Recap: Solid all-around game leads the Bruins to a 2-1 win over the Lightning

It was scoreless through much of the first, but Brad Marchand got the Bruins on the board late. It was a great bit of anticipation from Marchand to crash the net, and a great pass by Torey Krug. 1-0 Bruins

Tampa appeared to tie the game with a shot through traffic, but the Bruins challenged for offsides and won. No goal, still 1-0 Bruins. I don’t have a highlight of it, but it was one of those millimeter offside calls. Dumb.

Jake DeBrusk, who’s been on a bit of a dry spell, gets rewarded for his great individual effort with a great goal to make it 2-0 Bruins.

Tampa gets one back on a scramble in front of Tuukka Rask. I’m not sure he ever saw it, but still...it counts! 2-1 Bruins

And that was it! A couple of big saves for Rask in the third, but no more scoring in either direction. The Bruins leave town with a 2-1 win over their closest Atlantic Division rival.

Game notes

• This was, at times, an impressive game for the Bruins. There were stretches where they completely controlled play for minutes at a time, clearly frustrating Tampa. I believe the B’s were outshooting Tampa something like 7-0 for a few minutes to start the second period. NOT BAD.
• Of course, Tampa did claw back into the game, and the last few minutes were a bit of a “park the bus” scenario, as Sky likes to say. A few big stops from Tuukka Rask were the difference during that stretch.
• Speaking of frustrating Tampa, Nikita Kucherov seems to lose his mind pretty easily for a guy who’s an elite talent. There were two or three occasions tonight where he either fired the puck into the boards after a whistle or slammed his stick off the boards in anger. The Bruins did a good job bottling him up, and it clearly got to him.
• Nice to see Jake DeBrusk get on the board, especially after Mike Milbury said earlier in the broadcast that DeBrusk hasn’t had his skating legs lately. His legs seemed to work fine on the breakaway though.
• Speaking of Milbury, he also made a comment to the effect of “word around the league is that Nick Ritchie needs to get in shape.” This is the second time there have been analysts on TV making allusions to Ritchie’s fitness. I have no idea if there’s a backstory or if Milbury was just parroting what he heard on the TV at the trade deadline, but still...weird.
• Ritchie and Ondrej Kase were fine again, nothing special in either direction.
• Joakim Nordstrom fighting sure was interesting. He had the size advantage on Yanni Gourde, but definitely not the experience advantage. He did a pretty good job though, landing a few solid punches. I’ll give him the decision.
• Tampa seems like they still could be a bit vulnerable on defense. Their offensive talent is elite, without question, but they were pretty sloppy at times on the back-end last night. There were a few times where the Bruins seemed to create odd-man rushes out of nowhere, with a Tampa defenseman desperately trying to get back into the play.
• The fact that these teams are right back at it on Saturday night should make for good entertainment. There was definitely an undercurrent of tension in this game, with tempers flaring at times. It’ll probably carry over to the Garden.
• Amalie Arena sounded like a Bruins home game after the B’s scored. Nice job, snowbirds and travelers.

Back at it on Thursday night!