Tag: Columbus Blue Jackets

The Kid Can Play

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Last night we saw yet another rookie make their debut for the Boston Bruins.  Ryan Donato took the ice for the Bruins wearing a spoked B for the first time in his young career.  He did not disappoint either.

Just a stellar night from the kid on a less than stellar evening for the Bruins.  Donato slotted onto David Krejci’s wing with Danton Heinen, and registered 3 points.  A goal and two assists.  Donato was forced into that spot due to Rick Nash being a late scratch, due to an Upper Body Injury.   Besides the 3 points Donato had a great debut.  While he looked a bit lost at times, he was always hounding the puck, and firing shots on goal when he did have it.  The mental and physical speed the NHL game is played at will come to him in time, but he will be prone to tough stretches.  For now, just throw your body around and fire the puck on net.  Donato is a natural goal scorer that will all come if he keeps it simple.

Otherwise, it was a shitty night for the Bruins.  After taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the 2nd period, they fell apart.

Sonny Milano re-directed a slap-shot past Tuuka Rask to make it 3-2 late in the second period.  Then noted Bruins killer, Thomas Vanek re-directed a shot top tit to tie the game at 3 in the third period.

The Jackets continued to press the Bruins in the 3rd period, and Artemi Panarin fired a snap-shot past Rask directly off a face-off.

Just abysmal.  Lazy from all 5 guys on the ice.  The Jackets should not be, 1. winning the draw that cleanly, and 2. firing off a shot that cleanly.  Pathetic effort from Tuukka Rask who’s sucked for the better part of two months.  Pay attention, and he stops it.

David Krejci tied the game at 4 just a few seconds later, after a nice backhand feed from Ryan Donato, and the game would head to Overtime.  Brad Marchand appeared to have the game winning goal on his stick early in the extra frame:

Bruins Fans: Quit bitching.  Brad Marchand is never EVER getting this call.  Not to mention Brad Marchand is 50% of the reason Brad Marchand went twirling in the air here.  Either way, Brad is the least policed player in the league.  He’s earned that reputation, and will get ZERO breaks from the officials probably ever.  Should that have been a penalty?  Probably, but I think there is a hefty assist from Marchand and I am fine with a no call.   The Jackets controlled the puck for the rest of OT, and finally Cam Atkinson snapped a Wrist Shot through the arms of Tuukka Rask.

He’s absolutely 100% gotta stop that.  Be better, Tuukks.  Overall a solid debut for Ryan Donato (weird seeing him in Milan Lucic’ #17) that was dampened by a sloppy finish.  Having lost 3 of their last 5 the Bruins take on St. Louis on Wednesday.  The Blues have surged back into playoff contention the past weeks, and are coming off 2 straight wins.  Going to need a strong bounce back performance, lets go Bruins!

 

Tampa Bay Sucks.

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The Big Bad Lightning!  The Tampa Lightning, wire to wire have been the  the best team in the NHL.  They currently sit at 102 points, which is four ahead of the Bruins (98).  They added pieces such as J.T. Miller, and Ryan McDonagh at the trade deadline, and surely the up-start Bruins couldn’t keep up with Big Bad Lightning, right? Wrong.

Saturday saw the Bruins limp into Amalie Arena down Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy, Zdeno Chara, and Jake Debrusk.  Each one is a major piece to the puzzle for the 2018 Bruins.   DOES NOT MATTER.  The Bruins not only went to Tampa, and won, but they fucking emasculated the them.   3-0 final was the final.  With the win the Bruins move to just 4 points behind Tampa for first play in, well the NHL.  Personally, let Tampa have the Presidents Trophy.  This win just shows me how much more of a sound team the Bruins are than Tampa.

The game opened up with the Bruins hounding the Lightning all over the ice, despite being down so many key players.   Early on in the first period, Tory Krug fed a streaking David Pastrnak in the high slot.  Pastrnak took the puck to the cage, and shoveled a backhander around the pad of Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Early on things were looking great for the Bruins as they completely hounded the Lightning.  The Bruins gave up chances to the Lightning, but for the first time in awhile Tuukka Rask was in the zone, and the Bruins depleted D Corps played the best game they’ve had as unit all season healthy, or otherwise.

On the Power Play just over the halfway point of the season, David Backes banged home a Tory Krug rebound to make it 2-0.  Finally, early in the second Riley Nash slammed home a rebound to make it 3-0 Bruins.  It was their second Power Play goal of the game, and would effectively put the game on ice.

The Bruins would coast home in the third to seal 3-0 win over the best the NHL has to offer.  The scoreline definitely could be higher, but the if I were Tampa I’d be embarrassed.  The Bruins are missing so many key players, and lost ANOTHER (David Backes) mid-game.  They allowed the Bruins to bully them.  You had guys like Kuraly, Acciari, and Schaller drilling the Tampa D behind their own net, which forces mistakes, and causes havoc.  Not only did the fourth line throw their body around, the whole team was finishing their checks.  Physically wearing down the best team in Hockey.

Tampa is too good to keep down for long, and Tampa certainly had their chances to get back into the game.  The Bruins Defense and Goaltending shut down Kucherov, Stamkos, Miller, Hedman, Johnson, Palat, and Killorn all night long.  I would not be overly optimistic with Saturday’s effort if I were a Bolts fan.

Tune into NESN tonight @ 7pm to catch the Bruins against the Columbus Blue Jackets.  The Jackets sit at 4th in the Metropolitan Division with 83 points.  They are currently locked into the first Playoff Wildcard seed.

The Bruins will have a new Rookie making his debut tonight:

Top Forward Prospect, Ryan Donato has signed a 2 year Rookie Contract with the Bruins.  Donato is the Bruins top forward prospect after shining at Harvard University for three seasons, and for Team USA at the 2018 Olympics.  Most kids sign their rookie contracts and spend 1-2 years in the AHL developing their game.  Donato is a special talent.  Special enough that Bruce Cassidy is inserting him to tonights lineup:

 

Let’s go Bruins!