While the Boston Bruins sat and waited for the blizzard that slammed New England and postponed Saturday’s affair against the Tampa Bay Lightning to pass through,
Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabres were busy (successfully) surviving a 43-shot onslaught from the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. But as the well rested Bruins made their way to First Niagara Center for their second meeting of the year against Buffalo, you simply couldn’t see the anticipated fatigue on the Sabres.
Especially in the case of the Miller, who made his second start in as many nights.
In a shot-heavy opening frame that saw B’s goaltender
Anton Khudobin stop all 13 shots thrown his way, the 32-year-old Miller stood on his head (and then some) to keep things squared at 0-0, shutting the door on the Bruins 16 times in the period. Killing the remaining 1:57 of a
Cody Hodgson penalty off, the Sabres’ undisciplined ways continued with
Steve Ott’s unsportsmanlike drawn by
Brad Marchand, and was worsened with a cross-checking call on
Alex Sulzer.
Giving Boston a 5-on-3 that they’d fail to convert on, the ice continued to tilt the Black-and-Gold’s way, as their surge to the Buffalo net was capped by Marchand’s sixth goal of the season, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead just before the midway point of the second.
But as a defensive miscue between the Bruins’ second pairing,
Dennis Seidenberg and
Dougie Hamilton, left four B’s along the half-wall, Buffalo forward
Tyler Ennis found himself all alone, and wasted no time in potting his fifth goal of the year.
Pitting the Bruins and Sabres for another third period showdown, one that Buffalo dominated in the last meeting between the two Northeast rivals, outscoring Boston 4-1 in the final 20, a
Mike Weber delay of game call put the woeful B’s power-play back to work in search of ending an 0-for-17 run. Winning the draw,
Chris Bourque’s initially wide bankshot off the end board found its way to
Patrice Bergeron’s stick, and into the back of the net, beating Miller and giving the Bruins a lead they’d never let go.
As Khudobin stood up to the Buffalo attack, stopping all eight shots thrown his way in the third,
Milan Lucic’s empty-net tally sealed the deal in what’d finish as a 3-1 win for the Bruins.
Miller’s incredible weekend ends on sour note
The 32-year-old Ryan Miller made 41 saves on Saturday, enough for a 3-2 win against the Islanders. Tonight, however, Miller’s 36 just weren’t enough. Heck, it seemed as if Miller could’ve made 100 saves and still lost tonight’s game.
But let’s not ignore the facts here, as Miller’s contributions simply kept this one from being an absolute blowout on Buffalo ice. On top of Miller’s 31 even-strength saves, the Michigan-born netminder stopped a
Zdeno Chara shorthanded break, and wasn’t downright slaughtered by the Sabres’ rather soft defense.
Miller, once again, hung in there against Boston. Color me anything but surprised. Dating back to the infamous Lucic hit, Miller’s played in four games against the Bruins, and they’ve all been absolutely undeniable masterpieces. Winning three of those four games, Miller’s stopped 145 of 152 shots faced, good for a .934 save-percentage against Boston.
Beyond those gaudy Boston-killing figures, which have all featured performances of at least 35 saves, Miller’s weekend comes to a close with just four goals allowed on a monstrous 81 shots against.
Now if only the defense would show up...
The real Marchand continues to shine for Boston
I absolutely love watching Hockey Night in Canada. Whether it’s the games, Coach’s Corner, and their great roundtable discussions. It’s all really awesome, and makes me long for something similar to that here in the United States. And no, I don’t consider the same contrived storylines and grumblings from Mike Milbury and company to be must-see television, so please don’t make a case for it to be even close to what ‘HNIC’ is. But one thing that made me chuckle was P.J Stock’s suggestion that B’s forward
Brad Marchand should be considered a darkhorse for Team Canada in 2014.
Huh? Marchand? The guy that like, everybody outside of the New England and Nova Scotia area completely loathes? Sign me up. For the entertainment factor alone, sign me up.
No, but really, could No. 63 in Black-and-Gold really make a run for a spot on Canada’s roster? Well, if you wanna go back to Marchand’s run beginning in the 2011 playoffs, it’s hard to imagine why he couldn’t. Going back to the first round of the 2011 playoffs, the 5-foot-9 forward has scored 46 goals and registered 83 points in just 117 contests.
But looking beyond that, why would make Marchand a potential candidate for the Red-and-White in 2014? Easy, his chemistry with a lock for Canada’s bottom-six and current linemate,
Patrice Bergeron. Working as the one-two punch of the Bruins’ second line, Marchand’s ability to thrive alongside No. 37 has been a thing of beauty, and their work on the penalty-kill has helped formed Boston’s penalty-kill unit into the second best squad in all of the National Hockey League.
Of course, as I’ve said before, Marchand’s money when it counts. Always has been, always will be, and international play is no exception.
In two successful World Junior Championships with Canada back in 2006-07 and 2007-08, Marchand tallied six goals and eight points in 13 games.
I mean, I’m just saying -- Like him or not, it’s hard to deny the stats.
Khudobin providing steady backup option, continues to pad impressive NHL sample
Making his second start of the season, it was more of the same from the 26-year-old Anton Khudobin. Providing a steady presence in the crease, Khudobin’s first start since Jan. 28 came with few hiccups, and was more than enough for yet another road win for the Bruins.
Finishing the night with 25 saves, a Tyler Ennis tally the lone blemish on his night, Khudobin bolstered his NHL figures to 7-1-1, with just 11 goals allowed in nine games, and a potent .954 save-percentage.
While it’s unlikely that you’ll see Khudobin start a goaltending controversy in Boston given Rask’s equally impressive numbers this year, the Kazakhstan native has been a solid option since coming to Boston two years ago, with a perfect 3-0-0 record in Black-and-Gold and just five goals surrendered over that stretch.
Bruins handle Sabres’ aggressiveness in all the right ways
I think that
Shawn Thornton and the Bruins made a mistake when they engaged with the 6-foot-8
John Scott in the first meeting against Buffalo almost two weeks ago. Despite the Garden crowd’s love of fighting, the 35-year-old Thornton simply didn’t have to fight Scott to prove anything to anybody, but he did, lost, and gave the Sabres a reason to flex their guns on Boston ice.
Tonight, however, the Bruins didn’t even bother with the 30-year-old Scott in his whopping 5:15 of ice-time, and channeled their aggression towards the Sabres in all the right ways.
Outside of a spirited bout between
Gregory Campbell and
Patrick Kaleta, a bout that saw the Sabres’ irritant undoubtedly jack the crowd up with a close win, the B’s focused on the game of hockey, something they were outclassed in against the Sabres the last time around.
Marchand drew the ire of
Steve Ott, ultimately leading to a penalty against the pesky Buffalo forward, and
Adam McQuaid’s tough-but-within-reason presence when it came to handling any attempt at ‘energizing’ the First Niagara Center crowd from Ott or
Cody McCormick kept the Black-and-Gold out of the box and in the game.
Defense key as Thomas Vanek doesn’t absolutely destroy the Bruins
As the puck dropped on tonight’s contest, I debated getting an early start on this blog and writing, “Vanek destroys the Bruins again.” You honestly couldn’t even blame me, though.
After destroying the Bruins 10 days ago, recording a hat trick and five points, the Austrian forward was simply held to nothin’ but frustration tonight as the B’s defense, namely the pairing of
Zdeno Chara and
Johnny Boychuk, kept Vanek at bay, and limited the 11-goals-in-11-games scorer to just one shot, and zero points.
That, in case you couldn’t tell, doesn’t happen very often at all.
Up next
On the heels of a franchise-best 8-1-1 start, the Bruins head back home for a quick one-game homestand against the New York Rangers. This will be the final meeting between the B's and Rangers this year, with each team winning one contest.
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