B’s easily shuffle past Buffalo
Bertuzzi added, no timeline for Hall, Foligno
If most teams were put in the Bruins’ situation on Thursday at the Garden, they would have checked in for a scheduled loss and moved on. But these B’s are not most teams.
Fresh off a successful but arduous four-game trip to western Canada with one day off in between, the B’s simply went to work and soundly beat what should have been a desperate Buffalo Sabres team, 7-1.
It was B’s ninth straight win and, at 48-8-5, pushed them over the 100-point plateau, making them the fastest team ever to eclipse the century mark (61 games), besting the 197677 and 1977-78 Canadiens, who did it in 62 games.
“It’s been really amazing to watch them want to be great,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “With the schedule and everything it’s really impressive. But you can’t do it unless you have two great goalies, a D corps that can shut people down and can help you score and you’ve got four lines that help you every night. I don’t think (GM) Don Sweeney gets enough credit.”
The only negative on the night was that the B’s lost Brad Marchand to a lower body injury he suffered in the second period on a hit from Ilya Lyubushkin that could have been called boarding but was let go. Whether or not it’s something that keeps him out for a period of time is unknown, but Marchand was well enough to give the refs an earful. There was no substantive update after the game.
“We don’t know. We think it’s going to be all right, but we’re not positive yet,” said Montgomery.
The B’s pulled away from the Sabres with five third-period goals. Twelve Bruins hit the scoresheet, with Jakub Lauko scoring two goals and Dmitry Orlov notching a 1-2-3 night, giving him eight points in his four games with the B’s. David Pastrnak, who inked his $90 million extension earlier in the day, also a goal and two assists.
Jeremy Swayman (26 saves) lost his shutout bid with 4:20 left.
Bertuzzi acquired
The Bruins made a trade Thursday morning that screamed “all-in” for the NHL-leading B’s. But then the unfortunate reason for why they had to make it was revealed.
The B’s announced they had obtained rugged left wing Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2024 first-round pick that is top-10 protected and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Bertuzzi, 28, has 4-10-14 totals in 29 games for the Wings this year but has scored more then 25 goals three times in his career and and had a career-high 30 in 60 games last year. The Wings will retain 50 percent of his $4.75 million salary. He is a pending UFA.
But the B’s will be without
two of their left shot forwards for the foreseeable future. Taylor Hall was placed on long-term injured reserve and Nick Foligno was placed on regular injured reserve, both with lower body injuries. Sweeney said there’s no timeline on either one of the veterans and that surgery has not been ruled out in either case, though that’s not currently the plan.
Hall was injured in Saturday’s game in Vancouver and Foligno was hurt in Tuesday’s game in Calgary. Sweeney said that the Bertuzzi acquisition “became a priority.”
“In both Taylor and Nicky’s injury situations, yeah, it took a real unfortunate turn for us,” said Sweeney. “There’s no timeline for either of those players in terms of when they’re going to be available to us. We’re just leaving that in the medical staff’s hands to make the best judgment moving forward. But it’s definitely a situation for us that we felt we had to fill a hole because we just don’t have a timeline at this point and that’s what we had to protect. We have to bring in a player that we feel could really help us.”
Sweeney said it is unlikely Foligno or Hall would be available for the rest of the regular season.
It had to be a tough blow for both players, but especially Foligno. After a disappointing first year with the B’s, he was having a terrific bounce-back season as a leader of the club’s bottom six forward group. Hall, meanwhile, was providing decent depth scoring on the third line, even if the production numbers had tailed off in the last couple of months.
But they did add some more snarl in Bertuzzi.
“Ideally, we believe the interior play there where he generally scores his goals will be an advantage to us and where we’re going in the playoffs,” said Sweeney. “He’s a player we’ve watched extensively. He’s motivated, he hasn’t had the opportunity to play in the playoffs and he’ll be eager to complement our group.”
Montgomery was certainly pleased.
“I think he’s an excellent hockey player. He’s someone that understands how to win. He’s done it at the junior level, he was MVP of the Calder Cup championship team in Grand Rapids,” said Montgomery. “He’s a great complementary winger. He goes hard to hard areas. He’s a great net-front guy, 5-on-5, power play. He’s got a lot of sandpaper, as Bruins fans
know with his altercation with our other sandpaper guy (Marchand).”
Bertuzzi and Marchand have gotten into it with each other after the whistle on more than one occasion, but the B’s alternate captain will no doubt welcome him into the locker room
“He has that playoff style. He plays very, very hard. He’s skilled, he’s gritty, he gets inside. He hasn’t won in the NHL but he won the Calder Cup and was the MVP of that, so he shows up big when it matters,” said Marchand. “He’s just one of those guys you hate to play against. Come playoff time, it’s huge to have guys like that in the room. The extra depth he brings to the room is incredible. He can play anywhere in the lineup.”
Even with the injuries, the B’s shold be in good shape with the additions of Garnet Hathaway, Orlov and now Bertuzzi. Marchand gave kudos to management.
“They’ve obviously shown that they have a ton of faith and they’ve had that all-in approach with the moves that they’ve made with how they want to improve the group with the depth that they’ve added. They did their job and we have to do ours now,” said Marchand.
Bertuzzi made some news last season when he declined to get vaccinated against COVID, which prevented him from playing in Canada. Whatever his status is now, he has been cleared to play north of the border. He played back-toback games in Ottawa last week.
Loose pucks
With Bertuzzi still in transit, Lauko was brought up from Providence. … Derek Forbort was the regular defenseman designated to sit out against the Sabres.