At first blush, the final two minutes of regulation and pretty much all of overtime were the places to rapidly dissect the Boston Bruins’ late collapse and ultimate 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
Pavel Zacha and Jake DeBrusk flailed away at attempts to score on the empty net from deep in the Boston zone, and Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm were both on the ice for each of the late third-period goals scored by the Ducks. It was absolutely a collapse after the Bruins had built an impressive 55 minutes of work in their first home game coming off a week-long road trip through California and Chicago.
Jim Montgomery called it “inexcusable” in the ensuing moments that followed Boston’s first loss of the season and pinpointed a real lack of execution at crunch time as the biggest culprit behind defeat.
“Lack of poise w/the puck. We had opportunities, I thought. I thought the game was over twice if we put it in the empty net,” said Jim Montgomery. “Guys whiffing on pucks and guys trying to go for an open net instead of using the walls for an indirect clear so they could get off ice...we didn’t finish the game.”
But pull back a little more and the greater truth is that the Boston Bruins failed in equal part because they couldn’t extend the lead beyond a 3-1 score in the third period. The B’s were outshot 14-11 in the third period and really stopped attacking in the second half of that final stretch before Patrick Brown’s holding penalty really sent things spiraling southward for the Black and Gold.
In general, the Bruins aren’t scoring enough to really pull away from other teams and haven’t been able to push past three goals scored in six of their seven games plus thus far this season.
And that is happening against the NHL’s lower-tier teams as the Bruins have faced Western Conference cream puffs like the Ducks, Sharks, Blackhawks and Predators to this point in the regular season.
The failure to post more than three goals in those games means there will be a ton of pressure on the defense to stand firm, just as much weight on the shoulders of their goaltenders to avoid letting in soft goals and ultimately not a lot of margin for error for the B’s in the game’s final minutes if every game is a one-goal dog fight.
That is going to be a tough way for the Black and Gold to live all year if they can’t find a way to cobble together a little more offense and begin creating a little more of a third-period cushion for games like Thursday night’s showdown with the Ducks.
“We could have extended our lead to 4-1 or 5-1, we had many opportunities to do that,” said Montgomery. “You can’t be up 3-1 with five minutes left and then all tied up and going into overtime.
“We’re a work-in-progress. We’re still 6-0-1. Scoring in general, I think, is going to be a little bit of a work in progress. Defensively we’ve been pretty good, I’m talking 5-on-5, and offensively we’re getting better. You can see it coming. But off the rush especially, we’re not where we need to be.”
It was unrealistic to expect the Bruins to limit opponents to a goal per game like they did in the first six games of the season, and finally Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson pushed through Boston’s defensive curtain in the third period for the biggest crooked number an opponent has posted against the Bruins.
It ultimately had the B’s second-guessing themselves for dropping back into a bit of a defensive shell late in the game, when an attack mentality might have helped them score that final insurance score that might have put things out of reach.
“I think we did sit back and maybe got a little comfortable there,” said Matt Grzelcyk. “They’ve got a lot of skill, especially on their top two lines, and they’re going to keep coming no matter what. We know they were going to be a desperate team trying to avenge that loss [last week]. Just mentally stay in it and stay aggressive through the third period. We had some looks there, but we just need to bear down.”
Everybody knows at this point that the Bruins will be built on the bedrock of defense and goaltending this season. Most nights that is going to be enough when Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman are on top of their puck-stopping game, or when McAvoy and Lindholm can act as closers in the game’s final few minutes.
But, likewise, the B’s inability to run away from teams in the third period, something they did extremely well with their deep, dangerous group last season, is going to result in some white-knuckle moments in games like Thursday’s overtime loss vs. the Ducks.