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Even in a scoreless affair, the Boston Bruins were riding high.
Just under 13 minutes into the first period of their Thursday head-to-head with the Nashville Predators, the B’s were in the driver’s seat with a pace of play that played into their strengths (outshooting the Preds 7-to-3), and their defensive layers and support as a five-man unit was there.
Then came a Roman Josi slapshot.
Rifled just over the attacking blue line, the rocket from Josi nailed B’s netminder Tuukka Rask right where the padding gave way ever so slightly. The 29-year-old Rask fell to a heap, off came his glove and his mask, out came Donny Del Negro, and Rask exited back towards the B’s locker room.
He would not return, and it was Zane McIntyre time in the Boston crease.
McIntyre hung in there for the Bruins, too, who killed off a five-minute penalty kill with just one shot allowed, but their timing could not have been worse really, as it was Austin Watson that scored just 31 seconds after that power play to put the Preds up 1-0 just 1:02 into the second period.
The Bruins answered Watson’s goal with a power-play bomb from Torey Krug, his second in as many games, and his first time with goals in back-to-back games since Jan. 21-29, 2015, 159 games ago.
But as it has a tendency to do when Rask is not in net, it just felt as if everything that could work against the Bruins did, as Filip Forsberg worked first-year professional Brandon Carlo inside and out for the go-ahead (and eventual game-winning) goal late in the second period, with the B’s less than three minutes from escaping the second period with a 1-1 draw to their name.
And though the Bruins made a valiant effort with another shot-heavy third period, Preds netminder Juuse Saros stood tall, with a career-high 35 saves en route to his fourth win of the season.
This and that
- The Rask injury is the obvious headliner with this one. It could be something as simple as a stinger, or it could be something terrible like a broken collarbone. It’s borderline impossible to quantify just how important Rask has been for the Black and Gold this year, but there’s one number that does stick out: This was the B’s 12th game finished by a goaltender not named Rask. They have just one win in those games, compared to 21 wins in 33 games with No. 40 in the crease.
- Watch Adam McQuaid’s demolition of Derek Grant and you’ll see why refs don’t let him fight.
- Not a ton of positives to take from Thursday, I know, but here’s one: the Bruins finished this road swing with five of a possible eight points in their pockets, and their two losses were by just one goal. Things could have been a lot worse, you’d have to think, especially given the competition they were going against in the final two games of the trip between the Blues and Predators, two teams (and two buildings) they’ve struggled against (and in) in recent seasons.
Up next
The Bruins will be back in Boston for a 2 p.m. practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Friday and will find themselves back in action with a Saturday matinee against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal magazine, and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.