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Nash, Rangers speed around Bruins at MSG

February 5, 2015, 4:42 AM ET [29 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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January brought some much needed structure -- and more importantly, points -- to the Boston Bruins. But after nabbing 19 of a possible 24 points last month, the Black and Gold stumbled in their first February contest, letting the speed of the New York Rangers dictate play in a 3-2 loss at Madison Square Garden.

New York forward Rick Nash opened up the game’s scoring just 5:50 into the first by way of his league-leading 32nd goal of the year, beating Tuukka Rask on a great breakaway opportunity.

In a six-shot opening frame, the Bruins responded, with Patrice Bergeron scoring his 13th of the season on the shot that immediately followed Milan Lucic’s 11th of the year. The goals came just 1:52 apart, and gave the Bruins, winners of two straight, a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes of play.

The Rangers’ speed continued to pose nightmares for a flat-footed Boston defense, as Derick Brassard and Derek Stepan both scored in the second period, putting the Blueshirts back on top through two periods. And behind some solid goaltending from New York backup Cam Talbot, who finished the night with 18 saves on 20 shots against, that score held for a Ranger win.

With the loss, the Bruins’ nine-game point-streak against the Rangers came to end, while the Rangers won their 17th home game in 27 games played at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

Random thoughts and notes

- If there was one area of noticeable concern for the Bruins, it came on their back-end, and specifically, the club’s second-pairing featuring Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg. They had an absolute nightmare of a game, and were on the ice for two of New York’s three goals. The Rangers’ second goal, too, came on an absolutely embarrassing display that saw McQuaid and Seidenberg hopelessly chase the puck around their own end to no avail. So, here’s the thing with this pairing-- it features too much ‘grit’, as they’d say. Both McQuaid and Seidenberg rely on a heavy, hard-hitting, shot-blocking based game. Neither of them are exceptional (or even adequate) with the puck on their stick, and watching them fight the puck on a nightly basis is agonizing. They possess skill sets that are extremely valuable if utilized properly, I think, just not on a same pairing. (Free Matt Bartkowski. And yes, that is meant to be taken seriously.)

- A positive on a night of mostly negatives for the Bruins? Loui Eriksson. There’s a ton of questions surrounding Eriksson’s game and his future in the Hubl. Obviously, the cap-crunching Bruins do not want to pay the 29-year-old over $4 million to skate on their third line in 2014-15 and beyond, and with Carl Soderberg as good as gone to the highest bidder this July, re-working Eriksson into the Bruins’ top-six was an absolute must. And if there’s anything you can take from Eriksson’s absolutely sick dish to Bergeron on Boston’s second goal of the night, it’s that he still has the offensive potential to make it all work up there. If David Pastrnak is the long-term solution for that first line -- though Reilly Smith is currently skating in that spot -- then Eriksson has to find a find with Bergeron and Brad Marchand. He simply has to.

- Theoretically, the Gregory Campbell the Extra Attacker experiment has to end at some point, right? By now, B’s head coach Claude Julien has made it clear that he puts Campbell out there because he’s a ‘great tipper’, but well, he’s yet to do that. You’re 50 games into the season, and it’s time to make a change with this mindset. But, if you want to align yourself with that thinking, maybe Chris Kelly, a player that’s score a number of goals this year on tips, deflections, and rebounds, can take that spot. Just a thought.

- Watching the NHL on NBC postgame show, it seemed as if the panel unanimously felt that the Bruins need to make an upgrade up front and find a top-nine forward. I couldn't disagree more. Given the sort of wide-open look in the Eastern Conference in terms of contenders and what have you, the Bruins would be best served by finding a guy that can make their fourth-line a stronger possession unit, or using their abundance of assets to find a mobile top-four defender. This offense is equipped to score the three goals per night you should need with Rask in net.

- Here’s a stat for you-- Cam Talbot is the first New York goaltender not named Henrik Lundqvist to win a home game against the Black and Gold since Mike Dunham accomplished the feat back on Dec. 22, 2003. (And my money was on Jussi Markkanen.) Some additional context on that stat: Dunham, 42, has not played in an NHL game since 2006-07, and is the current goaltending coach for the New York Islanders.

Up next

The Bruins head back to Boston for a Saturday night showdown with the New York Islanders. Boston took the last meeting between the two last week, a 5-2 final, but dropped the prior Garden contest between the two Eastern Conference foes, back on Oct. 23.

Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins 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
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