Bruins: Sturm Era Starts With A Win

After going through their worst year in almost 20 years last season, the Boston Bruins will outright tell you that they are not in the style points business.

In fact, speaking with reporters on Monday, Bruins team president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney openly acknowledged the limitations of their team and the job in front of first-time NHL head coach Marco Sturm. Winning was going to require the kind of grind and guts that were lost and found and lost again too many times a year ago. And though there’s another 81 games of grind ahead of the Bruins, there’s no complaining with the results of Wednesday’s season-opening, 3-1 victory down in Washington.

“It feels great,” Sturm said following Wednesday’s final at Capital One Arena. “I’m exhausted, but it’s the moment I was waiting for, and to grab a win on the road at a tough place like [Washington], it’s even better. On top of it, they played exactly how I want them to play, and that makes me happy.”

And like Sturm wants, it truly began in the Bruins’ own zone and in goal, as Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman dazzled and stymied the Capitals to the tune of a 34-save victory in a 3-1 final over the Capitals. It was the kind of night that required Swayman to get better (and better and better) as the night went along, and he did exactly that. After he held serve with a perfect 8-for-8 showing in the first period, Swayman stood on his head in a 17-for-17 second frame.

And it was that kind of performance that allowed the Bruins to not only stay in it, but take the lead at the 12:07 mark of the second period on a David Pastrnak floater that beat a screened Logan Thompson.

But even when the Caps tied things up in the third period on a Tom Wilson top-shelf snipe, the Bruins made sure to reward Swayman for what he had done to that point. On the power play just 15 seconds after Wilson tied things up, Pastrnak & Co. came through with their prettiest goal of the night after he received a slick dish from Pavel Zacha and fed Elias Lindholm for a beautiful net-front putaway on Thompson.

That goal would hold as the game-winning strike for Boston, though the Bruins made sure to add an insurance marker thanks to Morgan Geekie’s empty-net goal to give the Bruins a two-goal lead and ultimately a two-goal victory.

For Pastrnak, the second-period tally marked the second time in his career that he had scored the Black and Gold’s first goal of the season. The strike also moved Pastrnak up the franchise leaderboard in a different category, too, as it moved him into sole possession of the third-most Opening Night points in franchise history, with 15. Pastrnak entered this season-opening contest tied with David Krejci at 14 points, and without Johnny Bucyk (17) and Ray Bourque (30) having posted more points in season-opening games for Boston.

Pastrnak would add a second point and third and push that figure up to 17 (tying Bucyk) by the night’s end with the primary helper on that Lindholm power-play strike and Geekie’s empty-net dagger.

Boston’s first line remains a force

Sturm has acknowledged that there are going to be nights where he’s going to have ride his roster’s top dogs. At least offensively, and namely with his Morgan Geekie- Elias Lindholm- David Pastrnak line.

That proved to be true right out of the gate, too, with the line was on the ice for all three of Boston’s goals Wednesday. And all three had a hand in what the Bruins were able to accomplish, as Pastrnak finished with a goal with two helpers while both Lindholm and Geekie had a goal and an assist each.

Again, this is nothing new with this line.

Going back to last season, the Bruins have outscored opponents 17-4 and outshot them 60-42 in 107 minutes with the Geekie-Lindholm-Pastrnak line on the ice at five-on-five play. Expand that to all situations (and taking out empty-net goals both for and against), and it’s a 26-7 scoring advantage for the Bruins in 163 minutes with this trio out there. It’s been just a disgustingly good weapon for Boston, and you could argue that their first-period efforts on Wednesday should’ve only added to these numbers.

It’s entirely possible that this line scores a combined 100 goals this season (something we haven’t seen since the days of the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line), but they’ll need some support to emerge on lines two-four.