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The Boston Bruins clawed their way to a point, but a second-round shootout strike from
Jordan Eberle would be all
Anders Nilsson and the Edmonton Oilers needed in a 3-2 shootout victory at Rexall Place on Wednesday night. Here are some leftover thoughts and notes from the loss.
Skill game still one that doesn’t play to Bruins’ strengths
The Bruins are a better team than they were a year ago. In a lot of ways, I think.
But one thing remains-- the Black and Gold are not equipped to out-skill (is that even a real thing to say?) other teams. Especially with forward
David Pastrnak out of the lineup. You saw this when the Bruins had to score. They flipped a switch and stopped trying to match the Oiler’s side-to-side moves, focused on getting pucks on net and beating the opposition to the boards or puck for second-look shots. And they came through with game-tying tallies. That’s the identity of this team. It sounds weird to say that a team just isn’t skilled enough to win games that way, but it’s true. More often than not, especially against a team as young and wide open as the Oil, trying to deviate from your identity in an attempt to go tit-for-tat with another team’s style, is going to cost the Bruins. Still.
Krejci continues to produce at an elite status in big moments
David Krejci is one insanely frustrating talent. At least you used to feel this way.
If this were say two years ago, you could have predicted Krejci’s hot start to the season (seven goals and 15 points in 10 games in the month of October) just as easily as you could predict his November cooldown. But on into December now, No. 46 remains a key piece for the Black and Gold’s top line. Though the pieces are seemingly forever switching around the crafty Czech center (whether that’s shifting Loui Eriksson to the right or the left) or swapping Frank Vatrano with a Matt Beleskey or Alex Khokhlachev or Pastrnak, the production has remained that of an elite top-line centerman.
Through 23 games, the 29-year-old Krejci has nine goals and 25 points. And what’s been most impressive of late has been his patience with the puck to either find a player to dish it off to or wait for the perfect angle to fire his shot on net. You saw this with his game-winning goal late in the third period of last Friday’s victory over New York, and you saw that again on Wednesday with his game-tying dish.
The importance of Krejci is painfully obvious at this point (I’ve always said that the B’s will go as far as Krejci takes them in the postseason), but that sentiment seems to be coming a bit early this season.
Nilsson the difference maker
I know they don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s rather remarkable that Oilers goaltender Anders Nilsson wasn’t the first star of this game (Matt Hendricks finished the night as the No. 1 start behind a two-point effort) following his unbelievable 38-of-40 showing against the B’s.
Nilsson, a guy that was… let’s be honest-- just not that good, for the early part of his career, was an absolute rock in net. That’s what a 6-foot-5 frame allows you to be on some nights. Just look at most of Boston’s shots on the night. Zdeno Chara had six (it took him six to beat Nilsson). Beleskey, a huge net-front presence for the Bruins all season, had several good looks in this seven-shot night but just couldn’t find any space to bury it. And Boston’s three-round shootout chances? Forget it. No chance.
Given Boston’s vaunted offense (and their lethal power play), Nilsson’s showing was huge. It would border on unbelievable, too, had it not been for Nilsson’s 39-of-41 showing against the Pittsburgh Penguins in his win prior to Wednesday’s victory over the B’s. Pretttaay, pretttaaay good.
Up next
The Bruins will make their way to Calgary for a Friday night head-to-head with the Flames. This will be the club’s first head-to-head meeting with Dougie Hamilton since Hamilton by all means forced his way out of Boston this past summer.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Boston Chapter of the Pro Hockey Writers Association since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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