Pasta Heats Up, McAvoy Returns, and the Bruins Start Rolling | Snap Shot 66

0:00 Speaker 1: My, my, my. The Boston Bruins have started to assert

0:03 Speaker 1: themselves and show us just how good they have the

0:06 Speaker 1: potential to be as long as they stay out of

0:09 Speaker 1: the penalty box. They did have us worried there a

0:11 Speaker 1: few times this past week. A slow start in Saint

0:14 Speaker 1: Louis and an undisciplined first two periods in Winnipeg nearly

0:18 Speaker 1: cost them their games, but they were able to quickly regroup,

0:21 Speaker 1: play five on five hockey and absolutely dominate the Blues

0:25 Speaker 1: and Jets in their final frames. But can they stay

0:29 Speaker 1: out of the box when up against a much stronger

0:32 Speaker 1: opponent in Minnesota. This is a Bruins tape to tape snapshot.

0:40 Speaker 2: The Boston Bruins defeated the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night

0:44 Speaker 2: by a score of six to three. This game marked

0:47 Speaker 2: the return of Charlie McAvoy to the lineup after missing

0:51 Speaker 2: a significant amount of time with a horrendous injury to

0:56 Speaker 2: his jaw, and Charlie McAvoy logged in a mirror twenty

1:01 Speaker 2: four minutes of ice time. Nothing like being thrown back

1:05 Speaker 2: into the fire. Charlie looked pretty smooth throughout the course

1:10 Speaker 2: of the game for someone who had missed a ton

1:13 Speaker 2: of game time, but the story for this game was

1:17 Speaker 2: David Pastronach. He had himself a four point night, two

1:23 Speaker 2: goals and two assists. The Bruins were perfect on the

1:27 Speaker 2: power play, going two for two with goals from David

1:31 Speaker 2: Pastronach and Casey Middelstat. Sean Caray also netted himself a

1:37 Speaker 2: beautiful dangle goal with assists from his line mates Tanner

1:41 Speaker 2: Janno and Mark Castelik. And that line, folks, has been impressive.

1:46 Speaker 1: You also had.

1:47 Speaker 2: Goals from both Lindholmes against the Jets, both Hampus and Elias,

1:53 Speaker 2: and David Pastronach finished off the Jets with an empty

1:57 Speaker 2: net goal to make the final six to three. In

2:00 Speaker 2: addition to that, Jonas Corposalo saved the Bruins collective asses

2:05 Speaker 2: in the second period of that game because Winnipeg was

2:10 Speaker 2: coming at the Bruins hard and the Bruins were just

2:14 Speaker 2: scrambling in their own end. Mason Louri had himself a

2:19 Speaker 2: pretty rough night defensively. He was a minus two and

2:23 Speaker 2: was exposed on a couple of occasions by the Winnipeg Jets,

2:27 Speaker 2: but all in all, it was a solid team victory

2:32 Speaker 2: up and down the lineup for the Boston Bruins, giving

2:35 Speaker 2: them a four game winning streak heading into the game

2:40 Speaker 2: against the Minnesota Wild. However, this game came at a

2:44 Speaker 2: bit of a cost for the Bruins in that both

2:47 Speaker 2: Victor Arvidson and Jonathan Aspero left the game in the

2:51 Speaker 2: first period and did not return. Hopefully, these are not

2:56 Speaker 2: going to be long term injuries, as Ardvinson just recently

3:01 Speaker 2: came back into the lineup and we know that the

3:04 Speaker 2: Bruins do need their full complement of players in order

3:08 Speaker 2: to be successful and competitive.

3:11 Speaker 1: In addition to David Pasternak taking sole possession of fourth

3:14 Speaker 1: all time in Bruins history for goals, Morgan Geeky had

3:18 Speaker 1: a career night, grabbing his one hundredth career point. It's,

3:21 Speaker 1: of course wild to think that he only just hit

3:24 Speaker 1: that mark, but remember up until this past January, he

3:28 Speaker 1: was hardly getting the minutes to get those points, let

3:31 Speaker 1: alone be in a position to be earning multiple points

3:33 Speaker 1: per night. Another fun fact for you all. Thanks to

3:36 Speaker 1: Ty Anderson for putting this together. The Bruins are now

3:39 Speaker 1: ten to two and zero this season when they have Linholm,

3:42 Speaker 1: McAvoy and Zadorov in the lineup. They are nine to

3:45 Speaker 1: eleven and zero when one of them is out, and

3:48 Speaker 1: let's just keep going here because there is so much

3:51 Speaker 1: to be pleased about right now. Since coming back from

3:54 Speaker 1: his injury, Pasta is two five and seven. That's two goals,

3:59 Speaker 1: five assists for seven points in just two games. This

4:03 Speaker 1: team has the ability to steamroll opponents just so long

4:06 Speaker 1: as they stay out of the box. So why were

4:09 Speaker 1: these last two games important points to grab? Because they're

4:13 Speaker 1: going to play Minnesota on Sunday and the Wild have

4:17 Speaker 1: surprised a lot of people by turning around a rough

4:19 Speaker 1: starting season into one that is an absolute wagon. And

4:22 Speaker 1: if they weren't in the same division as Colorado and Dallas,

4:25 Speaker 1: they'd surely be a top in their divisional standings. But

4:29 Speaker 1: all three of these teams are making it pretty hard,

4:31 Speaker 1: fairly early in the season for any other Central Division

4:34 Speaker 1: team to have any kind of a chance. The Wild

4:36 Speaker 1: have gone into overtime eleven times this season, which sounds

4:40 Speaker 1: like a lot because a it kind of is, although

4:44 Speaker 1: Vegas and LA both have thirteen overtime games and b

4:48 Speaker 1: Boston has only gone into ot six times. To Boston's benefit,

4:52 Speaker 1: the Wild play the Senators in between now and Sunday,

4:55 Speaker 1: And even better, they have Boston in the second game

4:59 Speaker 1: of a back to back, so the Bruins will be rested,

5:02 Speaker 1: ready and waiting for the Wild. Besides needing to be

5:05 Speaker 1: a strong team, Boston is going to have to take

5:07 Speaker 1: advantage of some of Minnesota's current issues, namely their lengthy

5:11 Speaker 1: list of injuries. Matt Sucuarella was put on IR on

5:15 Speaker 1: December eighth, along with Jake Middleton, both for upper body injuries,

5:19 Speaker 1: and tough guy Marcus Felino has been week to week

5:22 Speaker 1: since November twenty seventh, and the Wild have been without

5:24 Speaker 1: Marco Rossi since November fourteenth, although he did take a

5:28 Speaker 1: morning skate on December eleventh, but he was deemed still

5:33 Speaker 1: not ready. So why are the Wild in such a

5:35 Speaker 1: good spot right now? Well, they're goalie for one. Philip

5:38 Speaker 1: Gustafson has done a tremendous job taking over the starting

5:41 Speaker 1: goalie role in recent years and seems to finally have

5:44 Speaker 1: hit his stride. Twenty games in and he has a

5:46 Speaker 1: nine GSAX and a nine oh seven safe percentage and

5:51 Speaker 1: holds a very nice two point sixty four goals against average.

5:54 Speaker 1: Swayman has been just a touch better with a safe

5:57 Speaker 1: percentage at nine thirteen and roughly the same with his

6:00 Speaker 1: goals against at two point sixty seven. Where Swayman has

6:04 Speaker 1: been blowing him out of the water along with nearly

6:06 Speaker 1: everyone else, has been his GSAX, which is second in

6:10 Speaker 1: the league at nineteen point four. Only Sorokan has exceeded

6:14 Speaker 1: sway in this regard with a twenty point three GSAX.

6:17 Speaker 1: And if you were wondering who has the best safe

6:19 Speaker 1: percentage and goals against right now, both stats are held

6:22 Speaker 1: by Logan Thompson of the Washington Capitals. He's got a

6:25 Speaker 1: nine to twenty six safe percentage and a mind blowing

6:28 Speaker 1: one point nine to six goals against. But back to

6:32 Speaker 1: the Wild, So what's their deal? Another team with a

6:35 Speaker 1: boring brand of hockey? So be extra caffeinated for this.

6:38 Speaker 1: And in terms of on ice threats, you need to

6:41 Speaker 1: keep an eye on Carill Caprizov, Matt Boldi, and Marcus Johansson.

6:44 Speaker 1: Boston is going to have to actually try to shut

6:47 Speaker 1: these guys down. They also lead their team and goals

6:50 Speaker 1: scored the season with eighteen, sixteen and nine goals respectively.

6:54 Speaker 1: At this point in the season, I'm gonna come out

6:57 Speaker 1: here and say when the Bruins stay out of the box,

7:00 Speaker 1: it's almost a guaranteed win, So Boston don't make me

7:04 Speaker 1: eat my words. Make sure you rate and review the

7:06 Speaker 1: podcast to help us reach more listeners, and tune in

7:08 Speaker 1: weekly to our full podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

7:13 Speaker 1: and all podcast platforms.