TAMPA – The second night of a back-to-back is always tough. The second night of a back-to-back on the road against a hot Lightning team is even tougher.
Bruins get emotional win over Panthers, but lose to Lightning
The Bruins hung around in Tampa Wednesday night, but trailed most of the night and could never find a second goal in a 3-1 loss. Boston had a chance to clinch a playoff spot with a point, but will now have to wait until Saturday.
The Bruins were coming off an emotional, physical win over the Panthers on Tuesday. The Lightning had been off since Sunday after a long West Coast trip. The result was a game that didn’t have nearly the intensity that Tuesday’s slugfest in Sunrise did.
In the end, though, Tampa Bay had a little more in the tank, especially in the third period, when the Bruins just didn’t seem to have the legs to mount a serious comeback bid. They didn't land a single shot on goal in the final seven minutes of the game. Even with the goalie pulled late, the Bruins could barely get into the offensive zone, and ultimately surrendered an empty-net goal to finalize the 3-1 scoreline.
Maybe that all sounds like excuse-making, but it’s also just reality. The schedule didn’t do the Bruins, or the national TNT broadcast, any favors.
“I didn't think either team was really on top of their game, to be honest,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “It was a game where they were traveling back from the West Coast, so I don't think they were as sharp as they've been. And the intensity and the emotion in the game was not the same as it was for us last night.
“…Last night there was a lot of emotion in that game. There was a lot of physical – the physical product also contributes. You win a big game like that, we’re sky high, and then we gotta come back and we gotta play an elite team in the league again. It's a hard schedule.”
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Lindholm-Carlo split up
Montgomery made the rare decision to split up Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo for this one, opting to put Lindholm with Andrew Peeke and Carlo with Parker Wotherspoon. Before the game, he explained that he just wanted to see some different combinations to find out who might have chemistry with each other.
That’s probably the friendly explanation, because the reality is that the Lindholm-Carlo pairing had hit a rut recently, as they had been on the ice for five goals against in the last four games – and zero goals for. So, not a bad time at all to try something different.
The results on Wednesday, however, weren’t great. The Lindholm-Peeke pairing at least had good possession numbers (the Bruins outshot the Lightning 12-5 with them on the ice), but Wotherspoon-Carlo got caved in, and both pairs were on the ice for a goal against. Wotherspoon and Carlo were nearly on the ice for a second, too, but it got called back after the Bruins successfully challenged for offsides.
Wotherspoon and Carlo’s gap control was a little off on the Lightning’s first goal, as they gave Nick Paul an easy entry that then allowed him to flip a pass through to a charging Mitchell Chaffee.
On Tampa Bay’s second goal, Lindholm gave Brayden Point a little too much space at the right side of the net initially, which allowed Point to cleanly gather a rebound. Then Peeke took a bad route to the back post and couldn’t cut off Point’s wraparound, which beat Linus Ullmark.
On the goal that got called back, Wotherspoon committed a turnover on the breakout that eventually led to the scoring chance.
“It was OK,” Montgomery said when asked after the game what he thought of the new pairs. “It's a little too early for me to have a definitive answer. Gotta watch the film back again. But it was fine. I thought we gave up opportunities and didn't break pucks out as well as I'd like.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Montgomery handles his D pairs the rest of the way. Does he continue to experiment? Or does he go right back to Lindholm-Carlo after one game apart? And if there is more experimentation, could it include the Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy pair getting split up to see someone else get a shot with McAvoy?
Heinen has found his home
Danton Heinen spent much of the season bouncing all over the Bruins’ lineup while serving as something of a Swiss Army knife.
But as the Bruins hit the home stretch of the season, Heinen has clearly found a home in the top six on a line with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. That’s probably not what anyone expected when the Bruins signed Heinen for the veteran minimum after bringing him into camp on a professional tryout, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
Heinen scored again Wednesday, tying the game at 1-1 late in the first period. After Pastrnak forced a turnover on the forecheck, Zacha collected the loose puck and fed Heinen in the slot. Heinen did what you have to do playing in the top six: He finished his chance.
Heinen now has 15 goals and 30 points in 66 games on the season, including eight points (4 goals, 4 assists) in the last 12 games. Among all NHL players signed to standard contracts (i.e. not entry-level deals), Heinen ranks sixth in cost-per-point value, according to CapFriendly.
Heinen has now played 123 5-on-5 minutes with Pastrnak and Zacha, and the Bruins have outscored opponents 11-4 and have an expected goals share of 54.1% in that time, according to Natural Stat Trick. Call it the first line or second line or whatever you want, but that’s a really effective top-six line – whether you think Heinen fits the mold of a traditional top-six forward or not.
A tough return for JVR
It’s been a rough stretch for James van Riemsdyk, who missed three of the previous four games while dealing with the lingering effects of an illness.
His return to the lineup on Wednesday didn’t get off to the best start. Van Riemsdyk got beat to the front by Chaffee on the Lightning’s first goal, then took an offensive-zone holding penalty on his next shift.
Even before his illness, van Riemsdyk had been slumping and had been healthy-scratched a couple times. He now has zero goals and one point in his last 15 games. He finished Wednesday’s game with zero shot attempts in 9:10 of ice time.
It might be easy to say “JVR” should just be scratched come Game 1 of the playoffs, but the reality is that the Bruins still haven’t found a third-line replacement for him. Their best third line should be van Riemsdyk with Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic, but that’s only the case if van Riemsdyk can get his game back on track.
Even with the recent slump, van Riemsdyk remains fourth on the team in 5-on-5 points per 60 minutes. He can be a power-play asset at the net-front as well. Remember that cost-per-point metric I mentioned for Heinen? Van Riemsdyk is actually one spot ahead of him.
That version of van Riemsdyk that the Bruins got for the first four months of the season absolutely has a spot in the playoff lineup. The question is whether they can get that version back in these final eight games.