No sour notes sounded in Nashville
Boston sweeps two-game trip in style
Whether it was the presence of their siblings on the two-game road trip or they were just sick and tired of the way their game had been trending, the 2022-23 Bruins — as we have come to know them — appear to be back.
After their thrilling comefrom-behind victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, the B’s clicked in all areas to crush the Nashville Predators, 5-0, at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday.
The B’s got offense from some old familiar sources, they snapped their power play drought, enjoyed another perfect penalty killing night (3-for-3) and Jeremy Swayman (29 saves) recorded the shutout for the convincing win.
Perhaps as a sign of his heightened expecations of this team, coach Jim Montgomery still saw flaws.
“Our defense-to-offense was good. Our offense-todefense was not,” said Montgomery to NESN. “We gave up a lot of odd man rushes and thank God Swayman was terrific tonight.”
Despite Montgomery’s decidedly lukewarm review, the B’s were never in danger in this one.
The B’s dynamic duo of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand have been unusually quiet of late. Marchand had a five-game pointless streak going into the game and Bergeron was at a half dozen games. In the B’s dramatic 3-2 win in Dallas
on Tuesday, they had little room to breathe.
But it didn’t take them long to make their mark on Thursday when Marchand took advantage of a defensive mistake by an old friend. When a left shot point went wide, Marchand caught right defenseman Jeremy Lauzon in too deep and was off to the races when the puck rimmed around on the right side. On a 3-on-1, Marchand played a nice give-and-go with Bergeron and buried a shot that Nashville’s excellent goalie Juuse Saros had no chance of stopping at 2:54. It was Marchand’s 17th goal of the season and it set the tone for the night.
Much like they did in Dallas, the B’s dominated the first period, outshooting
the Preds 18-8 and killing off two penalties very well. But their streak of futility on the power play stretched to a 0-for-21 skid and they could not extend the lead in the opening 20 minutes.
But unlike Tuesday’s game in Dallas, the B’s did get the second goal of the game just 1:11 into the second — and, again, Lauzon was in the thick of it. Former Predator Craig Smith bore down on Saros on his off wing and flipped what looked like a harmless backhander off the netminder. But with Marchand battling in the crease, Lauzon tried to bat the aerial rebound away from the Bruin but instead knocked it into his own net.
If they weren’t feeling good about themselves, the B’s finally cashed in power play at 8:06. After Nashville cleared the puck, Hampus
Lindholm hit Bergeron with a perfect stretch pass to sping him for a clean break-in. The captain picked his spot over Saros’ glove and buried his 19th of the season and his first PP goal in 18 games.
“Of course we want some results, but first and foremost we want to create some momentum out of it,” said Bergeron, who was back on the beam in the faceoff circle (13-of-18) after an unusually rough night in Dallas (9of-30). “I thought tonight we had some good looks, even early on. Thats what you want to build from I guess and tonight was a good example of how we want to play on the power play.”
The B’s kept building their lead. At 11:15, Derek Forbort notched his careerhigh fifth goal of the season when his wrister went off the stick of — guess who? — Lauzon and behind Saros.
By that point, the B’s fans in Bridgestone Arena at least sounded like they were outnumbering the Preds fans, one of whom didn’t even wait till the Preds scored a goal before throwing the customary catfish on the ice in the final seconds of the period.
The B’s played a sound, defensive third period until Trent Frederic knocked in his 11th of the season off a pretty Nick Foligno pass at 13:47 to put the Preds to sleep. The only drama left was for Swayman to secure the clean sheet and he did just that.
“It was team effort, top to bottom,” said Swayman. “The guys made my job easy, blocking shots at important times, keeping shots to the outside. I want to do my job by making the saves I need to, help us get momentum. It was a great win.”