BOSTON — Brad Marchand has provided much-needed goal scoring for a Bruins offense that has struggled to consistently find the back of the net in December.
The veteran winger scored twice in Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators and now leads the team with 10 goals. His line, which includes Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith, combined for two goals, three assists and nine shots on goal in one of its best performances of the season.
Here are the “3 Stars” from Bruins-Predators:
No. 3 Star: Matt Bartkowski, Defenseman, Bruins
Bartkowski played his best game of the season and set up Loui Eriksson’s second-period goal with a fantastic pass. The 26-year-old defenseman asked for the puck as he entered the attacking zone, received a pass from Eriksson and eluded Mattias Ekholm to create the scoring chance.
Bartkowski did a great job using his speed through the neutral zone to enter the attacking zone cleanly and set up scoring chances. You can tell his confidence is high when he’s demanding the puck and using his skating ability to put opposing defensemen on their heels.
Bartkowski also helped drive puck possession with a plus-6 Corsi at even strength, the most among B’s defensemen. His next challenge is to find some consistency and put multiple quality performances together.
No. 2 Star: Loui Eriksson, Right Wing, Bruins
Eriksson scored twice against the Predators, giving him six goals in his last eight games. The veteran winger has been one of Boston’s best players in December with eight points in 11 games.
“Right now, a lot of it has to do with confidence,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. “I think he’s skating better. When you’re confident, a lot of things come easy to you; when you’re not, you’re skating out there sometimes you feel like you’ve got a piano on your back and you’re sluggish and everything else.
“But right now I think he’s feeling it. Like all players in this league when they get on a roll, they feel good about themselves and I think, to me, he’s showing the kind of player we’ve always thought he was. He’s scoring some goals, he’s making some plays, he’s killing penalties. He’s a guy that you can use in all kinds of situations, so right now I think we’re seeing some of his best hockey.”
Eriksson also tallied three shots and was a plus-5 Corsi at even strength, the second-best mark among B’s forwards. He played 19:53, including 3:53 of power-play time and 0:24 on the penalty kill.
No. 1 Star: Brad Marchand, Left Wing, Bruins
Marchand now has two multi-goal games this season and his 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) are tied with Eriksson for third place on the team in scoring.
He’s tallied 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 11 games this month, which is an encouraging sign for the B’s after he struggled to begin the season with only one goal in his first 11 games.
“We always talk about Brad when he shoots pucks, he’s aggressive on the puck and strong on it, he’s a good player,” Julien said. “Tonight was another one of those nights where he seemed to feel it. His first goal, I don’t think too many goaltenders would have stopped that, it was a quick release, quick, hard shot. He scored an important goal for us, it’s important to get that early lead.”
In addition to his scoring, Marchand was winning puck battles, creating scoring chances for teammates and was aggressive in the attacking zone with a team-high five shots. He also was a positive puck-possession player (plus-2 Corsi at even strength) despite having an offensive zone start percentage of 45.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
