But it started good.
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Chris Thorburn and Nicolas Petan scored in the third period after the Bruins came within one goal, and the Jets opened the season with the franchise’s first victory in Boston since 2007. “Even though he [Burmistrov] apologized after, it’s one of those, I got rid of it, I didn’t have the puck at that time and you got to realize where the guy is and his position”.
So while Irwin took the blame for giving the puck away, Bruins head coach Claude Julien made sure not to excuse the other players on the ice.
The Jets rookie forward said his parents, brother, uncle and trainer are travelling to watch his first National Hockey League game and he couldn’t be happier to share the special moment with them. “That’s the way you want to play all three periods, but the second period got out of hand”.
– The line of Matt Beleskey, David Krejci and David Pastrnak produced both Bruins goals in the loss.
Boston has the pieces to contend, but it all comes down to how well Rask can protect the net while the rest of the team figures things out. It was no longer a game after that. “Hopefully, it keeps going the way it’s going”, said Randell, who hit career-highs in every category last season with 11 goals, 9 assists, 20 points and 120 penalty minutes over 74 games for Providence in the AHL. All this game missed was a defenseman (likely Irwin) literally throwing the puck into his own net. Instead of the defense bending and not breaking, it broke.
But then the second period happened.
Matt Irwin was the unfortunate subject of criticism after his brutal turnover behind Rask led to the eventual go-ahead Winnipeg goal.
Trotman was far better than Irwin on Thursday, but there’s no denying that duo was picked on by the Winnipeg Jets before they were separated by the Bruins coaching staff in the third period.
Paul Maurice showed last season he doesn’t care about contracts and will play the guy he thinks gives his team the best chance to win. Krejci called it uncharacteristic. But he never fully regained his footing as the player who, just the previous season, was a finalist for the Norris Trophy, handed out to the league’s best defenseman.
It’s doubtful we’ve seen the last of Talbot. The team that can’t finish-even after ending the game with 63 shot attempts. Late in the game with Tuukka Rask pulled, Burmi banked a backhand clearing attempt off the glass and all the way down the ice for an empty netter goal.
Those additions should help a team that ranked 22nd with 2.6 goals per game in 2014-15. Is this reason to panic?
The first period was ugly, but the world didn’t come to an end despite many such concerns on Twitter.
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It’s hard to fathom, especially as it concerns certain players who have been so integral to the B’s success over the past several seasons, including the Cup run of 2011, but with an aging core and a team seemingly in transition, would it really be so wrong to suggest that stars like increasingly injury-prone captain Zdeno Chara or All World netminder Tuukka Rask could be sent elsewhere for what would, presumably, amount to an absolute bundle of sorely-needed picks and prospects? But that’s pretty much it. They’ll face Montreal – a team they earned zero points against previous year – on Saturday, followed by a Monday matinee against the defending Eastern Conference champs, Tampa Bay. The Jets were in town not long after rumors had D Dustin Byfuglien coming to the Bruins in a trade, but a deal now looks unlikely because of Boston’s tight salary cap.
