Two of the better defensive teams in the NHL met Saturday afternoon (Nov. 25) at Madison Square Garden and you would never know it after watching the full 60 minutes. Unfortunately for the Boston Bruins, their struggles continued against the New York Rangers.
In their only meeting this season in New York, the Rangers erupted for seven goals on their way to a 7-4 win to tie the Bruins at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with 31 points. It was the second consecutive loss for Boston and it was the second straight concerning performance. Here are three takeaways after the Black and Gold dropped to 14-3-3 on the season.
Bruins Allow Season-High in Goals With Sloppy Play
Through the first 16 games of the season, the Bruins gave up five goals just once. Against the Rangers, it was the third time in less than a week that they allowed five or more goals. There are a lot of reasons for the large amount of goals, but New York did what good teams do, they took advantage of defensive zone turnovers and sloppy coverage by Jim Montgomery’s team.
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The turnovers started on the game’s first goal when Derek Forbort made a pass along the boards to John Beecher, but the youngster could not handle it, and the Rangers’ Nick Bonino collected the puck and quickly turned around and beat Linus Ullmark. It didn’t get any better as the game went along and in the third period, Boston was caught running around in their own end and Artemi Panarin took a cross-ice pass all alone and quickly deposited into the open net for the seventh New York goal of the day.
Issues in the defensive zone have been an issue all season long for the Bruins, but Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman have been huge with some saves to bail their teammates out. That can only happen for so long before they get burned and they have in the last week. Big time.
Bruins Allow Back-Breaking Goals
It was the same slow start that hurt them against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings for the Bruins who were outshot 7-0 in the first period before David Pastrnak registered their first shot on the afternoon at the 12:34 mark. By then, they were already down 2-0. To their credit they battled back and tied the game with a pair of goals 24 seconds apart, but they allowed another back-breaking goal at the end of the period.
On the power play, New York’s Jacob Trouba sent Chris Kreider in on a breakaway and he beat Ullmark for a goal with 1:19 left in the period. In the second period after Pastrnak tied the game with a power play goal 25 seconds into the period, the Rangers grabbed a 4-3 lead when Jimmy Vesey scored on a delayed penalty call with 3:23 left before the Bruins allowed a goal with 24 seconds left when K’Andre Miller ripped a slap shot past Ullmark for a two-goal lead.
End of periods, whether it’s the first, second, or third have been an issue for the Bruins and something that needs to be fixed. Those goals are big momentum swings and they’ve been on the wrong end of too many this season.
Bruins Special Teams Are Struggling
Usually one of the better teams in the league with their special teams, the Bruins are struggling in that area and it’s really hurting them. Detroit exposed their penalty-killing unit on Nov. 24 with two big goals, then the Rangers scored on their first opportunity when Kreider scored his first goal of the game when Ullmark failed to control a Vincent Trocheck shot and it rolled behind toward the empty net before Kreider knocked it home.
The Bruins’ power play, yes Pastrnak scored early in the second period, but their other two opportunities were a struggle. They allowed a shorthanded goal to Kreider in the first, then had a chance to take the lead in the second period when the Rangers gifted them a power play with too many men on the ice call, but they failed to cash in. Boston needs as much production from their power play as they can get and in the last two games, they haven’t got enough.
Bruins Quick Takeaways
- The Bruins avoided a key injury in the first period when Charlie McAvoy and Matthew Poitras collided just inside the Rangers blueline. Poitras was down for a few minutes before he went to the locker room, but he returned later in the period.
- Ullmark made 32 saves, some big ones when the game was close, including stopping Kreider in the third period on a breakaway. He got little help in front of him as a lot of the Rangers’ chances were high danger.
- Matt Grzelcyk returned and as expected, he was rusty and didn’t have the best game. He played 18:48 on 25 shifts and finished with a plus/minus of minus-2. All of the Bruins’ defensemen struggled, it just was not Grzelcyk.
- Every Bruins’ forward had at least one shot on the net except for Jakub Lauko. Pastrnak had a team-high six. John Beecher won 61% of his faceoffs and Pavel Zacha won 55% of his.
The Bruins went 1-2-1 against four Eastern Conference teams that are potential playoff teams and didn’t look good in this recent stretch. Now they head to play the Columbus Blue Jackets (Nov. 27) before hosting the San Jose Sharks (Nov. 30) in games that feel like they need to collect some points in to get out of their recent struggles.