The Bruins were a minute and a half away from what would have gone down as their best two-night stretch of the season. They had shut down the league’s No. 2 offense, the Toronto Maple Leafs, on Monday in a dominant 4-1 win. They had shut out the league’s No. 4 offense, the Edmonton Oilers, for 58-plus minutes on Tuesday.
Elias Lindholm rumors are back!
But, as has been the case too many times this season, Boston couldn’t close out the win Tuesday. Danton Heinen’s bid for an empty-net goal got deflected just wide by the stick of a backchecking Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Charlie Coyle lost a defensive-zone faceoff to Leon Draisaitl. Connor McDavid wheeled through the Bruins’ zone and threw a backhander towards the net. Draisaitl deflected it. Linus Ullmark made the initial save, but the puck popped up above him, came down behind him, and bounced over the line.
The Oilers went on to win, 2-1, in overtime. Another lost defensive-zone faceoff, this time by Trent Frederic against Draisaitl, gave the nearly unguardable trio of Draisaitl, McDavid and Evan Bouchard possession. Once again, McDavid set up Draisaitl, and the winning shot deflected in off the stick of Brandon Carlo.
How you feel about the Bruins waking up on Wednesday morning, two days before Friday’s trade deadline, might depend on whether you’re an optimist or pessimist by nature.
The pessimist’s point of view: The Bruins blew yet another lead, and their inability to close out games could be a fatal flaw. The optimist’s point of view: They just played two of their best defensive games of the season against two of the league’s best offenses, on back-to-back nights with travel in between.
There is validity to both, and neither should be ignored.
Let’s start with the positives. The last two nights, the Bruins have played the kind of defense you need to play to win in the playoffs. Holding the Maple Leafs and Oilers to a combined two goals across 120 minutes of regulation is a legitimately impressive feat.
This wasn’t hang-on-for-dear-life, get-bailed-out-by-your-goalie defense, either. This was disciplined, tight-checking, take-away-time-and-space defense. It was the kind of defense we hadn’t seen enough of from the Bruins over the past month, especially not during their recent stretch of 11 straight games allowing three or more goals.
It was fair to wonder if the Bruins were still capable of playing this kind of defense. Maybe when they get Hampus Lindholm back from injury, and perhaps if they’re able to add the “stiff defender” Cam Neely is on record as coveting. But on Monday and Tuesday, they did it without any outside help.
Tuesday night was an especially strong effort. At 5-on-5 play, the Bruins limited the Oilers to five high-danger chances, the second-fewest Edmonton has had in a game all season. The Oilers had just one over the final two periods. It took an extra attacker for them to finally break through.
The Bruins did about as good of a job against Edmonton’s loaded-up top line of McDavid, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman as anyone reasonably could. That trio had two high-danger chances during their 13:37 of 5-on-5 ice time. When these teams met in a much more wide-open game in Edmonton two weeks ago, McDavid was on the ice for 10 high-danger chances and three goals. The Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy D pair and Brad Marchand-Charlie Coyle-Jake DeBrusk line deserve much of the credit for Tuesday night, as coach Jim Montgomery tasked them with the bulk of those difficult minutes.
“I thought we did a really good job all game limiting their chances, to be honest,” Montgomery said. “The last two games, I think we played the two highest-scoring teams per game in the league. So, I'm happy about the way we checked. I’m happy about the way we're staying above pucks, not giving up odd-man rushes. … If you check in this league, you give yourself an opportunity.”
This blown lead didn’t really feel the same as other recent blown leads, either. Especially on their Western road trip, when they blew leads three times in four games, the Bruins too often found themselves under siege, with the next goal feeling almost inevitable.
That wasn’t the case Tuesday. Even if the Bruins conceded some zone time in the third period, they did a good job keeping the Oilers to the outside and away from the front of the net. They won pucks back and effectively cleared the zone, allowing them to get clean changes and not have anyone get stuck on the ice for too long.
On Monday in Toronto, the Bruins even sustained offensive-zone time and extended their lead while closing out the Leafs. That part wasn’t quite there Tuesday, though, and that’s where Montgomery thinks some tired legs may have finally showed up.
“I do think our game needs to improve going the other way,” Montgomery said. “We’re creating turnovers, and we’re not – today was not as good as yesterday. And that’s where I could see that we were a little bit tired, was that we were not transitioning to offense very well. We didn’t have the jump.”
As for what went wrong on Edmonton’s tying and winning goals, there was one common theme that remains an ongoing problem: Losing defensive-zone faceoffs. The Bruins lost 14 of 23 defensive-zone faceoffs Tuesday, including the two before those decisive goals.
It’s an area where they could clearly use another trusted faceoff artist. Coyle has taken the most defensive-zone faceoffs in the NHL this season (550). He has won 52.5% of them – solid but not spectacular. He is also just one man.
You know who’s been even better? Elias Lindholm, who reportedly could once again be in play as a potential Bruins trade target this week. He has taken the fifth-most D-zone draws, but has won 57.5% of them – seventh-best in the NHL among 81 centers who have taken at least 200 D-zone faceoffs.
Whether it’s Lindholm, another external solution, or they’re left to figure it out internally, the fact remains that the Bruins have to get better in 6-on-5 situations if they’re going to have any chance of closing out one-goal playoff games.
“You’ve got to find a way to close out a game,” Montgomery said. “Just a great opportunity for us to realize that you can't take anything for granted. Because in a couple of months, it doesn’t matter how tired you are at the end of a game, we’ve got to find a way to push through. We didn't find a way.”
Ultimately, that’s the bottom line. Yes, the Bruins played a lot better the last two nights than they had in weeks. Yes, there were legitimately encouraging signs. But there was still a blown lead. There was still that missing piece at the end. And that leaves a bitter taste with now just two days to go before the trade deadline.