BSJ Game Report: Blue Jackets 7, Bruins 4 — D corps bottoms out, B’s rally falls short against Columbus taken at BSJ Headquarters (Bruins)

Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

Bruins

BSJ Game Report: Blue Jackets 7, Bruins 4 — D corps bottoms out, B’s rally falls short against Columbus

By Conor Ryan

Mar 12, 2019 • 10:40 pm

0comment-bubble

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 7-4 loss against the Blue Jackets in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis…

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Too little, too late: Even though Boston once again made things interesting — scoring three goals in under six minutes to cut into a four-goal deficit in the second period — it seems unlikely that Bruce Cassidy and his staff will be focusing on the positives out of a 7-4 loss to the Blue Jackets. The result stands as Boston’s second straight loss in regulation — the first time that’s happened to the Bruins since the Dec. 23 (@ Carolina) and Dec. 27 (vs. New Jersey).

Tuning out good nights on the stat sheet for players like Patrice Bergeron (one goal, one assist) and Brad Marchand (two goals, one assist), Boston was handed one hell of a wake-up call — with Tuukka Rask hung out to dry for most of the night due to a brutal defensive effort that often found Columbus skaters unchecked and skating freely in danger areas of the ice.

Boston is still missing a slew of players in the team’s top-six, but that shouldn’t be any excuse for such a brutal outing from the D corps — even if both Matt Grzelcyk and Kevan Miller are still on the mend.

Tuukka Rask pulled: Rask wasn’t at his best on Tuesday — as evidenced by Ryan Dzingel’s tally at 14:18 of the first that bounced behind the B’s netminder to give Columbus a 2-1 lead at the time. But a porous defensive structure in front of him didn’t do him any favors, as open ice in Grade-A areas came easy for the Blue Jackets for most of the first half of Tuesday’s matchup.

Once Boone Jenner knocked home his second goal of the night (off a tip-in from the crease) at 8:09 of the second, Bruce Cassidy had enough — pulling Rask in favor of Jaroslav Halak.

Entering Tuesday night without a regulation loss since all the way back on Dec. 29, this was actually the second time since the start of the new year that Rask relinquished at least five goals — but he emerged as the victor during that last matchup against the San Jose Sharks back on Feb. 18. Not so fortunate tonight.

FOUR UP:

Patrice Bergeron: It might be hard to believe, but the previous career high for shorthanded goals in a season was only three for a defensive wizard in Patrice Bergeron. But thanks to a torrid stretch as of late on the PK, Bergeron has now cashed in with four shorthanded tallies in 2018-19.

Bergeron’s latest shorty came at 4:00 in the opening stanza, with Brad Marchand corralling an errant pass intended for Artemi Panarin and starting a 2-on-1 bid that ended with Bergeron’s 26th goal of the season. It was the third shorthanded goal for Bergeron in his last five games. With that strike, Bergeron tied Gregg Sheppard and Steve Kasper for the third-most shorthanded goals in B’s history (16).

Brad Marchand: Make it 14 points during an eight-game point streak for Marchand, who tallied a pair of goals and also jumpstarted Bergeron’s shorthanded strike in the opening stanza. With those two goals, Marchand has now reached 30 or more goals for the fourth season in a row — and is now tied for his career-high in scoring with 85 points this season.




Chris Wagner:
Wagner’s campaign for the 7th Player Award continues to roll, as the winger slipped a puck past
Sergei Bobrovsky
on a breakaway for his 12th goal of the season. Make that three more goals than the Walpole native’s previous career high in a season.


Jaroslav Halak:
Even though
Zach Werenski
beat him on the power play at 12:21 in the third, Halak still allowed Boston to claw back into the contest, stopping eight of the nine shots that came his way — including a couple of highlight-reel stops on speedy winger
Josh Anderson.


THREE DOWN:


Torey Krug:
You can really include just about any Bruins out on the ice tonight as a “three-down” candidate, given how many times Rask was left out to dry due to horrendous D zone structure. But Krug, in particular, struggled, ending the game with a brutal minus-6 rating while failing to snuff out scoring chances both in the crease and behind Boston’s net. A neutral-zone turnover by Krug also led to Jenner’s first goal of the night — which stood as the 13th shorthanded goal surrendered by the B’s this year.


Steven Kampfer:
Alright, we’ll include another defenseman tonight — given how brutal Boston's blue line was for most of the night. Kampfer, in his first outing since Dec. 23, finished with a minus-1 rating over 12:05 TOI, but was out on the ice for five total goals in favor of Columbus.


Trent Frederic:
Pretty non-existent showing from Frederic in his return to the NHL, with the rookie forward finishing the game with just 4:34 TOI. And yet, despite that limited amount of ice time — he was still out for a pair of goals against, with a turnover in Boston’s zone kicking off the sequence that led to Anderson’s goal in the first period.


PLAY OF THE GAME:
Great individual effort from Chris Wagner en route to his 12th goal of the season.




PARTING THOUGHT:


Ah, the heavyweight bout we all expected going into this matchup — Charlie McAvoy vs. …. Artemi Panarin? Alrighty.




LOOKING AHEAD:


The Bruins will close out their three-game road trip on Thursday when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Jets, who sit atop the Central Division with a record of 40-24-4. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
0
Show comments for this article