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In the battle for playoff positing in the Atlantic division, every point matters.
After picking up two big points Saturday night in Toronto, the Bruins let the extra point slip away, while giving a Canadiens team that is knocking on the Bruins door two big points of their own.
Down by a goal with less than a minute to go, David Krejci’s 10th goal of the season, made the Canadiens pay for an ill-advised delay of game penalty.
With momentum on their side and overtime underway, 15 seconds was all it took for the rug to be pulled from underneath them.
After a Tuukka Rask save sent the puck in midair, Jeff Petry’s swing at the puck sent rubber past Rask and into the Bruins goal, just 15 seconds into the overtime period. With the goal, came the valuable extra point for the Canadiens, a team that trails the Bruins by two points in the Atlantic.
“Well, clearly right now it sucks, especially when it happens that quick. It’s a pretty straight-forward rush. We folded instead of challenging the puck carrier, so that started a domino effect, and we lost coverage in front,” a frustrated Bruce Cassidy said follow the loss.
“Got a good save, but we’ve been down this road earlier this year when we lost in overtime in a hurry. We lost the draw and then all of a sudden, we never touch it, so it’s a little disappointing that we didn’t defend the rush better, give ourselves a chance to win the game.”
The Bruins problems persisted throughout the game however, with the key problems being ones we’ve seen all season long. A ton of shots with nothing to show for it, and a shorthanded goal allowed at a time that the Bruins could have benefited from a power play goal.
“I think we know we have to be better. We’ve been good all year, it is going to happen during the year,” Patrice Bergeron said about allowing another shorthanded goal. “We know we can do a better job and be better but it’s about looking at the video and doing that. We can make those plays and we got to take what’s there sometimes and we’ve been unfortunate enough a little too much.”
Montreal’s shorthanded tally Monday night was the 10th allowed by the Bruins this season, tying them with the Pittsburgh Penguins for most allowed in the NHL.
As well as the Bruins played Monday night in a losing effort, Cassidy wasn’t all too pleased with some of his forwards, most notably David Backes and Jake DeBrusk.
After being benched at times throughout Saturday’s victory in Toronto, Backes saw just 11:40 of ice time Monday.
“Well, I thought there were some plays along the wall early on against a fast team that maybe this wasn’t going to be his best matchup unless he played against that fourth-line type of game. We had that. Our fourth line’s going really well, so we really don’t want to mess with that,” Cassidy said. “Some plays behind the net, I think he can hang onto it a little longer. So, I just think that the pace is fast for him right now.”
For DeBrusk, Cassidy liked his third period response to the messages sent his way throughout the game as Cassidy juggled with his second and third lines. But overall, Cassidy and the coaching staff wants and needs more from the second year forward.
“I thought Jake had a good third period. I don’t think he was – the standard we expect out of him I don’t think has been there enough lately, period,” added Cassidy. “He’s been told that. We want him to play his way out of it. I thought in the third period there were some positives, so hopefully that gets him going into the next game. We’ll see.”
With their first and fourth lines going of late, it’s been a frustrating mix for the Bruins as they search for balance from their middle lines. What works so well one game, works so poorly the next, causing the rotating door of forward trios to continue. With the struggles of Backes and DeBrusk on Monday, the rotating door of forward trios once again yielded no results.
“Messages, mixing it up, trying to find... sometimes on a line – we’ll use [David] Krejci as an example. I think he’s played really good hockey for us this year, whoever’s been on his wings, so you don’t want to lose him if say his linemates are going well. So, we mix someone else in there,” said Cassidy.
With the Atlantic division seemingly becoming a four-team race for the final two playoff spots in the division, the word “silver lining” was often thrown around the Bruins dressing room Monday night.
The team will take earning a point in an important game, but they know that silver linings won’t get you into the playoffs, wins will.
“Yeah, that’s always a silver lining,” Kevan Miller said with a pause. “So you take it.”
After placing forward Colby Cave on waivers, Monday, the forward was claimed by the Edmonton Oilers. In a corresponding move, the Bruins recalled Peter Cehlarik from the Providence Bruins.
The Bruins held an optional skate Tuesday morning, so it’s unlikely we will know where and if Cehlarik fits in until Wednesday morning when the Bruins hit the ice in preparation for Wednesday night’s contest with the Philadelphia Flyers.
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