It was shaping up to potentially be one of the Bruins' biggest character wins of the season. Trailing 2-0 after two periods against a Hurricanes team that gives up the fewest scoring chances in the NHL, the Bruins had fought back and tied the game on a pair of goals from Brad Marchand. They kept the pressure on, and the TD Garden crowd was ready to explode with a go-ahead goal seemingly right around the corner.
Instead, with one breakdown, it turned into a frustrating 3-2 loss, one that snapped Boston's five-game winning streak. Carolina's winning goal came on a Jordan Martinook breakaway with 2:27 left in the game, right after a David Pastrnak chance at the other end.
In between those two shots came the crucial mistake. Hampus Lindholm pinched into the offensive zone to try to get to the rebound, but didn't even come close to beating Brent Burns to it. With all three Bruins forwards already up ice, Burns chipped the puck past Lindholm, and Brandon Carlo was left stranded to defend what started as basically a 3-on-1 before turning into a breakaway.
"The game management at the end of the game was not good. That's what cost us the game," coach Jim Montgomery said afterwards.
Montgomery didn't call out Lindholm by name, but he didn't shy away from the blunt truth of what went wrong on the play, either.
"The defenseman should not be pinching in," he said. "It's 2-2, there's a shot on net, we have to make sure we keep people in front of us."
Had the Bruins still been trailing, taking the risk Lindholm did may have been justified, especially with so little time on the clock. But not in a tie game. That's the "game management" Montgomery is talking about: understanding the score, the time on the clock, and how you're supposed to play in that given situation.
It is something he harps on often. He benched younger players like Matt Poitras and Mason Lohrei for not learning NHL-caliber game management quick enough earlier this season. He was visibly frustrated on the bench Wednesday night, and continued to sound irritated postgame.
"The game management bothers me at the end," Montgomery added later in his press conference. "You've got to know that you've done a great job, we've tied it up 2-2, we don't need to force anything. Points are valuable. And it's a good lesson for us moving into the playoffs. Like yeah, the momentum is on our side, it's 2-2, the crowd's into it, the Garden's buzzing, but you can't lose our positioning and give up a breakaway."
He even pointed a finger at himself when asked what lessons he takes away from the game.
"I'm not teaching well enough. That's what I learned tonight," Montgomery said.
It was an admirable, last-second attempt to try to deflect at least some of the blame away from Lindholm, but the reality is that the veteran defenseman doesn't need to be taught what to do in that situation. He knows. He's been in the NHL 11 years. He's generally a smart, responsible player. He's not a rookie like Poitras or Lohrei.
Lindholm just made a bad decision at a bad time. And unfortunately for him, that's going to stand out a lot more than all the good things he's done recently. It will be lumped in with his slow start offensively and used as the latest evidence of a down season following last year's fourth-place finish in Norris Trophy voting.
The reality is that Lindholm had, in fact, pulled himself out of that slow start. He had been playing great lately, putting up 11 points and a plus-10 rating over the last 13 games. He had assisted on the Bruins' first goal Wednesday, making a nice play along the wall to work the puck down to Trent Frederic. He also drew a penalty in the second period. It's hard to focus on that when Wednesday night ended so poorly, though.
The same goes for the Bruins as a whole. There were some things to really like in this game. They showed some real resiliency to come back against one of the hottest teams in the league. Trent Frederic continued to roll, assisting on both of Marchand's goal after getting bumped up to a line with Marchand and Charlie Coyle in the third period. Frederic now has 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) in the last 16 games. But it's hard to feel too good about any of it given how the game ended.
It also has to be noted that Lindholm's error didn't singlehandedly lose the game, either. The Bruins got badly outplayed in the second period, against an opponent where you can't really afford to take a period off. They also lost the special teams battle decisively, going 0-for-4 on their power plays while allowing the Hurricanes to go 2-for-3. Not scoring on the power play they got with 6:31 left in the game was especially rough given what happened after. (And yes, the officiating didn't help. The Hurricanes got away with two more penalties during that final penalty kill – a Burns crosscheck on Jake DeBrusk and a Sebastian Aho hook on Coyle – either one of which could have and should have given Boston a 5-on-3.)
The Bruins will try to bounce back right away, as they play again Thursday night in Ottawa. They will also try to learn from Wednesday's loss, something Marchand thinks could actually be good for the team in the long run.
"Against a team like that, you need a good 60-minute effort," Marchand said. "They play extremely hard. They're very competitive. They play tight. They win a lot of battles. That was a playoff-type game. Those are great for us to go through this time of year and learn what we need to do to compete against teams like that. … It's a great experience for us. Definitely some things we have to learn and take away."
