BOSTON –Five thoughts from the second period with the Bruins leading the New York Rangers 4-1 at TD Garden:
1) Tuukka Rask took himself out of the game at the start of the second period, and then never returned to the bench at any time for the rest of the period. At first, you thought it might have been some kind of bathroom emergency, but he never returned to the bench for the rest of the period. Uh-oh. One would have to hope it’s just the flu because anything serious is a big problem for the Black and Gold.
2) Solid, confident play from Reilly Smith, who passed a puck off the boards to himself breaking the puck out of the zone and then jumped on a loose rebound in the same shift for his 13th goal of the season. It snapped a 14-game goal-less streak for the right winger, and is just his fourth goal since the beginning of January. The pass to himself off the boards was a really nifty, confident play that could signal things to come for him for rest of season.
3) Five hits for Adam McQuaid, who is bringing the nasty for the Bruins and leveled Keith Yandle with a good, hard hit by the side boards in the D-zone at the end of the period. He’s really dialed up the intensity level over the last few games, and is helping to set the physical, mean tone for the Black and Gold.
4) Speaking of Yandle, he’s minus-3 with just one shot on net for the Rangers today. He’s had some rough games in this building in front of friends family, and it could have been worse if Max Talbot buried a blind pass from Yandle behind the net that the fourth-line winger easily intercepted.
5) Rick Nash scored a big goal for the Rangers toward the end of the second period keeping the Rangers within striking distance in the third period. With Niklas Svedberg in net, anything is possible in the third period if something is wrong with Rask, especially with the Rangers' explosive offense capable of a burst.