In a season that's been filled with incredible highs and lows, the rollercoaster known as the Boston Bruins seemed to hit its ultimate low point on Wednesday night when the always mild-mannered
Patrice Bergeron slammed his stick to bits. Frustrated on the turnover that led to Buffalo's sixth goal of the night, putting the cherry on what would be Boston's worst loss in nearly four years, it was clear that Boston would have to be better in today's matinee affair with the Nashville Predators. There's no way they couldn't be, right?
"It was not even close to the effort we're supposed to be giving," Bergeron said about the loss in Buffalo. So when a sleepy start coupled with a too-many-men call to kill a Boston power-play put the B's on the ropes late in the first, Boston's captain of consistency did his best to right the ship with the effort the Bruins and their fans have come to expect.
As
Brad Marchand out-hustled both
Ryan Suter and
Shea Weber to lead a shorthanded rush up ice, a great drop-back bass from Marchand to Bergeron paved the way for Boston's first goal. Striking with his 16th goal of the year, and first shorthanded, the play began with the aggressive style that's been lacking over this course of the Bruins' slump.
"Nothing happens if [Marchand]'s doesn’t do that," said of Marchand's hustle on the play. "When you're killing sometimes you got to try it, and if you think it’s not a risky play, he’s got that speed and those instincts to do those plays."
Holding a 16-to-6 shot advantage through the opening frame, the Predators would strike back on their first shot of the second frame when Weber's power-play bullet from the point beat
Tim Thomas.
Regaining the lead when
Danny Paille scored his ninth of the season almost three minutes into the third period, Nashville would even things up once again when
Patric Hornqvist beat a trailing Boston defense on the doorstep.
And from there, things got real wacky. Despite their lack of shots, never finishing with more than seven shots in the period, the Predators would jump ahead when
Mike Fisher beat Thomas on a soft wraparound.
Getting one last crack to knot things up as
Sergei Kostitsyn took a tripping penalty with 2:18 left in the third, a desperate shot from
Rich Peverley bounced off the end boards and gave
Milan Lucic the wide-open cage he needed to score his 20th (and arguably most important) goal of the year with just a minute and seven to play.
"It would have been, it probably would have been a real tough loss had we not been able to come out with a win the way we had played this afternoon," Boston coach
Claude Julien said when asked about Lucic's tally. "He found a way to get us back into it, and we did it the harder way, but at the end of the night, we got ourselves a win."
Surviving the overtime frame, two goals in the shootout from
Tyler Seguin and Bergeron would give Boston their sixth shootout win of the year, leaving
Pekka Rinne flustered enough to smash his stick to bits over the crossbar.
By the numbers
1 - Match-up between the Rinne and Thomas, who played in the Finnish league together back in the day. Every time they played, Rinne was the back-up to
Nicklas Backstrom. Nuts, right?
2 - Bruins that finished today's game without a shot. Centers
Gregory Campbell and
David Krejci were the only two.
15 of 25 - Patrice Bergeron's face-off stats tonight.
19:40 - Time-on-ice for Krejci, who finished the night with a minus-one rating. That's the most he's logged since Horton's injury.
10 - Giveaways by the Preds on the night. Sheesh.
Ty's Take: Rough day for McQuaid
What a day to forget for Boston defensemen
Adam McQuaid. Two penalties, one of which the Preds scored on, and a minus-2 rating on the night. But the slump of the bruising blue-liner has gone far past just today's affair. Over the last six games, the 25-year-old McQuaid has just one point and a minus-6 rating.
Up next
Love is in the air! Well, not really. The Bruins are back at it on Tuesday when they play host to the New York Rangers. The Bruins are 0-0-1 against the Blueshirts this year.
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