Here’s what we learned in the Bruins’ solid 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Friday night:
1) Matt Beleskey has lived up to his advanced billing.
With a two-goal performance against the Hurricanes on Friday night, Beleskey has 13 goals on the season and is on pace to finish with 17 goals and a career-high 43 points in his first year with the Black and Gold. This is exactly the offensive output the Bruins expected from the 27-year-old when they signed him to a long-term contract on July 1. Beleskey has been extremely good when combined with the ever-present effort level and physicality that he brings to the table every night. Beleskey has five goals in the past four games, is showing up in the games that matter most and really has lived up to every expectation given to him when Don Sweeney made him the Bruins' top priority free agent. Beleskey has been a good signing, so that put in the blue check mark column for Sweeney in his first year as GM.
2) Tuukka Rask is 4-1 with a .951 save percentage in his past five games, and has a whopping .976 save percentage, while stopping 80 of 82 shots in two wins over the Penguins and Hurricanes.
Rask has been an instrumental part of a couple of key wins for the Bruins where they’ve been vastly outshot by their opponent. The B’s goaltender was very good particularly in the third period of a game that really dashed any playoff hopes for Carolina. His stop on a baseball swing swat out of a mid-air puck by Eric Staal was excellent and his butterfly leg pad save on Kris Versteeg from point-blank range was probably his best stop of the game. Now Rask will have to keep it up with the Bruins entering the most difficult portion of their schedule the next few weeks. So much of any hopes for B’s success rest on Rask being superhuman more often than not behind a sloppy defense.
3) Speaking of Beleskey, the third line of Beleskey-Ryan Spooner-Jimmy Hayes is really starting to come together in terms of chemistry and finding a way to survive defensively while thriving offensively.
The high pace that Spooner plays at forces Hayes to move at a different gear and the big right winger was making plays all over the ice, with his dad on the trip watching him play. After so much up-and-down over the first half of the season, Bruins coach Claude Julien really seems to be settling on his top three lines and that might be a big reason why the Bruins don’t want to upset the apple cart right now by moving Loui Eriksson. It would throw everything back into turmoil again by removing such a big piece. It’s part of the dilemma that Don Sweeney has about making the right decision for the organization short term and long term.
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
Plus
*The Bruins’ dads were in attendance for the home game against the Penguins and Friday night in Carolina and the Black and Gold were 2-0 in those games while winning both in convincing fashion. The Bruins may extend this dad’s trip for a while if they keep winning like that.
*Patrice Bergeron made a huge play right off the bat in the first period to set the tone for the Bruins and scored the first goal. He finished with two points, a plus-2, six shot attempts, two hits, three blocked shots and 14 of 26 face-off wins, and was a giant performer in an important game.
*Beleskey: two goals on Friday night and five goals in his past four games as everybody on the B’s roster seems to be elevating their games.
Minus
*Jordan Staal was on ice for all four of the goals scored against the Hurricanes and was shut down by the Bruins with only a couple of shots on net.
*Michal Jordan was a minus-2 on Friday night and was worked over as the weak link on a couple of Boston’s goals with the Bruins clearly taking advantage of the young, inexperienced Carolina D-corps missing Justin Faulk.
*A minus-3 for Chris Terry, who was another one of the Hurricanes players that ended up well on the short end of the stick on Friday in a must-win for the Hurricanes.