An eight-day layoff didn’t come with the cobwebs most seemed to expect from the Boston Bruins, as the Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 edge, lost it, and then scored three straight en route to a 5-2 win over the Eastern Conference’s top club, the New York Islanders, at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday night.
But Boston’s seventh win in their last nine games would not have come without some crucial lineup tweaks, almost right off to the bat, too. David Pastrnak dropped down to the third line, Loui Eriksson moved up to the second line, and Reilly Smith went to the first line.
And it was Smith that struck first, breaking an 11-game goalless streak, and deflecting a Milan Lucic net-front dish through Jaroslav Halak for a 1-0 lead and Smith’s 10th of the year. Patrice Bergeron scored just 2:10 by way of a slick power-play strike, with Dougie Hamilton and Smith picking up the helpers, and putting the Bruins up 2-0 through 20 minutes of play.
New York countered the Boston rush with two second-period strikes -- the first from John Tavares and the second on a deflection by Michael Grabner -- but in a period that saw the Bruins and Isles each put 16 shots on net, it was a save from the Boston netminder that stole the show.
Torey Krug followed that with his 10th goal of the season just 1:45 into the third, while Lucic put the finishing touches on a Boston win with an empty-net goal, for his 10th of the year.
Random thoughts and notes
- You can say that the Bruins’ line changes worked, no doubt, but it’s certainly frustrating to look at the way that 18-year-old David Pastrnak was handled here. Bumped out of the top six just minutes into the game, the Czech winger skated four shifts and 2:25 in the first period. He finished the night 10:33 in 15 shifts. Most of those minutes came in garbage time (with the Bruins holding a two-goal edge), and were spent on a Boston third line with Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg. Deep down, you sorta understand what Claude Julien was doing here. He needed to see where and who he could get a spark from, and that seemingly worked with Smith skating with Krejci and Lucic. But Pastrnak will not be a worthwhile contributor to this squad logging 10 minutes a night, and will only be a true waste of the first year of his entry-level contract. Now, if he’s up with Bergeron and Brad Marchand, well that’s a different story.
- With the Islanders set to move to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for the start of next season, the Bruins will finish with 37 wins in 79 all time games at the Nassau Coliseum. One weird B’s stat at the Coliseum-- the Bruins never beat the Islanders in overtime/shootout at the old barn in Uniondale. 11 tries, zero wins.
- If the Bruins can’t find a way to crack the top-three of the Atlantic, and if the Islanders could hang on to the top spot in the Metropolitan, this would be one hell of a first-round matchup.
Bruins loan Svedberg to P-Bruins for conditioning stint, recall Subban
Skating in just four games since the start of December, the Boston Bruins have sent backup netminder Niklas Svedberg down to the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League for a conditioning assignment. To accommodate that move, the Bruins have recalled 2012 first-round pick, goaltender Malcolm Subban up from Providence for the first time in his pro career.
The 25-year-old Svedberg has a 5-5-0 record this season, along with a .922 save percentage and two shutouts, but has played just twice in the last 33 days, making rust an obvious issue for the Swede.
B’s coach Claude Julien confirmed that the plan is just to have Svedberg play the entire weekend for the P-Bruins in order to simply get some games under his belt.
For Subban, the recall comes after a career week in which the 21-year-old goalie won the AHL Player of the Week honors, allowing just three goals on 91 shots in three starts last week, going 2-1-0 with a 0.99 goals against average and a .967 save percentage.
Subban has a 9-10-2 record, 2.47 goals against average, and .921 save percentage for Providence this year.
Up next
The Black and Gold are back in Boston for a Saturday night showdown with the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. The Kings roll into the Hub with just three wins in their last 10 games, and a disappointing 5-9-6 mark on the road this season. They did shut the Bruins out in their previous meeting, however, in a 2-0 affair at the Staples Center on Dec. 2.