Last night, the Boston Bruins played their penultimate game of the regular season against the New York Islanders. Both teams were playing for the third seed in the East and the chance to meet up against the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs. A win for the Isles would advance them to 72 points on the season and a tie with the Bruins, who still have one game left. However, the Bruins managed to put the Isles to bed and claim the third seed in overtime.
I don’t know about you, but it seemed like the Bruins should have won the game handily after taking 38 shots on goal to the Islanders 18 and dominating possession stats like at the faceoff dot, 67%-33%. However, Tuukka Rask wasn’t at his top form, ultimately going 16-18 with a .889 save percentage letting in a soft goal to tie up the game. Even though the Bruins scored twice on Semyon Varlamov, they didn’t have the same luck with his backup Ilya Sorokin, who took over in the third period for the injured starter. It would take a fast flying attack by a new-ish Bruins to break up the tie and win it in overtime.
It’s no surprise that Taylor Hall was name the first star of the game. In the first period alone, he scored the first goal of the game on the power play and drew two penalties.
Sweet Hall.#NHLBruins | @hallsy09 pic.twitter.com/G5ICAtJ4bv
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 10, 2021
Before the end of that period, Leo Komarov attacked David Pastrnak with the butt-end of his stick in his gut. Komarov got a double minor for that and slashing Brad Marchand. This allowed the B’s to score that first Hall goal.
What was this from Leo Komarov? pic.twitter.com/YvHCxQxNRy
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 10, 2021
Taylor Hall giveth but also taketh away. Down behind the net, Hall and Nick Leddy were having a time. Leddy had hit Hall in a way that he objected to and Hall decided to take matters into his own hands. Unfortunately, this led to a cross-checking penalty. Charlie McAvoy was already in the box for a hooking call, making it a 4-on-3. Oliver Wahlstrom scored.
Brad Marchand would eventually score after multiple chances on goal. Bruce Cassidy says that this is a second effort league, well, this was a second, third, even a fourth effort to get the go-ahead goal. It would be Marchy’s 29th on the year.
What a feed from David Krejci.
Make it 29 goals on the year for Brad Marchand. pic.twitter.com/Xkv5yPZlt3
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) May 11, 2021
By the way, David Krejci quietly had a three-point night after assisting on all three of the Bruins’ goals. Oh did I say three? We’ll get to that.
In the meantime, Mathew Barzal tied it up.
With no goals in the third, the game would go to overtime. That’s when Taylor Hall decided to be filthy.
This 7⃣1⃣ character is goooood.#NHLBruins | @hallsy09 pic.twitter.com/uZYpKnTswo
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 11, 2021
Yep, overtime winner! After the game, Taylor Hall expressed how he feels about being in Boston and where he draws inspiration.
Taylor Hall: “It’s been 16 games, and it’s probably been the most enjoyable of my career.”
— Ty Anderson (@_TyAnderson) May 11, 2021
In 16 games, he’s had 8 goals and 6 assists.
Taylor Hall with an interesting point on how watching Brad Marchand gave him confidence.
⚡️: @betonline_ag
WATCH: https://t.co/AiL1YFWfQr pic.twitter.com/BYV7gCZ6n7
— Evan Marinofsky (@emarinofsky) May 11, 2021
Unfortunately, the Bruins lost another forward during the game. Ondrej Kase played through two periods but left the game with an upper body injury. It wasn’t obvious how it was caused.
UPDATE: Ondrej Kase (upper-body) will not return to tonight’s game.
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 11, 2021
The Bruins have one more game to get to 56 games tomorrow night against the Washington Capitals in DC. This team will be the opponent for the foreseeable future with the first round starting on Saturday night.
See ya Saturday night in D.C.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/nrOANarcsN
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 11, 2021
Hi Guys,
As it turns out the Bruins have absolutely nothing to play for other than pride tonight so here’s an idea not of who you will see playing but rather who you won’t see playing tonight:
Tonight feels more like an Oskar Steen/Jack Ahcan kinda game than a Pastrnak/Carlo kinda game.
Bruce feels the same.
Top line McKegg-Frederic-Wagner?
Do we have enough goons in the system to ice an all-goon lineup?
Presumably Washington aren’t playing anyone we’ve ever heard of either.
Caps are resting some guys tonight too. Ovi & Backstrom were practicing this morning, so it might not be as unrecognizable as what the Bruins will ice.
I’m predicting a top line of DeBrusk-T-Freddy-Ritchie
Morning all. Saw the other day that Ovi became an investor in the DC women’s soccer team. That’s pretty cool.
oh jeez, i’m not fully awake.
i read this as Ovi becoming a striker on the DC women’s soccer team. And I’m thinking “Who the hell would let him do that?”
It’s cool to see women’s pro sports getting a bit more exposure. Props to Ovi.
Ha! I wonder if there’s a soccer version of this gif:
Now I’ve gone anonymous!
Meh heh heh heh!
All your base are belong to us!
Hi folks.
Bs won. Yay? I guess? Now we’ve got potentially eight in a row against the Caps. Well that will be fun.
Finally managed to book a first-shot date. Unfortunately all the associated second-shot dates are while I’m on holiday up North (pandemic-permitting). Ah, well. I wait a little longer.
Are we still not making “can’t get a second date” jokes?
But yay for getting the first jab!