By now, everyone in the greater New England area knows of the stomping that took place inside TD Garden Saturday afternoon. The Boston Bruins tore apart the New York Rangers in a 10-2 massacre on national television.
Of the many possible takeaways including Marat Khusnutdinov's four goal performance, David Pastrnak's record-matching six assists, perhaps the biggest is one small category.
In a game where the Bruins won 10-2 and thoroughly dominated in all facets, the Bruins outhit the Rangers 29-27.
One thing became wildly evident, beginning in warmups: The Bruins wanted it more. In the final two minutes of warmups, over half the Bruins roster stayed out until the horn.
The Rangers had all left the ice, with only Artemi Panarin staying, and even he left before the horn. While not an exact science or a measure of really anything, it was an early indicator of how ready Boston was.
Even after New York's early goal, the Bruins tied it a minute later. Bruins' Head Coach Marco Sturm said postgame when they tied the game, he felt real good about his club's chances.
Physicality and heavy forechecking has become a staple under Sturm. Mark Kastelic, who fought Sam Carrick in the second period, has become an embodiment of that system.
Asked about outhitting the Rangers, Kastelic wasn't surprised.
"That just proves that when we play physical and play hard, good things happen, and offense comes from it," Kastelic said. "I know the guys who all scored aren't the biggest guys, but I think just for a complete team game when we're physical and hard, everybody's going, and [it all] works out for our favor."
Pavel Zacha, who scored a hat trick, agreed with Kastelic.
"Yeah, even the fights," Zacha said. "Kasty and Kurls (Sean Kuraly) stood there, [and handled] the fights there. It's something that we as the Bruins kind of pride ourselves on, the whole year, being a hard team to play against. It doesn't matter if [we]'re losing or winning
The Bruins will look to keep the good times and physicality rolling against the Pittsburgh Penguins inside TD Garden on Sunday evening, with puck drop coming just after 5 o'clock on the East Coast.