The margins are so thin right now. That goes for these last two games for the Boston Bruins, and it goes for the standings around them.
On Monday night in New Jersey, Charlie McAvoy hit the post in overtime, right before the Devils went back the other way to win it. On Tuesday night in Montreal, Pavel Zacha got a breakaway in overtime and got denied by the butt end of goalie Jakub Dobes's stick. Seconds later, Cole Caufield finished off an easy tap-in past Jeremy Swayman at the other end to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win.
The Bruins had a golden opportunity Tuesday night to jump from fifth to third in the Atlantic Division if they had won in regulation. Instead, the Canadiens stayed ahead of them. The Bruins technically still moved up one spot from the second to first wild card spot, as they hold the regulation wins tiebreaker over the Detroit Red Wings, who also have 82 points in 68 games.
Right behind both of them are the Columbus Blue Jackets, who gained more ground Monday night with a statement 5-1 win over the East-leading Carolina Hurricanes. The Blue Jackets are now just one point behind Boston and Detroit with a game in hand.
So, how should the Bruins be feeling right about now? Nervous? On the surface, getting four of six points on this three-game road trip looks solid. But ending the trip with back-to-back losses – even overtime losses – can't sit well.
Tuesday's loss on its own isn't a bad one. The Bruins were on a back-to-back with travel, while the Canadiens were sitting home resting. It's two playoff teams. Two rivals. It was dead even through three periods, with the score 2-2 and shots on goal 27-27. Overtime is a crapshoot. It is what it is.
Monday's loss in Newark is the one that hurts more. The Bruins led that game 2-0 against a non-playoff team. It should have been two points, but they couldn't close the deal and let one of those points slip away.
Bruins coach Marco Sturm sounded proud of his guys after Tuesday's game, but also disappointed that they hadn't picked up at least one more point these last two nights.
"I can't say enough of my guys," Sturm told NESN. "The one thing I can tell you, these guys work. They come to work every day. Sometimes, it's just not on our side. The third period was good. They didn't have much. They came out very strong. They were well rested, but we hung in there pretty good. Sway was good. He was outstanding. Those tough bounces in OT, it just could go either way. But I'm glad we got the road trip we wanted. We wished for more, but now we go home and see our crowd back in Boston."
Just like this road trip as a whole, there was good and bad for the Bruins on Tuesday. As Sturm noted, Swayman was definitely a positive. He was very good once again, just as he has been in six of his seven starts since the Olympic break.
Pavel Zacha stayed hot, scoring both Bruins goals. He now has seven goals in the last seven games, and is up to 22 on the season, a new career high. His second goal came off a beautiful setup from linemates Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson, as that trio continues to be a 5-on-5 force.
The first goal came on the power play, and boy did the Bruins' power play need to see one go in. They had gone four games without scoring on the man advantage before Tuesday, and were converting at a measly 11.4% since the break.
But then there were still some bad power plays to follow, so all is not well there. They failed to convert on their next three opportunities, and the two they had in the second period were especially sloppy. Late in the second, they turned the puck over on three straight entry attempts, as a part of their power play that was such a strength for much of the season has now become a major weakness.
On the other side of the special teams equation, the Bruins played a disciplined game, which is good. They only took one penalty, and successfully killed it off.
Their 5-on-5 play was not very good, though. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Canadiens out-attempted the Bruins 68-43 at 5-on-5 and more than doubled them up in high-danger chances (21-10).
The only Bruins line that was on the ice for more shots for than against was the third line of Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm and Mikey Eyssimont. But they also got pinned in their own zone on the Canadiens' second goal, with at least two failed clears in the buildup to Josh Anderson's goal.
On Montreal's first goal, Andrew Peeke committed a turnover on the breakout, and Nick Suzuki made the Bruins pay seconds later. Peeke avenged his mistake late in the third period, sliding behind a scrambling Swayman and saving a Kaiden Guhle shot right on the goal line.
Again, pretty much everywhere you look: Some good, some bad. That's just how it's going for the Bruins, who are now 5-3-3 since the Olympics – about as middle-of-the-road as it gets. It's been just good enough to cling to a playoff spot to this point, but there are still 14 games to go. At some point real soon, they're going to need to stack some wins together and not just settle for overtime points.