The Boston Bruins Jersey have inexperienced players playing bigger roles than before. They have fringe NHLers who would be better suited in Providence. Roster makeup and injuries have almost guaranteed disorder to start 2015-16.
“We’re definitely young. We know why,” coach Claude Julien said after Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Montreal. “There’s no doubt that played a part in our game tonight. We’ve got to get better in certain areas that we’re working on. Those young guys are going to get better if they keep playing and get some experience. We’re going through some growing pains.”
In their state, the Bruins are in no position to have goals taken away that they believe should have counted.
At 6:30 of the second period, Loui Eriksson swatted a fluttering puck past Carey Price, seemingly cutting the Canadiens’ lead to 2-1 game. But referee Dan O’Rourke waved off the goal, ruling that Patrice Bergeron had bumped into Price.
Julien issued his first coach’s challenge. Video review upheld O’Rourke’s decision.
Seventy-seven seconds later, Lars Eller gave the Canadiens a 3-0 lead.
“It’s 2-1 if it counts, so it would have been a good momentum turn for us in our favor,” said Bergeron, who thought he was pushed into Price by Alexei Emelin. “It didn’t happen. So we can’t hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves, because no one does.”
The Bruins were not as porous as they were in their 6-2 season-opening loss to Winnipeg. Montreal’s first power-play goal, a tap-in by David Desharnais, came after a questionable check-to-the-head penalty on Matt Beleskey Jersey. Their fourth goal was an empty-netter by Tomas Plekanec.
But two second-period strikes by Eller underscored the Bruins’ frayed threads that are rapidly unraveling. They are not managing the puck well. They are not committing to five-man defense in their own zone. And they are a fragile group that cannot stop the bleeding until it’s too late.
Before Eller’s first goal, David Pastrnak tried to send a cross-ice pass through the neutral zone to David Krejci. P.K. Subban stepped up and picked off the pass to trigger the counterattack.
As Alex Galchenyuk carried the puck into the Boston zone, Pastrnak tried to bust up his pass to Eller with a drive-by stick check. Eller muscled off Pastrnak’s check and passed the puck to Alexander Semin. Then as Eller opened himself up for a return pass from Semin, Pastrnak had zoomed past his assignment. By the time Eller got the puck back, Pastrnak was caught in no-man’s land, slack when he should have been tight. Eller had plenty of time to whip the puck past Tuukka Rask at 2:15 of the second.
“We’re giving them too much room,” Bergeron said. “Teams like that are going to make you pay. Any chance they get, they’re going to find a way to create something out of it. We really have to bear down in our zone more.”
Several shifts later, Eller struck again. After corralling a rebound off Rask, Matt Irwin tried to backhand the puck up the right-side glass and out of the zone. Ryan Spooner and Brett Connolly saw Irwin’s intention and broke the other way.
But Semin jumped to pick off Irwin’s pass. By the time Semin gloved the puck down, Connolly had sprinted past the blue line. Spooner was not that far behind.
Connolly and Spooner hustled to get back into position. They were too late. Semin tapped the puck to Galchenyuk. Kevan Miller, who didn’t have time to tighten his gap, was caught too low to mark Eller. After Galchenyuk fed him a tape-to-tape dish, Eller winged a one-timer through Rask at 7:47 to give the Canadiens a 3-0 lead.
“We look at the mistakes we’re making, and they’re all things we can correct,” said Bruins defenseman Torey Krug Jersey. “If we think that we’re not good enough to win hockey games, we’re in trouble. But I know this group in here isn’t going to get discouraged.”
Beleskey got on the board at 14:26 of the second with a greasy goal off a sliding Jeff Petry that eluded Price. But the Bruins faded in the third. Spooner was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Brian Flynn. Brad Marchand took a slashing call to put the Bruins down two men.
Then with approximately five minutes left in regulation, Marchand left the ice once more, and not in a good way. Marchand tried to throw a hit on Dale Weise, but Weise caught the side of Marchand’s head. Marchand dropped and got to his skates slowly. He required help walking down the tunnel to the dressing room and never returned. Julien said he didn’t know Marchand’s condition after the game.
Two games in, the Bruins are already desperate for a win on Monday against Tampa Bay to close their homestand. Their most dependable line of Marchand, Bergeron, and Eriksson didn’t complete Saturday’s game. The third line has not been trustworthy on defense. Rask Jersey has been good, but not great like the Bruins need him to be.
“We’ve just got to work on winning the next game,” Beleskey said. “You can’t look ahead, look at your record already, and be worried about losing. You’ve got to be ready to win. That’s got to be our mind-set.”
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