Talking Points: Halak, Chara lead the way in B's win

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BOSTON -- Here are the talking points from the Boston Bruins' 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

GOLD STAR: Zdeno Chara doesn’t normally get the starring roles for his offense, but that was the case on Thursday night with his two-goal performance. The second score was a long distance empty netter from way downtown in the waning moments of the third period, but the first goal was a needed booster shot of offense that snapped open a scoreless game in the second period. Chara was able to step into a puck shipped to him by Danton Heinen after he stole possession from Andrew MacDonald low in the zone, and he rocketed a shot past Brian Elliott for the score. In all Chara finished with the two goals and a team-high five shots on net in 22:38 of ice time while stepping up with Charlie McAvoy, Kevan Miller and Torey Krug still all down with injuries.

BLACK EYE: Boy, Radko Gudas is like a neutered dog these days. The formerly hard-hitting and line-crossing D-man was practically invisible and unnoticeable in Thursday night’s game with just one shot attempt, one giveaway and one takeaway in 16:28 of ice time. Gudas didn’t even throw a single hit, which might be purposeful since he’d probably lose control and try to head-hunt somebody if he did actually start throwing the body around. What the performance of Gudas did illustrate, however, is how extremely ordinary he is as a player if he isn’t running around trying to cheap shot guys like he’s done so many times in the past. Flyers fans are always quick to point out that Gudas is more than just a hatchet man on the ice, and that he can actually play the game. Well, he didn’t do much of anything in this game.

TURNING POINT: The Bruins picked up the pace in the second period and really separated themselves from the Flyers in the middle 20 minutes. In general it was a higher-paced period for both teams as the shots on net went from seven apiece in the first period to 11 shots on net apiece in the second period, but the Bruins began getting some high quality chances against Brian Elliott. He was able to stop one point blank chance from David Pastrnak in the opening couple minutes, but then couldn’t hold back the big Zdeno Chara bomb slapper from inside the blue line to open the scoring. Then the Bruins power play went to work and Jake DeBrusk was able to score on a redirect to give Boston a little breathing room in the game.

HONORABLE MENTION: Jaroslav Halak is making this into a goalie controversy. He was excellent, making 26 saves in a shutout win over the Flyers, and was very good in the second period stopping all 11 shots he faced as the Bruins scored a couple of goals. Not only that, but Halak also picked up an assist on Zdeno Chara’s empty net goal at the end of the third period that iced the game for the Black and Gold. The .945 save percentage for Halak this season tells you that it’s not just tonight, and that he’s been consistently strong all season for Boston while Tuukka Rask has struggled out of the starting gate. We’re not there yet, but Halak could take this job away from Rask sooner rather than later.

BY THE NUMBERS: 23:58 – the ice time for Brandon Carlo, who led all D-men in ice time in the win and once again played extremely well as a shutdown partner with Zdeno Chara.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "If Jaro [Halak] is able to push [Rask] and eventually take the job...if and when that happens then we'll look at that." –Bruce Cassidy, when asked if there’s a time when the Bruins will stop scripting goalie starts and instead go with whichever goalie is giving them the best chance to win. 

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