B’s can’t nab big save
Goalies struggle in loss
The mistakes made in front of them were almost too numerous to list, but both Bruins goaltenders were taking responsibility last night for one of the most damaging and emotionally painful losses of the season. It could have been different. The B’s battled back from a 4-1 deficit — in a game of utmost importance to both them and the Maple Leafs — knotting things and raising the excitement level within the Garden to probably the highest point this season.
The faithful were ready to erupt if the B’s could somehow find a game-winning goal.
It never happened. Instead, there was just glum silence after the Leafs were the ones who made the decisive play at the end — the goal by frequent B’s nemesis James van Riemsdyk with 1:36 left to give Toronto an enormous 6-5 victory.
“There’s a lot of things you can critique in a loss like this,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “But at the end of the night we had a chance to win this game, and we didn’t take advantage of it.”
It’s probably unfair to look at the goalies in this one, but both Tuukka Rask and Zane McIntyre stood up afterward and took the rap. Starter Rask played 23:31 and gave up four goals on 14 shots — three of the scores coming on successive shots in a 1:46 span in the second period.
He was replaced by McIntyre, who stopped 10-of-12 shots in 24:48. The first goal he yielded was the result of a blown coverage, as 3-on-2 trailer Connor Brown had a virtual layup from the low slot.
The second one that beat him was the killer: A wrister from the right circle by van Riemsdyk that eluded him high on the short side. Talk about sucking all the air out of a building.
“That was a tough pill to swallow, that’s for sure,” said McIntyre. “I think I made it harder than it should have been for sure; I looked one way and it was coming the other way. It was a pretty routine save and I just didn’t make it. It’s a tough one on my end, for sure, and I’ll take accountability for that one.”
Rask also was faulting himself for some of the goals that gave Toronto its 4-1 lead.
He was asked at his postgame media scrum if anything was wrong with him.
“No,” he said. “I just didn’t stop a shot there. That was wrong.”
He knew that it was turnovers, missed coverages, maybe a lazy back check or two that led to the scoring chances — but he blamed himself anyway for the goals.
“Mistakes happen, and then I’m there to cover those,” said Rask. “I couldn’t. It’d be nice to have at least a couple of those back.”
Rask had to be a passionate cheerleader on the bench after he was replaced by McIntyre — and watched his mates mount a furious comeback to tie the game. And it must have hurt him almost as much as his backup when the Leafs got the two points.
“Very frustrating,” said Rask. “We played our hearts out after being down 4-1, battled back really hard and played good hockey. It just (wasn’t) enough. So yeah it’s very frustrating.”
Julien was asked if he considered putting Rask back into the game after the B’s mounted their comeback. No, he said, it wouldn’t have been fair to Mc- Intyre, “and Tuukka wasn’t having a great night.”
Who knows? Maybe if Rask had gone back in, he’d have stopped van Riemsdyk’s shot and the B’s would have had a happy ending. Instead, it was McIntyre bemoaning the fact he looked to the right of a Mitch Marner screen — while the puck flew in on the left.
Just eight games into his NHL career, the 24-year-old McIntyre was candidly asked if he believes he’s ready to play at this level, or is the game proving too hard for him.
“I wouldn’t say that at all,” he said. “I think I’m making it harder on myself, more than anything. There are simple reads that, for whatever reason, I’m not making. That’s the difference.
“As a goalie, if you make a mistake, if you make a bad read, the tough part of the job is that it ends up in the back of the net and the red light goes on.”