Despite a start that included 13 of a possible 14 points banked away, there were some questions about the Bruins entering Saturday’s showdown with the Red Wings at TD Garden.
The most pressing: How would the Bruins respond in their first game not only after a late-game collapse against the Ducks, but against the highest-scoring offense in the NHL?
The answer, as it turns out, was with their best defensive effort of the young season as well as a stellar 22-save performance from Jeremy Swayman in a 4-1 victory.
“We neutralized their speed through their rush attack,… Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said after the victory. “I thought we protected our house from the back of the net and from the passes to the slot. It's a real gifted offensive team there, the Red Wing are. And I thought our focus on defense and our focus on offense, both were good and the players went out and executed the gameplan.…
Swayman’s excellence is nothing new — his performance in this contest kept his save percentage firm at the .957 it was a the start of the night while his goals against average dipped from 1.34 to 1.26 – but the Bruins made sure to provide their goaltending with plenty of early support in this one.
The Bruins struck first with a Pavel Zacha power-play marker that came after 1:43 of near-goals and just-wides for the Boston man advantage. The Bruins then doubled their lead just 4:03 later with a goal from Charlie McAvoy on a net-front drive from the do-it-all defenseman.
Charlie McAvoy takes it to the net and the puck slips past Husso.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 28, 2023
Good job from Patrick Brown and Oskar Steen at the netfront.
2-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/1s90XHebEG
But when the Bruins ran into a touch of trouble in the third period with a Joe Veleno goal and an extended-and-exhausting stretch in their own zone, it was David Pastrnak who took the Black and Gold out of harm’s way with a disgusting penalty-shot strike and a pinball-styled empty-net goal that carried the Bruins to the finish line on home ice.
David Pastrnak scores another penalty shot goal.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) October 29, 2023
3-1 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/lsiNrlQ1lb
With the two-goal performance, Pastrnak is now up to eight goals in eight games, and is also the first B’s player to score multiple penalty-shot goals in a season since Brad Marchand in 2015-16.
Prior to the game, the Bruins moved forward Milan Lucic to the long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury. With Lucic moved to LTIR, the Bruins recalled Oskar Steen from AHL Providence and plugged the Swedish wing into the lineup for his 2023-24 debut.
And with Steen up, the Bruins assigned Jesper Boqvist back down to Providence after a one-game run (and less than seven minutes of time on ice) with the club this past Thursday night.
The Bruins will continue their homestand with a Monday night visit from the Panthers. It will be the first meeting between the B’s and Panthers since last year’s playoff showdown, which the Panthers won with a Game 7 overtime win at TD Garden.