(Welcome to the TD Garden for tonight’s game between the Boston Bruins and visiting Minnesota Wild.)
Game one of Temporary Life Without Z was a smashing success for the Boston Bruins in a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. With the idea that ‘everybody will have to pick up the slack’, third-year pro Dougie Hamilton notched the second three-point game of his career, Providence call-up Zach Trotman logged an efficient 20 shifts on the Bruins’ third pairing (just over 12 minutes of time on ice), and goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 32-of-33 shots thrown his way by the Leafs.
If the Black and Gold want to push their streak to two (they’re still looking to jump over the .500 mark in 2014-15), that team effort will have to continue against a more system-oriented group in the Wild.
Losers by way of an epic third-period collapse against the New York Rangers last night at Madison Square Garden, the Wild will look to get back on track with some help from noted Bruin-killer Thomas Vanek. A rival of the B’s given his tenures with the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, and Montreal Canadiens (though highly ineffective), Vanek comes into action with 30 goals and 62 points in 55 career games against the Bruins, and is still looking for his first goal as a member of Hockey’s Wilderness.
Couple that with the Wild’s brutal 0-for-24 mark on the power play this year, and well, you know.
In net, the Bruins give the start to Rask. A winner of two straight, the 27-year-old Rask is slowly getting himself back on track this year, coming into tonight’s contest with an .897 save percentage. In four career games against Minnesota, Rask has won two and posted a .942 save percentage. Minnesota counters with Niklas Backstrom. The veteran netminder is 0-1-0 on the year, with an .875 save percentage, but has won four of five career starts versus Boston, posting a dominant .98 goals against average.
Minnesota will be without defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Erik Haula. Both were injured in last night’s loss to the Rangers. On the other bench, the B’s are still without Zdeno Chara (knee) and Kevan Miller (shoulder). Matt Fraser is Boston’s healthy scratch.
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20:00 - The Soderberg line gets the start for Boston. Krug and McQuaid on the point. They’ll go against the Koivu line and pairing of Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon.
18:32 - Bruins hammering at the puck in the Minnesota end, Literally inches from crossing the line for a goal but a Minny defender pulls it off the line. What a huge stop that was.
15:09 - Minnesota scores first. Matt Bartkowski loses the puck behind the net, Kyle Brodziak dishes it to a streaking Nino Niederreiter and the Swiss talent buries it. That’s Niederreiter’s second goal of the season.
11:13 - Wild lead in shots, 8-7, but the Bruins are definitely finding more quality scoring chances in their efforts in the attacking zone. Backstrom's really having a hard time locating the puck around his crease, but he's getting solid support from the talents around him. Rarely have the Bruins been able to bully their way into prime second chance areas.
5:40 - First Boston shot on net in over six minutes. Minnesota's bearing down in their own end here -- especially with their positioning and stick work -- and the Bruins are just in love with the glass at this point. Ripping it up in that regard.
4:57 - Not sure why David Krejci -- with less than inches to move at the blue line and with his wingers clearly committed to flying into the attacking zone as support -- would get cute there. Just absolutely no room to move, and it's offside against Boston. Gotta get the zone first.
4:41 - Dennis Seidenberg to the box for a hold. That's the sixth minor of the year for Seidenberg. Only Brooks Orpik, Zach Bogosian, Dion Phaneuf, and P.K. Subban have taken more minors among NHL defensemen this season.
1:37 - Griffith-back-door. Krejci with the filthy pass, and Seth Griffith buries it. His second of the year. Tied up, just like that. Zach Trotman picks up secondary assist on the goal. That's the first point of his NHL career. But again, that saucer dish by Krejci. Just, just downright disgusting.
:51.0 - Jason Zucker to the box. Bruins power play on the way. B's are 6-for-30 on the power play this year while the Wild are the second best PK team in the league (19-for-20).
0.0 - Nice look by Reilly Smith, but he can't bury it. Bruins and Wild tied 1-1.
Tale of two teams there. Bruins started out strong, dealt with Minnesota's pushback, and tied the game behind a great effort from the Krejci line. Still, let's talk about this-- In the final 11 minutes of the period, the Bruins put just three shots on Backstrom. And I'll say it-- Backstrom's just not that great of a goaltender anymore. Get a few more on target and this one could get blown open (especially with Minnesota skating on the second leg of a back-to-back).
(Note: Scoring change on Minnesota's first goal. Assist now goes to Vanek, not Brodziak.)
17:11 - Nice look by the Soderberg line. No. 34 tips it, but Backstroms fall on it, keeping this one tied at 1-1. Would be nice to see these guys get back at it with some five-on-five success.
14:37 - Seth. Griffith. Again. Crashing the net once more, this time it's Gregory Campbell that dishes the puck, and it's 2-1, Bruins. That's Griffith's second goal of the night and his third goal of the season. Style points on that one, no doubt. An underrated element of that goal: Campbell's patience to hold onto the puck for a higher percentage look than just toss it on.
13:34 - Torey Krug takes a slapper right off the foot. He limps his way back to the bench. Isn't going down the tunnel just yet, he'll try to shake this one off on the bench.
7:45 - Old friend from Boston University, Charlie Coyle, picks Smith's pocket and nearly scores but Rask denies No. 3's bid. Huge stop to preserve the Boston lead.
5:48 - Wild are just bringing the ruckus right now. Rask is standing tall. Huge shift by Krug there, too, with his sliding block of a Vanek attempt obviously coming as the big play.
5:00 - Update from the NHL-- Referee Dave Lewis (no, not the coach of the Boston Bruins in 2006-07) is being assessed by medical personnel after taking a puck to the face (broken jaw). The game is being reffed by one referee and two linesmen.
4:35 - Boston PP on the way. Brodziak to the box.
3:01 - Lucic on the doorstep. It's 3-1, Bruins. That's a multi-point night for Lucic, and Griffith now has three points. Overall, Lucic has two goals and seven points in his last 17 periods of hockey. He's been engaged from the start of this one. Might be his best game of the year.
You can't help but like what you see from Boston's first line. There's just an element that comes with Griffith on the right wing that you just really haven't seen. He's quick, he's smart with the puck, and he's an interesting complement to Lucic and Krejci. He doesn't have the powerful shot like Jarome Iginla or Nathan Horton, but it's his work ethic and ability to dig in deep on the forecheck that's really allowing Krejci and Lucic to operate around the offensive zone with ease.
20:00 - The Bruins are 4-0-0 this year when leading after two periods. Minnesota's 0-1-0 this year when trailing after two periods. Something's gotta give if this edge fails to hold.
19:11 - Brad Marchand makes a beautiful move, but loses the puck, then gets called for holding going the other way. Minnesota power play back to work. Still posting zeros.
16:57 - The Minnesota power play is now 0-for-26. With all that talent, yikes.
15:39 - Zach Parise. And the Wild trail by just one. Granlund with the beautiful dish on the marker, too. Spurgeon picks up the secondary helper there as well.
13:26 - Saw that one coming. Melee in front of the Boston net, and the Wild tie it up. Justin Fontaine appears to be the one with the equalizer. The Bartkowski-Trotman pairing once again out there for the goal against. Troublesome third pairing.
11:32 - The Bruins are currently being outshot 13-to-2 in the third right now. Just a total takeover by the Wild forwards here. B's have no answers, even lucky to get puck beyond red.
10:57 - Matching minors. Griffith gets called for goaltender interference (bad call). Backstrom gets called for embellishment (bad call). These are bad calls.
6:38 - Chris Kelly catches a high stick from Justin Falk. No call. Crowd is not happy. I think the ref straight-up didn't see that one, to be honest.
5:53 - Absolutely wicked deflection off a Marco Scandella shot. 4-3, Wild. Rask had absolutely no chance on that one. Just an absolutely insane redirect off somebody.
2:00 - Gotta be Reilly Smith's worst game of the season. He just can't get it going.
1:16 - Net empty at one end, net crashed at the other. No goal.
:34.8 - Icing on Minnesota.
:00.0 - Wild hang on, 4-3.