Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
The Boston Bruins are running out of time.
In their 80th game of the season, the Bruins put shot after shot on Carolina Hurricanes netminder
Cam Ward, but found just one goal through 65 minutes of play, and zero through five rounds of a shootout ultimately ended by Massachusetts native
Noah Hanifin in a 2-1 Boston loss.
“I think it was about sticking with it here and that’s what we did,” Julien said after the shootout loss. “I mean we stuck with it and we managed to tie the game up. I can answer 20 questions here or I can give you one thing, it’s an inability to finish and that’s the main thing here for tonight. Nothing more.”
Boston started slow, and in spite of some brilliant saves from
Tuukka Rask, finished the first period in an 0-1 hole behind
Jaccob Slavin’s second goal of the season, and first since Dec. 8.
The Bruins seemed to come in with some desperation in their game in a 16-shot middle frame -- headlined by prime scoring opportunities on a breakaway from
Brad Marchand and a
Zdeno Chara backhander that rang post -- but were still without a goal through 40.
But behind one of the worst line changes of the NHL season, the Bruins found their opening, and it was
Loui Eriksson that struck with his 29th of the season, at 1:45 of the third period.
“We had some good chances, and it’s a good team we’re playing against,” Eriksson said of Boston’s effort in the loss. “They get the first goal, and I thought we were able to stick with it and were able to tie it up there in the third, so it was definitely nice to get back, but it would have been nice to get the win.”
As Eriksson drew the Bruins even, momentum seemed on the side of the Black and Gold, the TD Garden crowd went from disgruntled -- borderline panicked, even -- to hopeful with chants of ‘We Want Playoffs’.
But still, the B’s could not find the back of the net.
And for the 23rd time in 39 home games, the B’s were left to lament what could have been.
“It’s how hockey goes,” B’s leading goal-scorer
Brad Marchand said of the team’s inability to finish. “Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. That’s hockey.”
Again, though, the Bruins are running out of hockey, and it’s tough to go with moral victories.
“We scored our 10 goals on the road against two really good teams and we just couldn’t bury any of those good chances, especially in the first two periods,”
David Krejci said. “It was tough but we stuck with it and Loui [Eriksson] got a big goal. In the shootout or even in overtime it could have gone either way. So you know what right now, what are we going to do? We’re not going to hang our heads. We got a point. Watch the game tomorrow and get ready for Detroit on Thursday.”
Random thoughts and notes
- The big storyline following this one was Julien’s decision not to go with
Brad Marchand as one of his club’s first five shooters in the loss. Marchand, though 0-for-3 in the shootout this year, is Boston’s best pure goal scorer, with 36 to his name this season, seemed like an obvious choice at some point. Especially in a shootout that went five shooters deep. But that wasn’t the case for Julien, as he went with
Ryan Spooner,
David Pastrnak,
Patrice Bergeron, Eriksson, and then defenseman
Torey Krug as his five in the defeat. He wasn’t up for criticism on it, either.
“Hindsight,” Julien said when asked about the decision not to go with Marchand.
A little bit of everything. We do it in practice, it’s all taken care of,” noted Julien of picking the shootout lineup. “With the tendencies of the goaltender, it’s all based on that. So if people want to use hindsight, that’s all there is, but we make those decisions. I think the guys that went have scored in the shootout and done a great job before but because they didn’t score tonight, we can second guess all we want.”
- After two games out of action,
Jimmy Hayes returned to the Boston lineup and engaged in a fight with Carolina’s
Brad Malone. It was not a fight to remember by any stretch of the imagination, but seemed to come as a way for the 6-foot-5 winger to get himself -- or his team, or the crowd, or something -- going in a positive direction. It’s hit that time of the year for No. 11.
- Defenseman
Colin Miller returned to the Big B’s after a 19-game stint with the Providence Bruins, and finished the night with one shot and one recorded hit in just 12:45 of time on ice. It was a tough first period for Miller, which I think was to be expected in his first NHL game since Feb. 14, but the Bruins went back to Miller for third period and overtime shifts with the game on the line.
- The ‘Canes might be playing some better hockey, but in no world should the Bruins, in desperation mode, go 0-0-2 against Carolina in the final month and a half of the regular season. Ugly.
The Podcast to be Named Later with Andy Merritt and Ty Anderson
As is tradition, the New England Hockey Journal’s Andy Merritt and yours truly got together after the game to talk about the Bruins, the NHL playoff picture, and yes, Wrestlemania. We even had a nice security guard give us an update on a broken elevator while we recorded. Hooray, elevators.
Up next
It’s the biggest game of the season: the Detroit Red Wings are in town on Thursday night. The B’s and Red Wings are currently tied at 91 points -- though that could change depending on how the Wings fare in their Wednesday night affair with the Philadelphia Flyers -- and a loss could really devastate the Bruins’ hopes for a return to the postseason. No, strike that, it without question would.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»