The Bruins didn’t have a great night in goal as their winning streak grinds to a halt in a drubbing from Ottawa.
Well.
I got the Khusnutdinov and Mittelstadt goals I wanted.
I should probably be a little more specific about how players get their first Bruins goal if this is the effort they’re gonna face.
First Period from hell
sigh
Alright. Let’s get through this.
Things did not start well for the Boston Bruins; the Ottawa Senators came out of the gate as though fired out of a cannon, and it was clear the Bruins were gonna need a few saves to get them out of this alive.
They didn’t get them.
Yeah. Bruins down 2-0 after 10 minutes.
Mercifully, one of the Bruins decided that they should actually respond to this, and Casey Mittelstadt was that Bruin; taking a slick feed out in front of Linus Ullmark to cut into Ottawa’s lead. 2-1 Sens.
Unfortunately, the agony of this period would not be abated, as the Sens continued to pile on after a power play that looked more like the Sens were playing with their food…
…and Ridley Grieg getting a rebound effectively unattended by anyone aside from Henri Jokiharju.
The Period ends with Boston in a 4-1 hole, and Jeremy Swayman pulled for Joonas Korpisalo.
Second Period
Boston was still very outshot this period, but they started to claw themselves back into this game, starting with the pre-requisite David Pastrnak goal, which came off of a tip from Johnny Beecher putting a rocket on Ullmark. 4-2 Sens.
…But would ultimately be stifled by Drake Batherson, who managed to get to a loose puck before anyone else did in front of Korpisalo, and potted it home to put Ottawa up 5-2.
Undeterred, The Bruins would continue pressing the attack, and Elias Lindholm was able to get a great pass off to newcomer Marat Khusnutdinov, who hit the afterburners to put one past Ullmark! 5-3 Sens.
The period came to a close, and 20 minutes separated Boston and Ottawa from the end of regulation.
Third Period
The Boston Bruins tried their best, but ultimately failed to tie the game, and surrendered the final goal of the game in the form of an empty-netter. 6-3 Sens.
Guess the honeymoon period’s over. Bruins lose 6-3.
Game Notes
- Your TOI Leader was Mason Lohrei, who finished his night with 24:41 logged.
- Look. A lot of this game is going to fall at the feet of Jeremy Swayman and I won’t deny that a miserable first period from him had a lot to do with how the rest of this game played out. But he can only do so much. He didn’t rise to the challenge and they are going to need him to do that long-term if he’s gonna stick around, but he was not the only reason the Bruins got lapped. Before we talk about Swayman, we must first talk about the effort put forth by the players in front of him. To put it bluntly, the Bruins got absolutely murdered at even-strength by Ottawa. They were just not ready for the Sens’ hellacious forecheck; frequently flubbing passes, spending a good amount of time in front of their goaltender completely flummoxed by what the Sens were doing, and looking every bit as slow and out of sorts without Pastrnak on the ice as we all kind of feared they would be post-deadline. Ottawa recognizes the moment; they’re still clinging like ticks to a wildcard spot that six other teams are trying to take and Boston’s a direct division rival, and they played it accordingly. Boston sure said they recognized what was gonna happen, but if both sides showed up with that mentality…I think we got a harsh wakeup call in just how far apart Ottawa and Boston are in terms of talent right now.
- Now…let’s talk about the goaltending. Joonas Korpisalo finished the game in Jeremy Swayman’s stead after a miserable 1st, where he let in 4 goals on 15 shots, finished the night with a .773 SV%, and at least two of the goals he let up were entirely saveable chances he just whiffed on. Every goaltender is entitled to a bad game here and there, but it’s a bad trend in Swayman’s game this year that his third start in a row seems to end in disaster with regularity. He needs to be better, simple as that. That was an unacceptable performance for a player who is already under the microscope thanks to his contract and the circumstances of which he got it. I know that historically the players that have gone through his agents’ special brand of negotiation tend to rebound, so I’m willing to be patient with him…but I’m an outlier when it comes to Boston sports fandom; patience is not a virtue here and performances like these are going to define him for a lot of Boston’s most pessimistic fans, even if he manages to get his act together.
- That said, Joonas Korpisalo’s work was absolutely vital to this not being some hilariously lopsided asskicking that would’ve had me just blow through the recap. This was not an easy game for either goalie, and it is to his credit that he was able to mostly keep the Sens at bay in a .933 SV% performance. I can understand how fans are annoyed with Swayman, but I’m just gonna be real; if he was behind the effort at the start? I dunno how well he’d have faired either. Maybe Boston loses by one goal instead of two? That’d definitely be nicer than what we got, but…
- In the preview, I said I wanted a goal for Casey Mittelstadt and Marat Khusnutdinov. I got exactly that, and it was done exactly the way i’d have hoped they would get one; Mittelstadt from a play developing quickly in front of Ullmark by catching the defense with their pants down, and Khusnutdinov using his incredible skating speed. That’s the kind of thing that has been sorely missing away from Pasta on this team, and man is it refreshing to see both of these guys finally get rewarded for it. I probably should’ve prefaced that I wanted them to score in a Bruins win, but that’s hindsight for you.
- Oh yeah, Pasta scored again. We could probably just copypaste this bit from every recap for the next few dozen games and it’d probably be true. He’s just beyond comparison right now, and the only immediate Bruin to compare him to will get people mad at me for saying it.
- The Power Play still sucks. Water is wet.
- If all results held and there was no draft lottery, Boston would be picking 9th overall. EliteProspects.com’s top 32 has Forward Lynden Lakovic at 9th overall. Here’s some highlights of him.
The B’s return home on Saturday to face the Tampa Bay Lightning again, and that game will be at 7pm EST.
We’ll see you there.