Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

In first game back, John Moore there to defend David Pastrnak

December 6, 2019, 11:39 AM ET [8 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Boston Bruins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As John Moore skated off the ice and down the runway into the Bruins dressing room following his fight with Chicago’s Zack Smith, it was easy to think ‘here we go again.’

Playing in his first game since Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final thanks to a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery, dropping the gloves is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about what you want to see from a returning Moore.

But John Moore did not like the hit by Smith on superstar David Pastrnak, and because of it, he took matters into his own hands.

“I was right there, I saw it. I didn’t like it. So I thought something had to be done and I just stepped in and did something,” Moore said. “I don’t know if it was the smartest decision, my first game back. But I saw someone kind of take a liberty on Pasta. I felt like it was my turn.”

Although the fight was a short one with Smith taking Moore down with just one punch, it was a gesture that certainly did not go unnoticed in the Bruins room.

“You can’t say enough about him, right? Here he is, coming off of shoulder surgery and obviously it’s a reaction thing. He’s not thinking about anything other than protecting his teammates. So that just tells you all you need to know about his character,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said.

“Probably not the perfect guy in that situation coming off that injury, but good for him. He’ll earn a lot of respect in that locker room that he already had, but now even more.”



After just a few minutes in the locker room, Moore returned to the ice and into the penalty box he went. Moore finished the night with 16:11 of ice time in the Bruins overtime loss while adding three shots and three hits.

“That’s the type of culture we have here,” fellow defenseman Torey Krug said. “Moore wants to be a part of it. From Day 1, he’s taken everything about what being a Boston Bruin is about and taken it in full swing. That’s what you saw.”

Certainly Moore is not the guy you want to see dropping the gloves and coming to Pastrnak’s aid, but as a veteran, Moore knows there is a job to be done on the ice and one he didn’t have to think twice about.

“I don’t even know what to say," said Pastrnak. “Gave him the tap and thanked him for coming for me, but obviously I’d rather him not [fight] at the point he just got back.”

In what has become a common theme, it was another night of the opposing team being more physical with Pastrnak, the league’s top goal scorer, as efforts of throwing Pastrnak off his game have continued.

From a keeping Pastrnak’s shots out of the net standpoint, I guess you can say it’s working?

For the first time since November 8 and 10, Pastrnak has gone back-to-back games without a goal. It’s only the third time he has been shutout in back-to-back games this season, with the other instance coming in the Bruins first two games of the season.

But from a getting under his skin and frustrating him standpoint, Pastrnak says only one thing frustrates him.

“Not at all. That’s hockey,” Pastrnak said about becoming frustrated by the added physicality. “I don’t really get frustrated anymore besides when we lose. It’s hockey. All that I’m frustrated is that we lost.”

With all the rule changes and how “enforcers” have been essentially pushed out of the game, how teams handle their skill players being bullied on the ice has changed a bit.

As a guy who has been in the league for 12 seasons, David Backes has seen both the old and new school ways of protecting your skill players, and how to respond to things when lines are crossed.

“I think the new NHL, the way to prevent that is if that’s how they’re going to play—and Pasta is a big kid, he can hold his own, then Patrick Kane needs to be hit, forcefully and not given any space and maybe have a few leisures taken at him,” said Backes.

“But if Zack Smith hits Pasta, going after Zack Smith doesn’t really affect them that much. It’s incumbent of the rest of us to recognize that happening and hit their skill to either see who is going to last, or maybe their skill says ‘take it easy.’

Easy was not exactly how the Bruins night went. Entering the third period trailing by a pair of goals, the Bruins hole to climb out of got deeper as Alex DeBrincat extended the Chicago lead to three 17 seconds into the period.

But we’ve seen this Bruins trailing in the third period movie before.

Goals by Joakim Nordstrom, Chris Wagner, and Krug helped the Bruins claw their way back into the game, earning a point after being deadlocked at three after regulation.

The extra frame did not last all too long as Jonathan Toews trickled one past Tuukka Rask 54 seconds into overtime. But the goal did not come without controversy.

With Pastrnak carrying the puck in the offensive zone, he was taken down by an attacking Toews.

Did Toews do enough to warrant a call? I think so, but at the end of the day it goes down as a judgment call that did not go the Bruins way.



"That's one of those judgement calls made quick, they didn’t make it,” Cassidy said.

“Worked against us.”

The judgment call that worked against them ended the Bruins eight game winning streak. With the Bruins managing to force overtime, they were able to extend their point streak to 13 as they remain the lone team in the NHL without a regulation loss at home.
Join the Discussion: » 8 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Anthony Travalgia
» The End of an Era?
» Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman in Game 7?
» Home Not So Sweet Home
» Bruins Depth On Full Display In Sunrise Sweep
» Bruins Drop Game 2 After Ugly Performance