Boston Bruins: The Good and the Bad Against the Devils
Playing their first home game in 21 days and their only one on Causeway St. in the month of February, the Boston Bruins fell to the New Jersey Devils 3-2 Thursday night. It was the second consecutive regulation loss for the Bruins which failed to pick up a point in the standings for the first time this season in back-to-back games.
Here is a look back at Boston’s latest loss to the Devils with some the good and bad as the Bruins dropped to 10-3-2 on the season.
The Good
- Coming into the game, all the talk was surrounding the line changes that coach Bruce Cassidy made this week in practice. He moved Jake DeBrusk up to the first line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron while sliding David Pastrnak down to the second line with David Krejci and Nick Ritchie. While the move did not produce any offense 5-on-5, DeBrusk scored his first goal of the season in the second period on the power play. Here’s hoping that goal gets the left wing going.
- Anders Bjork could be fighting for his roster once the Bruins get healthy (if that ever happens), but the 24-year-old is in one of his better stretches of the season. He failed to register a point, but the bottom-six forward one was of the few Bruins who had energy in the game and was relentless the forecheck. He set up Sean Kuraly with Boston’s best scoring opportunity in the third period when they broke in 2-on-1, but Devils’ goalie Mackenzie Blackwood stopped Kuraly’s bid with a pad save. What does it say when Bjork is one of the best forwards in a game for the Bruins?
- The special teams once again carried the Bruins, but it was not enough to get a win. They killed all four of the Devils’ power play opportunities, and the power play accounted for both Bruins’ goals. Charlie McAvoy tipped in a Pastrnak shot from the point with just over a minute left the game for the second man-advantage goal after DeBrusk’s second period tally.
The Bad
- The Bruins struggles 5-on-5 this season continued Thursday night. Going into the game, they had scored 21 even-strength goals, while giving up the same amount. They gave up even-strength goals to Kyle Palmieri and Pavel Zacha in the second period to fell to a minus-2 goal differential even-strength. Not even the newly constructed lines helped this night.
- The Bruins just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to injuries in 2021. Already down two defensemen, the injury list got longer against New Jersey when David Krejci left the game after just 6 minutes and 31 seconds of ice time and seven shifts with a lower-body injury.
- John Moore is in the lineup because of injuries to Matt Grzelcyk and Jakub Zboril on the blue line, but it was another ineffective night for the Bruins defensemen. He had a giveaway on the Devils’ third goal, which ended being the game-winner by Zacha and his play has been spotty at best. My colleague Matt Hawkins recently wrote about Urho Vaakanainen getting a shot on defense and it might be time. If you have him on the taxi squad, what good is it when he could be playing with the Providence Bruins? Time to give the youngster his shot.
- Over the last two games, the Bruins have had trouble clearing pucks out of their end and their transition game coming out of their zone leaves a lot of being desired. In the first period, the Devils’ had nearly two minutes of zone time and had the Bruins running around their end, creating scoring opportunities. Brandon Carlo was on the ice during the whole sequence. For as well as they played earlier in the season, the blue line is having their troubles recently.
Hot. Bruins: Pictures of Lake Tahoe Setup Are Released. light
The Bruins will head to Lake Tahoe for their NHL Outdoor Weekend game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at 2 p.m. losers of two straight. With four games on the road, they don’t return to the TD Garden until March 3 against the Wahington Capitals.