Tuukka Rask posted his first shutout of the season as the Bruins beat the Blues 2-0. Rask stopped 33 shots in the shutout, and the puck just seemed to stick to him tonight. Rebounds were a rarity for the Finnish born goaltender, as he was able to hold onto everything tonight.
Patrice Bergeron scored the first goal of the game after an atrocious Ian Cole giveaway behind the net. Brian Elliott was lackadaisical getting back into the goal, which gave Bergeron a wide open net to shoot on. He's not going to miss many of those.
Torey Krug scored the Bruins second goal of the game, as his point shot banked off the pants of Cole, and changed the direction of the puck just enough to get past Elliott.
There were a few problems with this game. One being the Blues failed to produce many rebounds. They tried crashing the net, but Rask just stopped everything. Even the bouncing pucks seemed to find away to stick to his body.
The two best chance the Blues had was a pass off the pad of Rask by Alexander Steen, but neither Paul Stastny or Joakim Lindstrom couldn't find the puck to tap it in.
In the third period, Jaden Schwartz just threw the puck on goal and it rode up the stick of Rask and almost found it's way into the net, but it was the pad of Rask that kept the puck out of the net.
The Blues also failed to attack the Bruins enough physically. The Bruins were without Zdeno Chara, and they were without Adam McQuaid, who was injured during the game and didn't return. Yet they failed to capitalize against a depleted Bruins defense.
When you pay a player seven million dollars, you want production. If they aren't producing, you want to see offenses opportunities. Yet Paul Stastny was, for the most part, invisible tonight. It's never a good thing when your highest paid player, is playing with a questionable winger and Steve Ott/Patrik Berglund.
Joakim Lindstrom hasn't looked terrible this season, and he'd probably be a solid third line player, yet he's playing the majority of his time with Stastny and Alexander Steen. Then when the Blues are trying to produce offense, they replace Steen with Patrik Berglund. Steve Ott also saw playing time with Stastny when Lindstrom was bumped down the line up.
When Stastny is playing with Patrik Berglund and Steve Ott, something is very, very wrong. If you're going to spend high dollar on a offensive center, you need to give him some offensive players to play with.
The Blues will now head to Montreal to take on the Canadiens on Thursday. Jake Allen will get the start in goal. Hopefully the Blues offense is able to make an appearance against Carey Price and the Habs.