Boston Bruins: The Good, Bad & Ugly From a 4-2 Loss to NYI

The Boston Bruins closed out their three-game, New York road trip Saturday night with a 4-2 loss to the Islanders. The Bruins lost for just the second time in regulation this season. The other time? Jan. 18 on Long Island against the same Islanders, 1-0.

With the loss, the Bruins’ five-game winning streak came to an end, as did their 10-game point streak. It was an effort from the Black and Gold that looked every bit like a team that has spent the last two weeks on the road, playing seven games.

Boston returns home for a five-day break, before playing the New Jersey Devils (hopefully) Thursday night at the TD Garden. Let’s take one more look back at Saturday night’s loss to the Islanders.

The Good

• There wasn’t much good from this game, but despite the loss, the Bruins had their moments. On their first goal of the game, they had 1:04 of zone time and the pressure paid off with Brad Marchand scoring on a wrist shot from the slot after coming off the bench and being left wide open in the first period.
• On the Bruins’ second goal of the game, Brandon Carlo, usually a stay-at-home defenseman, joined the offensive rush and attracted the attention of the Islanders defensemen on the backcheck, leaving Patrice Bergeron wide open on the backside. The Boston captain took a cross-ice pass from Marchand and scored when he beat Semyon Varlamov with a wrist shot to the far post as the Isles goalie was sliding side-to-side.
• Despite not finding his way onto the scoresheet, Anders Bjork continued his solid play as of late and was everywhere. It was one of his better forechecking nights and he caused a lot of havoc to the New York defense all night. He created scoring chances, but Varlamov was up to the challenge for a second time this season against the Bruins.