Bruins dust Jackets
McAvoy shines in blowout
To say the Bruins were slumping during a twogame losing streak would have been a gross exaggeration of their brief dip. And last night confirmed their game hasn’t slipped at all.
The B’s absolutely shredded a good Columbus team in a 7-2 victory at the Garden that saw rookie Charlie McAvoy notch a Gordie Howe hat trick while Brad Marchand, David Backes, Danton Heinen, Torey Krug, Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk all added tallies.
The Bruins had a 45-18 advantage in shots. Both numbers were season bests.
“We played our game to a T tonight,” said McAvoy, who dropped the gloves with fellow 2016 firstround draft pick Pierre-Luc Dubois in the third period for his first NHL bout.
It was a terrific showing by young and old, but especially the rookies, a couple of whom had been learning tough lessons of late. Heinen earned the No. 1 star with a goal and two assists while DeBrusk, who’d been limited to less than eight minutes Saturday, also had a threepoint night. Anders Bjork, a healthy scratch on Saturday, picked up a late assist and drew a key penalty that helped the B’s create some space on the scoreboard in the second period.
“In general, you want a couple of (the rookies) to be better than average, the other two or three be average and get some experience, understand what it takes. Tonight, it just felt like all of them were really good,” said coach Bruce Cassidy, who seems to be pushing all the right buttons with his first-year players. “We enjoyed it, and you see the results. They’re going to get minutes, they’re going to get responsibility on the power play, a few of them are mixed into the kill. But mostly the skill guys are going to get a chance to play with the puck, and I thought they managed the puck, so they earned that.”
While DeBrusk had a more spectacular night — two pretty helpers on power-play goals by Backes and McAvoy and a nice roof shot late in the game — Bjork’s was more workmanlike, but he felt he answered the coach’s challenge.
“It’s huge,” said Bjork, who thought he was going to be scratched again until learning that David Krejci (upper-body injury) wasn’t able to play. “I think that’s what they’re looking for, to have the extra fire in your belly. You saw Jake do it when he missed a game, and I just tried to copy that, do my best, keep it simple but play hard.”
The B’s pretty much dominated from start to finish, with Marchand starting it off with his 14th goal of the season late in the first period, snapping a threegame streak in which they had allowed the first goal.
As well as the B’s have played during the past month (10-3-1), they haven’t always taken full advantage of their chances. But in the second period, but they seized control not just in the shots column but on the scoreboard with two power-play goals from the second unit. On each of those goals, four out of the five Bruins skaters on the ice were rookies.
Down 3-0, the Blue Jackets finally got on the board at 8:32 of the third. Jack Johnson took a big hit from Kevan Miller in the left corner but bounced right back up to feed Alexander Wennberg behind the net. Wennberg dished out front to Josh Anderson, who beat a helpless Tuukka Rask from the top of the crease.
The B’s had blown one three-goal lead early in the season to tonight’s opponent Buffalo on Oct. 21, but they were a different team back then. That was not going to happen last night, even against a better team. First, Heinen (eighth) beat poor Sergei Bobrovsky to the short side, then Krug (fifth) scored on a long-range shot. Bergeron chipped in with his eighth and DeBrusk made the rout complete with his seventh, before Seth Jones scored in the waning seconds.
“It’s fun when everyone’s having success. I wish (Tim Schaller) would have scored on that penalty shot, but it was one of those nights,” DeBrusk said. “We had no passengers tonight, and everyone contributed. It’s nice for the young guys, but it’s nice for the veteran’s, too. They deserve it. It’s nice to see everyone chip in and have their confidence high.”