With the Bruins on the precipice of NHL history, was there a better opponent for them than the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Philadelphia Flyers? I mean a weekend vs. first the NJD and then PHI? Holy shit that’s a couple of not ready for primetime, weak sauce franchises on a back to back.
Not only did PHI play their backup goalie, this woeful joke of a franchise played tonight with 5 D-men. Why? Because the biggest ego in Pennsylvania: PHI HC John Tortorella, health-bombed one of his best defenders for the 3rd straight game (Tony DeAngelo). With so much history on the line, Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery had all hands on deck. Well, not so much. Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Charlie McAvoy, Dimitri Orlov and Linus Ullmark all stayed home along with Nick Foligno and Derek Forbort (both recently moved to LTIR). I guess Monty figured the boys could get it done no matter who suited up (not gonna lie, I was hoping for a call for some 4th line minutes).
While the rest of The Morning Skate bloggers busied themselves with who deserves a statue, and whining over who’s my captain going to be (poor Boother even tried to justify how his 10ply Devils have a chance in the playoffs), over here in the Hub of Hockey, the Black and Gold Faithful have bigger fish to fry. In the 106 years since the NHL was conceived there hasn’t been a single team to have 63 wins in a season… until now. Your Boston Bruins stand alone at the top of the mountaintop as the best regular season team in NHL history (with 2 games left to play).
Now none of this means shit if the B’s don’t compete for the Cup. Here we count successful seasons by championships. You’re not going to see any banners for Billy Joel flying from the TD Garden rafters (looking at you NYR), and you won’t see the Bruins roll out a banner every time they get a new Zamboni (looking at you NSH). Here the team counts Cups, and luckily Bruins fans don’t need a time machine or a talk with their great grandparents to remember what it was like to bask in Lord Stanley’s glow (looking at you TOR). So the Bruins have set a new record, but their work is not done. Let’s get to the highlights of this historic W:
Charlie Coyle got it going just 00:47 seconds into this one with a dart from the slot. Kinda looked like Bergy from the bumper position, not gonna lie.
Wade Allison tied it up just 17 seconds later and that score held through the period and into the middle frame. With just over 2 minutes played, David Pastrnak got his first of the night with a wrister from outside. I don’t think PHI goalie Felix Sandstrom saw this one through the forest of bodies and sticks in front of him.
5 minutes later, Pasta was at it again this time with a patented one-timer that was put right into his wheelhouse by Tyler Bertuzzi. In my opinion, Big Boy Bert played his best game as a Bruin tonight. He was physically engaged, pursuing pucks all over the ice and was heavy on the walls.
The Bruins carried a 3-2 lead into the final frame and within the first minute on the fresh sheet, Pasta achieved that rarefied air of a 60G season in a Bruins sweater. Pasta and Bertuzzi broke in on a 2:1 off a great outlet from Hampus Lindholm and the Flyers didn’t stand a chance. You can’t beat history.
I don’t know what’s happened to Philly. Multiple times the “Let’s Go Bruins” chants were heard over the TV feed and when Pasta notched the hatty? It looked like a home game by the amount of hats raining down on the ice. The Philly fans that threw batteries at Santa must not be eligible for work release as this crowd was def Black and Gold flavored. Pavel Zacha scored off a Pasta feed for his 21st of the year (and his 3rd G in 2GP) to ice this one and send the crowd home happy. You could hear the B’s fans with the “We Want the Cup” chant as the clock wound down. The Sportsnet clip below is longer and shows the amount of hats that actually made the ice.
And here’s the video of the Zacha goal. I just want to quickly point out that Pavel Zacha has set new career highs in point, goals and assists and is a plus player for the first time in his career. I think that Don Sweeney won that trade.
The Bruins got the W tonight behind a full roster effort driven by the Pastrnak – Zacha – Bertuzzi line and some outright robbery by Jeremy Swayman. The Bruins seemed to be a bit sloppy and played down to their “competition” tonight at times but still got it done thanks to the pride of Anchorage, Alaska. That’s the B’s “backup” goalie – this team is a fucking wagon.
Lastly, a quick stick tap to AJ Greer who took on one of the toughest cats in the league in Nic Deslauriers and held his own. I mean Deslauriers is a bit of scumbag for throwing rabbit punches while the on-ice officials held Greer, but Philly’s gonna Philly I guess. I was hoping for a Trent Frederic vs. Brendan Lemeiux tilt as well, but it didn’t happen as the Son of Scumbag was too busy slew-footing Matt Grzelcyk late in the 3rd (and you gotta love that instant karma when Grz’s stick knocked out one of Lemeiux’s chiclets on his way down – The Hockey Gods make things right yet again!)
The Bruins head home for a game vs. WAS and then wrap up the regular season with a visit to MTL. Are you ready for some playoffs? Expect a playoff preview episode of the podcast to come out between the end of the reg season and the start of the playoffs. In the meantime, the latest podcast is available here.
No Huggy Bears tonight, so just… Play the music
Tonight also marked the 2nd anniversary of the passing of Red Gedron who was Jeremy Swayman’s coach at Maine and someone that Swayman had remained very close to. From TNT:
Originally tweeted by B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) on April 10, 2023.
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