Beautiful Lake Tahoe & The First Slump of the Season

Before they left for the sun-filled paradise known as Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. The Bruins found themselves on a 2-game skid. A previously mentioned 4-2 loss to the Islanders and a 3-2 loss to New Jersey. Maybe a team bonding getaway was precisely what was in order.

The Bruins arrived in Lake Tahoe rockin' retro-90's garb and the debit of their Adidas retro reverse jerseys. An NHL hockey game has never seen such a serene setting of snow, mountain rang,e and water. The Bruins came to Tahoe to play after a 7-3shellackingg of the Philadelphia Flyers, thanks in part to David Pastrnak's second hat trick of the season and the 10th of his career. Not to mention the 1st career goal of Trent Frederic's career.

The soaring highs of Tahoe were soon erased when the Bruins found themselves right back in the middle of their first slump of the season, losing 3 of 4 and then 4 of 5 to the Islanders and Rangers. With Bruin's goaltending giving up a season-high 13 goals in 2 games.

The Bruins arrived in Madison Square Garden for a matinee rematch against the Rangers, a much different team. The story of the game was Nick Ritchie falling on to Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev's head on some incidental contact inside the crease, setting up the first goal of the game by Charlie Coyle. The Rangers end up pulling Georgiev in favor of Igor Shestyorkin. The Bruins go on to a comfortable 4-1 victory but not before Nick Richie has to answer a bell with Brendan Lemieux with only 2 seconds left in the game. The first of Ritchie's Bruins career and a real lousy look by Lemieux, in my opinion.

Team Resiliency: Winning Formula

At 10-2-2, the Boston Bruins presently look like one of the best teams in the NHL. Their record aside, the team resiliency is what impresses me the most. This team is never out of a game; in the most desperate and needed times, the Bruins produce and find ways to win, time after time. 

On February 3rd, the Bruins found themselves at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia for 2-games against the Flyers. 12 seconds in, David Pastrnak, fresh off a 2-goal performance against Washington, opens up the scoring by sneaking one past Carter Hart's five-hole. We saw a lackluster performance at times by the young Bruins defensive core, resulting in Tuukka Rask allowing 3 goals on the night. Bruins overcome a 2 goal deficit to force overtime, including Pastrnak in a hat trick performance with only 15 seconds remaining in regulation. Patrice Bergeron did quick work in the overtime, tipping one past Carter Hart for the game-winner 30 seconds in. Philadelphia never had possession in the OT.

Two days later, the two squads once again squared off in a back and forth effort that remained scoreless into the 3rd when the Flyers finally broke one past Rask. Once again, we saw the Bruins victorious in a comeback effort with goals by Marchand and Kurally. Their 4th consecutive come-from-behind win in the 3rd period.

On February 10th, the Bruins, at 7-0-1 in their last 8 games, rolled into Madison Square Garden to take on the Rangers for a 2-game set. At 15:08 of the 3rd, with New York leading 1-0, Jake Debrusk skated through the crease roofing one past the netminder

Alexandar Georgiev, after review, it was determined the puck didn't completely cross the goal line. Minutes later, Sean Kurally made sure it counted with a shorthanded wrist shot to tie the score at 1-1. The two teams then traded goals to force overtime. With the Bruins even surviving a Tuukka Rask brain fart when he attempted to come off the ice for an extra attacker, thinking the club was down 2-1. Brad Marchand scored 36 seconds into OT on a breakaway wrist shot.

In the second game of the series, the Bruins found themselves as the beneficiaries of a 1-0 Halak shutout courtesy of a Nick Ritchie goal at 9:27 of the second. The real story is how the young Bruins responded to their teammates on ice treatment by the Rangers. At 9:27 of the 2nd, we saw Trent Frederic drop the gloves with Brandon Lemieux, where the young muscle held his own in a spirited bout. Shortly after that, in a lopsided tilt, Jeremy Lauzon unloads uppercuts on Pavel Buchnevich. A statement game that this Bruins team is not going to take any shit.

On February 13th, Boston shuttled down to Long Island, where they saw their 10-game point streak snapped at the hands of the New York Islanders. Marchand and Bergeron both added goals in a 4-2 losing effort, with both regulation losses this season happening at Nassau Coliseum. The Bruins next play Thursday against the Devils.

Bruins can't score even strength goals, huh?

After a humiliating 1-0 loss at the hands of the New York Islanders, where we saw a J.G. Pageau wrist shot effectively send the Bruins to the locker room with less than 5 minutes left in the 3rd. The writing was on the wall. The Boston Bruins struggle to score 5-on-5 even strength goals. 

Up until that point the Bruins had won their opening night contest against New Jersey 3-2 in a shootout but had suffered losses of 2-1 and the aforementioned 1-0 loss, until the broad Street bullies rolled into town for a two-game set starting on Thursday January 21st. When an onslaught of even strength goals sealed the deal of a back and forth affair meeting it's ultimatum with a Jake DeBrusk shootout goal for 5-4 victory, let's hope this is a step in the right direction for the eternally streaky Debrusk. The Saturday night tilt did not bode much better for Philadelphia, when the Bruins handed them a 6-1 beat down. Glad to see Boston put their early season struggles in the rearview for the time being!