NEW YORK — You’ve heard it all before: The dreaded two-goal lead — the most dangerous lead in all of hockey.
Yadda yadda yadda.
They might have been just 20 minutes away from capping off their third game in four nights, but the Bruins had just about every right to be confident skating out on the ice at Madison Square Garden — holding steady to a 3-1 lead in the final stanza of Wednesday’s game with the Rangers.
For as hard as wins are to come by in the NHL, the Bruins have managed to draw quite the line in the sand when it comes stymying the opposition over the years during the final period of play.
Boston’s roster has shuffled quite a bit in the past decade, but you can’t argue with stats: Since the 2010-11 season, the Bruins have posted a record of 255-14-20 when leading at the start of the third period.
Based on what transpired in the second period of Wednesday's game, the Rangers — sitting out of the playoff picture with a record of 22-22-8 — seemed to be dead in the water, knocked onto the ropes after Boston unleashed three goals in the span of 3:22.
All in all, it was shaping out to a feel-good win for Bruce Cassidy’s club — a third-straight victory highlighted by a return to form for Jaroslav Halak and a pair of 5v5 tallies from a forward corps completely turned on its head.
For once, it wasn’t going to be another one-goal nailbiter for Boston — with an overloaded top line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand forced to handle all of the heavy lifting.
Perhaps it was only a pipe dream to expect two points to come so easily, but it didn’t take long for it all to devolve into a nightmare.
In the minutes after the B’s limped off the ice after five cardiac-punishing minutes of overtime and seven frustrating rounds of a shootout, Patrice Bergeron was blunt in his assessment of Boston’s 4-3 shootout loss.
At this point, any silver linings to come out of the game — whether it be another point in the standings or solid returns from three news lines — have to fall upon deaf ears.
“Very upsetting,” Bergeron said. “I think it’s unacceptable. Especially, up by two, heading to the third on the road. You’ve got to play a solid third. And obviously, we didn’t do that.”
The shortcomings on this Bruins roster were pretty easy to spot by the end of training camp — with vacancies at the second-line wing and third-line center setting the stage for Boston’s regular conundrum when it comes to finding reliable secondary scoring.
But few would expect this team — boasting a cast of Stanley Cup champions and other established veterans — to have an issue when it comes to coughing up leads.
Since Jan. 14, a stretch of nine games in which Boston has been mired in a 3-2-4 rut, all six of the B’s losses have featured a common component — a blown lead by the B’s. This includes two losses that saw the opposition climb back from two-goal deficits (Flyers, Jan. 16 / Rangers, Feb. 6).
It’s an alarming trend for a team sitting in playoff positioning — and the latest addition to a growing list of self-inflicted shortcomings with this Bruins team, which include 10 shorthanded goals against, the second-highest mark in the league.
Things started to snowball from the opening puck drop in the third stanza of Wednesday’s matchup. While Boston held a commanding 55.17 Corsi For Percentage during 19:24 of 5v5 play, the Rangers made the most of their chances in the offensive zone — leading the Bruins in both scoring chances and high-danger chances by a 7-6 and 4-3 margin, respectively, despite losing the possession battle.
“I thought we felt good,” Danton Heinen said. “We had a great second. I thought we were confident going into the third and unfortunately, we let it slip away. We’ve been in a lot of these close games in the third. It’s tough to see it go the wrong way.”
As the minutes waned off the clock, so too did the Bruins’ attention to detail, with a poor backchecking effort paving the way for the start of the Blueshirts’ rally.
What started with Pavel Buchnevich splitting the ice between Brandon Carlo and Zdeno Chara on a rush managed to somehow get worse for the Bruins. While Jimmy Vesey was unable to bury his rebound following Buchnevich’s drive, Kevin Hayes didn’t face much opposition waltzing up to the front, flipping the puck past Jaroslav Halak in the low slot past three B’s forwards in Jake DeBrusk, Trent Frederic and Joakim Nordstrom.
KEVIN HAYES BRINGS THE RANGERS WITHIN 1!#NYR pic.twitter.com/GnssfYaRtI
— Hockey Daily (@HockeyDaily365) February 7, 2019