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I
should be writing about East Longmeadow, Mass. native
Frankie Vatrano’s first NHL goal and how it turned out to be the game-winning tally for his hometown Boston Bruins in his NHL debut. Against the Montreal Canadiens, no less. (Can you think of a more perfect goal for a local kid?) I
should be writing about the strong response the Bruins had after a two-game lull that’s frustrated head coach Claude Julien, and how the B’s used the momentum of a successful coach’s challenge to keep the Habs at bay en route to a hardfought victory at the always tough Bell Centre.
Again, these are the things I should be writing about.
Instead, for the seventh straight time and 12th time in their last 14 head-to-head contests for that matter, I’m writing about how the Black and Gold dropped yet another contest to their rival. I’m writing about how these mental lapses and unravelings against the Habs continue to plague the club, regardless of who’s manning the crease for either team. Above all else, I’m writing about the B’s third straight loss.
On a power play just over a minute into the game, the Bruins struck first behind
Loui Eriksson’s deflection through Montreal netminder
Mike Condon. The goal, Eriksson’s fifth of the season, showed off more off No. 21’s underrated net-front presence, which has been an invaluable weapon for the Boston man advantage for a month now, was the quick start the B’s needed.
Boston skated into the room with a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes of play, but within a 1:09 of the second,
Tomas Plekanec and the Canadiens responded with a power-play goal of their own.
The goal was criminally easy for the Habs, too, as
Kevan Miller’s decision to join
Max Talbot in attempt to poke the puck up and away from
P.K. Subban along the wall left
Zdeno Chara between a Plekanec and a Brendan Gallagher near the Boston net. Gallagher, of course, found Plekanec and No. 14 wasted no time pummeling the puck through Jonas Gustavsson.
Seven minutes later, though, the Bruins answered right back. Vatrano, in his NHL debut and with his father and uncle in the crowd, carried the puck, skated around the attacking zone for a moment, and ripped home the first NHL goal of his pro career. (Including his 10 games in Providence prior to his Friday recall from the American Hockey League, Vatrano now has 11 goals in as many games.)
Like they did against Dallas and Washington, the Bruins held onto their one-goal lead for dear life. And like they did against Dallas and Washington, they were unsuccessful in that bid. Or so it appeared.
With a sea of humanity around Gustavsson’s crease, Montreal appeared to score the game-tying goal just four minutes into the third period, again off the stick of Plekanec. But after a successful challenge from Julien and the Bruins, it was ruled that Gustavsson was incapable of making the stop with Gallagher in his crease and practically on top of him by the time that the puck was shot.
Yet, somehow, the call in Boston’s favor in a typically unkind building gave Montreal life.
Lars Eller tied things up 8:58 into the third period, and following
David Krejci’s mindless (absolutely mindless!) crosschecking penalty against Plekanec put the Habs on the power play with just 2:03 left in the game, the Canadiens did what they do best and straight-up haunted Boston.
The killer this time around was
David Desharnais, who put a juicy rebound off Gustavsson and out of the reach of Miller’s stick, into the Boston cage with just 1:08 left in the third period.
Canadiens captain
Max Pacioretty added an empty-netter for a 4-2 final.
Random thoughts and notes
- All things considered, I honestly felt like the Bruins played well enough to win this game.
They were, in my opinion anyways, the better team tonight. (Second period excluded, the Bruins often weathered the Habs’ storm with little consequence.) They had the Canadiens playing on their heels in their own end quite a bit more than we’re accustomed to seeing, and they clearly didn’t look like the same team that’s repeatedly crushed the Bruins of late without Carey “I literally destroy the Bruins -- and the rest of the league for that matter -- for a living” Price in net. Usually, when it comes to the recent history of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry, it’s that it’s Montreal putting the Black and Gold against a wall and just pressuring the hell out of them. But on Sat. night, on Montreal’s ice, it was the Bruins that dictated the pace. The Canadiens are the Canadiens; They’re an opportunistic team that will pounce on your mistakes at will. But the Bruins hung with that and matched it for most of the night.
Keyword: Most. It should have been enough to earn two points.
But it wasn’t, and that makes their defeat all the more frustrating.
- I will never, ever be able to explain David Krejci’s mindset when he took that ridiculous penalty late in the third period of Saturday’s loss. It’s just … it’s just impossible to explain. Now, I understand that there’s a definite hatred between Krejci and Plekanec. It’s undeniable at this point. These guys are from the same country, sure, but there’s a clear disdain for one another. (Or maybe just from Krejci’s end.)
But my goodness, what a downright dumb penalty to take given everything surrounding the club at that moment. You’re up by one, at the
Bell Centre, with two minutes left, and you’re going to take that moment to settle a score and target a player? Silly. Even sillier when you factor in how bad Boston’s penalty-kill has been this season -- it remains dead last in the NHL -- and how the ice and calls were tilted in Montreal’s favor from the second period on in shot volume and penalties drawn.
‘Soft call’ or not, Krejci, an alternate captain, let his team down tonight with
three minors.
- As you may have noticed,
Tuukka Rask did not start this game. To some, that’s an issue given the 28-year-old’s struggles against Montreal. In 21 career games against the Habs, Rask has just three wins, a 2.74 goals against average, and .906 save percentage. At a certain point, you’d like to see if the former Vezina can exorcise the demons that have rendered him below-league-average against the Canadiens. But the 13th game of the regular season, Montreal or not, will not be that game.
With a back-to-back weekend slate -- and with both games against quality opponents -- it was natural to expect Rask to ride the pine for at least one of those contests. It didn’t matter which, not to me anyways, because the season is still insanely early and it’s impossible to legitimately critique starting decisions at this point in the year. (In essence, you sound like a crazy person.) Now, if Rask’s riding the bench in a pivotal, playoff-implication head-to-head come February or March, now then I’ll listen.
- Defenseman
Joe Morrow was the healthy scratch for the B’s in the loss, which put
Zach Trotman back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 8’s Opening Night loss to Winnipeg. Sitting Morrow seemed like an inevitability given his offensive struggles (he was held without a point in all but one of his nine games played this season) and putting Trotman back into the mix also seemed like an inevitability when you consider the workload the club anticipated giving him when camp began.
But I wonder how long it is before both of these guys draw into the lineup at once in favor of a player like Kevan Miller? As much as you appreciate the little things that Miller does -- he hits like a truck, will block any shot, and isn’t afraid to drop the gloves when it calls for it -- his struggles have been on the forefront of recent losses. He’s just not reading shots and offensive looks against really well right now, and his sliding blocks and from-the-knees defensive efforts have really hung B’s goaltenders out to dry.
Up next
The Bruins are back at it on Sunday night-ish (a 5 p.m. start in Brooklyn is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of) at the Barclays Center for yet another showdown with the New York Islanders. The Bruins took the first meeting between these Eastern Conference rivals by way of a 5-3 final on Oct. 23.
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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