The night started with a celebration of Brad Marchand, who was playing his 1,000th career game. The Bruins captain received a standing ovation from the TD Garden crowd at the game’s first commercial break, when that accomplishment was recognized on the jumbotron.
Marchand's 1,000th game; Help needed in bottom six
It nearly had a fairytale ending. With 16 seconds left in overtime, Marchand took a pass from David Pastrnak and found himself 1-on-1 with Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy with the game on the stick. He snapped off a hard shot and… Vasilevskiy made a great blocker save. The Lightning went on to win, 3-2, in the shootout.
Despite the final result, there was a lot to like about Boston’s play Tuesday, especially coming off Saturday’s no-show against the Capitals. Here are three takeaways from the game:
Marchand’s big night
It’s been a season full of milestone moments for Marchand. He was named team captain. He moved into the top five on the franchise’s career goals and points leaderboards. And then on Tuesday, he became the eighth player ever to play 1,000 games in a Bruins uniform.
Marchand was visibly a little bit emotional during the national anthem pregame, and then was clearly appreciative of the standing ovation at the first commercial break, waving to the sellout crowd several times.
“It’s special,” Marchand said after the game. “I know how fortunate I am to be part of this organization, and one organization your whole career, at least up to this point. It's part of what I love so much about being here, is how much the fans care, how much they embrace the team. It's really special, and it flies by. You really have to enjoy every day and make the most of every moment. You don’t know when it's gonna be your last. I can't believe how fast it's already gone, and it's something you want to make last forever, but we’ve all got a shelf life. To look back on it and see some of those memories, it's very special. You don't get to remember every day, but this is one I’ll remember forever.”
There will be a more formal celebration of Marchand’s 1,000 games on Monday, when he will be honored with a pregame ceremony before the Bruins’ matinee game against the Dallas Stars.
As for the game itself, Marchand assisted on both of the Bruins’ goals. On the first, he made the pass back to the point to Charlie McAvoy, who then beat Vasilevskiy through a Charlie Coyle screen. On the second, he made several creative moves during a delayed penalty situation to create a couple looks before eventually landing a shot on goal that produced a rebound for James van Riemsdyk to knock in.
“A little bit of like, what’s he doing here? What's he going to do with this?,” McAvoy said of Marchand’s effort on the second goal. “It was a free play. You're not sure, but he tried one play, got it back, tried another, got it back again. It was like something good was destined to happen. It just kept finding him, and then a good shot and great play by JVR.”
An effort to be proud of
The Bruins needed to respond after Saturday’s stinker against Washington, and they did on Tuesday. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, and obviously you’d like to get two points instead of one, but this was an honest effort, against a surging Lightning team, and a game where Boston was the better team most of the night.
They started sloppy, which remains something of an ongoing issue, and gave up an early goal – one that Linus Ullmark should have stopped, and that McAvoy had a chance to clear off the line, only to whiff.
But then the Bruins woke up and were the better team the rest of the first period, outshooting Tampa 11-6 in the frame. They gave up another goal early in the second on a Lightning power play, but responded 58 seconds later with a goal from McAvoy and then tied the game later in the period on van Riemsdyk’s goal.
They had plenty of chances to win the game in the third period and overtime, including a 6-1 shots advantage in the 3-on-3 extra session, but just couldn’t put another past Vasilevskiy.
At 5-on-5, the Bruins out-attempted the Lightning 55-36 for the night, had a 12-5 advantage in high-danger chances, and had a 63.5% expected goals-for share.
“I thought we played a real solid team game,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “Even when we were down 2-0, they scored that second goal, we still felt like we were gonna be able to get back in the game, and we did. Sometimes you lose games in this league and you feel like you deserve better. That’s gonna happen. I was proud of our effort.”
Late power plays go to waste
The one area of the Bruins’ game that let them down was their power play. They went 0-for-6 for the night (really 0-for-5 since the last one was for 2.6 seconds at the end of overtime), including 0-for-3 in the third period. Two of those third-period chances came in the final 10 minutes, providing golden opportunities to win the game that ultimately went to waste.
Their possession and puck movement was pretty good at times and they did get chances, landing nine shots on goal on those six power plays, but ultimately they couldn’t score.
“Our power play needs to come through for us there,” Montgomery said. “Can’t go 0-for-6. That’s an area that we have to look at.”
The Bruins’ power play is now in an 0-for-15 slump, and is just 2-for-28 dating back to Jan. 22. After climbing up to third in the league with a strong couple months in the middle part of the season, Boston has now slid back down to eighth at 24% for the season. That’s still a good place to be overall, but there’s clearly work to do to get the PP back on track.
“I just don’t think our puck decisions and our puck movement are quick enough,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think we pass the puck crisp enough to be able to beat their execution of their penalty kill.”
Van Riemsdyk sang a more optimistic tune after the game, saying he felt like there was something to build on despite not scoring. And in fairness, it should be noted that his goal came in a power play-like situation, with Ullmark pulled for a 6-on-5 advantage during a delayed penalty call.
“I think that's the best I felt about our power play, especially recently here,” van Riemsdyk said. “I thought we moved the puck around really well and had some really good looks and had a chance to have a couple, so that's something we can definitely build on and keep working at it.”