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At this point, the Boston Bruins may not ever
want to return to the TD Garden.
In their third road game of the season, and against a New York Islanders group that entered the night with a four-game win streak to their name, the B’s overcame a second period deficit, and rallied for a 5-3 victory at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, pushing their early road record to a perfect 3-0-0.
Boston winger
Brett Connolly opened up the game’s scoring with his second goal of the season (and second in as many games) with a roof-smash on
Jaroslav Halak 9:51 into the first.
Connolly, put back into the B’s lineup and skating on the right-wing of the Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand line, has found the net-front drive that’s led to numerous scoring opportunities with the highly effective duo of No. 37 and 63, and has played ‘his game’, led by Connolly’s heavy-yet-quick release of a shot, something Claude Julien has longed for since the B’s acquired him last season.
The Islanders responded, though, following a Marchand hooking against the Black and Gold.
It would be
Josh Bailey that came through with the answer for the Isles, too, beating
Jonas Gustavsson for his third goal (though his first power-play goal) of the season. New York doubled their output just 1:19 later with a sweet redirection from forward
Casey Cizikas.
The 2-1 score would hold through the opening 20 of play, even after a super-heavyweight bout from Boston defenseman
Adam McQuaid and New York banger
Matt Martin at 15:27.
But with a relentless pursuit of the puck in the attacking zone, Boston forward
Joonas Kemppainen forced a turnover, which allowed a
Ryan Spooner shot attempt to go off an Islander, and back onto the stick of Kemppainen, who sniped home the first NHL goal of his career.
2:03 after Kemppainen’s game-tying marker, Boston jumped ahead behind
David Pastrnak’s second of the year (with a helper from Loui Eriksson), scored on a beautiful kick-and-shoot from No. 88.
Boston found an insurance goal 8:09 into the third behind Spooner’s second of the season, banked in off a New York skate, while
David Krejci’s empty-netter secured the win for the B’s in a 5-3 final.
Gustavsson earned his second win of the season behind a 23-of-26 road showing.
Random thoughts and notes
- Raise your hand if you picked Jonas Gustavsson to have more wins for the Bruins than Tuukka Rask seven games into the 2015-16 season. (Sees somebody raise their hand in the back.) “You effing liar!”
No, but really, Gustavsson has been everything Julien and the Bruins want from this position. It’s still insanely early, and you need to see a larger sample of Gustavsson’s game to make a
completely accurate assessment, but through two games, the Swede known as ‘Monster’ has performed… well.
He’s stopped a combined 43-of-48 shots this year, and while that .896 save percentage is not going to earn No. 50 any Vezina nominations, he doesn’t have a worrisome presence in the crease. Take a look at the first period of Friday’s game for example. Gustavsson was straight-up peppered with 18 shots against, and surrendered just two goals, one of which he had absolutely no chance of stopping.
Does Niklas Svedberg get you through that period last year? Maybe. But Julien would have a pit in his stomach just trying to watch him get through that without turning to Tuukka five minutes into it.
- He’s getting older. But Zdeno Chara is still as mean as ever. Doubleteamed on a hit from the Isles’ Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, the 6-foot-9 captain responded with an angry, helmetless charge from behind his own net to the attacking zone to get in the grill of Martin in search of retribution.
Honestly, an angry Chara skating at me is in my Top-10 list of things I’d never wanna experience.
- Where will Pierre McGuire sit when the Islanders host an NHL on NBC game? Please tell me he’ll be in that car. Please tell me he’ll be in that car. I need between the glass (windows of a car) with Pierre.
Up next
It’s back to the Garden in an attempt for home win No. 1 on Tuesday night when the B’s play host to the Arizona Coyotes. The ‘Yotes will roll into the Hub on the second leg of a back-to-back and in the final game of a six-game road trip. There’s legitimately no reason for the Bruins to lose this game, really.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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