|
A sun-filled 90’s themed Lake Tahoe Trip with a side of Pasta |
|
|
|
|
|
You would think scoring seven goals in an outdoor setting, on a golf course overlooking beautiful Lake Tahoe would be the highlight of the night for the Boston Bruins.
But somehow, it was not.
The Bruins arrived to Lake Tahoe in style, throwing it back to the 90’s, bringing back some outfits and colors we—thankfully—haven’t seen in a long time.
Of the 20 Bruins who dressed in Sunday’s 7-3 victory over the Flyers, six were born prior to 1990.
“You know [Bergeron] is always one step ahead with this kind of stuff. It was his idea and we all loved it, so we jumped on board right away” said David Pastrnak who had his second hat trick of the season Sunday.
“It was a good idea. We had some fun ordering the stuff and walking to the game, it was a lot of fun. A great little bonding here.”
Pastrnak’s performance was one of many highlights for the Bruins. The hat trick was the 10th of his career with both this season coming against the Flyers. It was an on-ice effort that led to a postgame dance party that was unfortunately ruined by the media.
“We were listening [to] “Barbie Girl” before you guys asked me to do media, and I was dancing with these glasses on and then you guys ruined it and I had to go answer the questions and missed the “Barbie Girl” song and who knows what’s going to be on when I come back,” said Pastrnak who made sure he let it be known how freezing it was by the water, talking to the media.
After the disaster Saturday’s contest between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights turned out to be, Sunday’s show went much smoother. However, from the drop of the puck until the last few minutes of the first period, the setting sun caused some visual issues on the ice.
Pastrnak opened the scoring 34 seconds into the contest. But had the sun not been an issue, instead of setting Pastrnak up with his first of three, maybe Brad Marchand shoots the puck, trying for a goal of his own.
“It was really challenging, but it was really fun,” said Pastrnak. “[Marchand] told me he didn’t even see the net, so he was like ‘I was passing the whole time because I couldn’t see where the net was.”
With a backdrop like Lake Tahoe provides, you’d normally want as much daylight as possible to allow you to take in as much scenery as you can.
But given there was a hockey game to be played, defenseman John Moore felt different.
“Well, the sun couldn’t go down fast enough, and in the first period you couldn’t tell who was who, especially on the left side of the ice,” said Moore. “You couldn’t really tell if it was your team or the other team, that was challenging.”
Other than scoring seven times, and picking up two points in the standings, there were a lot of positives to come from Sunday’s victory.
Trent Frederic’s first career NHL goal, Urho Vaakanainen’s first career NHL point and Charlie Coyle’s first goal since Jan. 23 all factored into the Bruins victory.
“Kind of pinch yourself moment, it was a little different obviously being outdoors with no fans,” Frederic said about his first career NHL goal. “You don’t exactly get the loud noise and stuff so it took me a little bit to realize how real it was. It’s cool.”
Making his season debut, Vaakanainen logged 23:28 of ice time Sunday. With fellow defenseman Jeremy Lauzon leaving the contest after one shift, Vaakanainen was immediately thrown into a bigger role, a role he excelled in.
“As for [Vaakanainen] I thought he got better as the game went along, he’s a good hockey player, we know that,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy.
“He’s waited for his opportunity and again, there’s always going to be competition, good chance for him to step up, he earned his way into the lineup first and foremost and then when [Lauzon] goes down, I thought the rest of the group stepped up.”
Cassidy did not have an update on Lauzon and should have more Tuesday when the Bruins return to the ice.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»