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Bruce Cassidy shoulders blame in loss to Oilers

November 12, 2021, 5:35 PM ET [8 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Boston Bruins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As good as a team the Edmonton Oilers are, holding Connor McDavid to one point, most times should yield positive results.

For most of Thursday’s contest with the Oilers, it was heading in that direction as the Bruins held a 3-2 lead in the third period. A period away from that elusive 60-minute effort they’ve failed to produce consistently to date.

But in the third, the wheels fell off the bus, the Bruins got sloppy with the puck and they couldn’t respond to the Oilers push, allowing Edmonton to score three times in the final 20 minutes.

“We absolutely beat ourselves, 100 percent. We're the Bruins, we have some good players and there's a lot that goes into beating yourself,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy.

“Some of it is the respect for the game of freakin' hockey, right?”

While it was Brandon Carlo coughing up the puck, right onto Leon Draisaitl’s stick for the tying goal, and Jake DeBrusk allowing Cody Ceci to skate around him with ease to set Draisaitl up for go-ahead goal, Cassidy was the one shouldering the blame for the Bruins frustrating loss.

“I've got to do a better job because when a team beats itself that's on us as a staff. We've got to do a better job getting them ready to play and understanding the details of what it takes to win,” said Cassidy.

“A lack of not shooting is 100 percent on us, so we've just got to get that message across because we're not good enough to make some of the plays we're trying to make.”

The lack of shooting and over-passing issues are not new to the Bruins. It’s been their M-O for years now when things are not going their way. Although the Bruins outshot the Oliers 29-28, the issue was more around the shots they didn’t take instead of the ones they did.

“There was plenty of opportunities for us to shoot the puck and definitely overpassed a little bit and that's unacceptable,” said David Pastrnak. “Especially in crunch time.”

Through two periods the Bruins were right there, hanging with one of hockey’s hottest teams. But good teams find ways to win in crunch time, bad teams find ways to lose. Both happened in the third period.

"That's on us to make sure we're playing the right way, the best chance we have to win,” said Cassidy. “Because again, another good team found a way to beat us in crunch time. So, at some point it's not by accident. We've got to do a better job."

Although the end result was not the one they wanted, and how they got to that end result was even more upsetting, there were some positive developments to take from the loss.

Pastrnak final broke out of his mini scoring slump, opening the scoring for the Bruins in the first period. However, he should have had another one later in the game, shortly after Draisaitl’s tying goal.

With Oiler’s goalie Mikko Koskinen sprawled out on the ice, leaving nothing but open net behind him, Pastrnak failed to get the puck high enough off the ice, shooting the puck directly into Koskinen’s skate.

"He saved it with his skates. I know it's obviously unacceptable, eight minutes left, tied game," said Pastrnak "Need to be a little more patient around the net and score, especially in times like that."

Cassidy was also very pleased with his fourth line of Anton Blidh, Curtis Lazar and Tomas Nosek. Blidh returned to the lineup after missing seven games with an upper-body injury.

“[They] did a terrific job. They checked well, managed the puck well, got above people, limited the damage, D-zone coverage was solid,” said Cassidy.

“Now, I know McDavid got in a couple times, but I think some of those were broken plays.”
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