B’s vs. Rangers RECAP: Swayman stands tall in 3-1 Victory!

Come on home boys, let’s get ready to host San Jose!

First Period:

The Bruins mostly controlled things early on, and were rewarded with recently moneyed Czech Pavel Zacha, who tipped a David Krejci rocket to put it straight past Sheshterkin. 1-0 Bruins!

Solid battle by Pastrnak to get the ball rolling and draw two Rangers to him, too. Strong work by those Czechs.

The rest of the period? All Jeremy Swayman.

No further highlights, and we head to the 2nd period.

Second Period:

Early in the second, the B’s let their transition offense go to work, and Brad Marchand found a perfect pass for a perfect captain, who let a bullet rip from out high to put the Bruins up 2-0!

Every time he does something like this he makes it seem so effortless.

The Rangers still couldn’t answer, and the Bruins made their way to the third.

Third Period:

To start the third period...Cliffy Hockey!

Great shift by Marchy and Cliffy there.

Things weren’t all great, as the period expired and the Rangers became increasingly desperate, they were finally able to break through Swayman from...Ben Harpur? He’s still in the league?

Ah well. It didn’t ruin the game entirely, for the Bruins finished the season series against the Rangers with a 3-1 win!

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader was Charlie McAvoy, who logged 24:37 TOI. Just behind him by ten seconds was Hampus Lindholm.
• Let us start with Jeremy Swayman, who finished his night with a .969 SV%, and was playing absolutely out of his mind on multiple long Rangers sequences. He’s shot back up into .912 on the year, and has a .941 SV% in his last eight starts. He had a fantastic night, and I think we can put any of our early season worries about this player to rest. He’s still the backup on account of Linus Ullmark playing out of his mind, but he’s absolutely still the Swayman of last year; he just needed some time to reset himself, that’s all.
• The Bruins won this game on transition offense from a couple of big plays from guys like Brad Marchand of course, but also credit to the defense of the B’s; they didn’t always control, but they made the Rangers earn every half-decent shot attempt they put up, and they helped their goalie where it counted.
• Old man Krejci’s funny points streak is now up to 9 in six games. Just an unreal player.
• Brandon Carlo left the game early after blocking a shot during the second period. He was mostly able to get out of there under his own power so hopefully it isn’t something that will be messing up his body, but until then...the expectation is that Zboril will likely slot in if they can’t get Carlo back.
• David Pastrnak got nominated to the All-Star Game roster on a fan vote, so we can expect to have a little extra reason to occasionally visit the ASG thread when/if I remember to post it.
• As much as the Rangers have a low reputation around here, we humbly wish good luck to whatever unlucky squad has to deal with them in the playoffs because man, when they’re on their horse, they skate fast.
• The Boston Bruins have won 36 of 45 games played this year. That’s simply absurd.

B’s get a day off to come home, and then they face the moribund San Jose Sharks at TD Garden. That game starts at 7pm ET.

We’ll see you there!