Recap: A costly night as the Bruins lose Rask & the game to the Rangers

We’ve got Streamables (thanks Chris) embedded below, so if you don’t see them, you must be on a mobile browser that doesn’t support them. Click the link at the end of each highlight description to view the play directly.

Danton Heinen gets the scoring started in the first with a nice finish off some great work by Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson. 1-0 Bruins

The good times didn’t last. Filip Chytil ran over Tuukka Rask with some help from Charlie McAvoy, tying the game and concussing Rask in the process. 1-1 tie

Mika Zibanejad beats Jaroslav Halak five-hole with a great tip of a point shot. 2-1 Rangers

Henrik Lundqvist misplays the puck with the Bruins’ first line on the ice, which...isn’t a great idea. David Pastrnak feeds Brad Marchand, who doesn’t miss. 2-2 tie

Mika Zibanejad strikes again, this time beating Halak with a wrister that Halak may have never even seen. 3-2 Rangers

Things get chippy late in the third, as Chris Wagner has what appears to be an inadvertent collision with Jesper Fast. Ryan Strome comes over to engage with Wagner, but Adam McQuaid comes calling as well. The Bruins ended up with a PP, but couldn’t convert. Still 3-2 Rangers

And that was it! The Bruins had a brief push down the stretch, but couldn’t muster another goal. They’ll head into the bye week on a down note.

Game notes

• That collision between Chytil and Rask is about as nasty as you’re going to see in the NHL. Many goalie run-ins are incidental crashes that can be shrugged off; this was a guy going full speed launched directly into Rask’s head. You could tell he was concussed as soon as he hit the ice. Just an ugly, ugly scene.
• You can’t help but feel bad for Rask, whose play had rounded back into form in recent weeks. He had been great, and now has to deal with (at least) his second concussion in as many years; you may remember he was concussed by an Anders Bjork shot in practice last season.
• It’s hard to assign blame for what happened on the collision. Part of me wants to blame Chytil, as he should be responsible for what happens if he barrels toward the crease like that. However, you can’t fault the kid for taking the puck to the net, and in all likelihood, he never collides with Rask without the shove from Charlie McAvoy. You can’t really fault McAvoy either, but it was pretty senseless to push a guy into your goalie after he already beat you. Those decisions are made in a split second, however, so it’s really just a bad play all around.
• If your goalie is going to get concussed, the first period of the game before the bye week is probably the best time for it to happen. In all likelihood, Rask will miss a game or two coming out of the break, but the week off helps.
• Halak wasn’t terrible in relief. The five-hole tip is borderline unstoppable, and the shot through traffic can go either way. You’d like to see him make a positional save, but how can you save what you can’t see? He certainly isn’t the reason this ended as a loss.
• The power play...yikes. Hopefully the coaches use the bye week to think about some creative ways to bring this unit back to life, because it’s been brutal to watch.
• The Bruins’ first goal had great finish by Heinen, but the work that JFK put it shouldn’t be overlooked. He caused a turnover in the corner, gathered the puck and found Heinen in a soft spot of the ice, hitting him with a perfect pass. That’s more of what the Bruins want to see from JFK.
• Adam McQuaid should have gotten tossed for entering that fray with Chris Wagner, but it appears the referees used their “discretion,” as they’re allowed to per the rule book, to waive it off. Wagner was already tied up with Ryan Strome, meeting the rule book’s definition of being actively involved in an altercation. McQuaid came over and took over for Strome, making him the third man in. The Bruins got a power play out of it anyways so it doesn’t really matter, it was just weird to see the officials not make that call.

Enjoy the break, and stay warm in this wintry weather!