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If the Boston Bruins wanted to turn 2014’s page and focus on getting back on track in their first game of the 2015 calendar year, an overtime loss against the Ottawa Senators, complete with a third-period collapse and meltdown to start (and end) overtime, is not the way to go about things.
And with the loss, the Bruins (again) dropped the ball on yet another chance to make up some ground in their hunt for one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild card spots, but don’t bother telling their coaching staff that anything’s wrong. The effort’s there, and that’s good enough in the 39th game of the season.
“We’re not winning those and it’s frustrating for everybody including you guys so I know we can nitpick and every little detail of our game, but you know we’ve played the last two games well enough to win,” B’s head coach
Claude Julien said after the loss. “They’re not perfect, but they're good enough to win and I think that’s where I’m going to be careful with how I talk about this thing with you guys and with the team, because you know we’re working hard we still have some areas we got to get better at we still forced some plays that ends up giving us some issues, but overall I thought the effort was good.”
The effort’s been ‘good’ over the past week or so, too, but it’s about results. Right now, and since Oct. for that matter, the Bruins do not have them. Their losses and shortcomings are adding up at an alarming rate, too.
Burying that under the guise of strong efforts and missed opportunities doesn’t mean it’s not an issue.
Between regulation and overtime, the Bruins now have 12 one-goal losses to their name, indicating that yes, the efforts are there on most nights, but their issues go beyond that, and that was on display in today’s loss. For instance, some of the things the Black and Gold were known for being straight-up dominant at, have escaped them for one reason or another. Such as their strong defense and protecting third-period leads.
On the Sens’ first goal of the night,
Danny Paille, regarded as one of the B’s best defensive forwards, basically hung his defensemen out to dry, allowing Kyle Turris to rip one home.
Torey Krug washed that sour taste out with a power-play rocket, though, his eighth goal of the season, and second in two games.
But even with the B’s jumping out to a 2-1 third-period edge behind
Brad Marchand’s team-leading 11th goal of the season, the Bruins found themselves back squared up just 5:10 later, with
Mike Hoffman deflecting an
Eric Gryba shot by
Tuukka Rask.
“It’s one of those things where we’re at the point in the season where we need the result and the extra gear or the extra urgency to get the extra point,”
Patrice Bergeron said after the loss. “I mean tonight is again another big point that you let slip by., but with that being said we’ve got to bear down and find ways to – you know especially when you have a lead like that, you’ve got to keep it.”
But they didn’t. And when
Chris Kelly and
Zdeno Chara made an absolute mess of themselves beginning at the Sens’ blue line, Ryan made them pay, sending a fuming Rask and company back to the dressing room, but not before No. 40 slammed and threw his stick down across the ice.
“It’s frustrating because it’s a one goal game and we are playing a good game and killing those penalties and then that [expletive] happens,” Rask, with just five wins in his last 16 appearances after today’s overtime loss, said. “It’s not just the bad bounces but it would be nice to get those our way.”
It’s doubly frustrating for Rask, too, especially when he takes the loss (and unwarranted blame) in a game where he was absolutely dynamite. Finishing the night with 23 saves on 26 shots thrown his way, the 27-year-old kept the Bruins alive with two incredible performances on extended 5-on-3 penalty kills, and a total of five saves on five power play shots against. He needs help. And he’s at his wits’ end at this point.
“I made a couple timely saves there, on the 5 on 3, at the end of the third, I made one big save,” Rask admitted. “Then [expletive]...just keeps pouring.”
This Bruins squad is simply reinventing blown leads, goals against, and losses at this point. And at some point (read as: now), you have to understand that this is no anomaly and simply what the Black and Gold are. You’re 39 games into the season, and you’re still battling the same issues you were when the puck dropped on the season almost four months ago now. You’re not consistent -- your top six wingers epitomize this -- nor are you equipped with anything close to the same killer instinct or resiliency you’ve skated with before. It’s an uphill climb with absolutely no end in sight, and every game you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Honestly it’s so frustrating, “Rask said. “We played a solid defensive game, we killed two big 5-on-3’s, we battled really hard and you’re kind of feeling that it’s starting to turn the corner and maybe the bounces are starting to go our way and then, I’m not going to say what happens but you know. Five feet wide of the net and hits his skates and cross body. I hope it turns around at some point, it’s getting really frustrating for me.”
The groans of the 17,565 that scattered into the frozen streets of Boston after Ryan’s dagger tells Rask that he’s not alone in that regard, either.
Random thoughts
- Defenseman
Adam McQuaid made his return after a seven week, 18-game absence with a broken thumb, and finished the night with two penalties against and a minus-1 rating in 17:26 of time on ice.
“Good start – I thought he moved the puck well,” Julien said of McQuaid’s performance. “For a guy who didn’t play in a long time, I thought he was pretty poised with the puck and played a pretty solid game.”
McQuaid looked like a guy that’s been on the shelf for almost two months, no doubt, and recorded a blocked shot and two hits in the losing effort. When it comes to McQuaid, he’s a player that the Bruins love to dress for his toughness and experience back there, but this is a situation where it all just felt like sorta rushed.
Maybe the Bruins felt that they needed him back
immediately given their recent struggles to earn points on a nightly basis, but I think he could have used at least another practice or two to get back into the full swing of things. And give
Matt Bartkowski, one of the Bruins’ best defenders against Toronto on Wednesday night, another look on the second pairing with
Dennis Seidenberg.
- You have to expect that a
Torey Krug extension is coming as soon as possible for the Bruins. It seems that the price is going up with each game that No. 47 skates in, especially with the undersized puck-mover looking more and more like the 40-point defender of a year ago.
- Julien got a little testy with a reporter after the loss when pressed about his decision to drop
Milan Lucic down to the second line with Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith. Lucic, the $6 million top-liner without a goal in six straight games, and with one in his last 14 games, is struggling to produce. Or even look like a winger capable of producing at the level the Bruins expect and want him to.
Here’s the exchange between Julien and the reporter.
Reporter: On moving Lucic down to Bergeron in an effort to get him to produce...
Julien: Were you watching the game?
Reporter: Yes
Julien: Yeah, I think there’s more than Looch [Milan Lucic], and I thought [Brad] Marchand wasn’t playing well either so kind of switched them around to see if they could get a little bit more going in that third period.
Reporter: Do you think that went well?
Julien: It doesn’t matter. Next.
Marchand scored with Krejci almost immediately, while Lucic continued to struggle to do much of anything noteworthy, even with Bergeron and Smith.
"I thought he had a really strong game against Toronto," Krejci, Lucic's regular linemate since the start of the 2010-11 season now, said. "On the first goal on the power play he chipped the puck in and won a battle on the for check and he brought it back to us and we made a couple little plays out on the power play and shot so it was all him [on Wednesday]. He was into it so it’s good to see him play with an edge just like he did the last couple games. Obviously the games are never perfect but for most part I thought he played pretty well. We just got to keep building on the positive just like the rest of us and try to be better next game."
Lucic finished the night with one shot (two attempts) and two hits in 15:25 of time of ice.
- With the overtime loss, the Bruins dropped to 1-1-2 in matinee contests this season.
Up next
It’s a quick turnaround for the Bruins, as they’ll head down to Carolina for a Sunday matinee against the Hurricanes. The Bruins took their only prior 2014-15 meeting against the ‘Canes by a 2-1 final on Nov. 15. The Bruins are 1-5-0 on the second leg of back-to-back games this season. So, hey, yeah.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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