The Boston Bruins, winless on into the fourth game of this road trip, had the road start they undoubtedly wanted against the St. Louis Blues on Friday night. The Bruins jumped out to a 1-0 lead behind Brad Marchand’s 17th goal of the season, and led the Blues in shots 8-0.
St. Louis countered with the final three shots of the period, and though Malcolm Subban, a 21-year-old in his first NHL start, stopped all three, the floodgates soon opened on the B’s net.
Petteri Lindbohm scored his first NHL goal 48 seconds into the second period, Alex Pietrangelo scored his fifth of the season 4:16 in, and T.J. Oshie scored 53 seconds later, putting an end to Subban’s night after just six shots against in 31:15 in the crease.
The Blues put an exclamation point on their throttling of a sinking Black and Gold squad with two goals from Vladimir Tarasenko, the first of which coming by way of a second-period power-play strike, and the second coming 11:45 into the third. The goals were the 30th and 31th of Tarasenko’s season, making him the youngest Blues 30-goal scorer since Brendan Shanahan in 1991-92.
It was yet another nightmare for the Bruins, too. On top of surrendering five unanswered (on just 15 shots against, no less), the Boston power play went 0-for-5, while David Krejci (with help of the trainers) left the game with an apparent knee injury. The loss dropped the B’s to 0-2-2 on their five-game road trip.
Random thoughts and notes
- The easy takeaway: Not the best start for Subban. Actually, probably the worst imaginable.
Subban stopped the first three shots he faced, but proceeded to allow three goals on the first three St. Louis shots of the second period. The goals were far from pretty, too. You’d make the case that an NHL goaltender should have stopped all three, and that’s fair. But Subban, just 21, and in just his second season as a professional, is not that yet, and you can’t hold that against him.
It really reminded me of a start back in 2007 for the B’s current face of the franchise, Tuukka Rask, too.
In the fourth game of his NHL career, the Bruins threw a then-20-year-old Rask into the crease for a start against a Montreal Canadiens powerhouse (they finished the year as the East’s best team) and hoped for the best. Rask, in his first season as a professional, surrendered four goals on 30 shots. The goals were far from pretty, too. There’s a slight difference between your first NHL and your fourth NHL game (albeit a quite minor one), but it just goes to show how veteran, elite clubs can expose a first-year player.
I think that will probably be it for Subban, at least for now, but it wouldn’t shock me to see the Bruins try to give him another club (if they can afford it in the standings) before the end of the season.
- So, in a year where almost nothing has gone right, it looks like the Bruins will once again have to play without the services of one David Krejci. And that could very well be the deathblow to this team. By now, Krejci’s importance to the Bruins almost goes without saying. Krejci has already missed 17 games this season with a brutal case of the undisclosed, with the Bruins posting a 8-9-3 record with 40 goals scored (2.00 goals per game) over that stretch. This injury comes with its own series of questions, too.
If Krejci’s out long term, I think your answer to the ‘buy-or-sell’ debate is pretty clear. And if it’s something that’s a little bit more than a couple weeks, but not quite two months, you’re going to have to honestly assess whether or not a Krejci return is worth it. Given the fact that he’s already missed time this season, you really don’t need to risk long-term harm to a center you’re paying $7.25 million for the foreseeable future.
Without an update on Krejci, the Bruins have called up center Ryan Spooner from Providence. Spooner, who is scoreless in five NHL contests this season, will arrive back to the Big B’s with three goals and nine points in seven AHL games this month.
- Friday night was Jordan Caron’s seventh game of the season, and featured his second fight of the season. Caron’s clearly at the point in his NHL career where he’s going to do anything he can to contribute value to Claude Julien’s squad. He’s not the best at it, no doubt, but it’ll be interesting to see if he continues to work this into his game in an effort to become a full-time NHL talent a la Matt Hendricks.
- Defenseman Kevan Miller is going to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. The loss of Miller puts a larger focus on Adam McQuaid, and will likely bring Zach Trotman, a fellow right-shooting defenseman, back to Boston as a seventh defender at some point. Though, if the Bruins believe they can win (a huge if), the Miller injury could also push the Black and Gold to add a defender before the Mar. 2 Trade Deadline.
Up next
The Bruins head to Chicago for a Sunday affair with the Blackhawks. The ‘Hawks took their previous meeting against the Bruins back on Dec. 11, and have won 18 of 30 at the United Center. In other words, the Bruins have a legitimate chance to return back to Boston without a single win on this five-game road trip. Yikes.