There’s not much that could’ve dampened the situation the Bruins find themselves in entering a stretch of three full days off from the rink as part of the National Hockey League’s holiday break.
But the upper-body injury sustained by David Pastrnak, and the lack of anything that felt like an actual update on Pastrnak after he missed the second half of the team’s head-to-head with the Caps, couldn’t help but raise a few eyebrows before everybody departed TD Garden for the holidays.
“He left with an upper-body injury,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco confirmed after the victory. “I’ll get more details on it either later [Monday] or [Tuesday] and have some more information on that.”
Of course, with no practice or media availability set for the next three days, there will not be an update on No. 88 from Sacco himself between now and the B’s return-to-office head-to-head with Columbus this Friday night. And it’s unlikely to come from the Bruins themselves (the break goes beyond just the on-ice members of the organization) unless the team decides to go against their own trends and procedures to simply put everyone’s mind at ease when it comes to the health of the club’s highest-paid player.
But what exactly happened to Pastrnak is also its own mystery to the naked eye.
In fact, Pastrnak seemed to being having a normal game from a health standpoint until he attempted to hit the brakes and dodge what could’ve been a heavy hit from the Capitals’ Tom Wilson. Honestly, it appeared that both Pastrnak and Wilson eased up on what could’ve been a heavy collision near center ice and simply glided into one another. But the battle, which came with Pastrnak by all means giving up the puck in the name of self-preservation, seemed to leave Pastrnak wincing or flexing at something.
Pastrnak would finish out the shift, and then take another two shifts, but ultimately did not get on the ice for the final 32 minutes and change of this contest.
‘PP2’ making most of their opportunities
Dec 23, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins right wing Justin Brazeau (55) backhands the puck past Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren (79) during the first period at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images)
If there’s one element of interim head coach Joe Sacco’s coaching style that’s been undeniably noticeable, it’s that he’s a coach who really wants to ride his big dogs in pretty much every situation. That includes the power play, too, where Boston’s first unit tends to get about 90 seconds of a 120-second opportunity.
But Boston’s second unit has certainly made the most of their minutes of late, and continued to do exactly that Monday, with Justin Brazeau on the board with a net-front putaway late in the opening period of play.
Going back to the start of the month, the Black and Gold’s second power-play unit has now scored four of the club’s last six power-play goals overall, and their ‘nothing special’ approach has clearly worked.
“Simplicity. They’re really not doing anything that’s special,” Sacco said of his second unit. “They’re getting the puck up to the top, we have traffic out front, we have elbow shooters available, and we get two on the inside. Most of the goals are probably rebound goals [like] Brazz in front of the net finding loose change.”
Sacco also went on to note that it’s that unit’s lack of big minutes on the power play — Sacco said his second unit will get 30 seconds ‘if they’re lucky’ — that’s created a sense of urgency within that unit that’s paid off.
For Brazeau specifically, the 6-foot-5 wing has now been on the ice for seven power-play goals this season, tied for the sixth-most among all Boston skaters. Spread that out over a per-60 rate, and Brazeau’s 6.94 on-ice, power-play goals for per 60 is tops among all Bruins skaters with at least 60 minutes of power-play time. Drop it down to 50 minutes and Morgan Geekie and Mason Lohrei are ahead of him in that regard.
In essence, this second unit is putting in serious work for a Bruins power play that’s slowly inching its way out of the basement, and though it may be worth (read as: it definitely is) giving them a longer leash, perhaps this 30-second mad dash is what is bringing the best out of their game and should be left alone.
Wahlstrom gets tossed from best chance yet
Dec 19, 2024; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Edmonton Oilers forward Vasily Podkolzin (92) tries to knock the puck away from Boston Bruins forward Oliver Wahlstrom (71) during the second period at Rogers Place. (Perry Nelson/Imagn Images)
If the Bruins want to get the most out of recent waiver-wire addition Oliver Wahlstrom, the opportunity has to be there for him. If the Bruins deployed in a similar role that the Islanders had for the last few seasons (Wahlstrom had averaged about 10 and a half minutes per game over his last two years on Long Island), it was hard to imagine the 24-year-old giving the B’s much more than he did the Isles.
Monday night came with a great in-game opportunity for the Maine-born wing, too, with Pastrnak out for the second half of the contest. The Bruins reacted appropriately, too, with the right-shooting Wahlstrom moved up to Pastrnak’s spot on the flank to the left of Charlie McAvoy on the top power-play unit and also into Pastrnak’s spot to the right of Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie on the B’s second line.
But that opportunity came to a screeching halt in the third period, with Wahlstrom assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a board on the Caps’ Martin Fehervary just 10 seconds into the third period.
Honestly, this didn’t feel like a major-worthy hit to me. It felt like bad luck more than anything else, especially after Fehervary’s first-period board on Johnny Beecher was deemed worthy of two minutes and nothing more.
But the bad luck of Wahlstrom’s obviously limited sample size with the Bruins has certainly been noticeable.
Held to just 8:51 in his Bruins debut in Edmonton, Wahlstrom has followed up on that with an offensive-zone penalty and zero shots on goal in 9:48 against Buffalo last Saturday and then the early exit on Monday night almost immediately after receiving an in-game promotion and playing a more ‘complete’ game.
It’s way, way, way too early to throw this experiment out the window, of course, but Wahlstrom needs to get going in some fashion to warrant consistent ice time in this lineup, especially with the way that guys like Matt Poitras and Georgii Merkulov are pushing down in Providence.
Everything else
Dec 23, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Jakub Vrana (13) (not pictured) scores a goal past Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara/Imagn Images)
– Another really good game from Nikita Zadorov, I thought. It certainly helps when pairing partner Charlie McAvoy is going the way he was on Monday night, but this felt like a game where the 6-foot-6 Zadorov’s skating legs were front and center. One thing that Zadorov did that I really liked — and hope he continues to do — was look to activate in the attacking zone and give the B’s another threat. Getting the puck on goal may be a challenge for Zadorov (his 26 missed shots are tops among all Bruins defensemen), but forcing the opposition to account for him and his reach is one of those things that seems to open things up for everybody else.
– Elias Lindholm really got under the skin of the Capitals in this one. And, I gotta say, I loved every second of it.
In addition to the post-goal smack talk, Lindholm won nine of his 12 faceoffs (and delivered a little crosscheck to the ribs of Dylan Strome after his final one), and just seemed to be a general nuisance for Washington. Oh, and the Bruins outshot the Capitals 6-0 with Lindholm on the ice at five-on-five play.
I firmly believe that for the Bruins to be the best version of themselves and for Lindholm to be the best version of himself, that that swagger has to be there. The Bruins aren’t going to out-talent their in-division rivals down the middle, so attitude and intensity is going to be a huge part of bridging that gap. Playing with Brad Marchand will help bring that out of Lindholm, as will having tangible point production on the board. Right now, Lindholm has both, and the Bruins are a better team for it.
– First look at the East-leading Capitals on Monday night. Of course, no Alex Ovechkin and the second leg of a back-to-back for Washington, so not exactly sure that we saw them at their best. But one thing that sticks out about that team is their size. Last night’s Washington lineup featured just two players under six feet tall, and the Capitals have just one forward under six feet (Andrew Mangiapane). The Bruins will get another look at Washington with a Dec. 31 matinee in DC.
