The Boston Bruins need the whole team to step up, top-to-bottom, to turn around their early-season struggles. Fortunately, they got a big-time game from their forwards, defense, and goaltending, in a virtual full-squad effort on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
This game showed what the Bruins are capable of doing when they do what captain Brad Marchand has termed playing “the right way.” They kept their feet moving, won small battles, made good and quick decisions with the puck, gained clean breakouts, kept pucks deep, and finished key opportunities. And in goal, Joonas Korpisalo kept it simple by simply stopping every puck that came his way.
It will be challenging for the Bruins to maintain that kind of effort against better teams than the Flyers, who slipped to 4-7-1 on the season with the loss. But they can certainly control their effort level and consistency, the second of which was a welcome sight for the team as they mostly carried their execution over from period to period on Saturday.
Now, the question is whether they can carry Saturday’s performance over to the next game and beyond. The Bruins have struggled to string good games together, and travelling back to Boston for the second leg of a back-to-back on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken will present a nice test for them to do that.
But for now, they can enjoy a much-needed victory and turn the page on what’s been a trying start to the season.
Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars from a rebound win in Philadelphiaβ¦