Craig Smith generally isn’t one to talk about how great a play was that he made, and that remained the case Thursday night.
The Boston Bruins winger, who was returning from a one-game absence, opened the scoring in Boston’s eventual 2-1 win over the New York Islanders in Game 3 of their second-round series.
An impressive neutral zone back-check from Taylor Hall allowed the Bruins to go the other way with the puck. Matt Grzlecyk skated through the neutral zone and zipped a pass to Hall at the right wing boards after gaining the offensive blue line.
Smith, who was at the left wing, cut to the slot, and Hall feathered a pass to him. Smith received the puck and quickly unloaded a missile of a wrister that beat Semyon Varlamov.
Smith’s assessment of the goal had little to do with himself.
“Hallsy made a great play,” Smith said after the game over Zoom. “And I think it was Grizz in the middle who initially, I think he thought it was coming to him, but he made a good read to let it come to me, so it was a great play.”
Smith and the Bruins will look to push the Islanders to the brink of elimination Saturday night in Game 4. Puck drop from Nassau Coliseum is set for 7:15 p.m. ET on NBC. NESN will carry a full hour of pregame and postgame coverage, plus intermission reports on NESN.com.
