The Boston Bruins followed up Saturday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators with a statement comeback win to down the St. Louis Blues, 3-2, on Tuesday night at Enterprise Center.
Boston jumped back over .500 at 8-7-2 and St. Louis dropped to 7-9-0.
The Bruins have had issues within their special teams all season long. They entered Tuesday with the most power-play opportunities, but with just the 19th-most power-play goals in the sport. They also have the third-most penalty kills in the NHL with a 22nd-rated kill percentage due to an early-season epidemic of penalties and a taxed unit for Boston.
Jim Montgomery did take a proactive approach to solving the issues when he inserted Hampus Lindholm to the top power-play unit. Unfortunately, Lindholm did not even get a full period to make an impact. He left the game after blocking a shot late in the first period and did not return to action with a lower-body injury.
St. Louis, on the other hand, took full advantage with their special teams units and netted a pair of power-play goals in the second period courtesy of Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist.
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That put more pressure, once again, on the Bruins to make their mark at even strength. It took over 40 minutes, but the Bruins did just that. The team peppered Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington with chances that finally paid off. Boston tallied three goals in the third period from Morgan Geekie, Charlie McAvoy and the go-ahead score from David Pastrnak with less than two minutes to go in regulation.
Boston still has a real issue to solve in their heavily struggling special teams. Tuesday night offered a break from that reality as a determined effort over the final 20 minutes put the Bruins back over .500.
The story for the Bruins through the first month of the season is simple: They’ll go as far as their special teams take them.
Featured image via Jeff Curry/Imagn Images
