B’s blown out by Islanders
Give up five third-period goals in loss
islanders 7 bruins 2
When the Bruins enter the third period and any game is close, they usually feel pretty good about themselves.
The exception to that rule is when they play the New York Islanders.
The B’s on Thursday night went into the third period — a period they typically own — tied with the Islanders, but the Islanders blew them out of the building with five unanswered goals and handed the B’s their worst loss of the season, 7-2, at Nassau Coliseum. It was the third loss in as many tries for the B’s on Long Island this year, and each time the game got away from them in the third. It was also the B’s third loss in four games, and coupled with the Capitals’ win on Thursday, they are in a points tie with Washington for first place in the East Division (the B’s have two games in hand). Three of the B’s four regulation losses have come on the Island.
The injury-riddled B’s have some young, inexperienced players in the lineup and a couple of them were front and center in the thirdperiod swoon. But as coach Bruce Cassidy himself pointed out, their top line did not give them its usual spark, either, and Charlie McAvoy suffered through a couple of rough moments as well.
“We didn’t execute very well,” said Cassidy of the third-period collapse. “We got down on ourselves, tried to do too much on a couple of pinches . ... We didn’t stick with it. We gave up a third goal that a young kid just got caught not moving his feet. Then we pressed, made some mistakes, gave their top players time and space and they buried us.”
The Islanders snapped a 2-2 deadlock at 5:41 of the third on some sloppy play from the B’s. The B’s fourth line, after being hemmed in, missed a chance to clear the zone first. Then, after Trent Frederic collected a rebound directly in front of Jaroslav Halak, it appeared he had plenty of time to get the puck out of Dodge. He took all of that time — and a little bit more. Anthony Beauvillier sneaked in behind him, picked his pocket and beat Halak with a backhander.
Then with the B’s pushing for the equalizer and McAvoy pinching, the Isles broke out on a two-on-one. Mathew Barzal, who had kept the puck and scored on a previous two-on-one, drew Urho Vaakanainen to him and fed Jordan Eberle, who roofed it over Halak.
The B’s had a chance to get back in the game when the Islanders took a delay-of-game penalty at 12:09, but even that blew up on them. Before they even had a chance to set up the PP, McAvoy turned the puck over at the blue line, allowing Jean-Gabriel Pageau to take off on a shorthanded breakaway and score.
Anders Lee and Oliver Wahlstrom added a couple more to make the rout complete.
“There wasn’t any (sense of urgency), so that’s a problem. We don’t usually see that with our club,” said Cassidy. “We’ve got some young players in the lineup so we’re going to live with certain mistakes, but I think Charlie pressed a little bit there in the third. It’s a good defensive team. They don’t give you much. You need to have patience. We found our game midway through the first and the second and we were in a good position in the third and we just made some poor decisions on the fourth and fifth goal that gave them easy odd-man rushes.”
The game started better for the B’s than it ended.
The B’s got on the board first on the second shift of the game at 1:02. Charlie Coyle dropped a pass for Jakub Zboril, who in his first game back after missing two with an upper body injury, made a deep foray down the right side of the ice. He made a pretty backhand dish to Nick Ritchie at the left side of the cage and, with plenty of net at which to shoot, he buried his seventh of the year past Semyon Varlamov.
The troublesome Islanders came right back and tied it a couple minutes later. The Isles’ excellent checking line hemmed in the B’s top line. Brandon Carlo had a chance to clear a Matt Martin redirection, but it went right on the stick of Adam Pelech, who popped it past the stretching Halak.
And at 12:39, it was the Islanders who took the advantage. Nick Leddy’s pass to Barzal caught Connor Clifton flat-footed and Barzal took off on a two-onone against John Moore. Moore gave Barzal the shot and the young Islanders star sniped the far-side shot past Halak’s glove.
The B’s held a 15-10 shot advantage, but the Islanders spent enough time in the Boston zone to be concerned about the direction of the game.
But the B’s came out strong in the second and drew the first penalty of the game when Beauvillier tripped David Pastrnak.
They could not score on the advantage, nor could the Islanders score on their power play when Craig Smith was called for hooking in the offensive zone.
But when Smith was freed, he scored the equalizer on a play in which he could have easily been called for another penalty. He gloved an aerial Jake DeBrusk pass in the neutral zone and made a behind-the-back pass to himself off the left-wing boards. The refs allowed him to play on. Smith collected the puck at the half wall in the Islanders’ zone and tried to hit Studnicka rushing down the middle of the ice, but Martin deflected the puck past Varlamov at 11:36. It stood up as Smith’s fourth of the season.
The game was tied, and the B’s were in good shape. Or so they thought before the roof caved in on them.
Whether it’s good or not, the B’s get right back at it on Friday in Manhattan against the Rangers. Cassidy did not rule out a lineup change but didn’t seem inclined to go that route.
“I don’t want to be rash,” said Cassidy. “I want to give players an opportunity to atone.”
And there’s plenty for which to do that, from the third period alone.