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Bruins fall in ugly fashion with 5-2 loss to Wings |
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Ty Anderson
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Down by two in the late stages of the second period of play, a relentless attacking-zone shift from Matt Poitras was enough to draw a hooking penalty against the Red Wings’ Justin Holl and put the Bruins on the power play.
It was a potential jolt of life in an otherwise flat-looking second period from the Bruins, and as the Garden crowd came to their feet with the dulcet tones of Slipknot blaring over the arena PA, it seemed like the Bruins had the juice to make this one interesting.
But what followed was a largely uneventful power-play opportunity that fell by the wayside, which by all means epitomized the B’s struggles in a 5-2 Black Friday loss at TD Garden.
In fact, speaking after the loss, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said this was a game that was ‘90 percent’ decided by the Bruins’ self-inflicted errors.
“The only part of our game that I thought was good was our breakouts,” Montgomery said after the loss, which was just his team’s second regulation loss of the year. “Power play wasn’t good [and] the penalty kill wasn’t good. You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games when that’s the case.”
In Boston’s first home game in almost a full week, it was the Red Wings who put the Bruins on their heels early, with a power-play tip-in goal from J.T. Compher at the 5:13 mark of the frame, while Alex DeBrincat picked Poitras’ pocket clean for an all-alone, breakaway look and goal on Jeremy Swayman.
Now, if you’re looking for positives in this one, Jake DeBrusk scored for the second straight game, this time on the power play. DeBrusk’s latest goal followed a similar script as the one he scored Wednesday night in Florida, as it came on a self-generated second-chance look on the goaltender. It’s the first time that DeBrusk has scored in back-to-back games since Games 81 and 82 last season.
But as was the theme all afternoon, the Bruins failed to build off that momentum. In fact, they consistently crushed their own momentum throughout the day.
“We’re down 2-0, then we make it 2-1, [and] that next shift is important. We got right to their end and they spent 45 seconds in our zone,” Montgomery remarked. “Then we made it 3-2; We took a penalty two shifts after. All we were doing was defending.”
Boston’s second and final goal in this contest came off the stick of Danton Heinen. Heinen is now up to two goals and five points through 11 games with the club this season.
In goal, Swayman had his worst outing of the season, with four goals allowed on 28 shots faced.
On the lineup front, Morgan Geekie made his return to the B’s lineup after missing the previous six games with an upper-body injury. Montgomery noted that Geekie looked “rusty” in his first game back. Elsewhere in the lineup, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Shattenkirk both sat as scratches with this being the first leg of a traveling back-to-back for the Bruins.
The Bruins will aim to avoid their first losing streak of their year Saturday when they travel to Madison Square Garden for a 1 p.m. head-to-head with the white-hot Rangers.
Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, HockeyBuzz.com or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter/X: @_TyAnderson.
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