The Bruins will be glad to see no more trips to Ottawa on their schedule. On Oct. 27, the Canadian Tire Centre was the site of by far their worst loss of the season, a 7-2 shellacking. That was Boston’s last loss before reeling off a seven-game winning streak… which, coincidentally, ended Thursday night in the same building with a 5-3 loss to the Senators.
This loss wasn’t as ugly as that first one, but some issues that the Bruins had cleaned up during their win streak did return, starting with a bad start.
The Bruins just could not get out of their own zone in the first period. They lost too many battles on the boards, missed too many passes, and made too many soft plays on the puck. They trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes as a result.
The Senators’ first goal was a bit of a bad break, as it came on the power play with Jeffrey Viel in the box for a penalty he didn’t actually commit – Ottawa winger Drake Batherson had actually tripped over his own teammate’s stick, not Viel’s. Nonetheless, Boston’s penalty kill wasn’t good enough, surrendering a seam pass one-timer to Claude Giroux.
It looked like the Bruins might limp their way into the intermission down by one, but all the time spent running around their own zone caught up to them in the final minute. Boston’s fourth line and third defense pair got pinned in and eventually suffered a breakdown that left Dylan Cozens open in the high slot for a one-time finish.
The Bruins bounced back with a way better second period and cut the lead to 2-1 on Morgan Geekie’s 12th goal of the season, but then they gave it back by committing a cardinal sin a minute into the third period.
Their third line and top D pair got caught out for a long shift to open the period, and then compounded the problem when all five guys went for a change even though they had only gotten the puck out to center ice. The Senators quickly turned up ice for a 2-on-1 that Shane Pinto finished off.
The Bruins again fought back, to their credit. After David Pastrnak had a power-play goal called back for offsides, he scored one that counted just 47 seconds later to cut it to 3-2. It was Pastrnak’s 402nd career goal, tying him with Rick Middleton for fifth in Bruins history.
Less than 90 seconds later, Mark Kastelic tied the game, finishing off a blue-collar shift for the third line by winning a battle for a rebound and tapping in his fourth goal of the season.
The Bruins really should have come away with at least a point, but shot themselves in the foot one more time to cost themselves the game. With under six minutes left in regulation, Hampus Lindholm held the puck behind his own net while the rest of the Bruins went for a change. But then he messed up whatever breakout play Boston was trying to set up, sliding a pass behind Sean Kuraly that led to a turnover. Seconds later, Tim Stutzle gave the Senators a 4-3 lead. He later added an empty-netter to finalize the score line.
“We didn’t have a good start today,” Bruins coach Marco Sturm told NESN after the game. “The rest of the game I thought was pretty solid. Unfortunately, too many mistakes, especially breaking out from our zone, cost us the game today.”
The Bruins will look to bounce back Saturday night in Montreal, as they meet the rival Canadiens for the first time this season with first place in the Atlantic Division on the line. The Canadiens will also be looking for a bounce-back after suffering their worst loss of the season on Thursday, a 7-0 beatdown at the hands of the Dallas Stars.