Bruins vs. Islanders 3/19/19 RECAP: Bruins demolish the Islanders in 5-0 shutout!

First Period:

This dismantlement of an NHL team by the Boston Bruins began quite innocuously, as a hard-fought Kuraly shift resulted in a Kuraly shot that squeaked through Robin Lehner and into the net just a minute and change into the game. 1-0 Bruins!

Nothing else of note other than Valtteri Filpulla leaving the game early due to an undisclosed injury happened. On with the slaughter.

Second Period, where the game became essentially a formality:

This period started with punchboy Matt Martin deciding he wanted to take Zdeno Chara off the ice. His way of going about this was to run into the Slovakian Supersoldier and try really hard not to get killed. To his credit, he tried real hard.

Unfortunately, he probably should’ve tried to square up with a forward from the bottom six and maybe mess with the line chemistry, as the scoring in the period was opened on a catastrophically bad turnover from Clutterbuck that Noel Acciari just darted past Lehner. 2-0 Bruins!

Later in the period, Sean Kuraly got a slick Danton Heinen “Feed” (read: failed wraparound), that he lifted over Lehner’s blocker! 3-0 Bruins!

And mercifully, this period came to a close. Meanwhile, Tuukka Rask made some saves!

Not a whole lot, but they happened!

The last 20 minutes:

We got through about most of this period and finally the Islanders took their 9th AND 10th shot. And then...well...

Who else but perfect Patrice would push on through to pile on these putrid players? 4-0 Bruins!

Then, the Islanders had a rare power play. They did nothing with it, and the man sent to the box charged out, grabbed the puck, and put it right past Lehner’s glove to make it a 5-0 Bruins win!

There was more game after that, but in reality after the 3rd goal, the rest of the game became window dressing.

The Bruins go to New Jersey to go exorcise some Devils. That game’s at 7pm EST

Game Notes:

• From the eye test, the feeling of the heart, and the analytics point of view, this game was an absolute tear-down of the New York Islanders. The Bruins dominated the shot attempt-share, scoring chances, and high-danger chances. This could’ve been a lot worse and frankly the Islanders should be happy the Bruins let them have any chances at all.
• Tuukka Rask could’ve slept through the entire game and gotten this shutout. 13 saves and the most dangerous ones of the night were probably a Jordan Eberle shot he saw all the way and a player streaking forward that he just decided to vacate the net and poke check away. He was barely in any danger of giving up a goal tonight at all as the Bruins’ defensive structure strangled the Islanders like an Anaconda eating a deer.
• Sean Kuraly had an unbelievable night. 2 goals, the puck magnetically came to his stick all night, worked hard on the boards all night, and was 2nd in shots on goal, only behind the eternally cursed Charlie Coyle, who had seven.
• David Pastrnak is back! He clearly had some getting used to with that thumb splint he’s playing with, but still ended up having a solid return game.
• Really, the only super dangerous moment of the night was a bad turnover that the Islanders could do nothing with. It cannot be overstated how hard they phoned in the rest of the game.

See you Thursday!