After knocking on the door over the past couple of games, it finally all came together for Bruce Cassidy and the Boston Bruins.
A top-heavy offense from the Black and Gold found some relief against the Canucks — with Boston lighting the lamp five times, including just one tally from the Bergeron line.
For the first time in close to 409 minutes of ice time, a forward other than the top trio scored at five-on-five play — with Jake DeBrusk tucking two pucks home from the crease, Danton Heinen getting off the schneid with a power-play goal and Matt Grzelcyk clapping home his first goal of the year off a masterful rush by the Krejci line.
With five goals on the scoresheet through 60 minutes, perhaps Boston’s secondary scoring issues are starting to turn a corner?
That’s great news for the Black and Gold ... so long as your netminders didn’t let through eight goals.
On a night where seemingly everything started falling in place for the Black and Gold, two of the team’s top strengths through the first month of the season — defensive structure and goaltending — picked an awfully bad time to crumble.
Whether it be poor play between the pipes for both Jaroslav Halak and Tuukka Rask or overall uninspired play in the D zone, the Canucks feasted on every miscue from the Black and Gold — equalling their overall scoring output from the entire 2011 Stanley Cup Final off an 8-5 final.
The NHL leader in save percentage entering the contest, Halak didn’t resemble the netminder that turned aside 107 of the 110 shots that came his way over his last three outings — getting the hook in the second stanza after relinquishing four goals in the period over a stretch of 7:51.
Rask, looking to get into a groove following a sluggish October, didn’t fare too well in stopping Vancouver’s barrage — giving up three goals off of 14 shots, including a gaffe off a clear attempt in which the puck bounced off of Bo Horvat and right on his stick, allowing the center to fire one into an empty Bruins net.
“I was just trying to keep it under 10 (goals) – that’s what I was worried about,” Rask said. “But yeah, you know, like I said, a loss is a loss, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. It was kind of a crazy game both ways.
“You know, a lot of goals scored and there was – at the end, it looked like everyone was napping in the crowd. It was just one of those games where there wasn’t a whole lot of action on either end – low shots and you know all of a sudden it’s 5-3, 8-5 whatever. So yeah, weird game but that’s entertainment and we’re just providing it.”
Cassidy, much like Rask, was candid in his postgame comments, noting that both Halak and Rask were not up to par against a Canucks team that dropped eight on Boston despite missing a reliable winger in
Brock Boeser
and finishing the game without a goal from rookie phenom
Elias Pettersson
(10 goals in 11 games played).
But the two men in the crease were far from the only problem on Thursday night.
While Boston was only out-attempted 58-57 during the contest (and edged, 41-37 in 5v5 play), Vancouver made the most of every miscue in the Bruins’ end — starting when a failed breakout by the B’s third line led to a turnover by
David Backes
in the high slot. The loose puck was quickly collected by Horvat, allow the center to collect the first of his two easy strikes off an unassisted snipe past a screened Halak just 2:46 into regulation.
Poor screens and turnovers proved costly time and time again against Vancouver, although Cassidy was particularly irked by the performance of the penalty kill — a unit that was tagged for a pair of goals against.
In most cases, shots from tough angles or from the point often found their way into twine — either off direct shots (as was the case with
Ben Hutton’s
power-play strike below), or rips that were then deflected or cashed in down low in the blue paint.
During a game where both teams possessed the puck at a relatively even distribution, the Canucks often didn’t have to worry about cycling the puck in the B’s zone or executing draw-up plays.
On a night with a defensive effort like this from Boston, most shots were finding their way into the danger areas without much resistance.
“I don’t think there was any – you know eight goals I don’t think you saw a ton of tic-tac-toe in front of the goalie,” Cassidy said. “Pucks that eyes that we didn’t block or the goalie didn’t get to, one at the top of the crease we didn’t tie up. … I’d like to see a little more urgency out of our PK blocking shots.
"It’s been a strength of ours. I think that started up top. Those wrist shots are the forwards' responsibility. We have to eat some pucks there. So, a little disappointing in that aspect of the game that I don’t think we were willing to pay the price.”
Prior to Thursday’s game, Cassidy was positive in what he saw from his club in its last outing, even if the team needed overtime and a heavy contribution from the Bergeron line to escape with two points against Dallas.
Sure, it followed a similar — if not unsustainable — narrative for most of the B’s wins so far this season, but at least most aspects of the team were trending in the right direction, whether it be secondary scoring or an encouraging showing from Rask.
And yet, even as his second line put together evidence of finally breaking through — Cassidy struggled to find the positives in the wake of Thursday’s shellacking.
“It’s frustrating because I didn’t see it coming, eight goals against,” Cassidy said. “We’ve been pretty – other than opening night – pretty reliable defensively, for the most part. So yeah, it’s frustrating.
“It’s also frustrating though in the middle of the game we could’ve turned – we have some energy players that could’ve impacted the game as well tonight. Who knows maybe that turns the tide, as well, so there’s different things we can look at tonight where we could’ve been better.”
