Bruins vs. Ducks 10/22/23 RECAP: Poitras scores twice in penalty filled, sloppy 3-1 WIN!

That was thee dumbest game of the season so far.

First Period:

If there’s one thing you need to know about this game, it’s that nobody wanted to play it at even strength. Both sides began taking penalties in avarice; even goalscoring took a backseat to that.

Second Period:

This continued into the Second Period! There were injury scares! This was NUTS!

Third Period:

Then Mason McTavish broke up the penalty parade. Whoops. 1-0 Ducks.

I mean, credit to McTavish, that takes a lot of presence of mind to get that rebound or even swing your stick out to get it.

But then...Matthew Poitras. Getting his first NHL goal on an excellent feed from Morgan Geekie! 1-1 Everybody!

Then he did it again! 2-1 Bruins!

Brad Marchand finished things off with an empty netter...

...and then the Boston Bruins came away from this one the WINNERS with a 3-1 result!

Game Notes:

• Your TOI Leader was Hampus Lindholm, who logged 27:38
• This game was absolutely hilarious. 20 combined minutes of penalties, neither side really wanted to spend too much time at even strength, sloppy passing all over the place, and then in the third period both sides decided they needed to get their asses in gear and score goals. Just a total s#!tshow of discipline and what people would call “good” hockey. It was highly entertaining, however.
• Nobody even scored on the power play tonight. Why even commit all those penalties beyond fatigue?
• Matthew Poitras! He was the goalscorer of goalscorers! He was effectively the best player on the ice for stretches, and finished with the highest fancystats of any Boston Bruin tonight. I hope the Storm have an answer for the new world they live in, because Poitras is not going back to Guelph for any reason this year.
• DeBrusk didn’t get a goal tonight, but he played like he was shot out of a cannon. The benefits of setting an alarm before your alarm, I guess! Morgan Geekie also found another gear tonight, helping on Poitras’ first NHL goal, and in general the effectiveness of Geekie and Poitras and DeBrusk more than made up for sloppiness around the lineup.
• Charlie Coyle returned to the third line, and frankly I think that’s the best possible spot for him. He played much more effectively in that role.
• Urho Vaakanainen and Brad Marchand got into it early on. It’s a bit weird to see a kid so willing to throw cross-checks when one could make a strong arguement that getting cross-checked back when he was a Bruin completely derailed his career until he got back to Anaheim. I’m glad he’s getting paid, though. That’s good on him.
• Linus Ullmark refuses to consider slowing down; the best goaltending tandem in the NHL remains the best as Linus logged a tidy .968 SV%.
• Man...it was weird to watch Anaheim, a team that has generally been not good for a long while since Ryan Getzlaf’s retirement, completely dominate a game’s shot count for long stretches against Boston. We might’ve gotten a half-decent look at what the Ducks might look like in the not-too distant future. Hopefully it keeps ending the same way.
• This road trip might not be over, but the California part of it definitely is, and a clean sweep to boot. 5-0-0 through their first two weeks, and could easily get to 7-0-0 before they face their first early test in a surging Detroit. The best part is now the games aren’t at 10 at night!

Boston gets back on the road but will make a stop in Chicago before coming home. They face the Blackhawks on Tuesday night as part of an NHL intiative to have all 32 teams play on the same night with staggered starts. That game drops the puck at 8pm EST.

We will SEE YOU THERE!