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Like many overwhelmed by the stresses of day-to-day life, it would be a trip to the mountains that successfully cleared the clouded minds of the winless Boston Bruins in a 6-2 win on Wednesday night.
Like they’ve done in two of three prior games this season, the Bruins scored first, but off an unfamiliar stick. On a near strike from a 2-on-1 chance for Brett Connolly and David Krejci, B’s defenseman
Kevan Miller absolutely pummeled the puck with a blast from the point that beat Semyon Varlamov 5:49 into the first period. The goal, Miller’s first since Jan. 29 against the New York Islanders last season, was the start of an absolutely relentless push on Varlamov and the Avs.
Then came time for
Jimmy Hayes’ breakthrough, as the 6-foot-6 forward bopped a Zdeno Chara shot rebound through Varlamov to put the Bruins up 2-0 just 8:11 into the first period.
Colorado’s best chance in the first came on a
Mikko Rantanen breakaway bid denied by
Jonas Gustavsson with just over eight minutes left in the first period.
And on a night of firsts,
Tyler Randell decided to join in on the fun with a tip-in goal 3:46 into the second period, good for Randell’s first goal and point of his NHL career, and in doing so, became the first Bruins player to score in his NHL debut since
Blake Wheeler accomplished the feat in Oct. 2008. (Wheeler’s goal seven years ago then came at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. as well, too.)
The Boston third line would add two more to their names on the night, too, as
Chris Kelly and
Ryan Spooner scored the next two goals in a 6:02 span, and pushed the Boston lead to five.
In a five-goal hole, the Avalanche finally answered by way of
Gabriel Landeskog’s fourth goal of the season, a power-play goal, an unassisted goal aided by a pokecheck from Boston’s Zdeno Chara.
As the Bruins coasted through the third, the Avs gave Gustavsson and the B’s defense a brief scare, as John Mitchell brought Colorado within three with a surprising (and bad) goal on Gustavsson at 11:20.
But it would be David Krejci that put the Avs’ slim comeback hopes to rest with an empty-net goal with 1:29 left in the third period, giving the Black and Gold their much needed first win of the season.
Gustavsson stopped 21-of-23 shots against for his first win in a Bruins uniform, while defenseman Tommy Cross logged 14:25 of time on ice, including 1:20 of shorthanded time on ice, in his NHL debut.
Random thoughts and notes
- The honeymoon appeared over for Jimmy Hayes three games into his Bruins career.
The Dorchester, Mass. native, the talk of the town throughout the summer with his ‘homecoming’ via a trade with the Florida Panthers, was a complete ghost during the B’s three-game homestand. And that might be putting it lightly. But in his first road contest with the Bruins, the 25-year-old found
his game. With a noticeably confident stride as the game went on, and with a new-look line seemingly hearing the veteran voice of
Chris Kelly in their ear, the former Boston College Eagle ended the night with the first four-point game (and the 15th multipoint game) of his NHL career.
As frustrating as it’s going to be, this is probably how the Hayes story will go this season. There will be teams that have trouble with the 6-foot-6 forward’s size -- whether that’s in front of the net or with the reach of his stick -- and on those nights, No. 11 will find success. On other nights, defensive units will probably neutralize Hayes and deny his drive to get to the areas of the ice that will make him successful. You saw more of the latter through the first three games, but a four-point game could be exactly the kind of night that Hayes needs to get himself engaged in the attacking zone on a more consistent basis.
- In his first NHL appearance since Mar. 8, the 30-year-old Jonas Gustavsson turned in a solid showing.
It wasn’t an out-of-this-world game by any stretch of the imagination -- Gustavsson finished the night with 21 saves on 23 shots against -- but Gustavsson had his moments where he stood tall when the B’s needed him to. With the Bruins surging, Gustavsson denied a breakaway bid from the Avalanche, keeping the Bruins’ two-goal edge intact early in the game. If the Avs score there, who
knows how this Bruins team reacts. (If I had to guess based on the first three games, I’d say poorly.)
Gustavsson also dazzled with some Swede-on-Swede crime with an excellent sprawling save on a Landeskog wraparound attempt, and even stopped No. 92 on his second-chance opportunity.
The Bruins don’t need Gustavsson to be a Vezina nominee. But they do need him to make the big stops that’ll keep the Bruins on top/in games and on Wednesday night, Gustavsson did just that.
- It was an almost perfect showing from the Bruins. OK, maybe it wasn’t
perfect, but it’s the closest thing you’re going to get four games into the season. Especially given the way it’s all started, too. Great first periods have seemingly been the norm for the Black and Gold, but it’s been the next 40 that have haunted the club through 180 minutes of play. But the Bruins successfully bent -- and didn’t break. They allowed the Avalanche to put two on the board, yeah, but not until the club had a five-goal edge. The importance of this club finally pushing themselves over the mental block of ‘strong starts, horrid finishes’ is simply massive, although we won’t realize that until you see it on a consistent basis. (These kind of games tend to serve as the launching pad for positive streaks and what have you, too.)
Up next
The Bruins head to Glendale to take on the undefeated Arizona Coyotes. Boston took the season series against the Coyotes comfortably a year ago, outscoring the ‘Yotes a combined 9-to-3, including a 5-2 smackdown in Arizona’s barn. But even though the Coyotes are still seemingly in a rebuild, goaltender Mike Smith looks to have found his footing early into the season with wins against the Kings, Penguins, and Anaheim Ducks, and will definitely pose a challenge to a Boston offense that is suddenly clicking.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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