BSJ Game Report: Kings 2, Bruins 1 (OT) - Incredible ending

Everything you need to know from the Bruins' overtime loss to the Kings on Saturday night at TD Garden.

HEADLINES

What a finish: Everyone inside TD Garden Saturday night, and everyone watching in the hockey world, witnessed the Los Angeles Kings defeat the Boston Bruins 2-1 with .04 seconds remaining in overtime. The Kings were on the receiving end of a terrible icing by Bruins’ Torey Krug and the ensuing faceoff was to the left of Tuukka Rask. Since it was an icing, Bruce Cassidy could not change his skaters, so he had David Pastrnak, Anders Bjork and Krug on the ice. Kings center Anze Kopitar, who one of the best in the league in this category, beat Pastrnak clean on the draw and Tyler Toffoli’s one-timer from the top of the circle beat Rask with .04 seconds remaining in OT. Oh, boy, what a finish.

https://twitter.com/LAKings/status/924471855422910464

Top Tuukka: Speaking of Rask, he was outstanding in his return to the lineup after missing three games with a concussion. He finished with 28 saves and made more than a handful of timely stops that kept the Bruins within seconds of going to a shootout. At the other end of the ice, Kings goalie Jonathan Quick was tremendous and finished with 29 saves.

“He was good,” Cassidy said of Rask’s return to the lineup. “Both goaltenders were terrific I thought, made some big saves. We’re having trouble getting some run support for Tuukka right now. He did his job. He gave us a chance to win. We certainly had them in overtime. You have to tip your hat to their guy too in overtime. He made some big stops.”



TURNING POINT

Yes, the Bruins earned the point against a red-hot team but it was an unlikely decision by Krug, who had possession of the puck in the neutral zone with four seconds remaining in overtime, to ice the puck as easily as he did with zero pressure on him. That led to the winning faceoff by Kopitar.

"Yeah I thought (the clock) was going to run out, quick trigger by the home scorekeeper and then a slow trigger off the faceoff," he said. "At the end of the day I put the team in that situation and I can’t do that, I got to be better, have better awareness. Take better care of the puck and help the team out instead of hurt it."

The call to reset the clock to .09 seconds came from the NHL’s hockey operations in Toronto. It’s the rule that the league reviews anything under a minute in overtime, so .09 was the correct time that should’ve been on the clock. The clock also started on time when the linesman dropped the puck and it was on Toffoli’s stick for the one-timer at .07 and it clearly went in at .04.

CHIRPIN’ POINT

I recently wrote that Krug is a smart player both on and off the ice. He's thinks everything through and his decisions on the ice are spot-on. It's inconceivable to believe he would make a mistake like that. To his defense, it was the end of OT and he was obviously exhausted. But, he still needs to have better awareness in a situation like that. Plus, no one would ever believe that a team could win a draw clean, take a one-timer from the top of the circle and beat Rask in that amount of time. It was an incredible sequence of plays that led to the final score.

NOT ON THE SCORE SHEET

It's a certainty every game that David Backes is going to put an opposing player on his backside. There’s a couple of reasons why he’s normally not penalized for his physical play: 1) Because of his veteran status, and 2) His technique is sound as he keeps two hands on his stick and applies the stick check lower on the body, which sends the opponent flying. He does not have a penalty this season.

GOALS

https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/924423359424843776

https://twitter.com/LAKings/status/924419789191135232

UP NEXT

The Bruins will practice Sunday before traveling to Columbus to face the Blue Jackets on Monday night.