Boston Bruins: Mixed Answers Following a 4-3 OT Loss

Playing for the first time in seven days, the Boston Bruins ended up with mixed results Thursday night at the TD Garden in their game with the New York Islanders. In the end, the Bruins lost, 4-3, in overtime in front of fans for the first time in more than a year.

Before yesterday’s game, we posed three questions that faced the Bruins in their first game action in a week, and once again, they got mixed results.

How do the Bruins play in the first period?

This actually could not have gone much better than what it did. The B’s outshot the Islanders, 10-6, and took a 2-0 lead to the locker room on the strength of a Karson Kuhlman goal and a Steven Kampfer goal on the power play. How long has it been since Kampfer’s last goal? It has been 732 days.

Boston ended up with some good chances in the period and it felt like they could have held a bigger lead. The only downside to the period was that Tuukka Rask was removed from the game after the period with another injury.

Can the Bruins finally solve Semyon Varlamov?

After getting just five pucks past the Islanders’ netminder in the first four games on Long Island, the Bruins scored three times Thursday night, but once again, when Varlamov needed to make a save in a big situation, he did.

Varlamov finished with 29 saves on the night and kept his team in the game in the second period when he made 13 saves on 13 shots. The Bruins have three games remaining against the Islanders this season at home and winning a  couple of those would go a long way into getting some confidence should these two teams meet in the playoffs.

Can the Bruins avoid a third-period meltdown?

For the first time this season against the Islanders, the Black and Gold took a lead into the third period, only to see New York rally to take a late lead, before Anders Bjork tied the game for the Bruins with two minutes left to force overtime.

When the Islanders took the lead with just under three minutes left, it would not have surprised anyone if the Bruins would lose the game in regulation. To their credit, they tied the game 54 seconds later to gain one point in the standings. The Isles have outscored the Bruins, 9-1, in the third period this year.

It was not the ideal way that Boston wanted to kick off the second half of the season as it felt like they should have left the arena with two points instead of one. Regardless, collecting any points this time of year in the standings is key as the push to the postseason is officially underway.