Shut out, but not outshot.
The Boston Bruins were blanked by the Vancouver Canucks, 2-0, despite outshooting their opponent, 32-15, and locking down on defense tonight at the TD Garden.
“We have to start burying our chances,” Interim Head Coach Joe Sacco said. “We are giving ourselves a chance to compete in games now. the guys are defending hard…but offensively we have to get some guys going.”
Jake DeBrusk scored on the power play for the Canucks in his return to TD Garden ice since signing with Vancouver.
His goal came in the second period after a scoreless first in which the Bruins outshot the Canucks 9-3 in the frame.
DeBrusk scored on Vancouver’s first power-play opportunity of the night, finding the loose puck out front. The Bruins challenged the goal, saying it hit Conor Garland’s glove before find DeBrusk’s stick, but the refs ruled it a good goal.
The Bruins made the kill after the unsuccessful challenge and proceeded to sustained offense zone coverage where they continued to outshoot the Canucks and get scoring chances.
But Canucks’ goaltender Kevin Lankinen met the pressure with save after save, blocking 32 shots.
The Bruins had three power plays to try to even the game with two in the third period. Despite chances from Elias Lindholm and Pavel Zacha on separate man-advantages, the Bruins’ power play couldn’t capitalize.
Conor Garland solidified his team’s win with an empty-netter with 12.5 seconds left in the third.
Here are the highlights:
First period:
Scoreless
Shots: 9-3 Bruins
Second period:
Quinn Hughes fired a long shot toward net which hit Conor Garland out front. Jake DeBrusk tapped in a backhand in the paint once the loose puck came to him at 5:53 of the second period on the power play. The Bruins challenged it, but it was unsuccessful. 1-0 Canucks.
Third period:
After receiving a pass from Suter in the neutral zone, Garland threw a long wrist shot on the empty net at 19:47 of the third period. Final score: 2-0 Canucks.
Game notes
- It was a frustrating game to say the least because while the Bruins couldn’t score, they were outshooting the Canucks and creating offense. Sacco said he felt his team had more high danger chances than Vancouver.
- “We didn’t score tonight,” Charlie McAvoy said about what he felt the loss came down to. “We had more shots than them. I thought we carried the play better. We had more o-zone time. i thought we had more looks.” He added, “The dam is going to break at some point. Just hope it’s soon.”
- The Bruins have focused on tightening up defense since Joe Sacco took over the helm and it is showing. The B’s limited Vancouver to the outside lanes and did a good job defending tonight. When shots are broken down, the Canucks had 13 on 5-on-5 and two on their power play. The Bruins had 27 shots at even strength and six on the power play.
- Sacco said he challenged DeBrusk’s goal because the Bruins had a similar goal called back after it hit one of their guys’ gloves. “It looked like it hit his (Garland’s) hand and went right to the goal scorer,” Sacco said. But he said he gave the team credit to kill off the following penalty and keep it just a one-goal team.
- Marc McLaughlin made his season debut for the Bruins tonight. Sacco thought he brought energy to the lineup and that he was trying to play a simple game and be defensively responsible. McLaughlin logged 9:36 TOI, had one shot on net and three hits.
- The Bruins have a quick turnaround as they head to New York to face the Islanders tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.