Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but that’s usually not the case when patterns begin to develop in the game of hockey.
For the second time this season, the Detroit Red Wings handed the Boston Bruins a regulation loss in a 5-2 defeat at TD Garden at the annual Black Friday matinee. Some of it can be chalked up to the groggy B’s coming off a fun Florida road trip with their dads and a Thanksgiving holiday, of course. But it’s also a stone-cold fact that Detroit is now the only team that’s beaten the 14-2-3 Boston Bruins in regulation time.
The question is whether the Red Wings have uncovered some kind of blueprint to handle the Bruins that the rest of the league has yet to figure out.
“Given them credit. They came out hard and played a simple, effective game,” said Jake DeBrusk. “They got pucks in, and they were going after our ‘D’ pretty hard there and seemed like we couldn’t get any traction in the neutral zone. Once we did start chipping away, then we’d get a penalty or something like that they would capitalize on.
“They controlled our momentum swings really well tonight, which is why the [Red Wings] got the win.”
DeBrusk, for his part, was one of the few bright spots for the B's with his second goal in as many games while looking like he's headed for a patented hot streak.
Clearly there are some matchup challenges that the Red Wings pose for the Black and Gold. One of the biggest areas where they have tasted success against the B’s has been with a high-powered power play attack that has taken advantage of Boston’s propensity to take penalties. The B’s are now fifth in the NHL in most minor penalties taken this season, and third in times shorthanded this season in a pair of categories that don’t portend great things happening on the ice. Combine that with a more-than-capable Detroit power play that’s scoring on over 20 percent of their possessions, and that poses problems for the Black and Gold.
It did on Friday afternoon as JT Compher redirected a Shayne Gostisbehere point shot in the opening five minutes to give the Wings an early lead, and it happened again in the third period when Boston had closed to a 3-2 game.
Less than a minute later Brandon Carlo took a hooking penalty to put the Bruins down a man, and the Red Wings needed exactly six seconds for Dylan Larkin to rip home a PP strike to again put Detroit up by two goals.
That makes it four power play goals allowed to the Red Wings in the two regulation losses Boston has suffered at the hands of their Original Six rivals this season. That is absolutely a pattern that must be broken the next time Boston and Detroit meet each other down the line.
Sometimes it’s more than just the special teams, though. In this game, it was about a series of mistakes costing the B’s throughout the game, plain and simple. A slow start to the game for the Boston Bruins and the uncharacteristic self-inflicted wounds were simply much to overcome against a Red Wings team that had Alex DeBrincat, Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Compher and David Perron all playing at a high level.
“Our execution was very, very sloppy. We expected it to not be great,” admitted Jim Montgomery to NESN postgame. “We haven’t had a practice in six or seven days and while we were in Florida, but you would hope that our habits and details would hold water until we got our legs.”
So there were legitimate reasons behind the Bruins' lackluster effort, even to the point where some pointed to Friday’s game as a bit of the “scheduled loss” variety.
But let’s be honest here. This Bruins team has made it their stock and trade to thumb their collective noses at the idea of scheduled losses or excuses behind a lack of effort or execution as a ready alibi. Instead, this was simply a game where many of their bad habits and negative trends were too much for them to overcome, and they were not rescued by an elite level of goaltending play as Jeremy Swayman was merely decent while allowing four goals on 28 shots in a game where he couldn’t quite stand on his head.
Certainly, there was nothing he could do on the first-period goals allowed, a PP redirection by Compher right in front of the net and an DeBrincat bullet after he picked Matt Poitras’ pocket clean at the defensive blue line to make it a 2-0 deficit for Boston. At that point, it was clear the Bruins were stuck in the mud to start the game and got stuck trying to play catch-up hockey for the entire 60 minutes on Friday.
That is not really a blueprint to beat the Bruins as much as it was a formula that will cause the Black and Gold to beat themselves.
“Sometimes in these early games you don’t have your legs early,” said Danton Heinen. “They came out fast and they’re a fast team. I thought we got better as the game went on.”
Perhaps the Boston Bruins did get better as things went along on Friday afternoon, but that would be a pretty generous curve given how badly they stumbled out of the gate in a matinee that’s a fairly important date on their regular season schedule.
It doesn’t feel like the Red Wings have figured out any kind of “blueprint” to defeat Boston this season, but they also feel like they might be one of those teams that just the B’s number in another high-performance regular season for the Black and Gold.