The desk was set for celebration on Tuesday night time on the Garden, however the Bruins didn’t present up for dinner.
With the Tampa Bay Lightning beating the Carolina Hurricanes, the B’s had an opportunity to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy whereas concurrently recording a Bruins’ report for wins in a season. But the B’s shot blanks all night time and absorbed simply their fourth regulation loss at residence, a 2-1 resolution to the Nashville Predators.
Cody Glass scored late within the second interval and it held up till outdated buddy Jeremy Lauzon’s 180 foot shot grazed off Cole Smith and hit the empty web with 1:01 to go. David Pastrnak scored with lower than a second left to keep away from the shutout, however the B’s must wait one other night time to safe first general. The Preds’ win, completed with out their prime two offensive gamers in Matt Duchene and Ryan Joehansen in addition to D-man Roman Josi, stored their faint playoff hopes alive.
Games like these are certain to occur, and the B’s had been coming off two emotional wins in opposition to Tampa and Carolina on the weekend. But Brad Marchand didn’t give his mates or himself a lot of a break.
“This is probably the toughest schedule I’ve ever seen or been a part of, but … we obviously took them lightly,” stated Marchand. “We seem to get up for teams that we’re potentially going to face here down the road. I just think we were a little disrespectful of the game tonight, and fatigue defiintely comes into it. But we’re going to run into situations where we’re tired moving forward and we still need to show up. It is what it. We’ll learn from it and move on.”
If any staff might be forgiven an off night time, it’s the B’s, who stay at 57 wins. But the one respectable concern stays the ability play, which went 0-for-5, and barely appeared crisp on Tuesday. Asked if his subsequent step to unlock what had as soon as been a reasonably formidable PP was to alter up the personnel for the sake of probability, coach Jim Montgomery wasn’t going there.
“Change isn’t always the answer, though it seems like the easiest answer. It’s players committing to doing the right thing,” stated Montgomery. “We didn’t have our A-game tonight. It wasn’t only the power play that stunk tonight. There were a lot of facets that weren’t at the level and standard that we expect, for whatever reason. We laid an egg tonight.”
Montgomery did concede that a part of the PP battle is psychological.
“I think it is in guys’ heads,” he stated. “People are trying to be perfect. If we don’t get success right away, we’re not recovering pucks. That’s when you know we’re not playing fast on the power play. We take a shot and we’re not on the rebound, wherever it goes. They cleared a lot of pucks after we took shots. When you’re on top of the power play, you’re converging at the net and coming up with those pucks.”
The groups performed a messy, scoreless first interval through which neither staff may money in on a number of energy play alternatives. The Preds, who additionally went 0-for-5 on the night time, had a 30-second 5-on-3 that they did nothing with whereas the B’s went went 0-for-3 on their possibilities.
The B’s greatest probability got here on the penalty kill when Brandon Carlo tried to chip residence a Tomas Nosek go. At first look it appeared like it might have crossed the road however video overview revealed that it was not purpose. Nashville wing Luke Evangelista pulled the puck off the purpose line earlier than it fully crossed.
The energy play woes continued within the second interval, which was no extra aesthetically pleasing than the primary interval. The B’s had two extra possibilities within the second however didn’t get a shot on web on both man benefit, though there was really some first rate zone time and puck motion on the second.
Finally, late within the second interval, the Preds scored the primary purpose of the sport. Hampus Lindholm blocked a Ryan McDonagh shot/go within the slot however couldn’t find it earlier than Glass snapped a fast shot that beat Linus Ullmark over the blocker with 1:49 left within the interval.
That put the B’s on the chase for the third interval in opposition to one of many league’s higher goalies in Juuse Saros.
Montgomery flipped Jake DeBrusk and Pastrnak on the highest two strains. The B’s additionally had been properly conscious of what was occurring in Carolina and so they began to play extra within the offensive zone. Trent Frederic arrange Lindholm for an incredible probability within the slot however Saros smothered the defenseman’s backhander.
The B’s outshot the Preds 16-4 within the third, however couldn’t beat Saros till it was too late.
Source: www.bostonherald.com