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In their first home playoff date in over three years, the Bruins made up for lost moments, but failed to seal the deal, as Bobby Ryan and the Senators grabbed a 2-1 series lead behind a 4-3 overtime win.
Back at TD Garden for meaningful springtime hockey, the energy of this game reverberated throughout the building, but was silence when Erik Karlsson fed Mike Hoffman with an aerial pass that went up and over all five Boston skaters for a breakaway goal from the Sens’ Hoffman. That lead doubled for the Sens just seconds later, as mass confusion and blown assignments in the defensive zone allowed Derick Brassard a path of no resistance for Ottawa’s second goal of the night.
And by the 3:42 mark of the second period, Hoffman and the Sens had a 3-0 edge.
It felt almost wrong to have the first playoff game in Boston in three years become a laugher.
But the Bruins rebounded with three goals in less than eight minutes. The first came on a tip-in from Noel Acciari for his first career playoff goal, and then it was David Backes just 42 seconds that took advantage of a misplayed puck from Ryan, and David Pastrnak capped the period off with a power-play bomb scored off a dish from Charlie McAvoy late in the second period.
“That in itself is a positive right there,” McAvoy said of the club’s ability to rally back from a three-goal deficit. “So, we can take that going into Wednesday into the rest of the series or, you know, for the rest of this postseason. You know, we went down three to nothing and we came back. Not a one-goal lead we took back, or a two-goal league, we squashed a three-goal lead.
“You know, we know that know this group can do great things.”
But as the game shifted to overtime, the game became a laugher for the wrong reasons.
In a game that featured post-whistle shoving and near-fisticuffs at almost every turn, Ryan lost his stick and then leaned in for a massive elbow right to the head of Bruins forward Riley Nash.
Understandably annoyed, Nash got to his knees and immediately delivered a quick jab to Ryan, who sold the hell out of it as he threw himself up, and drew a penalty on Nash.
Wait, what?
With all the stuff was let go to that point, both in regulation and overtime -- Dominic Moore was hooked down without a call about two minutes prior, and Marc Methot did the same thing Nash did on
multiple occasions in regulation -- to call this was the definition of embarrassing.
And naturally, it was Ryan that scored on that power play.
“Very demoralizing,” Bruins interim head coach Bruce Cassidy said of the call. “Demoralizing and disappointing. I think you guys summed it up. There’s probably a lot more words, but they called it.”
“I felt like I was down on my knee, and he came and hit me, or elbow or fist, whatever it was,” said Nash. “I tried to just push him or punch him off me and caught his face. He kind of embellished it, but I don't know. Still, it just can’t happen. You’ve got to take that. It’s playoffs, you’ve got to take it.”
This and that
- The Sens have really bottled Brad Marchand up in this series. The 28-year-old has found his share of chances, sure, but Monday night at TD Garden had to have been Marchand’s most silent night of the series, as he was held to just one shot on goal (he had three misses) in over 21 minutes of ice time.
“Brad Marchand was what, the fifth leading scorer in the National Hockey League this year? He’s going to get keyed on. So part of the process for him becoming an elite player is to play through that, take advantage of the opportunities, and certainly we can get him away from certain matchups,” Cassidy said following the loss. “But at the end of the day, they’re going to get the D pair out against him for the most part, unless there’s an O-zone face-off after an icing, and we try to get that matchup.
“But obviously, he’s got to play through it.”
Marchand has one goal and five shots in three games this series.
- This has become the Erik Karlsson Series. You really can’t say enough about the way that the Ottawa captain has moved the puck and made countless incredible plays for his team. That Hail Mary pass to Mike Hoffman in the first period was just straight-up bonkers. He nearly pulled off another gorgeous assist before the period was over, too, and would have had it had it not been for a two-pad stack from Rask. Still, the Bruins cannot contain this guy and they’re not even close, really, as the space given to Karlsson when the Bruins chased him behind the net on the Sens’ overtime power play showed that.
“Erik has done that all year long. What’s great is that, those are the highlights, but if you look at his defensive game, it’s been unbelievable all year long. And to me, he’s equally as good now on both sides of the ice,” Sens coach Guy Boucher said. “And his leadership, even tonight, people talk about his leadership the previous game because he got a little loud on one of the goals. But his leadership today was right on and he was very calm after the other team tied the game. He was very calm between the second and third and you saw his calm play calmed everybody down also on the ice.”
- I can’t wait to read the justification from an ex-referee for such a horrible penalty called.
Up next
It’s Game 4 at TD Garden on Wednesday.
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), can also be found in the New England Hockey Journal magazine, and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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