Monday’s pre-holiday matchup between the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators was originally slated to be a battle of potential Finnish Olympian starters, the Bruins’ Tuukka Rask and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. But with Rinne on the shelf since late Oct., the Preds’ crease was instead manned by Carter Hutton. For five minutes and 59 seconds, anyway.

The Bruins opened up the night’s scoring 76 seconds into the game behind Jarome Iginla’s ninth goal of the year, and chased Hutton on just their fourth shot of the night when Matt Fraser struck with his first goal as a Bruin (and second in 20 career NHL games).

But the switch to the Czech-born Marek Mazanec provided little relief to the reeling Preds.

Boston added another first period goal when Reilly Smith tallied his 12th of the year, striking on yet another strong power-play led by beautiful passing across the board, with the assists going to Carl Soderberg and Ryan Spooner.

It was the second straight game where the Bruins’ second power-play unit found success in their passing game, with the back-and-forth with Spooner and Patrice Bergeron creating the space for Soderberg and Smith to connect. In fact, the Bruins’ third goal was almost identical to the one scorer against Buffalo on Saturday. The unit -- seemingly dealt a deathblow given the injuries to Loui Eriksson and Dougie Hamilton -- has been a pleasant surprise as of late, and has matched the potency of the club’s absolutely stacked first unit.

That’s huge. Two thriving power-play units? No, this is beyond huge. It’s insane.

Despite the Black-and-Gold’s three-goal edge after 20 minutes, however, Craig Smith and the rest of the Predators were intent on making this one a game. Cutting the Boston edge to two with a power-play goal (his ninth marker of the year), 14 second frame saves from Mazanec, and another goal from Smith coming 3:25 into the third period brought Nashville within one.

Then, like it has far too many times in 2013-14, the wheels fell off the Preds’ bus.

With Paul Gaustad sentenced to two for a crosscheck just 23 seconds after Nashville’s too-many-men penalty, the Bruins made the absolute most of their 1:37 of a 5-on-3, with Iginla batting a puck out of midair and Soderberg striking 49 seconds later for his fifth of the year.

Putting Boston on top by three, the Bruins found insurance with Brad Marchand’s goal on a 2-on-1 rush with the Bruins’ Smith, making it a 6-2 contest with his eighth of the season.

Spooner chimes in with three assists

Boston forward Ryan Spooner was a victim of circumstance when it came to the start to his 2013-14 season. Despite a strong camp, the speedy playmaker was sent down to Providence, where he undoubtedly doesn’t belong, recording five goals and 23 points in just 21 contests. There’s no way around denying it at this point: the 21-year-old belongs in Boston and logging real minutes with the big club. And with the opportunity, the 5-foot-10 dishmaster is showing everyone why.

Stepping in for the concussed Loui Eriksson on the Bruins’ second power-play unit, Spooner’s speed-based game and tape-to-tape passing has become an invaluable tool for Claude Julien’s club, with Spooner recording his first career multi-point night with three assists.

With seven points in 10 games this year, Spooner’s clearly making a case to stay with the big club, and should do just that even when the Bruins are at full strength. His skating game is phenomenal, he has the ability to burn the opposition with it (not too many players on this roster can), and he’s essentially proved all that he can playing in the American Hockey League.

Somebody get this man a Boston area apartment.

McQuaid returns, fights

In his first game since Nov. 30, B’s defensemen Adam McQuaid got himself engaged early on, dropping the gloves with Nashville’s Eric Nystrom for his fourth fight of the year.



McQuaid’s physical game has obviously been missed given the (still somehow pending) suspension of the Bruins’ Shawn Thornton, and his return to the Boston blue-line obviously helps lessen the defensive responsibilities of undersize d-men Torey Krug and David Warsofsky.

Up next

The Bruins will return to Boston for their three-day Christmas vacation before beginning a home-and-home weekend series with the Ottawa Senators on Friday night at TD Garden. The Bruins fell to the Senators in their only meeting earlier this year, and the Sens will roll into the Hub on the heels of a 5-0 shutout victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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