Your Boston Bruins welcomed in the Wichita Thunder San Jose Barracuda San Jose Sharks for a Thursday night tilt at the Vault on Causeway. Hey so what if this San Jose team hasn’t had much success this year so far: 5-16-2 for 12 points (the lowest point total in the NHL); or if the Sharks haven’t found their feet on the road just yet: 0-10-0 on the season with a goal differential of 42-6 away from The Shark Tank (yes I know it’s the SAP Center now, but it will always be the Shark Tank to me). I mean the team is stacked up front, (checks notes) with um…. Hertl and Duclair? And on defense and in net they’re solid with um… Vlasic and the ghost of Mackenzie Blackwood? At least they have a solid coaching staff… oh yeah, nevermind.
Okay. Let’s call it what it is. The 2023-2024 SJS are a rolling slumpbuster and they came in on a perfect get right Thursday night for the Bruins. Nothing like playing a minor league hockey team to put a little pep in the step of the boys sporting the Black and Gold. Was it pretty? Ehh. Was it a game tape to re-watch over and over to motivate and learn from? Probably not. But the B’s can only play the schedule they were given and 2 points is 2 points any day of the week. The more things change the more things stay the same. If a club is going to be a gong show once, they’re always going to be a gong show.
Let’s get into tonight’s game.
HC Jim Montgomery shuffled his top 6 and defensive pairs a bit tonight in order to get some of the teams’ mojo back. I mean, NHL coaches only have so much they can do and Monty has checked all the other options off his checklist already. Early timeout in a game: Check. Yanking your starting goalie to wake up the boys: Check. Bag skate: Check. The only other option he had was sitting some of his recent underperforming players but I don’t think that’s his style. And at least for tonight he got the result he wanted.
Pavel Zacha centered the top line with David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk on his wings while Matt Poitras was the 2nd line pivot with Brad Marchand and Danton Heinen riding shotgun. The Charlie Coyle and Johnny Beecher lines stayed static as they should have as the bottom 6 have been the more consistent as of late. On the backend, it was Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm as the top pair and Brandon Carlo with Matt Grzelcyk in front of Jeremy Swayman. Derek Forbort and Kevin Shattenkirk were the 3rd pairing.
The first opened up with the Sharks outshooting the Bruins for the first half of the period (7-4 edge to SJS). The B’s looked sluggish and content to skate at the Sharks pace of play and if you paid attention to the first couple paragraphs of this, you know that type of gameplay sucks ass. Late in the period the B’s killed off a SJS power play and seemed to gain some momentum off the kill, with the 4th line really getting some energy going in the SJS zone. The best chances of the opener were by Heinen and Morgan Geekie but both bids were denied and the teams retired for the first intermission knotted at gooses.
The Poitras line got it going in the middle frame when Heinen cashed in. Marchand had a great grinding, physical shift on the wall in puck pursuit and forced a desperation attempt at a clear from the SJS D down low. Poitras showed off his hands as he corralled the airborne puck and dragged 2 defenders while protecting the puck before finding Heinen dropping down the RW wall. Heinen wasted no time in lasering the puck over Blackwood’s shoulder and the B’s were on the board. Great shift from this line in support of each other and in puck possession/pursuit.
Just before midway in the period, DeBrusk doubled up the Bruins score with a sick forehand-backhand drive to the net. Pastrnak found Zacha breaking into the SJS zone and Zacha zipped the pass from the top of one circle to the other and hit DeBrusk in stride. DeBrusk drove the net on his forehand and then dragged it across the goal mouth waiting for Blackwood to open up before tucking it 5-hole on the backhand. What the clip below doesn’t show you is how DeBrusk initiated the breakout and then busted ass up ice to get into the play. I guess playing top 6 minutes gets Jake skating all 200 feet again?
This is when things went off the rails a bit. Marchand got boarded earlier in the game from Givani Smith (4th liner who averages about 4min TOI per game) and Trent Frederic was more than willing to give him a go. Best line of the year (so far) from Homeboy Jack after Freddie battled back with some body shots: “Try the Ribs!!”
Almost immediately after that Marchand dropped the gloves with Fabian Zetterlund while McAvoy was getting bundled by 3 players after he got called for boarding (weak call at best as Carpenter spun right McAvoy was checking him). All of a sudden the B’s had to kill off a 5:3 SJS power play with 30 seconds in the second.
The Bruins killed it off with some great work predominantly by Coyle, Forbort and Carlo. The Sharks only landed 2 shots on net during the entire man advantage (and went 0 for 8 on the PP tonight with less than 6SOG- they’ve earned that shit record for sure). The Bruins weren’t done just yet as Zacha got his cookie on a B’s PP with 7 mins to play. Pasta carried into the SJS zone on the RW and froze 2 defenders with a step to the outside as Zacha drove the slot. Pasta laid it over to his countryman through Kyle Burroughs’ triangle and Zacha went forehand-backhand-shelf and it was all over but the clock. Funny how Blackwood’s inability to move laterally wasn’t fixed by that top notch HC Dave Quinn in San Jose.
Swayman earned his 2nd shutout of the season in facing 28SOG tonight. He wasn’t tested for long stretches of gameplay tonight but was big when he needed to be. From the goalies I’ve talked to, these type of games are always a bit harder to get into and to keep the concentration. It’s long minutes of nothing and then a breakaway or odd-man rush. Swayman was solid and silky smooth out there all 60 minutes.
The B’s needed this one and I’m sure it felt good to grab the W and 2 points. (Shout out to my buddy Dom who was at the game with his family). They still don’t look right, and are missing some of the crispness, but it’s a step in the right direction. They also have had 1 practice in the last 10 days so I’m sure they’re looking forward to some much needed Warrior ice time in the coming weeks. Up next is a trip to TOR on Sat before coming back home for a shot at revenge when CBJ comes in on Sunday (not a sentence I ever thought I’d have to type).
In the meantime, fuck it. Since we’ve all missed it… time for a goalie hug
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