Bruins vs. Red Wings 1/2/22 RECAP: Secondary Scoring comes up big in 5-1 win!

First Period:

y’know the funny thing about this game is that it started with not a whole lot happening for the first ten minutes. And then Tyler Bertuzzi managed to get behind pretty much everybody off a miracle pass in order to put the Red Wings up 1-0.

Thankfully, not too long after, the new look First Line put on a clinic in order to get Patrice Bergeron out in front to put the B’s on the board and put everything at 1-1!

No further updates, but the real magic was later in the game anyway.

Second Period:

There were a lot of penalties assessed early on in the 2nd, and it eventually ended up with the B’s on the Penalty Kill, with Erik Haula serving one of them for Jeremy Swayman. At the end of said penalty, Erik Haula decided to do this:

Where was this hiding, Erik? Bruins up 2-1!

There isn’t an update on other scoring but man...this period was just nuts when it came to aggression. These two teams do not care for one another.

Third Period:

Hey look the playmaker did a playmaking.

What a goal for Chuck, though. B’s up 3-1!

And then just...all of this happened for Trent Frederic to get a goal...

Just a wild shift and it ruled. 4-1 B’s!

And with that, the OH WAIT OSKAR STEEN JUST DID SOMETHING DOPE I HOPE NOSEK CASHES I-

WHOOOOO, Bruins win 5-1!

Game Notes:

• At all situations, your TOI leader was Charlie McAvoy who played just under 22 minutes, with your 5v5 leader being Mike Reilly of all people, with 16 minutes and change!
• It’s a shame that Swayman couldn’t get a shutout out of this afternoon’s performance, so I guess he’ll take the .958 SV% and the light workload of 19 shots on, all things considered. The B’s goaltending finally looks like it’s stabilizing in the right way!
• The B’s did exactly what they were supposed to with a team struggling like Detroit is; dominate most phases of the game. The PK coming up big helped a lot in this particular regard, but in general they controlled this game with what looks like a reasonable lineup to play for the time being. I’m not 100% sold on it, but I’m willing to see what they look like against Minnesota before anything changes for good.
• Everybody who needed a boost got one tonight: Trent Frederic finally proved that there is worth in him taking the ice, Tomas Nosek got another one on the board, Erik Haula put a bullet through onto Nedeljkovic, Oskar Steen got a wonderful assist, all we needed was another Nick Foligno goal or for Steen to finally put one in himself to really solidify that the secondary scoring that we’ve all been waiting for is at long last here. Two games in a row is good, let’s go for three on Tuesday, and then four against the Wild on Thursday, why don’t we?
• Speaking of...I think Oskar Steen can stay in the lineup. He’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt he’s ready for 4th line duties. We can rotate him and Nosek’s third guy in and out.
• Bergeron’s goal, in typical Bergeron fashion, was the result of crushing offensive pressure that ultimately came from him keeping the puck in the zone. I would ask if there’s anything he can’t do, but I know better. He owns that first star.
• Marchand once again getting underneath the Red Wings skin. There’s something about any B’s team with Marchy on it that just seems to get Detroit’s dander up, as that laundry list of penalties in the 2nd will attest. Can’t help but wonder what that’s about.
• Going into the new year, the B’s have a lot of work ahead of them thanks to the truncated schedule; they spend almost every night at home this month with some exceptions and face some tough customers (and the corpse of Montreal), and are probably gonna see some games shift into February; we won’t be without Bruins hockey for a good long while.
• Speaking of which, the Bruins get a day off to come home, then they play New Jersey on Tuesday, puck drops at 7pm EST.

We’ll see you there!