B’s good, not good enough
Effort’s there but goals lacking
TAMPA — The good news last night for the Bruins was they put forth a far superior effort than the one they gave against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
The bad news was a team needs more than grit and hustle to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning these days. You have to put away your scoring opportunities and, as usual, the B’s could not do that. And after the B’s had played one of their better 20 minutes in the second period, Tampa seized controlwith two quick goals in the first five minutes of the third to snap a tie and hang on for a 3-2 victory at Amalie Arena.
For the ninth time in their last 10 games, the B’s scored two or fewer goals.
“Tonight is a little more disappointing, to be honest with you. We were right there,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Guys who’ve been in the league just mishandle pucks. Then we have opportunities to get plays to the net, shots get blocked. Listen, we had a few passengers and we can’t afford that against a No.1 team like Tampa.
“The second period we’ll look at and see that we played pretty well, but you have to be very good to beat these guys. And when you’re missing a few guys who can make plays for you, you’ve really got to be good. We weren’t quite there yet, but much better than the previous night.”
As well as the B’s played at times, they were bled out on self-inflicted wounds.
The Lightning broke a 1-1 tie at 2:40 of the third. Branstraight don Carlo did a nice job to skate the puck out of danger deep in his own end but he lost the puck once he crossed the blue line and Dan Girardi pushed it up to Alex Killorn to go right back on the attack. Killorn sifted a pass between Torey Krug’s legs for Mathieu Joseph, who slid it between Tuukka Rask’s pads.
Shortly after that, the Bolts handed the B’s a gift when goalie Louis Domingue shot the puck into the stands. But the present turned out to be an exploding cigar. Brad Marchand fanned on a shot out high and it was blocked by Steven Stamkos, who had lost his stick. Stamkos tried to clear the puck with his hand, but David Pastrnak got a stick on it. He couldn’t control it and Anthony Cirelli took off on a breakaway. He was able to beat Rask with a deke at 4:03 for the shorthand tally and two-goal lead.
The B’s kept battling though. With Rask pulled for an extra skater, David Backes won an offensve zone draw and David Pastrnak dished it back to David Krejci who beat Domingue with a slapper from high in the zone with 1:45 left in regulation. The B’s kept the pressure on for the rest of the game, but could not get the equalizer. It was their third regulation loss.
“I thought we did a pretty good job,” said Rask. “We started good and then the last 10 minutes (of the first) they were better, but I thought we defended well. In the third, there were a couple of breakdowns and I would have liked to make one or two of those saves. But the gap was too big after that.”
Pastrnak gave the B’s an early lead at 2:04 in the first with his 20th goal of the season, but the Bolts dominated the last part of the period and Brayden Point tied it with his 21st. Pastrnak had a chance to put the B’s back up on a partial breakaway. He got Domingue (33 saves) to bite on the move to the forehand but Pastrnak couldn’t lift it over his right pad.
The second period belonged to the Bruins everywhere but on the scoreboard. They outshot the Lightning 12-6, but had opportunities to create more and it didn’t happen.
“Where we need more is the low to high. When it goes up to the (defense), we’re really struggling to get those shots (through). It’s almost ironic that David Krejci, forward, gets it through to give us a chance,” said Cassidy. “We need a little bit more there. And we’ve talked about that on a regular basis. Be more active out there, find your shooting lanes. We’ll keep drilling that message home, but that’s an area of our game offensively, when you’re not scoring on a regular basis, you can really be productive.”
After not cashing their chances in the second, the B’s handed a couple to the Bolts in the third and Tampa took full advantage. The B’s stayed in it and made them sweat for the two points. But, in the end, it was just another lost opportunity.