Bruins vs. Devils 3/8/21 RECAP: Scott Wedgewood is impossible to solve, Bruins lose 1-0

Oh man this one’s gonna be easy!

First Period:

Not much happened here, friends.

Second Period:

See Above.

Third Period:

Just when we all thought this game was going to be headed to overtime, or perhaps even the shootout, the Bruins failed to get out of their own end, and a net-mouth scramble ended up getting Pavel Zacha the puck, who (apparently) bounced it off Kyle Palmieri to get what would inevitably be the GWG, 1-0 Devils.

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader for the B’s was, who else? Charlie McAvoy, who played a total of 25 minutes and change at all situations, and a solid 18 minutes at even strength. There were some shifts where he tried to do it all himself, and it really sucks they couldn’t get a goal out of it.
• If you get 40 shots on goal, control most of the shot attempts, and a .960 SV% out of your goalie to the point he’s actively almost hurting himself to do it, you should be able to score. It’s a very disappointing effort from pretty much every skater on that front.
• That said, I will give individual plaudits to the first line for being the first line. They showed up, they caused havoc, and David Pastrnak had 10 shots on goal. If only the rest of the team could say the same.
• I will also use this time to praise Jakub Zboril, who has been building more and more fun shifts over the past few games, and was directly responsible for squashing at least a couple of potentially dangerous chances by New Jersey, particularly one on Kyle Palmieri. Good on you, kiddo.
• Credit where credit’s due on the other hand; Scott Wedgewood may not have a winning record, but he’s playing his heart out. He earned that shutout in ways his team could only dream of, because they let him down for long stretches of this game.
• Speaking of goalies, Rask looked like he was hurting after the goal-against, and had a couple of strange moments where it seemed like he was fighting his own body to make saves, and left the ice clutching his back. Here’s hoping it wasn’t anything especially serious.
• NaturalStatTrick crashed last night so I couldn’t check the heat maps of the game, so I’m gonna go with more of a gut feeling that feels true? The Boston Bruins straight up cannot attack the slot in their current system and I simply do not understand why. They get guys right up on the paint, they go to the net with consistency and then they just...don’t do anything with it. It’s not a matter of being strong or tough, they throw guys out there to do it all the time and they manage to stay there, but it seems like they get tied up almost immediately. It seems like it’s almost better for them to just try and build space through passing and then take shots that way rather than try for rebounds, because right now the forward support just isn’t there to support that style of attack, and that’s across the whole corps, not just one line.
• They’re gonna have to suck it up and get ready for war, because tomorrow they play the other team that has them in a bind: the Long Island New York team, and they’re playing their minds out. You’d like to see them get a point or two out of this, but if you can’t score, you don’t get points. It’s how it goes.

We’ll see you Tuesday at 7pm EST for the next game.