Welp.
1st Period
Things started bad.
Things started very, very bad.
Starting the game down 2-0 after about 7 minutes of gametime is not how you want your night to go.
Thankfully, the Boston Bruins have a golden scoring
force in Morgan Geekie, who said his Rocket Richard campaign is BACK ON!
After 20? The Bruins were down 2-1.
2nd Period
Honestly this was a much better period for most of it; the B’s started to outshoot the Ducks in earnest, they found plenty of offensive zone time…
…it’s a pity they gave the Ducks a power play.
Mercifully, the Bruins managed to get a herculean shift out of Michael Eyssimont, who showed exceptional patience in a 2-on-1 to score himself!
Just some great maneuvering by him.
The middle period ended with a 3-2 Ducks Lead.
3rd Period
Boston’s power play got to work early on in the final frame, with Morgan Geekie swooping into the net-front to deflect a David Pastrnak shot straight past Dostal! 3-3 Everybody!
But…these are not the Ducks who were useless like they had been for years. This team is very, very different. They can move the puck, they can force you to look the other way.
They can get Ian Moore to score one more.
aaaaand the Bruins lose 4-3.
Game Notes
- Your TOI leader was Hampus Lindholm, who logged 22:01
- I mean, it’d be hard to really pin this game down to anything but just about three things; the Ducks really have come into their own as a squad and have some real killer shooters, the Bruins only scored one goal at even strength tonight and the Ducks scored three, and well…Lukas Dostal is incredible. This was a textbook example of finding out that the future could be now, and it features a lot of eye-bleeding orange.
- Seriously Ducks, you need to get some black pants and helmets. Even all that out.
- It would probably hurt a lot less if most of those goals were coming from Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish, but nah; it’s guys like Jansen Harkins and Radko Gudas; all those big names played assist magnet tonight. Just frustrating.
- So Morgan Geekie is tied for the league lead for goals with Leon Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon. Like we all suspected he would be, right?
- Boston’s power play is really, really, really good, which feels like another world if you’re used to the defense-first B’s. It arguably saved their bacon from this game getting really ugly, and I think it’s a major component in the “Battle back” nature of the team. Nobody quits because any old penalty can be a chance at a comeback. 2-for-2 felt like a pipe dream some years ago. It’s a shame what had to happen to the roster to get there.
- Marat Khusnutdinov has really found his niche as the “exit-entry” guy for his line. His north-south skating has made him an invaluable asset for the B’s transition game and even if his point totals right now look kinda “meh”, you can see him settling into this role so naturally it’s a wonder anyone played him doing anything else.
- Radko Gudas did a borderline hit on Michael Eyssimont, and promptly had to defend his entire life against Jeffrey Viel for a couple of minutes. Maybe not the best instigator penalty to take, but under those circumstances I think it’s at least understandable.
- Hey Mason? You’re doing it again. You can’t start doing it again. All these California teams are at the bare minimum competent. They’ll getcha for that. Every time.
- Korpisalo was fine in the third period. He was however, deeply out of his depth against the Ducks, and it showed. His .879 SV% tonight would be a lot more rage inducing if he was getting any help from his skaters out front. He was big in moments they needed him to be…he was just letting in goals from places that are kind of difficult to forgive.
- I reaaaaally would like it if we could get some points from this road trip, I really don’t want to go back to the days of bargaining for points on the Cali road trip.
The B’s continue the California road trip with a visit to the LA Kings, which is on Friday at 10:30pm EST.
We’ll see you there!
