After Jeremy Swayman dazzled in a 35-save Game 1 win, the Bruins honestly could've rotated to 2011 Timmy Thomas or 2013 Tuukka Rask instead of Linus Ullmark and I'm not quite sure that it would've made a difference in regards to their Game 2 fate.

On the wrong end of a 3-2 final Monday night at TD Garden, the Bruins remained a mess in their defensive zone, and paid for it this time, with an Auston Matthews catch-and-breakaway marker in the third period proving to be the difference in a series-tying loss.



"I didn't think our urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight," Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said after the loss. "I just didn't think we won enough wall battles to be able to get out of our end successfully."

And after outright admitting that his team's net-front coverage was not strong enough in Game 1, the Bruins experienced more frustration on that part, as the first Toronto goal of the evening came with Max Domi getting inside ice behind Brandon Carlo and Hampus Lindholm for a tally.

But for the Bruins, this game truly flipped on its end following the departure of Andrew Peeke with an undisclosed injury. (It's believed Peeke suffered an injury when he took a Tyler Bertuzzi shot off the hand, though that has not been officially confirmed.)

With Peeke unavailable to the Bruins for a late-period penalty kill in the second period, the Bruins were forced to deploy Kevin Shattenkirk in a 4-on-5 situation. That's something they had done just six minutes and 11 seconds during Shattenkirk's entire 61-game run this season.

It came back to burn the Bruins, too, as Shattenkirk was unable to get a piece of the John Tavares shot that rocketed by Ullmark for the game-tying goal.

And the loss of Peeke was felt in the third period, too, as the Bruins' defense was simply gassed and unable to make the breakout passes and plays that the Bruins needed to maintain possession and truly test the Leafs' Ilya Samsonov to the point of breaking.

This was also a game where Matthews truly rose to the occasion, as he factored in on the scoring on all three Toronto games, and won his head-to-head with the Bruins' Coyle line and then burned Charlie McAvoy for the game-winning goal.

Tuesday morning failed to come with any sort of good news for the Bruins, too, with Peeke officially considered 'week-to-week' according to the club.

Through two games of the series, Peeke had done his job on the B’s penalty kill, with a team-leading two hits and two blocked shots in 4:49 of shorthanded time on ice (third-most among all Bruins). Peeke’s most notable contribution on the penalty kill came in a Game 1 4-on-3 kill that saw him out there for all but about 10 seconds of a 1:50 kill.

With Peeke out, the Bruins will likely turn to Parker Wotherspoon for Game 3 in Toronto, though the Bruins have recalled Derek Forbort and Mason Lohrei from Providence in recent days. Both Lohrei and Wotherspoon are considered options for Game 3, while Forbort is looking like a longshot for Game 3 despite his recent upgrade to ‘day-to-day’ status.

Join the Discussion: » 67 Comments » Post New Comment

» Bruins fire Jim Montgomery

» Bruins hit with significant blow on backend

» 5 thoughts on 5 Bruins as frustration mounts

» Bruins shutout for 2nd time this season

» B's slide hits three; Marchand, Montgomery address 'The Shove'