Bolts at Bruins

Tonight’s game only matters to the Boston Bruins if you’re rooting for them to lose, but it matter more to the Tampa Bay Lightning, whose lead over the Ottawa Senators for third place in the Atlantic Division is four points with the Sens at Toronto. In net tonight, Andrei Vasilevskiy versus Jeremy Swayman, and we get another look at the Boston Bruins’ newcomers.

Patrice Bergeron isn’t walking through that door or jumping over those boards, but the Lightning got back their 37 for the playoff run, as Yanni Gourde was acquired from the Seattle Kraken in a deadline deal.

FIRST PERIOD

Nikita Zadorov gets away with a blatant interference hook on a Tampa Bay forward scurrying out of the Bruins’ zone as the puck went up ice.

Victor Hedman with an early rebound goal with the Bruins overmatched in their own end.

Old man Ryan McDonagh catches up to David Pastrnak, cleanly poking away what would have been a breakaway shot. The strip left the TD Garden crowd groaning.

The Lightning have too many men on the ice, so the Bruins go to the powerplay.

Vinni Lettieri gets a nice shot from the slot at the end of the powerplay, but Vasilevskiy gobbles it up.

Emil Lilleberg has to move quickly at the left point to avoid getting run by Mark Kastelic, who won’t stop playing how he plays, even if Lilleberg winds up thinking it’s about him.

Zadorov doesn’t get away with crosschecking Tampa Bay’s Nikita (Kucherov), so he will increase his lead in NHL penalty minutes and the Bolts go on their first powerplay.

Parker Wotherspoon hit Gourde along the sideboards, immediately went to the bench but has not left the game.

Elias Lindholm one-times an Andrew Peeke turnaround pass to the slot from a tough angle (puck was coming from slightly behind his right-handed shot) and beat Vasilevskiy to tie the game at 1-1 with 4:02 remaining in the first period.

The Lightning lead in shots on net, 11-5.

David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha worked the possession game for what seemed to be too long when a play materialized, but Zacha just missed on his one-timer to the open side.

Once again the Bruins pressure the Lightning, and Zacha has another close call that Brandon Hagel disrupted at the last second.

First-period shots, 10-8 Tampa Bay,

SECOND PERIOD

It’s 2-1 Bolts, and the visitors head to the powerplay after the Bruins shot the puck over the D-zone glass.

My apologies for cutting out early, as something came up.

See you Monday night.