Four and a half minutes into the game -- and just 1:45 into his game -- a board from Max Pacioretty ended Boston defensemen Johnny Boychuk’s night while two second period goals from the Montreal Canadiens were enough to sink the Bruins, 2-1 in Montreal.
By now, we all know that Pacioretty plays the game hard. He’s been a thorn in the Bruins’ side ever since he broke into the league, and his big frame (6-foot-2) and physical nature tends to give the Bruins fits in front of their goaltender. But let’s not let emotion get in the way of what last night’s incident was, and that’s simply an unfortunate ending to a player finishing a check.
I’ve watched/dissected/slo-moed/whatever the hit a thousand times, and I’ve yet to find anything that really leaves me going, “Wow, that was a pretty cheap hit.… Was it a penalty? Of course. But was it malicious or intentional on the part of Pacioretty? Nope, at least I don’t think so.
Naturally tempers run high whenever people bring up Pacioretty and the Bruins -- with stories that began in Jan. ‘10 with Pacioretty’s post-overtime goal push of the B’s Zdeno Chara and a brutal hit between the two just two months later -- but there’s no logical way to suggest that what Pacioretty was doing there was intended to force No. 55 off the ice on a stretcher.
For Bruins fans (and players for that matter), it was a scary hit. Strike that, it was a downright terrifying hit. Especially when you looked down and saw that Boychuk was taking quick, incredibly sharp-looking breaths, and that he looked like a man that simply didn’t want to try and move out of the crouched position he was in after the hit. It was OK to fear the worst and assume that Boychuk, a seemingly indestructible player, was suffering from something major. A collapsed lung? Who knows?
Scary, definitely. Intentional? No way.
It’s why you didn’t see any Bruins lobbying for a suspension after the game, and it’s why Pacioretty will escape this incident without a meeting from the NHL’s Brendan Shanahan.
Able to fly home with the team last night after going to a Montreal hospital for further evaluations, the rumor of the day when it comes to Boychuk’s status is that he suffered a lower-back injury that resulted in back spasms that required a closer look. Of course, I don’t want to confirm any report that I’m not 100 percent on, but it seems as if that’s a probable diagnosis if Boychuk was able to fly home.
Without Boychuk, the Bruins seemed to fly through the first with a huge wave of emotion capped by Gregory Campbell’s goal with just 2:25 to go in the period. Possessing the puck throughout much of the period, and outshooting the Habs 10-3 in the first 20, the Bruins looked like a team simply toying with a Montreal squad playing their third game in four nights.
But in the middle frame, for whatever reason, they crumbled. And that may be going easy on them.
The Canadiens simply embarrassed the Bruins in the second period. Attempting 30 shots (30 shots!) versus just nine for Boston in the frame, the Habs controlled the pace of play, struck twice with goals from Tomas Plekanec and then one from Pacioretty, while not even a Shawn Thornton scrap with the Habs’ Brandon Prust sparked the club. The Bruins were a lifeless bunch. Period. And they simply had no reason to be.
Unable to punch one by Carey Price in the third period, the Bruins fell and lost out on first place behind a completely ridiculous effort. And not in a good way.
This was Boston’s first game since last Saturday, an obvious advantage over the winded Habs, who were (as previously mentioned) skating in their third game in four nights, and in the second leg of a back-to-back that began the previous night in New Jersey. So for the Bruins to look at dead tired as they were last night was simply baffling and at the end of the day unacceptable.
You’re going to have nights like this over the course of an 82-game season, yeah, but you don’t expect them to come in the first game you’re playing after four days off.
Not to mention that it was a Bruins vs. Canadiens game. Bruins vs. Canadiens.
It’s not smart to get too high or too low after just one game, but a few things are obvious as the Bruins head back for a Saturday night battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The biggest thing? The Bruins need a better effort from the top two lines. Especially on the wings. Last night, with the exception of I’d say Brad Marchand and perhaps Milan Lucic, the Bruins’ wingers were nowhere to be found. Loui Eriksson played perhaps his worst game as a Bruin, while Jarome Iginla was terrible predictable with his six shots on goal.
Down the line, the Bruins need to return to their roots and win the battle at the dot. Noted faceoff aces Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly both had woefully bad nights at the dot -- Bergeron won just 12 of 28 draws and Kelly five of 15 -- and resulted in the Bruins doing a whole hell of a lot more puck-chasing than they’d like to against a faster skating Montreal club.
But most of all, the Bruins need to learn how to make their opportunities count. No line did less with their breakouts up ice and into the attacking zone than Kelly’s line with Carl Soderberg and Reilly Smith on the wings, and their power-play mustered up a total of four shots on goal in their two power-play chances. That’s just not good enough.
Against a rival, no less.
One game? Not a problem, it (regretfully) happens. Two games in a row, and against an even better team in the Pittsburgh Penguins and there might be cause for concern.