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Hits keep on coming in Bruins loss to Stars

November 17, 2018, 10:31 AM ET [16 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Boston Bruins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Bruins entered American Airlines Arena in Dallas on Friday without seven different defensemen in the lineup due to injury. Because of this, the Bruins started the contest with three rookies on defense, two of whom—Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril—were making their National Hockey League debuts.

Their inexperience on defense, combined with a handful of dangerous scoring threats on the other side of the ice, put the Bruins behind the eight ball before the drop of the puck. But, Tuukka Rask didn’t care about any of that.

Making his first start since returning from his three-day leave of absence, Rask put in his best work of the season, helping the Bruins force overtime, before dropping the game in the extra frame 1-0.

“A good game,” said Rask. “Always got to feel good, be confident. That’s how I felt today. I’ll try to keep it going.”

Rask was certainly going in Dallas.

The game should have resulted in a three, or four goal win for Dallas. But instead, Rask left the Stars shaking their heads in disbelief all night as scoring chance after scoring chance yielded no result for the Stars. That was the case until Jason Dickinson sent the home fans home happy with the overtime game-winner. A goal that Rask, nor any other goalie on planet earth could have done a thing about.



Like the Bruins, the Stars too are banged up defensively, missing several key pieces including their ace, John Klingberg. But somehow, with all that inexperience on both blue lines, the game was scoreless for 60+ minutes.

The 60+ minutes of scoreless play was a welcoming sign for the Bruins, but also one that presented an all too familiar issue. It was great to see Rask return to form, even if for just one night. But once again the Bruins lack of scoring depth was exposed.

The Bruins finished the game with 23 shots on goal, including just six in the third period. They were also outshot 6-0 in the 1:34 of overtime.

“Overtime hasn’t been our friend,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy “We don’t manage the puck. We give up odd-man rushes. We don’t deserve to win. It’s a lot of the same guys.”

The Bruins are now 1-3 in overtime.

As the Bruins are forced to quickly put the loss behind them thanks to a quick turnaround with the team in Arizona Saturday, it sounds like the Bruins will be down one more body.

Patrice Bergeron left the game in the second period for a few minutes before returning to the game. Bergeron clearly was in pain upon his return. His play was severely limited as he played just 2:42 in the third period, and not a single shift in overtime.

Bergeron was injured when Radek Faksa rode Bergeron into the boards seconds after the puck was removed from the play. Bergeron’s left shoulder was driven into the boards, taking the most damage.



After the game Cassidy was unsure of Bergeron’s status for Saturday’s game against the Coyotes, but it doesn’t sound too promising.

“Right now he was having a tough time finishing so it leads me to believe he'd have a tough time playing but he's also a tough guy. We'll see how it is,” said Cassidy. “But we'll have to find out the extent of the injury is first and go from there.”

The un-penalized play was the beginning to a penalty filled night for Brad Marchand, who took exception to the hit from Faksa. Marchand was assessed a double minor for roughing. Later in the period, Marchand was again tagged, this time for a slash, or lack thereof, on Stars goalie Ben Bishop. Marchand was also given a ten-minute misconduct on the play.



To no surprise, Cassidy didn’t agree with the call on Marchand.

“First of all, I don't think it was a penalty. It happens 100 times a game. A phantom one like that happened in Nashville and he got nailed after it so the frustrations are boiling over,” said Cassidy. “The linesman calls him for a 10-minute misconduct. I didn't see what happened. I don't know.”

Marchand was also seen getting into it with a fan while in the box, asking the fan “how much did you pay to watch me?” All-around it was a frustrating night for the Bruins and Marchand.



After being sent back to Boston for further evaluation, the news on Zdeno Chara is also frustrating. According to Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic Chara will miss four to six weeks with a knee injury.

The hits keep coming for the Bruins who were also without John Moore in Friday’s loss, a new named added to the Bruins injury list.

Moore is considered day-to-day.
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