BOSTON — The Bruins’ stars have made them one of the top teams in the NHL, but it’s the contributions from the team’s lesser-known players that have made them dominant.
All eyes were on Jake DeBrusk in his first game back since the Winter Classic. But it was a total team effort for Boston on Saturday night when it beat the New York Islanders, 6-2, at TD Garden. It was the Black and Gold’s third-straight win, and they had outscored their opponents 14-to-4 during that stretch.
Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman deserve their praise for their play in between the pipes, and stars like Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak have made highlight plays, but national media likely aren’t pointing at players like Trent Frederic and Nick Foligno as being key pieces for the Bruins.
But the duo combined for four points Saturday night, and the former had the highlight of the night with his unassisted goal that blew past Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov.
“The poise to open up, looked like he was going to pass — I believe it was (A.J.) Greer on the left wing — and then shoot it, I mean, he uses the defenseman as a screen,” head coach Jim Montgomery said. “And the goalie is expecting a pass. It’s a confident play.”
Frederic, Greer and Derek Forbort tied for second on the night with a plus-3 rating. Foligno was a team-best plus-4 against the Islanders, and he continues to be an unsung hero for the Bruins.
“We just talked about getting a home win,” Foligno said. “The other night, we didn’t get one coming off the break. Something we talked about at the start of the year was being a real hard team at home, being a hard place to play. We wanted to get back to that today, so I was really proud of the guys against a heavy team. Regardless, everyone plays back-to-backs in this league. I don’t buy that excuse anymore.”
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Islanders game:
— The Bruins have led 1,492:31 minutes of ice time through 55 games. Their opponents have led 718:27 minutes of ice time in that same span, according to The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont.
— Foligno has scored 25 points through 55 games this season. If he eclipses the 30-point mark, that would be the first time the veteran will do so since the 2019-20 season when he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
— Frederic passed his career-high 18 points, which he accomplished last season. He’s up to 22 points through 52 games. The 25-year-old center is one assist shy from tying his career-high set last season.
— In his first game back, DeBrusk scored two points — one goal and one assist. It was his 17th goal of the season and his 15th assist of the season.
— Bergeron’s goal in the second period was his 20th of the season. This is the captain’s 14th season with 20 or more goals, which is second in franchise history behind Johnny Bucyk.
“His play off the puck is high end,” Montgomery said. “His play with the puck is underrated, but I think everybody knows… he understands open space really well — where there’s pockets and holes. His release is so high end. He always ends up in dangerous scoring areas, very rarely does he score goals from outside the dots. Great goal scorers like him, they find ways to manufacture goals. I’ve coached (Joe) Pavelski, they have very similar games.”
— The Bruins will take on the Ottawa Senators for a Presidents’ Day clash Monday. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled at 1 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage, along with an hour of pregame, on NESN.
