Here are some talking points from the Bruins' 2-1 overtime win vs the Stars on Monday night. . .
GOLD STAR: Brad Marchand made a nice adjustment noticing how tightly Anton Khudobin was guarding his short-side post, and he took advantage of it in the overtime session. Of course, it takes a pinpoint sniper to get it there, but Marchand rattled a puck off the inside of the outer post with just 31 seconds left in overtime to give the Bruins the OT victory. It was the end of a strong game for No. 63 as Marchand scored the OT game-winner, had five shots on net, seven shot attempts overall and played a whopping 22:06 of ice time in the victory. The overtime goal was Marchand’s first point of the game, but it was pretty clear that Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak all had their good games flowing against Dallas in a situation where they really had to be that good.
BLACK EYE: Tyler Seguin really did not have a good game against his old team. Seguin finished with two shots on net after not registering a shot in the first 40 minutes of the game, and was just 3-for-9 in the face-off circle. Worse still, Seguin was a key player in the too many men on the ice penalty that the Stars took in the 3-on-3 overtime that eventually morphed into a 5-on-3 power play for the Bruins in the overtime session. The Bruins had the 5-on-3 for nearly the entire final two minutes of the overtime session, and that miscue eventually paved the way for the Bruins to win the game. It’s been interesting to watch Seguin against the B’s over the years because he’s had a couple of really good performances, and then a few like Monday night that were eminently forgettable.
TURNING POINT: For the Bruins, it was pretty simple. Yes, the shot that Tuukka Rask allowed to go in from just inside the blue line was deflected off Torey Krug’s stick. But it was still something where Rask had ample time to adjust to it and let it get by him for a long distance shorthanded goal to Radek Faksa. That could have been a real momentum crusher for the Bruins, but instead, the Bruins stormed right back down and scored with a David Pastrnak one-timer to seize back the momentum. That allowed Rask to finally settle into his game, allowed the B’s to really dictate the terms of the game and then ultimately led to their overtime win over Dallas.
HONORABLE MENTION: Yes, Rask let in a soft goal on the second shot of the game. Yes, he has allowed one of those weird, soft goals in almost every start he’s made this season. But Rask was also steady and pretty much mistake-free for the rest of the game after the Stars shorthanded strike, and he finished with 24 saves in his fourth victory of the season. Rask was better in the second period than he was in the first, and then he was really, really good in the third with 10 saves including some when Dallas made a late push to avoid overtime. Rask still has a ways to go to get to his normal November form when he starts to really dominate, but Monday was a good step getting two points against a Dallas team that had been pretty hot previous to taking on the Bruins.
BY THE NUMBERS: 1 – The first assist of the season for Jake DeBrusk on the first period Bruins goal as he retrieved a puck, and then got it to Patrice Bergeron feeding David Pastrnak for the one-timer.
Boston Bruins
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Three posts, a goal we scored that Anders could have really used that got waved off…it’s coming." –Bruce Cassidy, on the state of the offense as the Bruins were close to breaking out while still getting the 2-1 OT win over the Stars.
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