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The 2014-15 Boston Bruins are running out of time to figure out just who they are.
It seems that every year, the Bruins’ notoriety as a ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ group becomes more of a joke for the coach and players within the locker room. But with their lead on the second wild card in the Eastern Conference playoff picture down to just two points by way of Thursday’s 6-4 loss to the surging Ottawa Senators (the team that’s, y’know, breathing down their neck for that playoff spot), the laughs and smiles about that bizarre team characteristic will probably have a bit more of a nervous glow to it.
With a playoff-esque atmosphere at Canadian Tire Center, Ottawa’s
Kyle Turris struck just 19 seconds into the first period, beating
Tuukka Rask on a second-look chance in front of the net, good for Turris’ 18th of the year and early one-goal edge with
Andrew Hammond in the other crease. But the Bruins countered just 40 seconds later, with
Carl Soderberg beating the ‘Hamburglar’ for his 11th goal of the year, and more importantly, his first goal in 25 games.
(This would be the theme of the night.)
Boston jumped out to a 2-1 edge behind
Ryan Spooner’s deflection on a
Milan Lucic shot 4:04 into the first period, but a late-period goal from Ottawa’s
Milan Michalek, the 200th of his NHL career, put the Bruins and Sens at a 2-2 draw through 20 minutes of play.
Veteran center
David Legwand scored 3:11 into the second period, his ninth goal of the year and with the assists Erik Condra and Alex Chiasson, to reestablish the Sens’ one-goal edge as Ottawa’s fourth line outmuscled Boston’s fourth line for the loose puck in the Boston end and behind Rask.
But on a 5-on-3 advantage, the Black and Gold responded with Ryan Spooner’s second goal of the game, and his fifth of the season, on a beautiful feed from
Torey Krug.
Ottawa responded just 15 seconds later, though, as
Jean-Gabriel Pageau took advantage of an absolutely disastrous mishandling of the puck from forward-turned-powerplay-defenseman Reilly Smith and into Boston’s cage for his fifth goal of the season.
Again, the Bruins responded, with Krug’s goal just 1:20 later, his 12th of the year.
In a blow-for-blow affair through 40, Boston held a 10-7 shot advantage through the third period, and had great chances, headlined by
Max Talbot’s steal-and-shoot midway through the third. But they took the loss behind third-period goals from
Bobby Ryan and Turris (an empty-net strike), as Hammond finished the night with a 31-of-35 showing, extending his point streak to 13 games.
With the win, the Senators moved within two points of the Black and Gold (with an ever-important game in hand), and won their season series against the Bruins, 3-2, for the first time since 2005-06.
Random thoughts and notes
- Generally speaking, I hate talking about the ‘emotion’ of a hockey game and its effect on the outcome.
That’s ‘cause it’s honestly impossible to accurately assess/judge ‘emotion’ in a player or team, at least for me, because everybody expresses themselves differently. And at the risk of somehow-yet-quickly turning this whole thing into a discussion of human psychology, let me just say that this one had the feel of a playoff game. The Sens appeared to understand the importance of winning this game.
And while I would tell you that the Black and Gold did their best to match it, the simple truth of this one appeared to be that the Sens had more fire in their skates when push came to shove.
Ottawa continually sought out the challenge of going toe-to-toe with the Bruins along the walls and in the corners, they were beating them to pucks, and responded to shaky shifts with strong rushes at the other end. Over time, that wore the Bruins down. Call it the return of those damn Pesky Sens.
- This isn’t what they mean when they talk about the Life of
Reilly (Smith).
Completely stuck in the mud of a nine-game stretch that’s seen No. 18 record just one assist (and held to zeros across the board for six straight contests), the 23-year-old logged a team-low 7:50 of time on ice tonight. This wasn’t
Claude Julien playing a matchup game, either. He straight-up benched Smith, and for obvious reasons. Smith, who logged just one third-period shift, was on the ice for three goals against and seemed lost in his own end. It seems like we’ve been over this a billion times by now, but it’s hitting a breaking point for Julien. He needs more from Smith.
Something. Anything. Bueller?
Smith has the capabilities of being more than a passenger on the Bergeron line, and it’s clear that the Bruins feel that way based on the two-year extension worth just south of $7 million they inexplicably handed the Toronto, Ont. native a few weeks back, but No. 18 has to show them that.
That’s something he’s failed to do for almost the entire season now, too.
- You wanna talk about a mismatch? Just look at the way that the
Erik Karlsson-
Marc Methot pairing handled going against the Bruins’ fourth line. Dominated. Utterly pasted.
This really isn’t anything new for that fourth line, though. While it’s something that Julien has always been reluctant to do, he’ll simply need to consider pushing
Gregory Campbell into the press box as a healthy scratch once David Krejci is ready to go. It’s a small sample size, of course, but that fourth unit has been as its best with
Chris Kelly at center. With Campbell, however, the line is too frequently pinned in their own end, and becomes a liability with the puck on their stick. And with concerns
already circling the own-zone abilities of the Lucic-Spooner-Pastrnak combo, the Bruins are not a club that can really afford to have that concern with two of their four lines. In essence, you can’t run the Bergeron line into the ground with heavy defensive-zone minutes.
- In a blog ripe with negativity, a plus for the Bruins? The play of one Ryan Spooner.
The 23-year-old centerman posted another two-goal night in Ottawa, and has now scored four of his five goals this year in Ottawa’s barn. It’s a great story for the hometown kid, but an even more important one for the Black and Gold. A player that I admittedly thought would have been shipped out of town at the deadline had it not been for the Krejci knee injury, Spooner has become everything that the B’s have needed in the now, and provided a speedy, smooth-passing boost to the lineup.
Just watch No. 51 on the power play and you’ll see what I mean. It’s such a lofty comparison, I know, but his patience with the puck and ability to just zip shots away with little to no noticeable effort or release is extraordinarily reminiscent of former Bruin Marc Savard. Again, it’s a tough comparison (I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed somebody that was as strong a power-play presence along the halfwall as Savard was in the prime of his career), but one that the Black and Gold will obviously take on a man advantage that, like everything else B’s in 2014-15, has been brutally hit-or-miss this season.
- I’m gonna have Adam Rose’s theme stuck in my head for the next two weeks. Thanks, Senators.
Up next
The Bruins will make their way down to the Sunshine State for a weekend back-to-back with the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. It couldn’t come at a better time it would seem, either, as Boston will enter the weekend with a combined 3-0 record against the league’s Florida-based squads (1-0 against Florida, and 2-0 against Tampa Bay). This will be the B’s first 2015 trek down to each building.
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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