Analysis: One bad shift stifled the Bruins' momentum as comeback attempt falls short

The Boston Bruins erased a four-goal deficit against one of the better teams in the league and had all the momentum until one miscue halted any comeback attempt against the Nashville Predators on Monday at Bridgestone Arena.

The Bruins' David Pastrnak scored at 5:48 of the third period to cut Boston's deficit to 4-3. The Bruins were carrying the game, so Predators coach Peter Laviolette called a timeout. It was the right decision in order to cool off the Bruins and give Nashville time to regroup.



On the ensuing shift, the Bruins had the line of Danton Heinen, Riley Nash and David Backes, along with Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy on the ice. Backes was pursuing a loose puck just inside the attacking zone blue line. He was offside, so he tagged up. Nash was also pressuring, but turned away from the puck to clear the zone. It was a split-second decision by both players not to touch the puck, which, if one of them had, would have resulted in a neutral zone faceoff.

Instead, Predators' Roman Josi controlled the puck and threaded a pass to Filip Forsberg, who broke in and beat Tuukka Rask to give Nashville a 5-3 advantage at 6:22. That goal gave the momentum back to the Predators and the Bruins couldn't respond.

In hindsight, it's easy to question the decision not to touch the puck and get a whistle, but in the moment Backes was thinking he had time to clear the zone and keep pressuring.

"It was kind of a goofy play that was offside, but it's still 140 feet from our net," Backes said. "Think we can maybe get on side and still pressure (the puck) and they send a long pass to our blue line, sneak behind us and score a goal to make it a two-goal game."

The timeout allowed the Predators to regroup and quickly respond with a goal.

"We battled to make it 4-3 and that next shift after they take a timeout needs to be one where we're still simple and still our game, get it deep in their zone . . . that's a shift I would like to have back, and we'd like to have back as a group to simplify, go a little harder and make sure we're not giving them any life after we've got seemingly all the momentum in the game," explained Backes.

It was a heads-up pass by Josi to split Boston's defense as Forsberg went in alone. Prior to the pass, the Bruins were pressuring and both Chara and McAvoy were coming through the neutral zone to help the rush if Boston gained control of the puck.

Every time the Bruins made a mistake in this game, the Predators capitalized. Nashville's fifth goal was the one that hurt the most.