The Bruins travel to Buffalo on Wednesday (7:00pm, to face Atlantic Division rival, the Sabres. Buffalo, at press time is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and trail Boston in the standings, with a 7-9 record, and a 2-7-1 stat in their last ten games. Following the Thanksgiving break, the locals return to Garden ice on Friday to host the New York Rangers in a 3:30 matinee. This begins a three game home stand that has visits by the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday (7:00pm), and the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, also at 7:00pm. At press time, Vancouver is struggling near the bottom of the Pacific Division with a 3-6-1 record for their last ten, while Detroit is holding on to fourth place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of Boston, the latter holding five games in hand.
Reflecting back on Sunday night’s shutout loss to the Calgary Flames, it was another night when the Bruins just could not get anything going for themselves. For rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman, it was his first loss on home ice. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t mince words when he described what he felt was a strong reason that Boston took it on the chin in Sunday’s 4-0 loss to the Calgary Flames. “They got outworked, they got outworked,” was Cassidy’s summation of the Bruins’ power play unit. While praising the Flames’ penalty kill unit, he felt that the Bs power play’s inability to create scoring chances, was a main factor, during Boston’s three man advantage opportunities. The ‘nail-in-the-coffin’ moment was Calgary’s Andre Mangiapane’s shorthanded goal in the third period upping the score to 3-0. Cassidy stressed his point again with, “The power play kind of took any life out of us. The top guys did not have a good night in any area of the game, and that’s an area that could have helped us.” For the Flames, former Bruin Dan Vladar stopped 27 shuts and ran his record to 4-0-0, with a goal-against average of 1.57, and a save percentage of .946 with two shutouts. Jacob Markstrom, the second half of the Calgary net minding team, has equally impressive stats with a 7-3-1 record, 1.71 goals-against and .942 save percentage, which includes five shutouts in 14 games.
Partnership announced – The Boston Bruins and Mass General Brigham announced, a new multi-year deal, which will make Mass General Brigham the Official Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Provider for the Boston Bruins. For more than 50 years, Mass General Hospital clinicians have treated Bruins players. This new partnership formalizes the relationship and creates more opportunities to support Mass General Brigham’s mission to advance care through research, raise health and wellness awareness and celebrate the over 80,000 healthcare professionals that are part of Mass General Brigham.
“The Boston Bruins are thrilled to formalize this new five-year partnership with Mass General Brigham, making them the Official Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Provider for the Boston Bruins,” said Boston Bruins President Cam Neely. “We have been privileged to see firsthand the type of world-class care and services provided by the expert team at Mass General Brigham and are excited to continue our work together in funding critical research, raising health awareness and celebrating those making a difference in our community.”
The Bruins and Mass General Brigham will collaborate on many initiatives to support efforts to raise health awareness and reach underserved communities. The Bruins recently held “Healthcare Heroes Night,” which celebrated healthcare professionals who have gone above and beyond to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other initiatives include Bruins “Learn to Play” events in local communities to grow the sport of hockey, Bruins Foundation raffles to support research at Mass General Brigham, and creating free online videos to educate athletes, parents and coaches on injury prevention, proper training and overall wellness, among other topics.