GOLD STAR: There was a lot to choose from among the Bruin roster, but give credit to Danton Heinen for being among a number of support players that really stepped up.
Heinen scored a second-period goal from the slot that kept the B's ahead on the scoreboard and was his first goal in nearly a month. Heinen, benched recently, finished with a goal and two points and a plus-2 rating in 11:17 of ice time along with four shots on net and a couple of blocked shots. Heinen was aggressive with his offense, he was playing with urgency and it led to offensive production along with real involvement in the game.
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Heinen combined with Charlie Coyle and Brett Ritchie to actually give the Bruins a competent, even-dangerous third line and that’s something they haven’t had much of lately.
BLACK EYE: Kyle Turris isn’t having a great season and he was absolutely invisible for the Predators on Tuesday night.
Turris finished with no shots on net, a giveaway and lost 7-of-11 face-offs in 13:40 of ice time and was on the ice for a pair of goals against while struggling at both ends of the ice. Turris is one of the players that Nashville are surely counting on to get it going for the Predators after the coaching change, and it clearly didn’t take in the first time out of the gate for the center.
He wasn’t alone as there was a slew of Nashville players that finished with minus-3 ratings on the night for plus/minus, but Turris gets the honors for being a no-show offensively as well.
Boston Bruins
TURNING POINT: The Bruins got a 1-0 lead early, but it was the second period when they truly won the game.
The Predators launched 15 shots at the Boston net and Tuukka Rask stopped all but one of them while the B’s pushed for a couple of goals to extend the lead. Heinen scored early to keep the Bruins in the driver’s seat and then Patrice Bergeron added the power-play goal late to extend the lead and give Boston the kind of cushion they haven’t had on the scoreboard much the past month.
It turned out to be exactly what the B’s needed heading into the final period as they extended the lead even more with three more goals in the third.
HONORABLE MENTION: Bergeron has been excellent since coming back from his lower-body injury and No. 37 was again among Boston’s best players on Tuesday night.
Bergeron finished with a key power-play goal at the end of the second period and had a plus-3 rating in 17:38 of ice time while he dominated with the rest of the Perfection Line.
The goal was Bergeron camped at the doorstep and finishing off a Jake DeBrusk feed from behind the net. Bergeron finished with six shot attempts, two takeaways and a blocked shot while winning 20 of 28 face-offs against a host of Nashville centers.
Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak could have had a handful of goals in this game, but they instead settled for two early on before the B’s other lines poured it on.
BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – the number of fights in the past 13 games for 42-year-old Zdeno Chara, who stepped up and dropped the gloves with Yakov Trenin late in the game after the Nashville forward smoked Charlie McAvoy with a hit behind the Boston net.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "When guys contribute, different guys get on the scoresheet...everyone feels like they're doing their part. I don’t think we’ve ever considered ourselves a one-line team. We’ve always felt like we’re a group of 20 guys that need to pull their weight every night. If not then we’re not going to win every night and tonight was a good example of that.” –Bruce Cassidy to reporters on the B’s with an impressive all-around win where many different players contributed.