Nikita Zadorov called Thursday night the Bruins’ biggest game of the season during his pregame interview on NESN. The Bruins and goaltender Jeremy Swayman did not meet the moment in the first period, and Boston wound up with a 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators as a result.
Still less than a week removed from last Friday’s tumultuous trade deadline, the Bruins had managed to generate some good vibes thanks to back-to-back impressive wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.
That momentum came to a screeching halt in just 20 minutes of action at the Canadian Tire Centre, though. Swayman had one of his worst periods of the season, giving up four goals on 15 shots before getting yanked at the intermission. The team in front of him wasn’t much better, landing just four shots on Linus Ullmark at the other end while spending most of the period in their own zone.
Ottawa’s first goal came 3:44 into the game on an unscreened turnaround shot from Shane Pinto in the right circle that just beat Swayman clean under the glove. The second was a rocket slapper from Tyler Kleven, but it was also unscreened, and from the top of the circle.
After the Bruins cut it to 2-1, Swayman got stuck in place and barely even moved as Brady Tkachuk hit Drake Batherson backdoor for an easy finish on the power play. Just 22 seconds later, Swayman misplayed the puck behind his net and then gave up a juicy rebound that Ridly Greig buried.
It wasn’t all on Swayman. Andrew Peeke committed a bad icing before the first goal. Parker Wotherspoon had two costly misplays leading up to the second. Multiple Bruins penalty-killers had failed clearances before the third. The offense was non-existent in the first period outside of the nice setup from Vinni Lettieri to Casey Mittelstadt that led to Boston’s lone goal of the period (and Mittelstadt’s first goal as a Bruin).
But Swayman needed to be better, really on all four goals. Especially in a big game against one of the teams the Bruins are chasing in the wild card race. Especially with former tandem-mate Ullmark on the other side.
It’s the latest instance of Swayman struggling when he gets three or more consecutive starts. In such outings this season, he is now 3-8-3 with an .869 save percentage. When Swayman is making his first or second start in a row, he’s 17-14-3 with a .910 save percentage.
The Bruins did push back in the second and third periods, but just had too much ground to try to make up. David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha combined to force a turnover that led to a Pastrnak tip-in goal to cut it to 4-2. After Drake Batherson pushed it to 5-2, Marat Khusnutdinov answered on a breakaway with his first goal as a Bruin, taking a nice pass from Elias Lindholm and then showing off his speed to pull away from the Ottawa defense.
The Bruins nearly cut the deficit to one late in the second, but Ullmark made a ridiculous diving glove save on a seam pass from Khusnutdinov to Mason Lohrei – a legitimate save of the year candidate.
The Bruins had some zone time in the third period, but didn’t do enough to convert it into many real scoring chances and never made it closer than 5-3. Claude Giroux added a late empty-netter to finish off the scoring.
The Columbus Blue Jackets, the team holding the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, also lost Thursday night. The Bruins remain two points back, but with two fewer games remaining. The Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings remain packed in between them and Columbus on points percentage as well.
Thursday night was a harsh reminder of just how tough it’s going to be for these Bruins to write some fairytale story down the stretch. With just 15 games to go and virtually no margin for error, they simply can’t afford too many more periods like the first period Thursday night.