Bruins vs. Ducks 1/8/23 RECAP: Pasta gets a hat trick, pretty much everybody else gets a point to follow suit. Bruins win 7-1

Alright, we got a lot of scoring to get through, let’s dive right in!

First Period:

To begin with, lemme tell you a tale of David Pastrnak; a player who decided to make himself very known in the land of Mickey. David showed up to this game playing on the 2nd line with his fellow countrymen, and a fire under his rear, and he showed it early with an ICBM of a shot from a solid Krejci feed that Pasta himself created. 1-0 Bruins

Pasta felt good about that, and with some help from his new buddy Pavel, he returned the favor to David Krejci, who put a similarly excellently placed shot right past Stolarz. 2-0 Bruins!

But then the Ducks, who desperately needed something...anything...to get on the board, got their little waterbug goalscorer going with a gigantic shot to end the period.

The period ended...and then the fun began.

Second Period:

Believe it or not it actually took the Bruins a minute or so to get the ball rolling; not for the lack of trying. The Bruins got opportunity after opportunity after even further opportunity with the Ducks’ play only making it easy on them, and finally, Ryan Strome tripped up Brad Marchand...and we reintroduce yourselves to David Pastrnak, who grabbed a rebound off of a Taylor Hall shot to put yet another missile past Gibson.

Then he went back for seconds, completing his hat trick!

Man, that Grzelcyk pass was delicious. 4-1 Bruins!

After that, the end of the period, and people other than Czech Bruins got to get in on the action.

Third Period:

Things got rolling with a Marchand feed that sent him and Frederic on a 2-on-1, which Freddy fanned on. Whoops. It’s alright, because Marchand recognized how pretty much nobody in a black and orange uniform was going to stop him. So he uh...just kind of put it in while everyone was messing around. 5-1 Bruins!

Then, Hampus Lindholm in the offensive zone produced a turnover, and took a shot that just kinda...went in. From a terrible angle. Whoops. 6-1 Bruins!

Finally, Charlie Coyle was sprung by Grzelcyk for a very slick move that got past Gibson to finish off this game as an emphatic 7-1 Boston Bruins WIN!

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader was Hampus Lindholm, who finished the night with a goal and 23:13 logged.
• Man, what else can you say about David Pastrnak? Monty called him an artist of goalscoring, and I’m more than inclined to agree. He just made Anaheim look like amateurs out there, and capped off his 6th 30 goal season, and his 13th hat trick, moving him into a lot of company with Phil Esposito, Cam Neely, and Johnny Bucyk. I demand that he be paid in solid platinum bars tomorrow, Don.
• Whole lotta guys had a two point night: Zacha, Gryz, Coyle, all of them had a great night!
• For as rough as Anaheim was, they sure tried stuff. Almost none of it worked, but they sure tried stuff. The Natural Stat Trick gameflow charts had the B’s being pretty even with them for a good portion of the game right up until the third, where The Bruins Third Period Effect happened and...well, you know the rest.
• Trevor Zegras after his goal said something that ticked off the entire team, and according to the team it wasn’t just your usual level of chirping. Dangerous game to play for a star, but who am I to judge.
• This was a rare sweep of the California road trip! The B’s last did it in 2019, and man it feels good to come home with that kind of momentum.
• Swayman finished his night with a .966, and only surrendered a goal from a big Zegras shot, which is generally expected from playing the Ducks. Otherwise, he played great! Lovely clump of games he’s played so far in the new year!
• If I didn’t see occasional flashes of orange or eggplant purple, you’d think this was a home game for the B’s; the opposing team had a hat trick at the Honda Center and had to delay the game to pick them up, and every thing the B’s did illicited a gigantic response from the crowd. It’s dark times at the Ponda, and I hope for their sakes Bedard gets things back on track.
• We really have to wait three days for more? Sheesh.

The Bruins get a couple days of travel and much needed rest, and then get back at it against the Seattle Kraken for the first time this year on Thursday in Boston. That game drops the puck at 7pm EST.

We’ll see you there!