Bruins vs. Rangers 10/2/21 RECAP: An inauspicious start for Linus Ullmark sees the B’s fall off down the stretch in 4-3 OT loss

First Period:

So much happened.

Things kicked off with a David Pastrnak special from almost outside the circles, as the Bruins put together an absolutely unreal passing play on a power play to put the B’s up 1-0!

Bergeron even set the pass off without looking. This power play is going to be a dilemma.

Then, the Rangers evened it right back up as a funny bounce went straight to Ryan Strome, who, while behind everybody, put a shot right past Linus Ullmark to make it 1-1.

...Look, we’ll talk about it.

Then, the Bruins surged right back, with first Patrice Bergeron getting fed a gorgeous drop pass from Mike Reilly to make it 2-1 Bruins!

Mike Reilly is so very fun in the opposing end. Just unreal.

And then, just to cap off such a wonderful period, the Bruins got a penalty.

Lame.

But then this happened.

Absolutely awesome work by Dearest Bradley. 3-2 Bruins!

The period ended on a slightly sour note, as Sammy Blais as in the right place at the right time to knock a puck behind Ullmark with his body on the man-advantage.

Not much you can do about that, really. Blais found his way to the net and the Rangers capitalized.

Anyway, onto the second.

Second Period:

The B’s did what they could to keep the pressure on the Rangers, but no scoring updates. And then....

Third Period, or the slow backslide into everything going wrong:

They did everything right and then...Kevin Rooney got awarded a Penalty Shot.

We’ll talk about it. 3-3 all.

and then....overtime.

[deep sigh]

Overtime:

just...

...We’ll talk about it in the game notes. 4-3 Rangers win.

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader at all situations is Charlie McAvoy, with 21:21 logged. At 5v5, Brandon Carlo was the TOI leader, with a little over 17 minutes.
• Look...there is a lot that happened in last night’s game...but we may as well just get to The Thing™. Ullmark gets a long pass from Pastrnak so the team can get a change, he passes it directly into Lafreniere, and then doesn’t react as Lafreniere just sorta...won the game. And we can litigate that Pasta shouldn’t’ve passed the puck to Ullmark, you can say maybe he could’ve just turned backwards and waited behind Ullmark, you can say Ullmark could’ve just sat on it and took the faceoff, Ullmark even could’ve passed it off the boards away from Lafreniere...go to “what-if” court all you want. Fact is, Ullmark mostly just capped off his first 60+ minute game, even if it’s just pre-season, of Bruins hockey...with that. And you know what? Sure. He couldn’t do much about the Sammy Blais goal with the guy sat right on top of him, and there’s not much you can do about a Penalty shot except...well, make the save...but man, this is something you’re hoping just fades once preseason ends.
• Otherwise, the Bruins did pretty much everything right. They controlled the shot-counter, most of the team had a strong night possession-wise, had a 3-1 lead...the Rangers just took advantage of a penalty shot and a power play goal. Stuff like this will happen throughout the 82 game season too. It’s about how you respond that matters.
• A shorthanded goal for Brad Marchand. Ho hum. What makes it different is that Jack Studnicka got himself an assist on it!
• Tomorrow’s game is going to see the last real shot most of the AHL guys have to making an impresssion against the Flyera. It’ll be a fairly interesting game to watch for that reason alone. That game drops the puck at 7pm on NESN.

We’ll see you there.