Already without Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy and Kevan Miller, the Bruins lost their third defenseman in two games as Urho Vaakanainen left Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators with a concussion.
Racing towards the net as chaos began in front of the Senators goal, Vaakanainen was met with a Mark Borowiecki elbow to the head. Upon Vaakanainen’s arrival to the goal front Borowiecki took a quick peak over his shoulder and delivered an elbow to Vaakanainen’s noggin.
Borowiecki elbow to Vaakanainen’s head #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/kS2sSL1OhN
— Marina Molnar (@mkmolnar) October 23, 2018
"It's a flying elbow. Listen, I am not in the heat of the battle [but] it looked fairly deliberate,… head coach Bruce Cassidy said via 98.5 The Sports Hub. “But that’s not for me to decide. It’s unfortunate for Urho, he’s concussed, but at the end of the day that will move up the food chain and someone will have to make a decision whether it’s suspendible or not.…
The game was just the second of Vaakanainen’s young National Hockey League career. He played a few shifts after the hit, but his night came to an end in the second period.
The Bruins are off on Wednesday, so any update on Vaakanainen or who will step up and fill the opening on the Bruins blue line likely won’t come until Thursday morning. I would expect that Jakub Zboril or Cody Goloubef will get the call for Thursday’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden.
The statues and timetables surrounding McAvoy and Miller are still unknown and too are likely to come Thursday morning. Krug has skated over the last week and even joined the team on the ice before Tuesday’s contest in Ottawa. However, Krug has been ruled out for the Bruins remaining two games this week.
Borowiecki was not penalized on the play, but will have a hearing this afternoon with the league’s Department of Player Safety.
Outside of the elbow to Vaakanainen, it was all Bruins on the ice in Ottawa.
As it has been for most of the 2018-19 campaign, the Bruins were led by the trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. The trio combined for eight points and Marchand and Pastrnak teamed up for one of the prettier goals we’ve seen this season.
The highlight reel goal was Pastrnak’s second of the game, tying him with Maple Leafs forward Auston Mathews for the league lead in goals with 10 and points with 16. Bergeron is also tied with Mathews and Marchand with 16 points.
Pastrnak has gotten off to fast starts in his two previous seasons, but none better than the red hot start he has had so far. In the 2016-17 campaign, it took Pastrnak 13 games to reach 10 goals, and 15 games in the 2017-18 campaign. This year, he’s hit 10 goals in just nine games.
It’s nice to see the Bergeron line having an insane start to the season no doubt, but the Bruins aren’t built to win off of one line. As we saw in the Bruins overtime losses to the Oilers and Canucks, when the Bergeron line is grounded, the B’s are going to have issues winning games.
The win was the Bruins first of the four-game Canada swing and it snapped their three-game losing streak. Despite just one win, the Bruins did manage to earn four of a possible eight points.
After watching Jaroslav Halak perform well in the team’s previous two games, Tuukka Rask was back between the pipes for the Bruins and much like his backup has, looked solid in goal. Rask made 38 saves on 39 shots in a game where he really needed to perform well.
As well as Rask did play, we may be signing a different tune had it not been for Brandon Carlo. Twice, Senators shots found their way past Rask, heading towards the back of the net. But in both instances, Carlo was there to make the backup saves, clearing the puck before crossing the goal line.
With the Bruins wounded on the blue line, as well as up front with David Backes missing due to concussion-like symptoms, the Bruins are going to be tested. We can learn a lot about the Bruins in the coming days.