnington somehow managed to stop. The highly entertaining OT allowed the Boston Bruins to get a foothold and then they took control of things when Charlie Coyle scored early in the shootout with the red-hot Linus Ullmark stopping everything that he saw.

HONORABLE MENTION: Torey Krug seems to always enjoy banner days against the Boston Bruins and Sunday afternoon was another one as he scored a third period goal during their comeback, finished with a plus-2 rating in over 22 minutes of ice time and had a whopping nine shot attempts in an extremely active game. On top of that he blocked three shots and even made a reference to “the guy with the big nose” in a parting shot at Brad Marchand during a pregame interview with TNT where he talked about still feeling weird going against his Boston Bruins friends.

BY THE NUMBERS: 60 – the franchise record number of wins for the Boston Bruins as they continue to push toward breaking Montreal’s longstanding record for the most points in NHL history.

QUOTE TO NOTE: Point Krug! You’re up, Brad.

Krug, asked on TNT about his former Bruins teammates, gave a little shoutout to “the guy with the big nose.”

— Steve Buckley (@BuckinBoston) April 2, 2023