BSJ Game Report: Golden Knights 4, Bruins 1 - Shorthanded B’s come out flat against Vegas

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-1 loss to the Golden Knights, with BSJ insight and analysis:

Box Score

SHORT SHIFT

The Bruins were already going to be shorthanded going into Tuesday’s contest against the Golden Knights after both Brad Marchand and Craig Smith entered COVID-19 protocols.

But man, we didn’t think it was gonna be this bad.

After building plenty of momentum last weekend with regulation wins on the road against the Oilers and Flames, the B’s laid a goose egg against the Golden Knights — with Vegas burying four goals on just 25 shots against Jeremy Swayman en route to a discouraging 4-1 setback for Boston at TD Garden.

Patrice Bergeron scored the lone goal for the Bruins, who fall to 14-9-2 on the season. Swayman stopped 21 of 25 shots in the loss.

While the B’s revamped forward corps labored in the opening 20 minutes when it came to forcing the puck in deep against the Golden Knights, Vegas made the most of its chances in the first — lighting the lamp three times in just 10 shots on net. 

Shea Theodore opened the scoring for Vegas at 13:04 with a blast from the blue line, while a great stretch feed from Chandler Stephenson sprung Max Pacioretty for a rush tally just 2:15 later — putting Boston in a serious hole, especially given the lack of scoring punch in the B’s top-six group.

Vegas beat the buzzer with a power-play tally with just 0.6 seconds remaining on the clock in the first to further bury a lethargic B’s bunch.

The second period did little to offer a reprieve for the B’s, with Boston only landing nine more shots against Robin Lehner — who entered Tuesday’s game with an .870 save percentage over his previous seven outings. 

Meanwhile, Vegas continued to land punches against Swayman, with Pacioretty scoring his second tally of the night with a wrister that leaked past the B’s netminder at 5:06 in the second. 

Bergeron scored just 21 seconds into the third period to put Boston on the board, but by then it was too little, too late for the Bruins. 

TWO UP

Ron Poster: Well, at least TD Garden organist Ron Poster dropped a few solid tunes during the game — including a few holiday classics. Listen, we’re grasping at straws here. 

Patrice Bergeron: The B’s captain was the lone offensive conduit on an otherwise listless night from Boston’s forward corps — snapping home his 10th goal of the season just 21 seconds into the third. 

THREE DOWN

Derek Forbort: An ugly night for Forbort, who provided a tough screen on Swayman during Theodore’s opening tally before getting cooked by Stephenson's stretch pass just a few minutes later.

Jeremy Swayman: After posting a .942 save percentage over his last five games, Swayman just simply didn’t have it in this one. He sure wasn’t helped by some lax defense in front of him, but there were a number of opportunities in which the B’s could have been bailed out by a timely stop or two.

Coyle Line: With Taylor Hall promoted up to the top line and Smith put on the shelf due to COVID protocol, there was going to be some major growing pains for a second line that already was struggling to generate consistent O-zone pressure this season. And even though the results with both Charlie Coyle and Erik Haula skating together had been encouraging entering Tuesday’s game, such wasn’t the case against Vegas. During the 5:04 of 5v5 ice time that the Haula-Coyle-Foligno line logged, the B’s were outscored, 2-0.  

LOOSE PUCKS

Well, it could always be worse, right? 

All things considered, you could have made a pretty compelling case that Tuesday’s game shouldn’t have been played in the first place — not with the clear domino effect being established between Boston and a Calgary Flames team that now has nine players in COVID protocol. 

With both Marchand and Smith out for at least five more games due to their 10-day quarantine — the Bruins will have plenty of tough sledding ahead, even though this upcoming slate of games offers a few easier foes in the slumping Islanders, Habs and Senators (who dropped eight goals against the Panthers on Tuesday).

But at this point, the Bruins might be content if losing two top-six forwards is the worst of the damage inflicted by this recent COVID surge — with more positive cases potentially sapping away even more of the momentum that the B’s managed to generate over a pretty fruitful road trip.

Perhaps I’m being a pessimist here, but maybe the only proactive course moving forward (especially with Marchand out of commission) is for Boston to postpone a few games in order to limit a further outbreak — although one has to think that the B’s would need to have more players ring up positive tests for that to be a tangible scenario.

The waiting game continues…

PLAY OF THE GAME

Patrice Bergeron gets Boston on the board.

4-1 Vegas. pic.twitter.com/VKFXM1YgH0

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) December 15, 2021

PARTING THOUGHTS

This might have been the loudest that TD Garden was all night. That’s not exactly a good thing. 

LOOKING AHEAD

Barring any other COVID-related setbacks, the Bruins will now head out on the road for a three-game road trip — starting with Thursday’s matchup against the Islanders at UBS Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.