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Powered by the makeshift top line with
David Backes plugged in between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, with just two morning practices as a line, the Boston Bruins packed a punch with six goals in the final 40 minutes of play against the Columbus Blue Jackets, as the Bruins took their season opening game by way of a 6-3 final at Nationwide Arena on Thursday night.
It was far from the dominating final that the box score would have indicated, however, as the first period of the new season looked like too many periods of last season for the Black and Gold.
Down
Patrice Bergeron and two of their veteran defensemen in Adam McQuaid and Kevan Miller, Bruins netminder
Tuukka Rask surrendered a bad goal to Alexander Wennberg just 2:58 into the first period, while rookie Austin Czarnik’s bad penalty behind the play led to a Cam Atkinson power-play goal that made Boston’s penalty kill look silly. It was more than enough for the Blue Jackets, with the youngest blue line in club history, to take a 2-0 lead after one period.
It’s not that the Bruins were playing poorly through one period of play, per se, but rather that each and every one of their mistakes were exposed by the opposition. A familiar theme if there was one. And even when the Bruins countered the Jackets with a Pastrnak goal early in the second period, the Blue Jackets came right back at Boston with a Seth Jones strike through a sea of Boston jerseys.
And so the Bruins continued to chase.
But led by the Backes’ persistent effort to make life hell for their defensemen and goaltender
Sergei Bobrovsky in front of the Columbus net, the Bruins soldiered on with late period goals from Backes, one scored on a rebound and the other deflection, to draw even at 3-3 after 40.
Boston pulled ahead in a dominant third period that featured the go-ahead goal by Marchand, an even prettier insurance marker that fooled everyone in Columbus, and an empty-net dagger from Pastrnak.
Marchand factored into the scoring in five of Boston’s six goals (two goals and five points), Pastrnak posted a career-best four points and finished the night with an absurd plus-6 (other two other active players, Matt Carle and Sam Gagner) have posted a plus-6 in a single game) rating in the win, and it was Backes that did the dirty work for that line with two goals and an assist in 18:50 of time on ice (the second-most among B’s forwards) in an incredibly strong debut for the Black and Gold.
“Right now, Backes is proving that the team and organization made a solid choice [in signing him],” Bruins coach
Claude Julien, whose team needed a start like this, said after the win.
In other debut news, 19-year-old
Brandon Carlo, on Boston’s top-pairing with Zdeno Chara, finished the night with one assist and a plus-5 in 17:48 of time on ice in his NHL debut. Defenseman Robbie O’Gara had one shot on goal in 13:12, while Czarnik and Dan Heinen had quiet nights up front.
Rask finished the night with 28 saves, while Bobrovsky yielded five goals on 36 shots against.
“We weren't good in the first period either. Don't let the score fool you. We weren't good throughout the game,” Columbus head coach John Tortorella said after the loss. "Tentative, sloppy. You can use a lot of different words for right on through. No matter what the score was."
Random thoughts and notes
- Where did this game change for the Bruins? With
Noel Acciari in the box less than three minutes into the third period of a tied game, and with their best PK forward not playing, the B’s came through with a massive kill that finished with just one shot on Rask. Given how rough the kill looked on the Jackets second goal, and the newness of so many faces in the Boston locker room, to get that successful penalty kill when they got it proved to be a major turning point for the Boston bench.
- I mean, what else can you say about Brad Marchand at this point? The dude is a straight-up monster. Dating back to last season, and including the World Championships and World Cup of Hockey, Marchand has now scored 48 goals and 81 points over his last 94 games played.
He’s done it with all different centermen, too.
An all-zone, all-situation threat and one of the game’s best at one-on-one battles up ice, the 5-foot-9 Marchand has emerged as one of the game’s top game-breaking talents capable of burning defenses and goaltenders no matter the situation, and it’s not even a debate anymore.
And the Bruins front office can sleep well knowing he’s signed.
- OK, so Marchand-Backes-Pastrnak was a force, so where does Bergeron slide back into the mix when he returns? Easy. Right back into Backes’ spot on that line with his usual left-winger and Pastrnak on the right. For as great as Backes was in this game, the truth is that you’re going to get this game from Backes if he’s on the first line, second line, third line, or maybe even the second defensive pairing. Much like the man he’s here to replace (Loui Eriksson), Backes is a capable presence at center, or at either wing, during his brief tenure with the club. And you could make the case that a player like David Krejci, who still looked to be a little slow out of the gate in recovery from offseason hip surgery, really needs a Backes on his wing to ease his overall workload and offensive burden.
- Another good sign for the Bruins? The offensive confidence in Colin Miller’s game. This could be something to watch for the club, too. Why? Well when you look back at Miller’s first year in the Los Angeles Kings organization, you see a so-so five goals and 17 points in 65 games played with their then-AHL affiliate Manchester Monarchs. The next season with the same team? 19 goals and 52 points in 70 games. Another year in the same system and Miller found success. Can the same be said for his second year with the Bruins? Maybe, maybe not, it’s entirely too early to tell. But what is indisputable, however, is that Miller does not make some of the offensive plays he made last night, last year. And the Bruins need that confidence to come through if their quick-moving attack will have any success.
Up next
The Bruins take their act to the north for their first taste of the Auston Matthews Show in Toronto. In what will be the Leafs home opener, the Bruins will have to find a way to slow Matthews, who scored four goals in his NHL debut, down, while not forgetting about every other young gun the Leafs have.
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 also be read in the New England Hockey Journal magazine. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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