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Scoring goals at TD Garden is nothing new to Tyler Seguin. Unfortunately for the Boston Bruins, however, Seguin’s three strikes on a Garden net on Tuesday night came in Dallas Stars green and white, not the Boston black and gold he wore for three years, in a 5-3 victory for Dallas.
“I mean it’s kind of like playing in Toronto, when you’re going home there it’s special, and I think when you play your old team, it’s special as well,… the 23-year-old Seguin said after his hat trick (his seventh career hat trick and sixth with the Stars). “You have still current friends on the other team, so there’s a fine line between them being your friend and them being the enemy for the night.…
Seguin, roundly booed by the Garden crowd throughout the night, got the Stars on the board just 5:46 into the first period, on the Stars’ first shot of the game, beating Tuukka Rask.
Boston responded 1:28 later with Colin Miller’s first NHL goal, and ultimately skated off with a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes following ex-Star Loui Eriksson’s power-play goal at 19:35.
But Seguin struck again -- this time on the power play -- at the 4:37 mark of the second period. The goal, Seguin’s seventh of the season, came just six seconds into Dallas’ power play, and came off a clean faceoff win from Jamie Benn against David Krejci to start the man advantage.
As the Bruins failed to convert on two power-play chances of their own, the Stars jumped ahead late in the period behind the first NHL goal from defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka at 17:18.
And sure enough, it would be Seguin that put the nail in the Bruins’ coffin on the night with his second power-play goal of the night and his third goal in total, just 1:18 into the third period.
“I mean teams are focusing in on him now and it’s just opening up plays for other players to be open, but it was definitely nice to see him explode tonight, especially in this barn,… Stars captain Jamie Benn said of Seguin’s power-play success in the win. “I just leaned over to him after the game and told him, ‘I’m sure that probably felt good.’ But the bigger thing is that we got two points in a tough building, we responded well as a team, and now we can move on.…
The Stars added a third power-play later in the period on an Alex Goligoski marker, while the Bruins cut the deficit to two with Eriksson’s second goal of the night at 17:45 of the third period.
“There was a lot of problems tonight. First period I didn’t mind and second period and third period, I don’t know where our team went. We just kind of lost our focus and we weren’t the same team again,… Claude Julien said after the loss, Boston’s first regulation loss since Oct. 12. “Instead of trying to dig it in I think the way they were playing us our guys were getting more and more frustrated and the more we got frustrated the more we got away from our game.
“It’s a lesson learned for our guys and with a tough road trip coming up we just made it even harder.…
Despite a shorthanded game that allowed power-play goals against for the first time since Jan. 2014, the 28-year-old Rask put the blame on himself following yet another loss on Garden ice.
“I think the truth is that I have to make more saves,… Rask, who stopped 14 of 19 shots against, said. “It’s a different game; it’s that simple. I couldn’t have seen the puck at all today and can really make one big save, so that’s a tough hill to climb after that, and that’s just how it went today.…
Kelly breaks femur, out six to eight months
The Garden took on the noise level of an art museum following Chris Kelly’s ugly tumble down to the ice in the first period. Understandably so, too. But in case the yells from both benches and whistle from the ref didn’t paint the picture, it was immediately clear that something was very wrong with the 34-year-old bottom-six forward. His left leg just look like it straight-up imploded after slight contact with a Dallas skater, Kelly looked to hit a rut, and his leg then bent in a way that nobody’s leg should bend.
Before the end of the game, B’s general manager Don Sweeney confirmed the worst for Kelly and the B’s, noting that No. 23 suffered a fractured left femur, that he’s undergoing surgery tomorrow morning, and that the injury will sideline him for the next six to eight months.
“You hope we can somehow compensate for his loss, but I think people are going to realize how important he is to our hockey club, not just on the ice but also in the dressing room and around the team,… Julien said of Kelly’s loss. “He’s a guy that is extremely respected by his teammates and on the ice he’s given us everything we’ve asked for. He’s been moved around in all different positions, never says a word, but just thrives on the opportunity to play in those spots that we’ve put him. He was a very versatile player that we really counted on. No doubt he’ll be missed.
In 10 games this year, Kelly has scored two goals, but has been a pivotal figure on the B’s third and fourth line, along with the B’s penalty-killing second forward unit with Loui Eriksson.
“It’s always tough to see a teammate go down. We didn’t know what really happened, but I think everyone knows what happened now,… Eriksson said. “It’s always tough to see that happen and we just wish him the best now to recover really good here. It’s definitely not – we know how tough Kells is too and you saw him in pain, so it was definitely something bad going on there, so it’s tough.…
Kelly has skated in 287 regular season contests with the Black and Gold, recording 43 goals and 101 points, and won the Stanley Cup with the club in 2011.
The absolute best case scenario for Kelly and the B’s is a six-month long recovery that puts him back in the lineup by early May (if the Bruins are still playing by then). If not, this very well could have been the last time you’ve seen Kelly in a Bruins uniform, as he will become a free agent this summer.
Up next
The Bruins will embark on a three-game road swing beginning Thursday night against the Capitals. The season series with the Caps was a straight-up nightmare for the B’s last year, with Washington taking all three head-to-head showdowns, and shutting the Bruins out in all three games.
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.