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It didn’t come under the circumstance they’d prefer, but after a 3-2 overtime loss at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Boston Bruins are in sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s nice to be there,” Julien said of jumping into first place in spite of the loss. “I think right now, we’re really looking at our game and we’re in that dressing room right now, we’re not happy. We lost a game tonight, and even if it means that point got us in first, we’re certainly not satisfied with that.
“I think we could have been better tonight. Like I said, sometimes you play a lot of games, and unfortunately not every night you feel like you’re at your best. But I think the guys are disappointed because we could have been better with minimizing mistakes, and making better decisions out there.”
Carolina scored the first goal of the game, a power-play goal, on their first power-play opportunity of the night behind
Elias Lindholm’s ninth of the season. The goal, Lindholm’s first in the last 16 games, served as the lone goal of a first period that saw Carolina go without a 5-on-5 shot.
Boston evened things up behind a power-play goal that featured a little bit of everything that’s made the B’s power play the club’s best weapon this season;
Torey Krug recovered the puck at his own end, showed patience before he pushed the other way, dished it to
Patrice Bergeron, who responded with a great cross-ice pass to a driving
Loui Eriksson’s for his 25th goal of the year.
The Hurricanes responded just 3:19 later behind their first two 5-on-5 shots of the period, the first one from
Chris Terry, but the second from
Nathan Gerbe, who beat Tuukka Rask.
Gerbe’s third goal of the season, and his first goal on actual goaltender since Oct. 10, held as the final goal of the middle frame, and put the Bruins down by one through 40 minutes of play.
“It’s not what they did to us. It’s what we didn’t do ourselves, and we could have skated better,” Julien said of Carolina’s lead in the eventual loss. “If we skate better, it doesn’t matter how much they check, if we decide to skate at the pace of our game, the way we, you saw the last game and some of those games lately, we’re a different team. So, let’s chalk it up as a tough loss.”
The Bruins finally pulled even behind
David Pastrnak’s brilliant goal, his 10th of the season, scored 5:50 into the third period. On a play that began in the Boston end with
David Krejci’s clearing attempt that found Pastrnak, the 19-year-old winger looked off Ward, resisted the urge to hit a streaking Eriksson with the pass, and roofed the puck by an unsuspecting Ward for the tie.
“Well you know we had that two on one with Loui [Eriksson] and first time I missed the puck coming up so went a little bit to the corner and then they had a pretty good out for the pass,” Pastrnak said of the play that led to his second goal in the last three games played. “So I tried to shoot and it went in.”
Into overtime for the fourth straight contest, the Bruins were ultimately fooled by a fake line change from Massachusetts native
Noah Hanifin that created a breakaway for
Jeff Skinner.
And though Skinner did not bury the puck, rookie
Phillip Di Giuseppe came through and smashed the rebound home through Rask, for his fifth goal of the season.
It was the Hurricanes’ first overtime in Boston since Feb. 5, 2006.
Random thoughts and notes
- This was ugly, but it wasn’t unexpected. Given the way the Bruins handled their four-game stretch against some of the league’s better club (3-0-1), this was the one game on the schedule where you looked at it and said, “Yeah, they could afford a letdown on this night.” And that’s not to suggest that you’re OK with a good team losing to an average team, of course, but the ‘Canes are desperate. The Bruins, finally in a semi-comfortable spot in the Eastern Conference, were not. So, again, it’s almost expected. But that doesn’t mean the B’s should be any less frustrated. And they weren’t.
“Not much emotion to begin the game and they were able to capitalize early and get out to a lead and claw back and then get out to another lead so emotionally we have to have a better start tonight and have our skating legs early,” Krug admitted after the loss. “No excuse. I mean we had an off day yesterday so you have to come out here and make sure we’re ready to go.”
- And speaking of Krug, tonight’s assist was his 31st of the season. That gives No. 47 a whopping 34 points through 68 games played. That means that he’s just six points away from matching his career high of 40, accomplished back in 2013-14. With 13 games to go, it’s a possible mark for Krug, too.
What makes this even more impressive is the fact that Krug has connected for goals on just
three of his 203 shots on goal. If Krug had connected on the average of his prior two seasons -- 26 goals on 388 shots, so let’s just say 6.7% of his shots -- he’d have another nine goals, or 42 points.
- Of all players to get burned by Hanifin’s fake change, it was Patrice Bergeron. Of
all people. But still, or rather understandably, Julien wasn’t about to criticize a guy that’s done so much for the Bruins again and again. Bergeron, of course, didn’t shy away from the misplay after the loss, too.
“It was a bad – tough read on my part,” Bergeron said. “I guess one minute we had the puck, and their guy went for a change, I tried to go at the same time as him, to hurry and got caught in between.”
Look beyond how the game ended for No. 37 and notice that he extended his point streak to six games, and has recorded nine goals and 16 points in his last 14 games played. Just an incredible year for him.
- The Bruins entered the second period of Thursday’s game without a power play in their last six periods of play (if you include the overtimes, yes, even the 10-second one in Tampa Bay on Tuesday). And they got two in the second period, the second of which they connected on, too. And it’s not as if the B’s have been screwed when it comes to earning their power-play opportunities, but rather that they’re still not among the league’s best when it comes drawing penalties. Even with two power-play chances on Thursday, only the Islanders, Rangers, Kings, and Blues have drawn fewer penalties than Boston.
The Podcast to be Named Later with Andy Merritt and Ty Anderson
Up next
The Bruins are back at it again with the white Vans. And by white Vans, I mean on Saturday against the New York Islanders. It will the season-series finale between the B’s and Isles, with two wins to the B’s name, both of which coming at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The Islanders come to Boston on the heels of a shootout loss to Toronto, but with wins in seven of their last 10 overall.
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 • 
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