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Led by a mammoth second period, the Columbus Blue Jackets avoided the season sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins, and left the TD Garden on the right side of a 6-4 final on Monday night.
The Blue Jackets struck first, 10:52 into the first period, on a power-play deflection from
Boone Jenner. Tipped home off a
Cam Atkinson one-timer from a beautiful
Ryan Murray dish, Jenner’s marker was matched just 15 seconds, with
Loui Eriksson’s 22nd goal of the season. The goals, in a 12-to-10 period in shots that favoring Columbus, held through 20.
But it would be Jenner that beat
Jonas Gustavsson yet again, this time just 21 seconds into the second period, for his second of the game and 21st of the season.
Boston once again matched Jenner’s strike, this time from a
Matt Beleskey tip-in -- Beleskey’s 10th of the year -- off a
Joe Morrow shot (Jimmy Hayes picked up a secondary assist).
Columbus responded with two goals to close out the second period, one from a laser beam from
William Karlsson, an unassisted dagger at 10:17, and the other from
Scott Hartnell, a thorn in Boston’s side all night, with a power-play goal at the 17:21 mark of the second period.
Boston made it close once again with a second goal from Beleskey, but the Jackets jumped back up by two behind
Brandon Saad’s 22nd of the year, scored at 14:29. And again, the Bruins made it a one-goal game with Eriksson’s second of the night, but it would the knockout blow of an empty-net, full-length strike from Columbus defender
Dalton Prout that closed the door on the Bruins.
Outshot 35-to-30, and consistently outworked along the boards, behind the net, and in the middle of the ice, a frustrated Black and Gold group had little to offer when it came to their latest stumble.
“It’s not good enough,” Eriksson, one of just two Bruins to score in the loss, said of Boston’s latest effort. “We need to play much better when we’re coming home and playing in front of our fans. I think no one is happy about how we’re playing right now at home, and that’s something we need to address and get better as we go along here. We know we have another big game coming up on Wednesday so we definitely need to get ready for that one and make our fans proud, to come out and play hard.”
Gustavsson, not particularly sharp, stopped 29-of-34 in the loss, and took his share of blame.
“I think we worked hard, we scored four goals, and for myself I have to find a way to make one more save,” said Gustavsson. “I guess it’s about small details, we have it in this group, we show it especially on the road, but obviously we want to figure it out and be a strong home team.”
It was another rough night for the B’s special teams, too, as they finished the game 0-for-2 on the power play, and an ugly 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.
“Defensively we need to be better and we scored enough to win, but we didn’t do a good job. I think that was probably the thing that cost us the most tonight because I think deep down the guys are trying,” Boston head coach
Claude Julien said after the loss. “There’s the element of fatigue that sets in. We tried to overcome that and I thought they tried to work hard, but I think mentally some of the decision-making tonight defensively was not good enough.”
And in their first game back from an 11-day road swing, Julien referenced fatigue in Boston’s blades.
“I think tonight, there’s circumstances when you come off an 11-day road trip and you get in at four in the morning [on Sunday], there might be some elements there,” said Julien. “We’re certainly trying to get better and hopefully by the next game we’ll be able to answer that hopefully in a positive way.”
Random thoughts and notes
- It’s the same old song and dance for the Bruins, my friend. The Bruins had a litany of positives to take from their 7-3 comeback win over the Dallas Stars this past Saturday, and it’s basically all out the window after their latest home defeat. Overall, the Bruins now have losses in 18 of 30 home games. That’s an unacceptable mark for any club, especially one that, historically under Julien, has always taken pride in just how forceful they can be when the game is played on their own ice.
“No,” B’s winger
Brad Marchand said when asked if he could pinpoint any particular thing that can explain the B’s struggles at TD Garden this season. “If we could then we would fix it.”
- Hey, speaking of Marchand, what a garbage call by Chris Rooney to call Marchand for a 10-minute misconduct with 4:16 left in the third period of a close game. Now, I understand that Marchand has a reputation for crossing the line, but this was as stupid a call as I’ve ever seen. Marchand charged into the offensive zone, played the puck with a high stick (initially thought it was an offside call, to be honest), and rifled the puck at the boards in frustration, and was given an early exit courtesy of Rooney.
What. A. Freaking. Joke. First of all, you see players do this
all the time. It’s frustration. Most of the time with themselves, too. And Marchand didn’t fire the puck at anybody, or near anybody, for that matter. He just whipped it off the boards in anger.
Marchand, understandably so, was not happy in his postgame meeting with the media.
Reporter: Were you given any explanati--
Marchand: No.
Reporter: How surprised were you [to be given a misconduct]?
Marchand: Very.
If what Marchand did is worth a misconduct, then let’s just start tossing players when they smash their sticks off the boards after a bad play or goal against, right?
This screams of a referee going “Hey, look at me!” like no other. But it’s just another case of Rooney, a South Boston native, going above and beyond to show the world that he’s not biased towards the Bruins in any possible way. (But hey, Rooney, going insanely the other way isn’t a good look either.)
- Weird thing:
Ryan Spooner, in his first game back from an illness that kept him out of Saturday’s victory, returned to the lineup, but was not in his normal spot on Boston’s first power-play unit. He wasn’t even on the second one, actually. Spooner logged 13:08 of time on ice in 17 shifts, none of which came on the man advantage (which finished the night 0-for-2). In a way, you sort of understand what the Bruins were doing by keeping Beleskey as the net-front guy on Boston’s top unit. They had some success on Sat. night, and sticking with that made sense, even if for just one game.
But to not put Spooner, one of the best when it comes to working the half-wall, off both units? I don’t know about that, especially when the second unit doesn’t even feature a center!
Podcast to be Named Later with Andy Merritt and Ty Anderson
Hey, here's another episode of our podcast, where we talk Bruins-Jackets, trade rumors, and even touch on the WWE and Wrestlemania because why not?
Up next
The Black and Gold are back at it on Wednesday night as they play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins for the season-series finale between the rivals. The B’s have taken both head-to-heads with the Penguins this year, including a Dec. 16 affair at TD Garden, outscoring Pittsburgh 9-to-2 in the process.
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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