GOLD STAR: Jake DeBrusk paced the Bruins offense with a pair of goals - one each in the first and second period - and really capped off the game with his breakaway goal in the second that iced things for the Black and Gold. DeBrusk used his speed and shooting ability to create a number of scoring chances for himself and could have easily had a hat trick based on the other breakaway chance he had in the second period that forced Sergei Bobrovsky into a full-extension, leg pad save. DeBrusk finished with six shot attempts and looks as if his game is heating peak form a week ahead of the open to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
BLACK EYE: David Savard finished with a minus-3 for Columbus and had a nasty piece of business when he clobbered Noel Acciari from behind against the end boards. Then Savard refused to answer the bell when both Joakim Nordstrom and David Backes came looking for trouble, so he was really terrible on a couple of different counts. The Blue Jackets probably don’t care much about whether or not he drops the gloves with the Bruins to answer for hits he’s throwing, but they certainly care plenty about the way Savard and other members of the Columbus defense corps were turning over pucks in their own zone. It paved the way for Boston to pressure the Blue Jackets heavily and convert the turnovers into offense.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins finally got off to a good start again after struggling with their openings in two disappointing losses over the weekend. This time around it was DeBrusk using a funky bounce off Bobrovsky’s back to post the first goal and Marcus Johansson scored his first goal with the Bruins in the closing minutes of the first to double their lead. The two-goal cushion gave the Bruins a fantastic start and helped carry them all the way through when they really separated in the final 40 minutes. Good starts are key for the Bruins and this win was another example of that.
HONORABLE MENTION: Johansson is showing some good things skating on the third line with Charlie Coyle. It was Johansson going hard to the net and shoveling home the rebound of a Charlie Coyle spinning shot from the slot area that was his first goal with Boston. Perhaps Johansson has found his playoff lineup spot on that third line as both new guys (Johansson, Coyle) look pretty comfortable with each other. He ended up with only the single shot on net that he scored on in more than 11-plus minutes of ice time in the game, but production really is the thing with the skilled Swedish winger. And his goal was part of a pair in the first that got the B’s going in the right direction.
BY THE NUMBERS: 100 – The number of points for Brad Marchand this season – with a 36/64 breakdown for his 100 – and a heck of a celebration in the third period after his secondary helper on a David Pastrnak goal got him to the century mark. Marchand became the first Bruin to get to 100 points in a single season since Jumbo Joe Thornton back in the 2002-03 season. Click here for the rest of the B's 100-point club.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I thought it was great. We talked about having a bounce-back game and I thought we did that from the get-go.” –Patrice Bergeron, to NESN, on what he took from a good 6-2 win after the Bruins looked lousy against Florida and Detroit over the weekend.
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