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As the finish to their regular season draws closer, the finish on the sticks of the Boston Bruins seems to have evaporated. In their latest defeat, a one-goal loss to the New Jersey Devils (and their sixth loss in the last seven games), the Bruins put 40 shots on New Jersey netminder Keith Kinkaid, but left the Prudential Center ice with just one goal, a second period Brad Marchand tally.
Boston’s night began with a perfect picture of their night, really, as Matt Beleskey was denied by Kinkaid on a solid breakaway opportunity just two minutes into the first period.
The first rolled on with tons of chances for the Bruins -- led by countless muffed Marchand one-timers on the power play and numerous 2-on-1 opportunities -- but it would be the Devils that struck first.
With Patrice Bergeron in the box, a penalty kill breakdown allowed Reid Boucher to find Travis Zajac alone between the dots for his 14th goal of the year, scored at 16:59.
The Bruins finally responded, 10:36 into the second period behind Marchand’s 35th goal of the season, a product of a beautiful Zdeno Chara and even prettier finish from No. 63.
But the Devils came through with the eventual game-winner, once again on the power play, with Chara in the box on a marginal boarding call, scored by Boucher just 4:05 into the third period.
In the loss, the Bruins allowed a season-low 15 shots against, while Kinkaid stopped a career-high 39.
Despite the loss, the Bruins did remain in third place in the Atlantic Division, as Max Pacioretty and the Montreal Canadiens came through with some help in their 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Random thoughts and notes
- This loss really comes back down to the B’s inability to finish. Tonight was especially brutal. Nobody embodied the term ‘snake-bitten’ more than winger Matt Beleskey, too. In what was his better games of the year, Beleskey was unable to beat Kinkaid on what I counted as four great scoring chances. Beleskey finished the night with five shots on goal, so I might even be missing one there.
- I'm not 'irate' with that board against Chara whistled by referee Steve Kozari, but I'm not crazy about it, either. Worth noting that the Bruins are now 0-6 in games reffed by Steve Kozari this season. Even so, that call was not the difference maker, as the Bruins finished the game with what, the final 10 shots of play and still didn't find a way to break through for the game-tying marker.
- It was really strange to see Loui Eriksson skate as the third-line center in place of the injured Ryan Spooner for this one, quite simply because it’s not his natural position, nor has he ever skated as a center in his three years in town. At first glance, you understand the reasoning behind plugging Eriksson into that spot. He’s smart defensively, and plays a hard enough game where the effort and results will be enough to prevent that line from becoming a liability. But at the same time, it sort of takes away one of your best offensive wingers at a time where your wingers have been cold at best.
You didn’t necessarily hate what you saw from the B’s third line with Eriksson in the middle, Frank Vatrano to his left, and Jimmy Hayes on the right, but it didn’t really give you all that much of anything, either. Hayes, who has been the subject of his share of criticism throughout this recent slide, had a strong second period shift where he won a puck battle and straight bullied Stephen Gionta, but that was really it in terms of tangible noticings of No. 11.
It is worth noting, however, that the Bruins did once again fiddle with the lines in crunch time of the third period and returned Eriksson back to the wing, this time on a line with Bergeron and Marchand, and gave Noel Acciari the keys to the third line center spot with Vatrano and ex-Devil Lee Stempniak as his wingers. (Hayes later came in at Vatrano’s spot). But I wonder if a Vatrano-Acciari-Stempniak trio is something the Bruins give a harder look at down the stretch.
Neither Alex Khokhlachev (21 goals and 56 points in 51 AHL games) nor Austin Czarnik (15 goals and 52 points in 59 AHL games), two natural centers, were called up for this game, and the Black and Gold do not seem intent on calling anybody up for the Central weekend.
Just, uh, weird.
- Winger Brett Connolly left the game after just 3:17 of time on ice with what appeared to be a lower-body injury. Another tough blow in a year that No. 14 would probably like to forget.
- Does anybody in the Atlantic Division want to finish in third? The Bruins dropped the ball against a clearly inferior club, while the Red Wings blew it against the Canadiens. This is the weirdest year ever.
Up next
The Bruins will head to St. Louis for a Friday night affair with the Blues. The Blues took the only prior head-to-head with the B’s by a 2-0 final at TD Garden back on Dec. 22. St. Louis has won five games in a row and eight of their last 10 games overall. So, no, it does not get any easier for the Bruins.
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.