Talking points from the Bruins' 2-1 victory over the Senators. . .
GOLD STAR: Torey Krug now has two goals in two games after not having any in the first 17 games of the season. Krug hammered away at a point shot for the goal in Saturday night’s win over the Maple Leafs, and then in overtime camped down at the net and waited for David Krejci to wheel around the back of the Sens net and float a pass across the front of the ice. Krug finished with points on each of Boston’s goals in the overtime victory and had five shots on net, seven shot attempts, three hits and a pair of blocked shots in 22:06 of ice time. The Bruins needed some skilled players still healthy to really get going offensively and Krug has done exactly that.
BLACK EYE: A literal black eye for Sean Kuraly, who dropped the gloves with mammoth Ottawa defenseman Ben Harpur in the second period and caught an uppercut right-handed punch that busted him wide open. It looked like the punch broke Kuraly’s nose and ripped open his lip, but the fourth line center was back on the bench later in the period bloodied and ready to take another shift. It’s a hard-knock life for Kuraly as a fourth line center, but kudos to him for stepping up and fighting after Harpur quickly dropped the gloves to go after him. The glove drop was so fast, in fact, that Harpur ended up getting an instigator penalty as a result after the fracas was over. Also, the Kuraly/Harpur exchange got Boston the PP that supplied Marchand’s power play strike.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins took over the game in the third period when they outshot the Senators 14-4 and watched Tuukka Rask make a couple of dazzling saves on the good chances that Ottawa was able to generate. Then the Bruins completely dominated an overtime session that befuddled them earlier in the season and got a scoring chance with Sean Kuraly, and then finally with the game-winning connection from David Krejci to Sean Kuraly. The B’s got stronger as the game went on and that shouldn’t exactly be the case on the second half of a back-to-back with less than 24 hours of rest. But the Bruins managed it and got the two points. A great weekend for the Black and Gold.
HONORABLE MENTION: Brad Marchand was everywhere for the Bruins. He took an elbowing penalty in the first period while in the offensive zone on the PK, which wasn’t very good. But then he sniped a power play goal in the second period that tied things up and kept the Bruins in a tight back-and-forth game. He leveled Ryan Dzingel in the third period with a big hit as well, and was all over the ice with shots on net, offensive chances and physical play. Marchand led the Bruins with nine shots on net and a couple of registered hits, and stepped up in a way that hasn’t always been easy for him with his partner-in-crime, No. 37, out of the lineup.
BY THE NUMBERS: 2 – the number of games that Zach Hyman was suspended for his late, dirty hit on Charlie McAvoy in the third period of Saturday night’s Bruins win over the Maple Leafs. That was the right decision by the Department of Player Safety.
Boston Bruins
QUOTE TO NOTE: “David Krejci made a heck of a pass. I didn’t even see the pass, but I was just able to swing away and luckily it went in.” –Torey Krug to NESN, on his game-winner in overtime where he was just blindly hammering away at the puck.
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