Boston Bruins Week in Review: One Win, One Loss, Two Rookies (And A Couple Sisters) Turning Heads

The Boston Bruins picked a great time to lay a stink bomb in the first week of the regular season.

I bet you didn’t even know that the B’s played on Monday afternoon.  While the Red Sox were toying with the hearts of all us silly fans that thought maybe there was a glimmer of hope that a flawed team with an inept manager could somehow come back from two games down in the ALDS, the Bruins basically sleepwalked through a Columbus Day matinee with the Avalanche.

It’s not like we couldn’t see this one coming.  First off, the Avalanche have owned the B’s in Boston in the last 20 years.  The Bruins are now 0-10-1-1 in their last 12 home contests against Colorado, with their last W coming in March 1998.  The B’s were also missing several key players as the injury/illness bug has already hit, with Patrice Bergeron (lower body injury), David Backes (diverticulitis), Noel Acciari (broken left finger), and Austin Czarnik (illness) all missing from the lineup and Torey Krug (fractured jaw) looking rusty in his season debut on Monday.

But the biggest reason we should have seen this coming is the lack of experience on this roster.  Nearly half of the Bruins’ roster is 25 years old or younger, and two of the four goal scorers in Thursday night’s victory can’t even buy alcohol legally.

Not to say that the young guns were the sole reason that the B’s lost 4-0 on Monday afternoon, but they didn’t help matters either.  30-year-old Tuukka Rask stunk from the start, allowing two soft goals in the first period that gave the Avs an insurmountable lead.  The shuffled lines that instantly worked on Thursday night never gelled, and coach Bruce Cassidy took part of the blame for the blowout loss after the game.

“We had plenty of time to get back in the game. The core group that we rely on – it just wasn’t a good effort from young, old, in-between, and I clearly put myself in that category… Tonight I never found the right combination. So, I think it goes on both the players – it’s their job to play, whatever position they’re out there – and it’s up to the coach to find the chemistry. I couldn’t find it tonight, so shame on me.”

While it wasn’t refreshing or pleasant to see the Bruins waste all the positive momentum gained in the 4-3 win over Nashville in the season opener, it was nice to hear the head coach spread the blame out and put his own name on the list of people that need to be better in the next game and beyond.

The Bruins were bound to go through a series of ups and downs to begin the 2017-18 season, as they integrate the rookies with their core of veteran players.  The first two games are not only an example of how small the margin of error in the NHL is, but just how high the highs will be and how low the lows will be in Boston.

Three Stars of the Week

Since there were no stars in Monday’s game, we’ll just look at the three most impressive performances in Thursday’s victory:

Third Star – Charlie McAvoy: The 19-year-old notched his first career regular-season goal in the second period, which gave the B’s a 3-1 lead.  McAvoy showed all night long that his excellent play in the postseason last year was no fluke but a sign of things to come.  He was fast, physical, and trailed only Big Z in ice time with exactly 22 minutes played.

Second Star – David Krejci: Krejci was initially lined up with Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak, but spent most of the night playing with two rookies – DeBrusk and Anders Bjork.  He earned assists in Boston’s first three goals of the night (Pastrnak on the power play, DeBrusk, and McAvoy), and looked like he was fully recovered from an injury-plagued 2016-17 campaign.  Last year’s performance made Krejci look like he was being grossly overpaid (his $7 million/yr contract is the heftiest on the Bruins), but more outings like Thursday night will make that deal seem like market value.

First Star – Jake DeBrusk’s sisters… come on let’s be honest.  Those two stole the show on Thursday night.  If NESN gave them tickets to every game the ratings for Bruins games would be through the roof.  Or NESN could just hire them.  No complaints from me on either of those ideas.

Bet the DeBrusk family is happy after that! 😁

🚨🚨🚨 First NHL goal for @JDebrusk!!! 🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/UK6LYds6az

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 6, 2017

Sup ladies… call me I’m single…

But the reason we saw the sisters (and Jake’s father) so much was because they are hot DeBrusk was the star of the night.  He flashed some tremendous scoring talent on a beautiful goal in the second period (a 20-year-old shouldn’t have that nasty of a dangle), and almost scored again soon afterwards.  He wasted little time syncing up with Krejci on the second line, and added an assist on McAvoy’s second-period tally.  Some questioned why DeBrusk was given a top-6 forward spot after a lackluster preseason, but those doubts were quickly erased thanks to two points (and two lovely sisters… not sure I mentioned them enough in here).

Week Ahead – The B’s left for their first road trip of the year after Monday’s 4-0 loss, as they will seek revenge against the Avalanche on Wednesday night in Colorado’s home opener.  They get two full days off after the back-to-back contests with the Avs before spending the weekend in Arizona and Las Vegas facing the Coyotes on Saturday night and the Golden Knights on Sunday before coming back home.

Now that the Red Sox are done, I’ve got three words for you…

LET’S GO BRUINS!!!!!!

Written by: Adam Belue (@albinomamba44)