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  • What we learned: Backes leads Bruins past Coyotes

    Post Game

    What we learned: Backes leads Bruins past Coyotes

    Anthony Travalgia December 7, 2017
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    Anytime you’re looking to begin a new win streak, hosting the Arizona Coyotes is always a good start.

    It wasn’t as smooth of a 60-minute effort as it should have been, but the Bruins will take the two points and carry on into Saturday’s contest against the New York Islanders.

    As has been the case for most of the season, the Bruins got a body back while losing another. Jake DeBrusk made his return to the lineup after missing the Bruins’ previous three games with an undisclosed injury. To make room for DeBrusk, the Bruins placed Ryan Spooner (lower body) on injured reserve as the 25-year-old continues to face bad luck with the injury bug.

    Here’s what we learned as the Bruins completed the two-game series sweep with their 6-1 victory over the Coyotes.

    Bruins top line stays hot with early goal:

    All it took was 15 seconds for the Bruins to jump out in front. After some nice puck movement in the Coyotes end, Brad Marchand took a cross-ice feed from David Pastrnak for his 10th goal of the year.

    There’s no denying the trio of Marchand, Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron is the Bruins’ best. The goal extended point streaks for Marchand, (seven games) Bergeron (three games) and Pastrnak (eight games) The Bruins’ top line has combined for six goals and 13 assists in the last seven games.

    Costly mistake by Brandon Carlo:

    It doesn’t matter how good or bad the team on the other side of the puck may be. When you turn the puck over in your own end, more often than not it’s going to end up in your own net. That’s exactly what happened when a Brando Carlo outlet pass ended resulted in Christian Dvorak’s game-tying tally.

    The turnover was just another blemish in what has been a roller coaster campaign for the second-year defenseman.

    David Backes turns the Bruins’ second period around:

    The second period started off as ugly as it can get in the National Hockey League. It took the Bruins just over 10 minutes to register their first shot of the period, a weak wrister from Matt Grzelcyk.

    From there, David Backes picked the team up.

    Backes gave the Bruins the lead for good as he tipped home a Riley Nash point shot for his first of the year. Less than six minutes later, Backes stole an Alex Goligoski outlet pass at the blue line and quickly fired a wrist shot past Scott Wedgewood for goal No. 2.

    Taking a look at Backes’ stats – two goals, two assists – certainly won’t tell you the story of his season. The veteran missed 17 of the Bruins’ first 26 games due to diverticulitis. But Backes has, without a doubt, been one of the Bruins’ better performers.

    Backes’ presence alone has passed the naked eye test despite his low point totals.

    “Yeah, you kind of knew the dam was going to break eventually,” Backes said following the victory. “Felt like we were creating a lot of good quality chances and not finishing them off and not playing together a ton maybe factored into it. I thought they were clean chances where we were able to get good looks and finish them off into the back of the net.”

    Remember Zac Rindaldo?

    Once upon a time general manager Don Sweeney traded a 2017 third-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for a guy named Zac Rinaldo. At the time of the trade, Rinaldo had 24 points in 223 career games.

    Rinaldo appeared in 52 games with the Bruins during the 2015-16 season. In those 52 games, Rinaldo scored once and added two assists – certainly nowhere near the worth of a third-round draft pick.

    After 26 games with the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League, Rinaldo signed a one-year $700,000 deal with the Coyotes on July 1.

    Appearing in 26 games for the Coyotes, the former Bruin has two goals and one assist to go along with 15 penalty minutes.

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