Bruins held off a pesky and hard-working Sens team 3-2 last night for the Bruins 5th win at home giving them a perfect record at home. The Sens being down 5 players because of Covid protocols didn't roll over and pushed the Bruins.
The game itself was pretty even but the Bruins after a slow start, allowing the 1st goal and playing fairly sloppy in their zone again, did make adjustments and after the 1st , played better. They did take 3 penalties in the 1st and 6 in total for the game, something they do not want to get in a habit of doing. Most were lazy penalties as well.
After the 1st the Bruins in general controlled much of the play but the Sens gave the Bruins issues attacking through the neutral zone and on entries with their 1-3-1 defense. The Bruins held a 58% to 38% advantage on faceoffs. They outshot the Sens 36 to 27. That is a bit deceptive because although Murray was called on to make a few big saves, especially against Pasta he was never under siege. Swayman had a decent night. His rebound control needs work and the 2nd Sens goal should not have gone in but late in the 3rd, he made a huge save on a Sens player point-blank. Sometimes it's not the weak ones but when you make the big save and he did.
The Bruins as a team are still looking out of sync really. The D core is having real struggles with passing and defending well. The forwards are still a huge question mark beyond Bard and Bergeron, who have been the only consistent ones so far this season and were once again last night.
Ottawa scoring - Zach Sanford 1:14 of the 1st and Nikita Zaitsev 13:09 at the 2nd
Bruins scoring - Brad Marchand 5:12 of the 2nd PP goal, Derek Forbort 10:58 of the 2nd, and Patrice Bergeron at the 18:40 mark
Final score 3-2.
Bruins PP : The Bruins PP was 1 for 3 and on their first scored. They had good puck movement and made shooting a priority. The last 2 were a disaster. One was very short because they took a penalty because of poor decision making and the last one was a dud by the top guns. The 2nd unit had better looks. Grade D
Bruins PK : The PK last night did its job quite well. They kept the Sens mostly to the outside and were solid in their clears, blocked shots and won most of the board battles. the Sens had a goose egg at 0 for 6 , so well done. Grade A +
Player of the Game : This one goes to Captain Patrice Bergeron who led by example and effort. Winning draws, battling on the boards, playing in all situations with 21:12 of ice time. Plus showed his skill on the winning goal.
Last Thoughts : The Sens proved to be a hard opponent even though handicapped with the players out. The Bruins did find their game and overcame a very poor start. Still lots of questions concerning this Bruins team. Keynote: Trent Frederic suffered an upper-body injury in the 2nd with a thunderous clean hit and left the game. Will not be available for tomorrow nights game against the Oilers in Boston.
Next game Oilers at the Garden. Let's get it one and go Bruins.
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