After three straight losses the Bruins were finally having some fun Tuesday night at TD Garden.
They were leading 4-0 after the second period and chased Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky from the game after allowing three of the four Bruins goals in a seven shot span.
The Bruins battled their second period demons Tuesday, getting goals from David Pastrnak, Joakim Nordstrom, Anders Bjork and Zdeno Chara.
Finally, a dominating second period.
A 4-0 lead at home, entering the third period should be a walk in the park for a Bruins team with the type of talent they have. Two points and the end of their three-game losing streak were just 20 minutes of hockey away.
But the third period ended with 20 minutes of hockey they wish they could have back.
Four unanswered goals by the Panthers forced overtime, followed by the shootout where the Bruins would go on to lose, getting just one strike in the glorified skills competition.
The Bruins fourth straight loss, and by far, worse of the season. It was also the Panthers first four-goal comeback in franchise history.
“Yeah, I’m going to be concerned,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said of the team’s third period. “It’s a strength of our team to close out games. I think we had a perfect record of, you know, we had a lead going into the third period. It’s a trademark of this team. Yeah, it is a concern.”
The Bruins performance in the third period was unacceptable. From the play of Tuukka Rask, to their inability to stay out the box, to their sloppiness in their own zone, what happened in the final stanza Tuesday, cannot happen on a consistent basis if the Bruins want to get back to their winning ways.
“Definitely something that we should be capable of doing, that’s definitely on us,” Chara said of being unable to close the game out in the third period. “We played, first two periods, I thought solid hockey, we made some strong plays and obviously we gave them too much space and time. And anytime you do that, they will take advantage of that.”
The middle two third period goals scored by the Panthers came on the power play, and on a night where the Panthers scored twice on four opportunities. As it was in Detroit Friday night, the penalty kill is becoming an area of concern for Cassidy and the Bruins.
“We take some penalties. It seemed like we took a lot of marginal penalties tonight; we didn’t kill them. Same thing in Detroit, we had those issues,” said Cassidy. “Not great penalties we took – guys throwing pucks into the middle of the ice, so we’re going to have to sit down and address the penalty kill in those situations, how we broke down and get better in that area.”
The Bruins penalty kill woes started on Frank Vatrano’s strike that cut the Bruins lead to two. Jonathan Huberdeau easily was able to skate through two Bruins before finding a wide open Vatrano for the Panthers second of the period.
The second power play goal the Panthers benefited from, Mike Hoffman was able to take the puck to the net with very little resistance from any of the Bruins on the ice as Hoffman was able to slip a soft one past Rask.
“I should have been sharper in that third period, let in a couple of soft goals,” said Rask. “I let the team kind of get some momentum. But it’s a sixty minute game, we’ve been on the other side, kind of never give up and that’s how teams build character. So good for them.”
The breakdowns on the penalty kill were not the only ones that cost the Bruins in the third period as the Panthers two five-on-five goals came from a pair of defensemen.
Aaron Ekblad’s rocket of a shot that got the Panthers on the board was one that not much could have been done to prevent it. And to add insult to injury, Nordstrom was playing without a stick as he broke his twig seconds before.
But on Keith Yandle’s game-tying goal, what was going on here?
Other than Patrice Bergeron—who clearly was having his stick held—no Bruin was even close to picking up the streaking Yandle, allowing him to clean up the juicy rebound left in front of Rask.
“This is a team that’s closed out games for years, and the last goal to me – put everything else aside – is disappointing. We get beat one-on-one off the rush, winger circling out of the scoring area knowing the game is on the line,” added Cassidy.
“You could sit here and argue that the guy’s holding Bergy’s [Bergeron] stick and can’t clear the puck at the end, but structurally we were bad on that last goal. That’s the disappointing part to me. That’s when we’re usually rock solid.”
Even though momentum goes out the window a bit once the shootout hits, the Bruins didn’t have much of a chance in the session. Frankly, they haven’t had much of a chance in any of the shootouts they’ve taken this season, and in years past.
Since Bruce Cassidy took over for the fired Claude Julien, the Bruins are 5-10 in the shootout. Charlie Coyle’s shootout goal Tuesday—the Bruins lone shootout goal of the night—was the Bruins first of the season. Tuesday was their third shootout of the season.
Chris Wagner, Brad Marchand, Coyle and Charlie McAvoy were the four to get the call in the shootout.
So why no Bergeron or Pastrnak?
“Bob [Essensa] has information on that. One thing Bob suggested – we were going to use Wagner. There was maybe more shooters than dekers against this goalie coming in, but Charlie [Coyle] scored in the shootout shooting,” Cassidy added.
“Pasta tends to like to deke, so that’s why we went away from him. He’s been a little bit cold lately in the shootout, so give some other guys an opportunity that we feel can finish. Charlie McAvoy definitely has but didn’t happen.”
The Bruins are going to have to turn things around rather quickly, and will need to be rock solid this upcoming weekend with another back-to-back set on tap.
First, the Bruins will travel to Toronto Friday to take on the Maple Leafs, then will return to TD Garden Saturday to host the Capitals.
“We love to play Toronto, that’s a great rivalry kind of, from years past playoffs especially,” said Brandon Carlo. “It’s a lot of fun to play against them. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to reset against a very good team in Toronto and have some fun with it as well.”
Yes Carlo, a reset would be great.
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