GOLD STAR: There were plenty of strong candidates for the Canucks in their blowout win, but give the credit to Tyler Toffoli for scoring a pair of goals in his second game for Vancouver since coming over in the trade with the LA Kings.
Toffoli is already making an impact with points in each of his two games for the Canucks while injuries are impacting their roster, but he was especially strong on Sunday with the two goals, three points and a plus-3 rating in 14:50 of ice time.
Beyond that, he matched Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat for the team-high with five shots on net as well while showing the Bruins what they missed out on by peeling back on the Toffoli trade talks. He was an impact player for the Canucks while Ondrej Kase continues to be on the sidelines hurt and not ready to play quite yet for the B’s.
BLACK EYE: No shots on net and a minus-4 rating for Danton Heinen on a disastrously bad night for Boston’s second line. Heinen and David Krejci both tied for the team-worst with the minus-4 ratings and there was zero offensive push from Krejci, Heinen and Jake DeBrusk while an incredibly hungry, rested Vancouver team was waiting for them.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
The problem now for guys like Heinen is that their days with the Bruins are numbered now that Ondrej Kase is coming into the fold with a mandate to take opportunities away from them. It might even be that Heinen gets dealt given the surplus of middle-6 forwards on this Bruins roster right now. Heinen made a compelling case to not be a guy that sticks around in the loss to Vancouver.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins were only losing 2-1 after the first period of play and things didn’t seem so bad for them at that point. But the weight of playing five back-to-back games this month finally left some collateral damage with the B’s when they fell apart in the final 40 minutes of the game.
Boston Bruins
Sloppy puck possession and good old-fashioned lack of execution led to three more goals being scored by Vancouver in the second period despite being outshot by a 12-8 margin and the rout was one once it was a 5-1 deficit for the Black and Gold. Truthfully, the Bruins never felt like they were in this game at all and they proved it with the way they played in the last couple of periods against the Canucks in humbling, embarrassing defeat.
HONORABLE MENTION: David Pastrnak scored a pair of goals to push the Bruins sniper to 45 goals on the season. Pastrnak continues to lead the NHL in goals scored and is now pushing toward 50 goals scored on the season with just five remaining until he reaches a historic plateau that hasn’t been done in the Bruins uniform since Bruins President Cam Neely did it himself during his prime years in Black and Gold.
Pastrnak finished with the two goals scored and six shot attempts for the Bruins, but even he finished a minus-2 rating while just about every forward line didn’t get it done on multiple levels for the Bruins.
BY THE NUMBERS: 20 – the number of years since the Canucks had a player with a Gordie Howe hat trick prior to Bo Horvat getting it done for Vancouver in Sunday’s win.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “Tonight clearly we were not the better team. We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t do what was required to win and we didn’t have much luck our way either. I think we’ve got the full value for a majority of the wins we’ve had coming out of the break, but tonight they were the better and hungrier team. - Bruce Cassidy, on the NESN postgame about the 9-3 loss to the Canucks in Vancouver.