The Boston Bruins Return to Home Ice without Chara and Beat the Tampa Bay Lightning

Tuuka Rask Plays Excellent Game and Hands the Bruins a Win

Tuuka Rask was the star of the game, and shut the Tampa Bay Lightning down. Like a strategically placed lightning rod, Tuuka Rask was in just the right position to absorb every shot the Lightning threw at the net. There were a few rebounds but those all hit Rask as well. The only goal came when the Bruins were up 4-0, and Tampa scored when Victor Hedman fired a shot from the point which redirected off Bruins defenseman Colin Miller, changed direction and snuck past Rask. It was a total garbage time goal. Other than that one minor mistake Rask was perfect on the night, against one of the best offensive teams in the NHL, Tampa has 70 goals for which ranks them third in scoring in the NHL. Rask played a very solid game and made up for the Bruins not having Zdeno Chara in the lineup. Rask stopped 30 of 31 shots for a .968 save %.

Kevan Miller steps up Big Time in Chara's Absence

Normally when looking at TOI or Time on Ice, the recurring theme is always, Chara leads the Bruins in TOI and everyone else on the Blue line has significantly less ice time than Chara. However against Tampa Bay the Bruins had no Chara so they had to look internally to find someone to play the defensive role, and be reliable on the back end. In my previous post, I slammed Kevan Miller, because he had been playing horrible. However, this last game against Tampa was a really strong effort from K Miller, who posted a team leading 26:42 TOI, and was even on the +/-, and registered three hits. This means Miller at 26:42 almost played half the game, and did not give up any goals against. I thought he played pretty well.

Peeta Mellark aka Torey Krug has a Great Game and Gets into a fight with Nikita Kucherov

Torey Krug, whom I harp on a lot because he isn't a real defenseman, and he looks like Peeta from Hunger Games, had a solid game and won a fight kinda. Torey Krug faced off against Nikita Kucherov, after Kucherov slashed his ankle. Krug according to the NHLFights voters won the fight, but most said it was a draw. 52.3% said draw, 31% said Krug won, and 15% said Kucherov won, so even though most of the people voted for neither (much like a US Election), we will award Krug the victory. Krug also played a really good game, with 2 assists, and was a +2 on the night. Krug didn't dish out a single hit, and he still needs someone to tape his hands to his stick, but he had a decent game.

Without Stamkos, Tyler Johnson can be shut down by The Bruins

The last game the Bruins played against Tampa Bay, I noted how the Bruins had shifted coverage to Steven Stamkos which opened up the ice for Tyler Johnson who scored two goals in that previous game, whilst Stamkos was limited to 0 shots in that previous tilt. However with no Stamkos on the ice, the Bruins focused on Tyler Johnson and shut him down, Johnson was a -1 on the night, with 0 points, and only 1 shot on goal despite playing over two minutes on the Power Play and getting almost 20 minutes of TOI. These numbers show how, the Bruins generally pick the top goal scorer on the opposing team and try to shut them down. This time it worked because Stamkos was out and the Lightning don't have another sniper at the level of Johnson or Stamkos. When Stamkos is out there though, this becomes a different story.

Conclusion and the Road Ahead for the Boston Bruins

This was a solid team effort by the Bruins to shut down a very impressive offensive team in Tampa. The next game against Philadelphia will require an equal defensive effort by the Bruins as the Flyers are the second ranked offensive team in the NHL with 74 Goals for. The Bruins need to see improved efforts by everyone on the blue line for the duration of Chara's injury. No one player on the Bruins can replace the captain, so this will need to be a continued team effort. Rask also has to keep playing great, if Rask can put together a Vezina type season this Bruins team may have a chance at the playoffs. Right now the Bruins need to string some wins together to get back into playoff contention in the standings. So despite winning a game they should have lost, the Bruins still need to pull together some more wins. The road ahead looks tough, especially without Chara but this Bruins team is showing some resiliency.

Image Credits:

1. Bruins Versus Tampa: Image 1 = My own Work
2. Tuuka Versus Tampa: Image 2
3. Kevan Miller versus Tampa: Image 3
4. Krug versus Kucherov video: NHLFights Video
5. Tyler Johnson versus the Bruins: Image 5
6. Bruins Steemit Blog: Image 6 = My Own Work

FYI all votes are for Powering up 100%, because I believe in this steemit platform long term.

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