Rask KO’d, B’s shut out
Drop back-to-back games
COLUMBUS — The Bruins have had more than one lackluster effort since the calendar turned, but maybe none more so than Tuesday night in Columbus.
After a heartbreaking shootout loss and blown three-goal lead the night before, and in a game where their goalie was injured in the opening moments, the Bruins lacked response in a 3-0 defeat to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
Tuukka Rask got the start after Jaroslav Halak played in Philadelphia the previous night, but that lasted 1:12 before the game’s tone took a turn.
Blue Jackets winger Emil Bemstrom skated past the front of the crease and jabbed at the side of Rask’s mask. The Bruins goalie crumpled to the ice and he had to leave the game.
“He’s concussed,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. “He got elbowed in the head. He’ll probably go to protocol. At least that’s what I was told; maybe it’s not as bad as first thought. I guess we’ll have a better evaluation (Wednesday). … Maybe when he gets home he’ll feel better, maybe they jumped the gun a little bit, but that’s my explanation.
“It’s an elbow to the head is what it is, it’s a penalty,” Cassidy added. “But they missed it, you move on. It’s just unfortunate it happens to your number one (goalie). It was pretty clear to me.”
Halak, who played just the night before in the Bruins’ shootout loss in Philadelphia, entered the game playing in a back-to-back.
Rask dealt with a concussion last season, and once he left the game on Tuesday the Bruins announced he would not return with an upper body injury.
Brandon Carlo had some contact with Bemstrom in front of the net as the play happened but didn’t know there had been a hit to Rask’s head until seeing the replay later.
“Didn’t really recognize it right away, didn’t know,” said Carlo. “After he went down I was asking the ref what happened and he said it was an accident, a stick to the face. That’s what he saw, but I’m not sure the guys were really aware of that at the time. After the first period we obviously saw it. From my perspective, being that close to the play, and being the one who supposedly pushed him, I didn’t even really shove him at all, it wasn’t a strong play on my part by any means.”
The night after tallying five goals in Philly, and in a stretch where the Bruins have scored five and six goals in two of the past four games, the offense went dark in Columbus.
With 11:59 left in the first David Savard looked to have pushed the puck in, but the officials already blew the whistle on Halak’s save, so it stayed deadlocked for at least a few more minutes.
The Jackets sounded the cannon 13:27 into the period. Alexander Wennberg slid the puck through the slot and past Halak off a clean zone entry to put Columbus ahead 1-0.
In the second, the Bruins finally started to physically challenge Bemstrom, but all that resulted was matching roughing penalties for Joakim Nordstrom and PierreLuc Dubois. Aside from a couple of shifts where Carlo and Torey Krug and a few others tried to bang Bemstrom, the Bruins didn’t respond physically.
“Should our guys have had a better response, I think there could have been,” said Cassidy. “I don’t know if they saw it in real time. It was pointed out after the first period, that our goaltender got bumped. But listen, it’s a little late then, you can’t take the law into your own hands.”
With Brad Marchand — who had a rough 24 hours overall after the shootout attempt in Philadelphia — in the box for a high stick, the Blue Jackets blasted their second goal with 14:13 left in the third. Kevin Stenlund buried his fourth goal of the season from the top of the circle to double the Columbus lead right after an unsuccessful Bruins power play.
They followed up with another failed man advantage moments after the Jackets went ahead 2-0.
Columbus went ahead 3-0 with 6:55 left with a tally from former Bruins center Riley Nash, just his fourth of the season.
An uncharacteristic 0-for-4 night on the power play doomed the Bruins and they couldn’t get much momentum at even strength, either. Elvis Merzlikins became the first goalie to shut the Bruins out all season.
The Bruins return home to face the Penguins on Thursday night. They finish the three-game Metropolitan road swing 1-1-1.