B’s going wrong way
Lose 3rd in a row to Ottawa
It is getting to be that time of year again, isn’t it? It is late March, a playoff spot is within their grasp and yet the Bruins have found themselves in the midst of a very untimely losing streak.
The B’s lost their third straight game last night, and their third in a many tries to Atlantic Division rival Ottawa, 3-2, at the Garden.
The past two seasons, the B’s have crash-landed outside the playoffs. They now have nine games left in this regular season to avert yet another disaster.
“Every year writes its own story,” said interim coach Bruce Cassidy, whose team is four points ahead of the ninth-place Islanders, who have two games in hand. “There’s a lot of guys in that room that weren’t here last year, including myself, so we’d like to write our own story. Clearly the last two games (against Toronto and Ottawa) were important games for us, and we had some breakdowns.
“But I don’t think I’m going to wake up (today) and find ourselves eliminated, so we’re going to go back to work (tomorrow) against Tampa, we’re going to keep playing well and keep playing hard. We’re going to reinforce the positive, as we’ve done the last six weeks, and work on the things we need to get better at. Then it will play out from there. I know there are proud guys in the room and they’re upset, disappointed, frustrated — whatever word — that we didn’t get points (Monday) night and (last night), but we’re playing the right way for the most part. We just have to string it together for 60 minutes. We’re playing good teams.”
There were indeed good things to take from last night’s loss. For the first time in three tries against the trapping Senators, the B’s were able to get through the neutral zone and apply pressure within the offensive zone, especially after the first period. And if not for a first-star performance from goalie Craig Anderson (34 saves), it could have been a much different outcome.
But there were some bad things, too, beyond the loss. The B’s never led. They could not score an even-strength goal (both tallies came on the power play). And every time they climbed back into the game, they were quickly pushed back on their heels.
The Sens took the first lead at 4:09 of the first period when Cody Ceci’s shot from the right side deflected in off Tom Pyatt, but David Krejci answered with his 21st of the season at 8:57.
After Adam McQuaid was called for tripping early in the second, Kyle Turris scored his first of two when his slapper, which might have grazed Brandon Carlo, beat Tuukka Rask at 1:34.
The B’s pretty much dominated the rest of the second, outshooting Ottawa 18-8 but failing to beat Anderson. But as tempers flared at the end of the period, the B’s wound up with a 4-on-3 to start the third — and they wasted little time cashing in.
Torey Krug tied the game just 17 seconds into the third, taking the puck in his own end, gaining the offensive zone and then splitting Erik Karlsson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau before beating Anderson with a quick wrister.
All the momentum was on the B’s side until Dominic Moore took his second offensive zone penalty in as many games. The one that cost the B’s the game in Toronto was a terrible call. Last night, when he slashed the stick out of Pageau’s hands, it was pretty much an automatic penalty.
The B’s killed off the penalty but never truly got out of kill mode. After the B’s failed several times to clear the zone, Dion Phaneuf, in the box for Krug’s goal, gave a slap pass to Turris in the slot, and he deflected it home at 4:04.
“It was a lot of miscommunication there,” Patrice Bergeron said. “We didn’t execute our D-zone coverage, and we got exposed.”
The players did their best to defect the questions about the past two years.
“You have to look forward and don’t dwell on the past, don’t look at the past two years,” Bergeron said. “It’s not even something we should even be thinking about at this point. It’s about us . . . being better and finding ways to win games. We’re playing good hockey, but not good enough to get the result.”
At this stage, results are all that matter.