[inarticulate screaming]
First Period:
With how this game began, you’d think this would’ve just been a gravy train the whole way down for the B’s.
Things got going when the B’s managed to get a power play, and after some initial jitters, Torey Krug put home a bomb of a shot that beat Martin Jones handily. 1-0 Bruins!
Torey Krug cashes in on the power play.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 19, 2019
1-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/jJ50ewfsaE
The gravy train just kept on going with a lightninglike draw from Sean Kuraly getting the puck to Zdeno Chara, who unleashed another bomb to get the Bruins up 2-0!
Sean Kuraly wins the draw, and Zdeno Chara takes care of the rest.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 19, 2019
2-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/jUgl6HyC7m
And to cap the period, Matt Grzelcyk floated a puck over two defenders, and Jake DeBrusk sprung a 2-on-1 to get the helper on Karson Kuhlman’s first NHL goal! 3-0 Bruins!
UMD's Karson Kuhlman gets his first NHL goal pic.twitter.com/dgNS3XiJCG
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) February 19, 2019
And that was just the first period. Clearly this would continue into the-
JOE THORNTON CLEANS UP THE REBOUND IN FRONT!#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/WjKYgOP9k4
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 19, 2019
...okay so Joe Thornton did that to make it 3-1 but hey it’s fine, It’s all good.
Second Period:
Oh god oh jeez oh heck i opened my wallet and it’s full of blood how did all this blood get here I don’t even know why are things like this
The period’s scoring started with Joe Pavelski on the power play, who tipped a puck that fluttered over Rask and Chara and into the net. 3-2 Bruins.
JOE PAVELSKI TIPS HOME THE POWER-PLAY GOAL!#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/DxnrcDtEcB
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 19, 2019
Thankfully, the Bruins would respond with Jake DeBrusk getting past everybody and roofing the puck past Jones! 4-2 Bruins!
JAKE DEBRUSK DOUBLES THE BRUINS LEAD!#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/r5CD7Dzeca
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 19, 2019
And this, dear reader, is where most games would enter a rhythm that would work for the rest of the game. Token shots, maybe a fight or two...But otherwise a pretty promising game.
This is in fact where the San Jose Sharks decided they’d had enough, and the tides shifted very much in their favor.
...And it started with Joe Thornton, who once again slipped by everybody to get the puck and make it 4-3, Still Bruins lead.
JOE THORNTON TALLIES HIS SECOND OF THE NIGHT TO BRING SAN JOSE WITHIN 1!#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/ZlfHZojR92
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 19, 2019
And then, the Bruins were assessed a penalty as a wave of Sharks pressure came crashing down on them, and after some confusion, Logan Couture was given a penalty shot.
He didn’t disappoint the San Jose faithful.
LOGAN COUTURE PUTS HOME THE PENALTY SHOT TO TIE IT UP!#SJSharks pic.twitter.com/f12yMZQgU1
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 19, 2019
4-4 Tie.
Third Period:
One other un-fun about the later part of this game was that after a distinct point, the Bruins almost stopped trying altogether and basically allowed the Sharks to get as many opportunities as humanly possible, and the Sharks capitalized on it early with Joe Thornton getting the hat trick off of a shot that may or may not’ve gone off McAvoy. 5-4 Sharks.
It was around this time that the entirety of the hockey internet suddenly became distressingly interested in a 40 year old man and the state of exposure of his johnson, as it seemed like everybody suddenly shifted focus from whatever it was they were doing to watch this game, and to be fair the Sharks certainly looked like they were going to walk out of this one with a W by sheer force of will and overwhelming Boston quite spectacularly. Sometimes you need a bit of a miracle.
Sometimes you need the mayor of Walpole, Massachusetts.
5-5, time for overtime.
Overtime:
The Bruins turtled for a good portion of the overtime, being unable to create much and then...Beauty.
Charlie McAvoy came down like an angel to put this game to rest by winning it in a 6-5 rollercoaster!
Charlie McAvoy nets the OT winner in San Jose! Back to back game winning goals for the Long Beach, NY native. pic.twitter.com/kWgmyn2N6J
— Tri-State Hockey (@TriState_Hockey) February 19, 2019
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the Boston Bruins take a well-deserved 2 days off before going to their final late tilt of the road trip in Vegas on Thursday.
Game Notes:
- The Boston Bruins got lucky, unlucky, and then supremely lucky by the end of the game, as they had their lunch eaten in front of them for the better part of 18 minutes of this game, not registering a shot in the third until halfway through. It’s bad enough that they basically allowed the Sharks to build up as much momentum as they did, but to end up doing something like that and looking as hapless in some shifts as they did is nothing short of unacceptable. The Sharks might let you off the hook like they did tonight, but other teams aren’t gonna be so charitable.
- Rask’s performance fluctuated. A couple of shots he probably should’ve had, but otherwise the Sharks attacked the B’s defense down-low where seemingly nobody wanted to be, and it cost them dearly. His performance in overtime however? Very encouraging.
- This game was reffed by chimps, the famously mercurial Pac-12 referees, or by people who only kind of knew the game rules in passing, because it cannot be overstated how poorly this game was officiated. Penalties going completely uncalled, goals that should’ve been goals not-counting, the net being off it’s pegs without anybody but Rask noticing...it was a mess.
- If there was anyone who could say they had objectively good games, it was Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci. Both had 3 points tonight. The rest of the team? All over the place. The first line was off it’s game, the “3rd” line was shambolic, the 4th line was often getting overmatched, and all three defense pairs had rough sequences. While everybody will look to Krug’s plus/minus (a thing you should never do if you want to sound smart on the internet, for the record) and point like cavemen at it, but I will simply point at the fact that not a single defender was over 50% in 5v5 CF% by the end of the game save Brandon Carlo. Shots were phasing through the Bruins this morning, and it got close to costing them.
- Joakim Nordstrom ended up with the least amount of minutes tonight, with less than 9:32 played.
- For a brief shining moment, the entire internet wanted to see a 40 year old man’s hog. No disrespect to anyone who might be into 40 year old man hog, but I figured you had to pay for that on the premium channels. Hockey, she is weird.
The Bruins take the next couple days off, and will face the Golden Knights in Vegas on Thursday.
See you then!