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Behind goals from four different scorers, and a stellar 38-of-39 night from Tuukka Rask, the Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens by a 4-1 final at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.
The win, the B’s third in a row, was a flip in the script of what’s become the norm for this latest edition (think 2013 to now) of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry, as it was the Bruins that capitalized on the few chances they had while Montreal threw everything they had and more at Rask’s crease to no avail. (Habs captain Max Pacioretty must have cursed Rask’s name a dozen times throughout this game.)
Above all else, though, this felt like just another game for the Bruins.
In the past, that would bother me. I mean c’mon, this is Boston-Montreal, the best rivalry in sports. There needs to be hate, no? There needs to aggression, right? This game felt like it had the emotional gravity of a Bruins against Coyotes matinee after a holiday. But there are obvious reasons for that. The Habs, who have just four wins in their last 21 games now, are not the same team. Their confidence looks completely shot, their coach looks like a guy that knows his fate. And the Bruins are … well, I think we’re all still trying to figure out what the Bruins are this season. But maybe that approach, the one where this matchup is looked at like any other night, actually benefits the Black and Gold.
Everybody is wired differently. Some guys get jacked up at the thought and ‘stakes’ of a rivalry game and channel that with big goals and key plays. Other guys work themselves up into a frenzy and can’t control their emotions or their play in such a scenario and come up short. When it came to meetings with Montreal, the Bruins have frequently embodied the latter. You saw that in the Winter Classic. But you did not see that in Boston’s last two trips to the Bell Centre, which have come with two wins.
And Rask, who took one of the most undeserving losses of the year in the Winter Classic, has been the key in both of those Bell Centre wins this year. In two games in Montreal this year, Rask has two victories has stopped all but two of 72 shots thrown his way, a ridiculous .972 save percentage. These wins must feel good for Rask, too, as he’s become the incorrectly-anointed goat of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry again and again over the last few years for his perceived struggles against Montreal. (I’d argue it’s impossible to look good when you’re constantly left with the task of trying to out-do whatever it is that Price is doing at the other end and surrendering one goal or fewer for your team to beat him.)
Excellence continues to be the theme for the 28-year-old Rask in spite of the overall record since the start of November (13-10-3) as his season save percentage (.918) is finally approaching the .920 mark.
On the offensive side of things, David Pastrnak returned to the lineup after a three-game layoff with an upper-body ailment, and came through with an (accidental) assist on the B’s second goal, and scored the third with a wraparound that beat Mike Condon. The 19-year-old played an efficient game on a fourth line with Max Talbot and Zac Rinaldo, and now has two goals and three points in four games since returning to the lineup earlier this month. Pastrnak’s contributions on a line with Talbot and Rinaldo -- in a spot that’s usually reserved for Landon Ferraro, who’s out on a day-to-day basis -- are a bonus for the B’s. But you would have to think that head coach Claude Juliens reunites Pastrnak with David Krejci when No. 46 is ready to return to play, which seems like a possibility for tomorrow.
Beyond Pastrnak, I thought you saw yet another positive night from Brett Connolly on Boston’s first line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Obviously, you want something tangible to show for Connolly’s contributions, but that’s three -- I’d argue maybe even five -- solid games in a row for No. 14. But you’ve seen that vanish and then reappear time and time again in Connolly’s small sample size with the B’s. Enough to keep him in the lineup and make you wonder where the ceiling is with his game this year and beyond. You love the shot and you love the skating game. At times. And if you keep him with Bergeron and Marchand, I can’t help but feel that the production, something that Connolly himself has longed for for actual months now, will follow. And that’s something you need to see from the Black and Gold to make a decision as to where he stands in your club’s long-term plans.
Dreger: Bruins, Loui Eriksson have started preliminary talks on contract extension
According to TSN’s Darren Dreger on Insider Trading, the Bruins and winger Loui Eriksson have started talking about a contract extension to keep the invaluable winger in town.
This is not unexpected. I was told in December by someone directly affiliated with the process that Eriksson had finalized the purchase of a new Boston home. Now, I understand you can’t live and die by what you hear when it comes to players buying houses in their current cities (Tyler Seguin bought a house here and never got to move in), but I think every situation is different, and I don’t think you drop over $4 million on a new home if you’re hellbent on leaving that city less than a year later.
Additionally, the B’s do not have an in-house replacement ready for Eriksson if he indeed does leave as a free agent this summer, and No. 21 himself enjoys playing here. But in the final year of a contract that comes with a $4.25 million cap-hit, Eriksson’s going to get paid. Price will be the question here.
I’m not sure that the Bruins would like to go $36 million over six years for the 30-year-old with a slight concussion history, but I think anywhere from $25 to $28 million over five years (or any contract that comes with a cap-hit between $5-5.75 million for five years or so) would be more than fair.
But if the Bruins cannot come to terms with Eriksson, or at least have a slight idea as to where they stand with Eriksson’s camp, Dreger notes that the Bruins could begin to explore a trade involving a Western Conference club before the deadline in order to get the most bang for their buck.
Both the old regime of Peter Chiarelli and new boss Don Sweeney have done their part to work the B’s out of a hellacious cap situation, and it’s clear that they do not want to return there, but Eriksson is a player whose skill and style don’t necessarily lead you to believe he’ll be useless in three years time. His is not a physicality-based game like David Clarkson. He’s a smart skater whose speed has never been his No. 1 attribute to begin with, and one whose know-how around the net makes him a dual threat on either the left or right side. There’s 30-goal potential in his stick when healthy, and that’s at a premium.
What would make an Eriksson extension affordable -- in both years and dollars, in my opinion -- is a more balanced Boston pipeline that’s figured out how to work younger players with affordable entry-level contracts into their NHL mix without suffering a major drop-off in their overall NHL scheme.
And the more I watch Eriksson the more I say that you gotta pay that man.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.