If there’s anything we learned about the Bruins on their just completed four-game road trip, it is this. They’ve got issues.
They can’t hold a lead in the third period, which they’ve begun to approach timidly. They take bad stick penalties. They can’t come up with timely defensive zone faceoff wins. They can’t close the deal in extra time. And those are just a few of their warts, some of which have surfaced recently, others that have been with them most of the season.
For the sixth straight time, the B’s went beyond regulation and, for the third consecutive time, they took the L on Monday in Seattle.
After Jake DeBrusk was stoned on a clean breakaway in overtime, Kailer Yamamoto was the only player to score in the shootout and the B’s lost to the Kraken, 4-3, on Monday at Climate Pledge Arena.
The B’s took five of a possible eight points on the trip and head home in a points tie with the Vancouver Canucks for first overall, a place few thought they’d be inhabiting at this point in the season. But 14 of their 82 points have been overtime loser points and they have just one regulation win in the month of February. Coach Jim Montgomery after the game lamented the lack of “killer instinct.”
“Sometimes when you’re in that situation and things don’t go well, you wait for things to happen instead of making things happen,” Montgomery told reporters in Seattle. “We don’t have the right attitude to start the third with the lead.”
Captain Brad Marchand stressed there were some good things on the trip, but the results left a glass-half-empty feel.
“We should have done a much better job of closing those out,” said Marchand. “It’s a little disappointing because we had an opportunity to have a much better road trip. That’s where the expectations are. You go into the third with a lead and you expect to win the game. And we have to. Coming down the stretch and playoff time, you have to be able to win those games.”
There were some troubling similarities to Saturday’s loss in Vancouver, though they did overcome some adversity, including having a goal wiped out and a penalty late in the third they had to kill.
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead in the first period and had chances to do more damage.
The goal at 5:33 came off a fortunate bounce and pretty finish by David Pastrnak. A Seattle dump-in attempt bounced off Jesper Boqvist near the right wall and ricocheted into the defensive slot for Kevin Shattenkirk, who was back in the lineup after Derek Forbort (missed meeting) was scratched. Shattenkirk gave a one-touch pass up the middle of the ice for Pastrnak at the Seattle blue line. Moving in on clean break-in, Pastrnak beat Philipp Grubauer with an off-speed shot past the goalie’s glove. It was Pastrnak’s 700th career point.
The B’s dominated the early going of the first – Justin Brazeau missed a chance for a tap-in before the Pastrnak goal – but the Kraken made a push later in the period,, partially due to some Bruin sloppiness in their own end at times. But the B’s, who had an 11-7 shot advantage in the first, and Linus Ullmark managed to get out of the first wit their slim lead.
It didn’t last much longer in the second period. After Brazeau was called for a very questionable hooking penalty, the Kraken tied it on an Ullmark gaffe at 4:45. The B’s had been doing a good job of killing off the penalty when a harmless-looking puck rolled in on Ullmark. Instead of pulling it back for the oncoming Parker Wotherspoon to play behind the net, he tried to clear it himself and hand-delivered it to Jordan Eberle right in front of him for the gimme goal.
The B’s survived more penalty trouble when Brandon Carlo was called for cross-checking and, with 24 seconds left on that infraction, the B’s were whistled for another obvious too-many-men, which cost them in overtime on Saturday in Vancouver.
Eventually, the B’s started to spend some time in the offensive zone and Pastrnak’s scored his second goal of the game and 38th of the year at 17:08. The B’s continually kept the puck alive in the offensive zone until Charlie McAvoy held his ground at the blue line to keep the puck in. Pavel Zacha chased the puck down behind the net and fed it out front for Pastrnak’s quick one-timer from 10 feet out to make it 2-1.
But the B’s started the third period like they did in Vancouver – on their heels. The Kraken got the first eight shoots on net and, at 5:29, the inevitable occurred. After Trent Frederic lost a defensive zone draw, Vince Dunn beat Ullmark from the top of the left circle to even it up.
After Morgan Geekie took a bad neutral zone tripping penalty, the B’s survived a wild Seattle power play when it looked like they had a couple of chances with Ullmark seemingly down and out.
Geekie then came out of the box and scored what he thought was a go-ahead goal at 10:47 when he took a slick pass from Frederic and made a hard move to the net. It appeared he scored on a continuous motion after making contact with Grubauer but Seattle challenged for goalie interference and, after an extremely lengthy review, the goal was wiped off the board.
“The puck was around him, I thought, and I don’t know if he was going to get it regardless of what happened. But if they think there was contact there that hampered him from making the save, then that’s what they see,” said Geekie.
Montgomery was stunned the goal was disallowed.
“I thought we were going on the power play, 100 percent,” said Montgomery.
Geekie, meanwhile, spoke after the game with a baseball-sized welt on the right side of his jaw, courtesy of a Shattenkirk shot.
“It hurts, but it’s OK. Long way from the heart, that’s all that matters,” said Geekie.
With 5:30 left in regulation, Seattle got the go-ahead goal. After Brad Marchand fell down just outside the Boston blue line trying to jump in the air to get Matt Grzelcyk’s pass, the Kraken went on the attack. Will Borgen stepped into a slapper that was tipped home by Oliver Bjorkstrand. And for the first time, the B’s were on the chase.
But when the B’s got their first power play on a phantom tripping call on Jordan Eberle – a good break of their own — Pastrnak’s shot apparently tipped off Charlle Coyle to tie it with eight seconds left on the PP and 2:52 in regulation.
They couldn’t get it to overtime without more drama, however. Danton Heinen was called for an offensive zone high stick on a bent-over Dunn with 2:27 left in the third.
They did kill and get it to overtime. But the ending was painfully familiar.
