Ty Anderson Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSS
• Archive
• CONTACT
On one hand, you gotta give credit to the Bruins for having the mental toughness and on-ice know-how to erase a three-goal deficit. But on the other hand, and after a 6-5 loss to the Penguins at TD Garden on Thursday night, there’s no denying that there’s no reason for it to ever be that bad for a club that prides itself on its defense and goaltending.
“I don’t like our ice management [and] I don’t like the odd-man rushes we gave up, whether it’s on the power play or five-on-five,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said following the loss. “We’re not making sound decisions. We’re forcing stuff when we don’t need to.
“We were getting plenty of offense. We didn’t have to force offense.”
In a night that began with a Brad Marchand putaway just 41 seconds into action, things quickly unraveled for the Bruins, with five of the next six goals coming off a Pittsburgh stick and through Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman.
Down 4-2 through 20 minutes of ice, the Bruins opted to stick with Swayman for the second period, and even stuck with him after Jeff Carter’s goal made it 5-2. The thinking from Montgomery: Given the run-and-gun nature of this game, he felt that this was a good spot to give Swayman (and the Bruins) the chance to fight through it and turn it into something.
A Morgan Geekie snipe (and off a tremendous feed from David Pastrnak) at the 9:51 mark of the second period gave the Bruins hope on that front, and an apparent Jake DeBrusk tip on a Brandon Carlo blast brought the Bruins within one through 40 minutes of action.
Then came a game-tying Brad Marchand shorthanded marker that reset this game with 16:52 left in the third period, and continued to add to Marchand’s penalty-killing legacy.
The shorthanded goal was Marchand’s 34th career goal with the Bruins down a man, which moved into a four-way tie with Marian Hossa, Pavel Bure, and Derek Sanderson for 11th place on the league’s all-time shorthanded goal leaderboard. It was also his 55th shorthanded point since the start of the 2010-11 season. For the context of his impact on that front, that’s direct involvement in as many shorthanded goals for Marchand as shorthanded goals scored by the Red Wings franchise since the start of the 2010-11 season. (Sorry for the stray, Wings fans, it just hits a little better than saying that Marchand has more shorthanded points than the Kraken franchise.)
Since the start of the 2010-11 season, Brad Marchand has been credited with a goal or assist on 55 shorthanded goals. The Detroit Red Wings, as a franchise, have 55 shorthanded goals since 2010-11.
But a Charlie McAvoy penalty put the Penguins back on the power play, and that was all Sidney Crosby needed to put this game away, as he cleanly won the faceoff and then ripped a shot (with some help from Hampus Lindholm) through Swayman for the sixth and final Pittsburgh goal of the evening.
With the loss, the Bruins saw their four-game win streak come to an end, and it was actually the most goals they’ve allowed to the Penguins in a home game since a 9-6 final back in Nov. 1995.
A rough night for the kids
Be it a symptom of the score of the game or their own play, this was not a night to be a younger player on the Bruins, with Boston’s fourth line of Johnny Beecher, Georgii Merkulov, and Oskar Steen all finishing this game with under seven minutes of time on ice, while d-man Mason Lohrei logged just 8:29 after he was on the ice for three Pittsburgh tallies.
As it relates to Merkulov, I gotta admit that this has felt like a waste of an NHL recall, as we really haven’t learned anything about Merkulov and his NHL potential. And I’m not sure that we were ever going to learn much about him in a fourth-line role. Given his AHL resume as a definite scoring threat, using him in a fourth-line role just seems a bit wasteful when it comes to maximizing his impact.
All-Star Pasta
In a shock to absolutely no one, Bruins winger David Pastrnak was named to the 2024 All-Star Game ahead of Thursday’s game against the Penguins.
And fittingly, Pastrnak celebrated the nomination with yet another multi-point effort for the Bruins, with one goal, three points, and a plus-3 rating in this contest.
This will be Pastrnak’s fourth All-Star appearance (and his second straight), and comes amidst a season that’s included 23 goals (sixth-most in the NHL) and 53 points (third-most in the NHL) through 37 games this season.
It feels like the Bruins will probably have another All-Star at this year’s event, too. My money would be on Jeremy Swayman. Even after Thursday’s tough outing, Swayman still boasts a .922 save percentage (second-best in the NHL) and 2.43 goals against average (fifth-best in the NHL), and has without a doubt been the best goaltender in the Atlantic Division this season.
Crosby still gets it done
Even at 36, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has shown no signs of slowing down.
In fact, you could argue that Crosby looks as good as he ever has at any point in the 2020s, with Thursday’s three-point outing the latest work of art in a season that’s been full of them so far.
And going back to the sequence that served as the game-winning goal for the Penguins. That clean win over Charlie Coyle was one of Crosby’s 16 faceoff wins in a night that saw him lose just six of ’em, good for a 72.7 percent success rate at the dot.
It’s also kind of wild how his dominance has seemingly flown under the radar. I mean, part of that is almost to be expected when you’re this good for this long, and the other part is that this league is seemingly full of absolute all-world talents, but you don’t hear about Crosby nearly as much as guys like MacKinnon, Matthews, McDavid, and more. But the man is still doing the damn thing (and leading the way for a desperate Pens team), and it’s not lost on Brad Marchand.
Brad Marchand says that Sidney Crosby is the best player in the league if you look at his 200-foot game. Adds Nathan MacKinnon there, too. “Two Nova Scotia boys.”
Up next: The Bruins will remain at home for a Saturday head-to-head with the Lightning.
Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, HockeyBuzz.com or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter/X: @_TyAnderson.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»