The regular season is mercifully coming to an end but still not fast enough. Can you believe that the playoffs start in just a week? It’s true! They officially start on Monday, May 2nd. But the Bruins have 3 more games to play before they can get there or maybe even know their opponent. At this point it’s Carolina but a lot can change with the Canes only having 2 games left and the Rags 3.
The Bruins are doing their part having earned 4 points this weekend, defeating both the Rangers and Canadiens in a back-to-back weekend. Saturday marked the return of David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, and Linus Ullmark and the team was much improved. Linus Ullmark was excellent and athletic in net, going 30-31, allowing only one puck to get past him on a Rags powerplay.
Linus Ullmark flashes the glove again, this time on Frank Vatrano's one-timer. pic.twitter.com/QCWGt0Ih6v
— Patrick Donnelly (@PatDonn12) April 23, 2022
Lindholm looked solid taking 3 shots on goal and 1 takeaway.
Hampus Lindholm executed that clean breakout that led to David Pastrnak’s goal.
Also, both were impactful in their first period back. Love to see it. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/sMIJmLaLEt
— Blake Thorne (@_BlakeThorne) April 23, 2022
His play allowed his pairing partner to be freed up to do things like this:
Charlie McAvoy decks Adam Fox, and is promptly jumped by Dryden Hunt as chaos ensues. They both get two for roughing. pic.twitter.com/JxQUuczRet
— Patrick Donnelly (@PatDonn12) April 23, 2022
Chuckie was PHYSICAL on Saturday and it was good to see. When he wasn’t laying a big hit, he was manhandling Rags’ players without hooking or holding.
And Pasta did what he does best, score.
So David Pastrnak has returned: pic.twitter.com/BjKIVxexAI
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) April 23, 2022
With a goal and an assist, he has reached 500 points in 508 games.
🎥 @pastrnak96 on scoring in his first game back in the lineup: "It's nice. It's a nightmare for every athlete being hurt and not playing. It's nice that I was able to come back and help the team." pic.twitter.com/luK6l8P18S
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 23, 2022
The Bruins won 3-1 with goals from Pasta, Taylor Hall, and Trent Frederic.
After just returning from injury, Pasta and Lindholm stayed home instead of traveling to Montreal while Ullmark sat on the bench to backup Jeremy Swayman if needed. The team looked very different.
After an excellent and very emotional ceremony in tribute to the late Guy Lafleur including a ten minute standing ovation by Habs fans, the Bruins were able to establish dominace early in the game going up two goals by Patrice Bergeron and Erik Haula.
Patrice Bergeron opens the scoring for Boston.
Good effort from Brad Marchand to set up that chance for Boston.
1-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/TIXGU3SEI4
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 25, 2022
I’m not sure if Haulas goal was funnier due to the circumstances or how he did it. First of all there was the “slash” that led to Haulas penalty shot.
the first time mike hoffman back checks in his career and the worst call of the year hapens https://t.co/sTiUR5BBOl
— Ryan🏝 (@rattmartin) April 25, 2022
Yeah, Haula sold that by dropping his stick. But that’ll teach Hoffman to try to play defensively.
And then there was the cringey callback to when Brad Marchand flubbed a shootout shot but different.
THE HAULA FAMER WITH THE GREATEST PENALTY SHOT GOAL OF ALL TIME pic.twitter.com/6YgG1xyNDI
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) April 25, 2022
Erik Haula became the second @NHLBruins skater to score on a penalty shot this season (also Brad Marchand on Oct. 16, 2021 vs. DAL) as Boston matched Montreal for the most penalty-shot goals among all teams in 2021-22.#NHLStats: https://t.co/lO30qzME5u pic.twitter.com/AWxmDrfhzS
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 25, 2022
The Bruins eventually let the Habs back into the game, which was annoying first with Josh Andersons PPG. Thankfully Haula scored again and Charlie McAvoy scored his 10th on the season.
Erik Haula can't be stopped. He now has two goals tonight. #NHLBruins | #NHL
— Jamie Gatlin (@JamieGatlin17) April 25, 2022
Charlie McAvoy. This kid’s fucking jacked. Thick, dense, built whatever you wanna call him he's got it. Legs thicker than my chest, and shoulders wider than my wingspan. Making full use of his frame and with the golden flow to top it off. Bonafide stallion pic.twitter.com/9jySG9FoeB
— Petrov McGuire (@McguirePetrov) April 25, 2022
False confidence leads to lapses in play. While the Bruins took a 4-1 lead into the third period, the Habs were not going to go down so easily. With the first 8 minutes of the period Mike Hoffman scored on the power play and Nick Suzuki potted one at even strength. But the B’s managed to hold them off and even allow Patrice to score an empty net goal, his second on the night.
The Bruins next play against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
BTW, Petry’s hip check to Bergy looked pretty clean to me. I don’t like seeing the Captain get hit like that, but i am tired of fights over clean hits.
Yeah, fair. But on the other hand, fuck the habs.
Oh,oh,oh!!! Richard E Grant sighting! We were watching Marple. Jo had no idea why i was so excited.
I love how Richard E. Grant randomly became the mascot for B2B!
Morning all. Monday already? Boo!
Anonymous Monday!
I am ready for a weekend as i “worked” Saturday and Sunday!
Good morning,
Great weekend of hockey! Were able to watch the Bs/Rags. Bruins smthered the Rags for large parts of the game. They will have to continue clogging up the neutral zone and counterattacking against their potential playoff opponents.
Umm, the Lightning are very scary ever since the Bs put the clamps on them in the two teams last meeting. They handled the Fancy Cats and made it look fairly easy, housed the Leafs last week, and are scoring goals in bunches. Looks like they get Toronto in the first round… that should be fun.
Great weather weekend, but i stayed home to work on the house and yard…. am i starting to act like a grown up?
i really want to see the Bs head into the postseason with all of their pucks in a row, and they keep sleeping on teams, commit lazy giveaways (why, why, WHY to they love the blind drop pass so much? at least pay attention to where your opponents are on the ice when you move the puck!), or make bad line changes. They’ve been better against stronger teams, but still, they’re building bad habits. And the injuries have been disheartening. I thought they were gonna lose Hall last night.
Hopefully they can do well vs the fancy cats tomorrow. And maybe they can wake up their power play.
There have been a few instances of miscommunication between D partners proving costly. I suppose it’s going to happen when you get a string of injuries to top defencemen but no less annoying for that.
Some of the miscues have been almost comic…. probably hilarious to opponents and their fans.
Morning all,
A weekend of nice results in inconsequential games (although good to hand the Habs their first nine-game losing streak since 1939. That said it’s hard to care much about Montreal when they’re this bad).
Good to have the squad fully fit again.
I wonder whether the Fancy Cats will put out a bunch of AHLers – depends how desperate they are for the Presidents Trophy, although the Avocados have lost four straight. We’ll see.
Planned to start watching season two of Russian Doll over the weekend, but after watching the brief recap I realised I remembered virtually nothing about season one, so instead I rewatched that! How long ago was it? Three years? Maybe four? Shocking memory. Still, at least I enjoyed watching it again and bang ready for Season Two now!
I think season 1 came out 2019? 2019 feels like a lifetime ago! Finished season 2 last night. Really really loved it. And man do I feel like this season puts you through some intense therapy sessions.
Oh I was hoping it wasn’t as recent as that! haha.
RD sounds to intense for Jo and I. We’ll give it a try and see how far we get.