Bruins management gave it’s strongest message that it could on Friday that it was now planning for the future. But somehow, that message went over the head of the collection of players that now constitute the Boston Bruins.
Facing a hot Tampa Bay Lightning team that is very much in the hunt for the Atlantic Division and home ice advantage in the first round, the Bruins were the better team all day and left Amelie Arena with a 4-0 win on Cole Koepke’s two goals Jeremy Swayman’s 27-save shutout, his fourth of the season.
The win doesn’t help the team’s draft position and quest for a high draft pick, but it wasn’t bad for the organizational esprit de corps after Friday’s tumultuous day.
When the puck dropped, Bruins fans needed a program to know exactly who was whom. Casey Middlestadt, Marat Khusnutdinov, Henri Jokiharju made their Bruin debuts and Jakub Lauko starting his second tour black and gold duty. It was a shock to the system.
In a walkoff interview with ABC, David Pastrnak – the only player wearing an A for the Bruins on Saturday – called Friday a “tough day” and reached out to his now former teammates Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo.
“It’s the first thing you do when you hear the news. It was very sad, emotional and I know it’s the worst part of the business that we are in. It hurts to lose not only unbelievable players and leaders, but really good friends,” said Pastrnak.
The B’s, however, didn’t play like sad sacks in the first period. The new-look roster had a lot of jump in the first period and the Lightning looked like a team that thought the game was going to be a gimme.
But the B’s could not beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on a couple of decent chances and the game when into the first intermission scoreless.
One Bruin did gain some satisfaction, however. Mark Kastelic had been concussed earlier in the season in Tampa in a fight with Emil Lilleberg after the Bolt player had first crosschecked Kastelic in the face and then bounced his head off the ice. In Saturday’s bout, Lilleberg tried to wrestle Kastelic to the ice again but was unable to and Kastelic landed a handful of good shots before the linesmen ended it.
Kastelic was given the extra two for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the B’s killed it off.
The B’s took the lead at 10:32 on a goal from the new State of Hockey line. Minnesota’s Middlestadt picked off a pass out high and fed a rushing Cole Koepke. He made a nice move to tuck it between the netminder’s pads, but it hit Vasilevskiy’s leg and sat in the crease. The third Minny boy, Vinni Lettiieri, took a couple of whacks at it and while he never touched it, he forced the Tampa defender to knock it in, making it the former Lightning Koepke’s goal.
The Bolts had their chances to tie it late in the second. Jeremy Swayman made a great glove save on Brandon Hagel and then, with 22 seconds left in the period, newly acquired Oliver Bjorkstrand clanged the post and the B’s got into the room with a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Tampa looked like it had the equalizer when a loose puck rolled to Hagel at the top of the crease, where it looked like he had an easy goal. But a sprawling Swayman got his paddle on Hagel’s low shot and it hit the crossbar.
Then, with 6:44 left in the third, the B’s got a gift. After Vasilevskiy came out to play the puck behind his net, it came out to the neutral zone. As the netminder made his lackadaisical way back into into his crease, Kastelic fired it toward the net. It bounced off the shaft of Darren Raddysh’s stick and through the upright Vasilevskiy.
Signaling his desperation, Tampa coach Jon Cooper pulled Vasilevskiy for the extra skater with 5:45 left in the third, but Nikita Zadorov scored a long distance empty-netter to seal it.
Pastrnak later set up Koepke for his second on a 2-on-1.
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