They Call It Stormy Monday

T-Bone Walker-stormy monday (via kostas5409)

So that didn't go exactly as planned, in more ways than one and not all of them bad actually. The Bruins lost Thursday night to the Blues in St. Louis in a game that, much like their game in Boston, was a rather close contest. The Bruins once again proved that they can keep up with the powers of the Western Conference, coming back for a two-goal deficit to get to overtime.

Ok, so we all just saw the game so I'll stop there and get to the important part. In there first game without Captain Slovakia, Zdeno Chara, the Bruins were able to hold off one of the better possession teams in the league. In a game where everybody expected the young d-corps to be tested in the absence of Chara they passed with flying colors.

Dougie Hamilton logged a 64% CF and a +6.9 CF rel in 22 minutes of work while Torey Krug and Johnny Boychuk ended the night in CF% in the high sixties. The only trouble spots were, expectedly, Kevan Miller and callup (AND BU HERO) David Warsofsky the latter of which got major power play time with next to no contribution. It was  particularly bad night for the pair and another example of the need for some more depth. It's certainly a good sign to see the d-corps perform the way they did against a top team without arguably the best defenseman in the league but really it puts that much more emphasis on how some extra depth can make them that much better.

Given that the blueline did pretty well it's fitting that the game-ending play came off a questionable move by a forward. That final sequence in the overtime pretty much summed up how close that game was. If Alex Pietrangelo doesn't get his stick in the right place in time the game's over, similarly of Soderberg (who had a really great night final play not included) made a better decision with the puck behind the net the game-winner doesn't happen.

There's positives to take from this game. Namely, how the defensemen performed without the engine performed and with just one more game against a struggling Ottawa club there's no shame in taking the point and rolling into the Olympic break.

On that note, I'm prepared to see TJ Oshie score some more for 'MURICA over the next two weeks. You damn well better be too.

TL;DR: Meh, coulda been worse I still like how we played

The nitty-gritty