After clinching a playoff berth on Monday night, the focus for the Bruins now shifts to keeping strong habits and maintaining good health. The latter is already in question as Charlie Coyle left Tuesday night's game after being hit on the wrist by a point shot from Brandon Carlo, who looked good in his return to the lineup. Not to mention, the Bruins dodged a bullet when Brad Marchand went head and shoulder first into the end boards while pursuing a puck on the penalty kill -- Marchand of course was alright and didn’t miss a second of action but the Bruins' season flashed before their eyes.
While the Bruins dictated play for much of the first two periods, they lacked a bit of structure in the third period and allowed the Devils to come back and tie the game not once, but twice before defeating Boston 4-3 in overtime.
Here are three key takeaways from the game.
1. Top power play finding their rhythm
Though it’s been a frustrating stretch for the Bruins’ top power-play unit, they’ve been creating more and more chances over the last several games while showing signs of a potential breakthrough.
During the second period, they were finally able to cash in on the man-advantage for the first time in over 20 attempts. Ironically enough, their goal came in an unconventional manner as David Pastrnak broke his stick during a one-timer attempt and Patrice Bergeron ended up scoring on a nifty turn-around shot to tie the game 1-1. It was the second goal in as many games for the Bruins’ captain and just goes to show that success on the power play doesn’t have to be perfectly manufactured.
Matt Grzelcyk, Brad Marchand and Pastrnak displayed effective motion in the offensive zone to open up more passing, while Bergeron played his role in the bumper to perfection.
Hopefully Bergeron’s tally goes a long way in the confidence department for the Bruins’ top power-play unit.
2. Atypical third-period letdown
Grzelcyk and Taylor Hall combined to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, where the Bruins are among the league leaders in winning percentage when leading after 40 minutes.
Unfortunately, the Bruins were unable to seal the deal in an unconventional back and forth third period. It began when Jesper Boqvist banged home a rebound from a seeing-eye shot from the blue line to tie the game 2-2.
After tying the game, the momentum should clearly have been on New Jersey’s side, right? Not so fast said Sean Kuraly, as the newly assigned third-line center responded with a monster shift beginning with a bone-crunching hit along the neutral zone boards, and ending with him driving to the net and deflecting home a backdoor pass from Pastrnak to once again regain the lead.
However, uncharacteristic turnovers and poor defensive structure allowed Yegor Sharangovich to break in all alone on Jaroslav Halak for the second time in one shift, this time burying a wrist shot under Halak’s arm to bring New Jersey back to even.
In the overtime session, Paval Zacha scored for the Devils on a delayed penalty for his second goal of the game and the win.
This loss certainly isn’t the end of the world, but again, the Bruins need to maintain strong habits and not get away from their defensive prowess.
3. Halak sees the writing on the wall in defeat
First things first: Jaroslav Halak was not the reason the Bruins lost. He only gave up one goal through the first two periods and made some impressive saves late in regulation and in overtime prior to Zacha’s winner. His teammates also didn’t help him all that much in the third period or extra session.
However, he didn’t exactly have his best performance by letting in four goals on 21 shots, and he definitely seemed leaky at times in the third period.
Now this isn’t exactly an easy situation for Halak as he has been losing starts to Tuukka Rask and Jeremy Swayman and was starting his first game in a month (he did get some brief relief action 11 days ago). Swayman has been making a rather indisputable case to be the Bruins’ number two netminder ever since making his NHL debut in the absence of Rask due to injury and Halak to illness.
Swayman has accumulated a 6-2-0 record as a starter -- only giving up one goal in one of his two losses -- has a goals against average of 1.62, a save percentage of .942 and seems to be the unanimous choice as Rask’s backup in the playoffs.
Halak isn’t oblivious to any of the above statistics and opinions. He knew that he would have to play at a high enough level that would force Bruce Cassidy to keep him as the team’s second goalie. Unfortunately for Halak, his play against the Devils only provided Cassidy with assurance that Rask and Swayman will be the goaltending duo when the Bruins enter the postseason.
Halak, who is a proud veteran in the NHL, wore his heart on his sleeve exiting the ice following the Bruins’ overtime loss in New Jersey -- slamming his stick over his net and against the boards multiple times in frustration as he now truly sees the writing on the wall of his diminishing role between the pipes.