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Bruins extend Kings' misery behind Rask's 41-save effort

December 13, 2011, 11:27 PM ET [ Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Los Angeles may have fired Terry Murray, plugging former Flyers coach and then-Kings assistant coach John Stevens into the 'interim' role, but the cure to their woes is still very much unknown. Squaring off against an injury depleted Bruins squad -- anchored by the loss of captain Zdeno Chara and fourth-line center Gregory Campbell -- not even a trip to a building that the Kings have not tasted defeat in since Jan. '02 could end Los Angeles' cold-streak.

Turning to Jonathan Quick, coming into play with a perfect 5-0 record against Boston in his career, a first period tally from Rich Peverley (his fifth of the year) would set the tone for a night that leave the Kings chasing the scoreboard. Despite surviving three first period penalties, the momentum wouldn't swing anywhere near the Kings' favor a second period tally from Boston's Brad Marchand would dig their grave deeper.

Combining for an otherworldly 33 shots in the final 40 minutes of play, the talk didn't revolve around Boston's scoring, not even when Marchand's third period tally (his second of the night), but rather the Bruins' Finnish Flash -- Tuukka Rask.

Stopping all 41 shots faced on the night, it was redemption for the 24-year-old net-minder after his last start back on Dec. 6 ended with a loss thanks to two soft goals.

"He was good tonight, arguably our best player tonight," a coy sounding Claude Julien said following Rask's sixth win in eight starts. "He stood tall and they threw a lot of shots at him, certainly not easy shots to stop. There was a lot of traffic in front of the net."

Stoning all 20 of the Kings' third period shots, Rask's performance was that of 2009-10 lore.

"He got better as the game went on and I thought he did a good job the other night coming in and kind of settling himself in in the third period and then he just carried that into tonight."

Spoiling Stevens' Kings debut, the new bench-boss in Hollywood was anything but pessimistic following the club's fifth straight loss. "I thought that the guys tried really hard tonight," Stevens said following his first game as a head coach in over two years. "I really thought that they expended a lot of energy trying to win a hockey game. Considering the emotions that they’ve gone through, with Terry being let go, a man they respect enormously, I really thought that they acted like professionals tonight and really focused on trying to win the hockey game."

When do we start talking about Hamill's emergence?

Say it with me now: Four points, seven games.

That's the NHL line in the career of Zach Hamill. Oft regarded as the biggest Bruins bust since -- well, let's just say a very long time -- the 23-year-old is actually beginning to develop into something that the Bruins may want to keep.

Threading the needle with a real nifty pass that led to Boston's first goal, the 8th overall pick from the '07 Draft has begun to transform himself into a jack of all trades, admirably filling in on Boston's bottom-six while producing for Providence's top-six at a seven goal and 14 point in 25 game pace.

"He’s had to play a position where he’s played most of his career, but not this year," Claude Julien said of Hamill, who's been primarily used as a winger in Providence this season. "I thought he adjusted well. He was really good in our own end as far as supporting and battling. I was really pleased with his game."

At the end of the day, any contributions you get from Hamill are considered bonuses towards an extremely deep Boston club, but these glimmers of brilliance tell you that it's still too soon to write the prospect off just yet.

By the numbers

32% - The face-off percentage of Kings center Anze Kopitar on the night, who finished the night a woeful 6-for-13 on the draw.

27 - Points the Bruins are away from matching last year's home point-total. The Bruins have 23 games left to play at the Garden this year.

95.6% - Los Angeles' penalty-kill over their last 45 shorthanded trips, proving that not all is bad for the Kings.

.009% - The amount that Rask's save-percentage was bumped up following tonight's shutout, giving Rask a .939 save-percentage on the year, good for second in the NHL.

Ty's Take: Without Chara, Dennis Seidenberg went into beast-mode

When great players go down, it's often up to the next best player to rise to the occasion. As I state the obvious, that's exactly what played out tonight in the Hub as Boston's second-best defensemen Dennis Seidenberg showed up with one of his most complete games as a member of the Bruins.

Logging 27:05 of time-on-ice in 34 shifts, both team highs, the German-born blue-liner checked in with a solid plus-1 rating and six blocked shots.

Up Next?

The B's have a quick turnaround as they'll head to Ottawa for a Wednesday night tilt against the Senators. The Bruins are 1-0-0 against Ottawa this year, and will likely turn to Tim Thomas, who has 20 wins in 30 career starts against the Senators with an out of this world 1.95 goals-against-average.

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