7th Heaven: Bruins Extend Streak With Scrappy Win Over Coyotes
BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins improved to 7-2 following the Winter Olympic break, including seven straight, after defeating the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 Thursday night at the TD Garden.
The win moved the B's past Pittsburgh for first place in the Eastern Conference, and it also marked Claude Julien's 300th behind the bench as the head coach of the Bruins, which is good for second all-time in team history behind only the legendary Art Ross (361 wins).
Adam Jones was on air following the game to chat with Dave Goucher and Bob Beers of the Bruins Radio Network for a game summary and recap.
The conversation started with Tuukka Rask.
Mostly everyone expected the 26-year-old goaltender to sit and rest on the second night of the back-to-back, but Julien went against conventional wisdom and got another stellar game out of Rask, who's been on quite the roll lately.
"I was kind of surprised Rask played tonight. I thought it kind of set up for Chad Johnson to play this game, on the back end of a back-to-back against his old team. I don't think there's any question they'll get him some breaks here down the stretch. He's played well. He's won his last five starts," said Goucher.
Rask stopped 21 of 22 shots, including multiple stops worthy of his career highlight reel, and would've had the shutout if not for a cheapie tip-in by the Coyotes' Lauri Korpikoski.
Dave Goucher has said before on this very station that the Bruins can't afford any injuries and must remain healthy in order to make a deep playoff run, so finding ways to rest players in this condensed post-Olympics schedule will be of utmost importance.
Bob Beers isn't concerned Claude and his staff will get his guys the rest they need. Zdeno Chara is the elder statesman on the roster, but it's not just him who needs the time off.
"Guys want to play, I get that. I know they [rest players] the last two or three games of the season sometimes. They've done it with Zdeno Chara in the past, they've done it with other player in the past. That's something that absolutely has to be looked at by them. I don't know that Chara will be held out until the very end of the season, but I would try to apply that to more guys," said Beers to Jones.
Listen below for the full recap:
The Bruins remain home to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, pregame coverage starts at 12:30pm on 98.5 The Sports Hub -- the flagship station of the Boston
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