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The Boston Bruins are in a much better situation than they were the last time they met the Columbus Blue Jackets. Thumped by the aggressive Jackets last time around -- a 6-2 loss for the Black and Gold at Nationwide Arena back on Dec. 27 -- the Bruins, winners of five straight. had a chance for redemption.
But an unwillingness to work for what could have been theirs kept the B’s at bay, and put an end to their win streak, as Matt Calvert and the Jackets sunk the Bruins by a 3-1 final on TD Garden ice.
“We didn’t want to put in the dirty work. We were trying to be cute and they do a pretty good job; [the Blue Jackets] have some pretty good D’s and they box out well,… a frustrated Claude Julien said after the loss, the club's first regulation defeat since the aforementioned December contest. “Our guys weren’t willing to put in the work to get to the front of the net, so their goaltender so a lot of shots. Even in the battles, they won more battles than we did, so they were a more determined team than we were.…
A Dougie Hamilton penalty in the first period opened the door for the scoring in this one, as Ryan Johansen ripped an absolute laser through Tuukka Rask 7:57 into the period, good for his 17th strike of the season. Jack Johnson and Scott Hartnell picked up the assists on the goal.
“I was probably a little too deep but it was a good shot,… Rask admitted. “He’s a good player. Good shot.…
The Bruins countered the Blue Jacket marker less than four minutes later, however, with Carl Soderberg slamming his 10th goal of the season by Columbus’ Curtis McElhinney.
It was a goal that started with a smart toss to the slot by Chris Kelly, with an inadvertent assist to Loui Eriksson, who missed the puck and tipped it Soderberg’s way.
Skating a scoreless middle frame, it was a second period that yielded more frustration than results for the Bruins, especially on the power play, which seemed completely stuck in the mud on an early chance.
“Those are your best players and it kind of goes hand in hand with the rest of the game. You’ve got to be willing to outwork the penalty kill if you’re gonna have success on the power play,… said Julien. “Just because you’ve got an extra player doesn’t mean it should be easy. They do a good job penalty killing and we did a poor job with our power play; some poor decisions, losing battles when you should have some support.
“It kind of dictates the way we played tonight as a whole.…
The 1-1 score held until the 16th minute of play in the third, when Matt Calvert banged one off and through Rask, giving the Jackets the go-ahead strike with three and a half minutes to play.
Calvert added an empty-netter with just over 30 seconds to play, and that was it for the B’s in this one.
“I thought we had some decent chances in the third but ultimately you got to play 60 minutes,… Chris Kelly said after the loss. “I’ll give them credit, they played right until the end. They found a goal with three minutes left to ultimately win the game and they stuck to their system and their structure better than we did tonight.…
The game was an all-around letdown for a clearly bothered B’s bunch, who undoubtedly expected more out of themselves, and have stressed the importance of heading into the All-Star break on a high note.
“Obviously we wanted to keep things going and keep things feeling good, light, loose, and confident, and keeping the win streak going and unfortunately, it ends here tonight with a poor effort,… Milan Lucic said. But these are the things you have to learn throughout a season is how to bounce back and with the effort being what it was tonight, you have to find a way to bounce back and get your game back to what it was before. This streak ended, so those are the things you have to learn and we have to address what happened here tonight, but we also have to turn the page and get things going in the right direction right away.…
Despite the Bruins’ topsy-turvy nature in the standings, they’re considered a ‘desperate’ club by most accounts. They have a whole lot of teams with games in hand around them, and points are at a premium. But they’re nowhere near as desperate as the Blue Jackets are, and that was evident in this one.
The Bruins put shots on net, sure, but they didn’t get nearly enough traffic in front of McElhinney, which made his night a whole lot easier than the box score would indicate. Defensively, the Boston defensive corp seemed legitimately flustered by a Columbus forward core that gave them absolutely no space to operate out of their own end. It was a ‘blah’ game from start to finish for the Bruins, and they couldn’t deny it if they tried.
Unlike their other losses throughout the year, this one that didn’t seem to come with earth-shattering dramatics. Instead, it serves as a reminder (or realization) that the compete level goes up when the calendar strikes Jan., and that you have to bring your A-game on a night-in, night-out basis. Winning streak or not.
“I’m disappointed. I don’t care, six wins in a row, whatever, we just can’t afford to have those kind of outings,… Julien admitted. “Disappointed that we didn’t come to play harder than we did tonight and we wanted to take the easy way out. When we do that, we’re not successful. We’re a north-south type of team, we backcheck hard, we forecheck hard, and we make things happen by taking pucks to the net. Tonight we weren’t willing to do that. When we got into the battle you could tell they wanted it more than us. We’ve gotta accept the blame and the responsibility. We weren’t good enough tonight and we shouldn’t accept that.…
Random thoughts and notes
- Serving the first game of his two-game ban, the loss of Brad Marchand was an undeniably noticeable one for the Black and Gold. Particularly in the opening period, when Danny Paille, skating in Marchand’s spot in the B’s second line, had the puck all alone in front of the Columbus net. He put that puck right in McElhinney’s glove. And there’s the difference between Paille and Marchand. Paille does a number of things tremendously well, but finishing is not one of them. You’d prefer No. 63 in that spot.
- It was a frustrating night for the Bruins’ top line of Lucic, David Krejci, and David Pastrnak. Though they broke through the Columbus blue line, it didn’t seem like they were on the same page at all, and it looked like everybody wanted to be the passer, not the shooter. On a line with that much raw, high-end skill, you need a player or two to be a bit more selfish. (It doesn’t always have to be the rookie.)
- The Blue Jackets are a club known for their downright lethal power play unit. But one thing that really surprised me tonight was just how aggressive the Blue Jackets were when shorthanded. On a second period power play chance for the Bruins, the Jackets buzzed all around the Boston puck-carrier, often sending two guys to him when breaking through the neutral zone. That made life absolutely hell for the Bruins’ top power play unit, and really made it impossible for them to get going up and into the Columbus end. It was pretty clear that that was something that the B’s were not accustomed to, and really derailed their momentum.
- You probably don’t know who Josh Anderson is. (I can confirm to you that he’s not my cousin.) But in the second NHL game of his career, the 20-year-old wasted no time in laying down to block a Zdeno Chara slapshot. It might not mean much to you and I, but when you’re a former fourth-round pick that’s clearly trying to prove your worth in the NHL, that kinda stuff goes a long way. Guts!
Up next
The Bruins will close out their pre- All Star break schedule with a two-game road trip that begins in Dallas on Tuesday night. It will be the B’s third matchup against Tyler Seguin and the Stars since the club traded him back in July 2013. Seguin, playing top-line center minutes in Dallas, is having himself a year, near the top of the league in virtually all offensive categories.
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