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On death’s doorstep, and facing a brutal 72-hour stretch that begins with the Anaheim Ducks and concludes with a Saturday matinee against the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins answered the bell on Thursday night at TD Garden. But 59 minutes in, a non-call on what everybody in the B’s dressing room believed to be clear-as-day interference on
Tuukka Rask led the Ducks to the game-tying strike. And when the Ducks finished the job on the Black and Gold by way of an overtime snipe from
Ryan Getzlaf, the B’s losing streak extended to six, while their playoff hopes took another hit.
“Really disappointing that the goal was allowed,” a frustrated
Claude Julien admitted after the loss. “There was, no doubt goalie interference there and that’s why they talk about reviewing those kinds of goals and coaches’ challenges, because you can’t allow those kinds of goals. This was a big point we lost tonight on a missed call. Those are the things that are hard to swallow right now.”
(Image courtesy of @PeteBlackburn.)
Rask echoed Julien’s thoughts on the issue, too.
“I asked the ref. He said there’s nothing there, so that’s what we go by,” said Rask. “But somebody took my legs out. I don’t know who it was, but, you know, everybody can make their own mind.”
The game-extending tally put a sour note on what was an otherwise strong showing from the B’s.
Although they fell behind midway through the second period as
Patrick Maroon burned
Matt Bartkowski for his ninth goal of the season, the Bruins countered less than three minutes on a dazzling
Ryan Spooner shot that beat
Frederik Andersen.
The goal, Spooner’s first career goal at TD Garden and his fifth of the season (third power-play marker), held as the final goal of the middle stanza, as the Bruins-Ducks skated to a 1-1 draw (and 20-to-20 mark in shots as well) after two unbelievably physical periods of hockey in Boston.
Boston continued to roll on the power play, too, with
Loui Eriksson skating into a right place, right time scenario of sorts, banging home a
Torey Krug rebound for his 19th goal of the year.
And for 19 minutes plus, the Bruins played a remarkably strong defensive third, as they limited the Ducks’ offensive chances from high quality scoring areas, and really seemed to stifle them at times. But the break came by way of Corey Perry’s equalizer with just 39 seconds to go, spoiling the effort.
“I thought we played hard. This is a team that scores a lot, I thought our checking game was good tonight; we checked well as far as not giving them much,” noted JUlien. “And we made it the kind of game that we need to make it from here on in. We can’t keep giving up four or five goals a game. We’ve gotta keep that puck out of our net and if we do that we give ourselves a chance.
“Tonight, in my mind, it should’ve been a win.”
Instead, the Bruins are once again left to wonder if this is another chance that’s gone by the wayside.
“We need results. That’s ultimately, at the end of the day, what we’re playing for,” Boston alternate captain
Chris Kelly said. “Yeah, we defended much better, but we’re still losing a point.”
There’s an element of scoreboard watching, too, as the Bruins knew that the Ottawa Senators, the team they entered tonight’s game trailing by one point for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, were getting absolutely trounced by the New York Rangers.
“Yeah, it was up on the clock there,” Kelly said of the Sens-Rangers score. “We don’t play Ottawa again, so we can’t look at what they’re doing. We’ve got to focus on playing these eight games, because if we don’t come ready to play for our eight games, it doesn’t matter what happens with Ottawa.
“We’ll be in a tough spot regardless.”
And that’s where the Bruins, a team that’s finding new ways to drop contests, are right now.
Random thoughts and notes
- Well, this game just feels like a microcosm of the season, huh? The Bruins met the challenge put forth by the Anaheim Ducks, undeniably one of the West’s best, but were burned by late-second heroics from the opposition and potential misses from the stripes. And while blaming referees is the ultimate loser’s lament, you can’t help but feel that this was just another case of things failing to go the B’s way.
“We’re gonna have to really check well and hope that eventually some breaks start going our way and we win some of those tight hockey games,” Julien said after the loss. “That’s the kind of game that’s made us successful in the past and we need to buckle down here and not let that game throw us off but hopefully build on it and get ready for New York here on Saturday.”
In a glum Boston locker room, you can tell it’s graining on everybody donning the Spoked-B, too.
“Terrible, terrible feeling obviously, but we played a great game and good kill there in the overtime and then, a loss, tough to swallow,” admitted Rask. “Sometimes it’s luck, but when you battle until the end like they did, you know, you might get rewarded and they did. Just one of those things that, you know, no matter how good you feel about your game you still lost and it’s a tough one to swallow, but we’ve got to realize that we played a good game and moving on that’s a positive sign.”
- What made this one a backbreaker for the Bruins? Take a look at their overtime. The Bruins survived am absolutely huge 4-on-3 penalty-kill on a soft as hell penalty against
Zdeno Chara -- with
Dennis Seidenberg and
Adam McQuaid remaining on the ice for the full two minutes -- and then surrender the game-winning goal just 31 seconds later. And there was no doubt that McQuaid and Seidenberg put forth perhaps their best shifts of the season on that kill. Only to have the wind taken out of their sails not even a full minute later. Talk about brutality. Talk about this season.
- The Bruins showed some trust in defenseman
Zach Trotman towards the end, and put the 24-year-old defender with Chara for over 10 minutes of time on ice with No. 33. Their results weren’t too bad, either, as Trotman provided a smoother skating option next to Chara.
But Julien wouldn’t tip his hat to this being a long-term answer just yet.
“We’re mixing and matching our D’s right now,” Julien said.
Up next
The Bruins return to the ice on Saturday afternoon for a matinee showing against the New York Rangers. Riding the high of a stretch that’s included eight wins in their last 11 games and an East-best 101 points in 2014-15, the Rangers return to Boston with their ace,
Henrik Lundqvist, back in the fold and with a potential start in mind at TD Garden. The Bruins and Rangers have split their season series thus far, each winning one game (the home teams have won both contests).
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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