GOLD STAR: Sean Kuraly set a career-high with three assists and had his best game of the season for the Bruins after a lot of struggles in the first six weeks of the season. The first came at the beginning of the game when Kuraly jumped in to replace a dinged-up Charlie Coyle on the power play then fed Jake DeBrusk in the slot from behind the net. Kuraly was skating with his usual oomph and set up a number of plays while displaying the kind of confidence that hasn’t been seen enough this season. Kuraly finished with three assists and a plus-2 rating in 14:32 of ice time to go along with a shot on net, a couple of hits and going 8-for-11 on face-offs. Perhaps the chance to center Anders Bjork and Danton Heinen in a pseudo third line will bring him some needed energy when he heads back to the fourth line for a healthy B’s forward group.
BLACK EYE: Carey Price was done for the night after letting in five goals on 11 shots through the first two periods. Certainly, most of it wasn’t his fault, but the Habs also probably needed Price to make a save on Brad Marchand after Jeff Petry coughed up a puck around the net at the end of the first period. If Price somehow comes up with that shot, the Bruins go into the intermission only up 2-1 and the Canadiens can feel okay about the way they played. Instead, the Bruins take the momentum on the Marchand goal, open up a two-goal lead and set themselves up for a major blowout. While he can't take all the blame, Price has a 3.09 goals-against average and .900 save percentage, and those are poor, poor numbers for him.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins took the game over in the second period by scoring three goals on seven shots, chasing Price and David Pastrnak collecting his sixth career hat trick before the game was even halfway over. The goal scored by Pastrnak eight seconds into the second period seemed to completely daze the Canadiens - who were already wobbly at the end of the first - and paved the way for Boston to have its way the rest of the night. It’s amazing that the Bruins were able to put that kind of whupping on the Canadiens in their own building given how infrequently that happens in this rivalry.
HONORABLE MENTION: Who else but Pastrnak? He has 23 goals in 24 games and is realistically on pace to finish with one of the best goal-scoring seasons in Bruins history. Perhaps the most encouraging part of the evening was Pastrnak scoring two of the three goals in even-strength play. The first one came the traditional route with a one-timer from the face-off circle. But the second goal was a net rush using speed and a puck on edge right out of the starting gate in the second period, and the third goal was a redirection of a Brandon Carlo point shot that showed some good variety in scoring. Pastrnak finished with three goals and a plus-2 rating in 16 minutes of ice time to go along with eight shot attempts and really did all his damage in the first half of the game.
BY THE NUMBERS: 23 – The number of goals in 24 games for Pastrnakl. Only Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux have scored more in the first 24 games of the season going back to 1989-90.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “You don’t see too many nights like that between the Bruins and Habs.” –Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy to NESN after a blowout of the Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
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