When they are playing on their home ice, the Boston Bruins are the best team in the NHL. Winners of 16 of 21 games at home this season, the Bruins added one more victory to that column Friday night as fresh off a 3 day Christmas break, they put up 5 goals in a 2nd and 3rd period demolition of the Ottawa Senators.
As has been the case in 7 straight Bruins games now, 2 of those 5 goals came from the same player. Over the course of the past 2 weeks of so, guys like Jarome Iginla, Milan Lucic as well as Brad Marchand have all pounded in multiple goal games and yet, the Bruins still hold that impossible to defend amount of scoring distribution. Reilly Smith however is a different animal. Smith is insane and netted his 2nd 2 goal game in 3 games Friday night while adding to his tally of 5 goals during that stretch. As a result of that recent explosion of scoring, Reilly Smith now leads the Bruins in goals scored this season.
"He's really taken that opportunity he's been given. He's on a streak now. When you're hot, you're hot, just keep shooting and it's been working for him," Tuukka Rask said when asked about his young teammate.
Furthermore, coach, Claude Jullian admits that many who follow the Bruins did not see this one coming. "I don't know that during the summer when the trade was done that we'd expect him to be where he is right now, so those are bonuses for teams after they make those kind of deals," Julien said.
Smith however was not the only Bruin who stood tall during the ups and downs of this game that for the better part of two periods was far closer than the score dictates. The Bruins were outshot 15-5 in the first period frequently leaving Tuukka Rask out to dry as they forced their star goaltender to morph into something more than a goaltender. For 20 minutes, Rask was a brick wall. You can shoot all you want but those shots will NOT go into the net.
“We easily could’ve been down a couple of goals in the first period," Milan Lucic said in regards to Rask. “That’s why I think he’s been our best player so far throughout this year. He makes big saves like that at key moments and gives us a chance to win. We talked about stepping up for him and playing well in the second and third. It was good that we were able to do that.’’
Whatever you want to say about anybody else, Rask has been the Bruins best player this season as his 4 shutouts now lead the league in that category while both his GAA and save percentage also rank top 5 in the league's leader boards.
Rask was dominant in the 1st period but he would not have had to if the Bruins played like they did in the 2nd a 3rd period. For many, the 3 day break could be attributed as the cause of this lackadaisical play.
“They pretty much had all their best chances in that first period,’’ said Rask. “We had five [shots] so that tells us a lot about that period. We weren’t skating, we weren’t hitting, we weren’t as sharp with our passes as we were in the last two periods and we talked about it after the first — fix it — and we were pretty dominant after that I thought. You take three days off and you probably go for a walk or something like that, you don’t skate or play hockey so I think there’s a little bit of that, I’m just happy that we fixed it and we realized it wasn’t going to be good enough."
Like Rask said the Bruins responded in the 2nd period bringing the shot totals closer together while finally breaking the 0-0 deadlock via a Jarome Iginla goal with just over 3 and a half minutes to go in the period. From there, things only got better for Boston. David Krejci opened the 3rd period with a goal just 38 seconds in while Reilly Smith tallied his 2 goals that were separated by just over 7 minutes of play.
As highlighted by Bruins play by play NESN announcer, Jack Edwards, this 7th straight game where a Bruin scored twice tied the franchise record set back in 1929.
The Bruins were up 4-0 but even then they were not ready to let up, a quality that has run strong in Bruins teams these past few years. Approximately 2 minutes after Smith's second goal, Brad Marchand lit the lamp shorthanded via his score with 27 seconds to go.
The Bruins always find a way to win and whether it be their goaltender or their 22 year old winger the combination of these starters stepping up can in some cases bring about fireworks no matter where the game is being played. Such was the case Friday night in Boston and while the 1st period was not pretty the 2nd and 3rd periods were and that is all that matters mainly because when the Bruins are rolling you just cannot stop them.
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