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Ahead of Saturday’s tilt with the New York Islanders, the Boston Bruins witnessed one of their divisional rivals improve their depth for the stretch run with Toronto Maple Leafs acquiring Ryan O’Reilly and old friend Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues.
Starring across the ice from them was Bo Horvat, a potential target before the former Vancouver Canuck landed in Long Island in late January.
But head coach Jim Montgomery and the Bruins aren’t fretting with the March 3 trade deadline approaching. While they could use defensive and bottom-six depth, they have every reason to remain confident in their core amid their historic pace.
“I would still take our roster over everybody else’s,” Montgomery told reporters.
Montgomery’s top-tier roster received a reinforcement on Saturday. And it didn’t take long for their Winter Classic hero to pick up where he left off.
Jake DeBrusk got the Bruins off and running 2:19 in with Boston’s second power-play goal in as many games.
The bottom six provided insurance tallies against an Islanders bunch coming off a 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Penguins the night before. A Nick Foligno wrister and a Trent Frederic tip extended Boston’s first-period cushion to 3-0.
Frederic notched his third two-goal outing of the season just 3:13 after Patrice Bergeron extended Boston’s lead to 4-1 on a fortunate bounce to complete his 10th straight 20 goal-campaign.
Pavel Zacha capped off Boston’s six-goal outburst late in the middle frame with his 13th of the season.
Linus Ullmark stopped 26 of 28 shots, only falling victim to a Kyle Palmieri second-period tip and a Matt Martin rebound marker in the third.
Here’s what we learned from the B’s 6-2 victory on Hockey is for Everyone night at TD Garden.
The Bruins envisioned an earlier return for DeBrusk coming out of the All-Star break. But they waited until Saturday to reinsert their 2015 first-round selection back on the top line with Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
DeBrusk likely expected a more natural progression in his return. Though he said the return felt “a little weird” DeBrusk quickly reacclimated himself to the lineup after missing the last 18 games with a hand and foot injury.
