The Bruins Don't Bother To Show Up In A Lifeless 4-0 Shutout Loss At The Garden Vs. The Rangers

 

    I'm told that there was a hockey game this afternoon at the TD Garden but what we all witnessed on NESN was far from it as the Rangers (11-12-13) turned the tables on the Bruins (14-7-4) and blanked them 4-0, the same score that Boston had beaten them by on Thursday. Woof, B's fans should just be happy that nobody was allowed in the building to watch this garbage, what a pathetic performance by the home team. Boston had a season-low 18 shots on goal which were all stopped by New York's third-string goaltender Keith Kinkaid (1-1). The Black and Gold's normally incredible top line had a terrible outing and Boston's power play was 0-for-5 so it's pretty hard for them to win when both of those things happen in the same tilt. 

    Left wing Jake DeBrusk was a last-minute scratch due to Covid-19 protocols, the perfect follow-up to what we hoped was a slump-busting goal in Thursday's victory. New York really needed a win and they played with that type of desperation from start to finish unlike the Bruins who played like they didn't want to be there. Defenseman K'Andre Miller wired home a strong wrist shot from the point at 3:06 of the first period for a 1-0 New York lead. Right wing Pavel Buchnevich and center Mika Zibanejad provided the assists on his second goal of the season. Up 1-0 after the first period, NY doubled its lead in the second period as BC's Chris Kreider crushed a one-timer from Zibanejad and defenseman Jacob Trouba. It was the team-leading 14th goal of the season for the Boxford, MA native and it came at 5:42. 

    Boston got outshot in every frame so expecting a comeback on this day was simply not a reasonable possibility. Today was Rangers star left wing Artemi Panarin's first game since February 20 (no worries, he was just dealing with the Russian mob trying to blackmail him) and he made an impact as he found center Ryan Strome for another one-timer that ended up in the back of Boston's net. That increased New York's lead to 3-0 at 8:03 of the third period with Harvard's Colin Blackwell picking up the secondary assist on Strome's 10th goal of the season. The final goal for the Rangers was called "a gift" by NESN's color commentator Andy Brickley and I have to agree with his pissed off homer assessment. A lazy turnover right in front of Bruins goaltender Jaroslav Halak (29 saves, 6-3-2) allowed Buchnevich to pad his stats with his eighth goal of the season, assisted by Kreider at 16:12.

    As you would expect, the Bruins get a day off tomorrow to recharge their bodies and minds before a very busy week that includes four road games in six days. First up, Boston plays a back-to-back in Pittsburgh (17-9-1) on Monday (7, NESN) and Tuesday (7, NESN). The Penguins have won their last five games in a row and they are three points ahead of the B's for third-place in the East Division but at least Boston does have two games in hand. That will be tough, especially since goalie Dan Vladar might have to make his NHL debut in one of those games if Tuukka Rask is still out dealing with back injury that is not getting nearly enough attention. The end of the week is guaranteed to be easier as the B's get their first two matchups of the season against the Sabres (6-16-4) aka the worst team in the NHL. Their best player BU's Jack Eichel is out for awhile dealing with a neck injury while his hapless team is 0-8-2 in its last 10 games. Boston visits Buffalo on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (1, NESN). The Black and Gold typically own the Sabres therefore nothing less than four points from those two contests will be acceptable.

For The Second Straight Night, The Bruins Got Absolutely Blown Out By A Team In New York

 

    Running out of gas in the third period last night in Long Island and losing 7-2 to the Islanders (10-6-3) after giving up five goals in the third period was one thing but tonight at Madison Square Garden, the Bruins (11-5-2) fell apart one period earlier in a humbling 6-2 defeat to the Rangers (7-8-3). After goaltender Jaroslav Halak had to play the entire game vs. the Isles, goaltender Tuukka Rask (28 saves, 7-3-1) was up next to absorb an ugly loss for the B's. Boston has dropped four of its last five games and in all of those losses, they have scored exactly two goals. It's tough to complain about much since they got off to such an incredible start to this season but truth be told, they were probably due for a market correction around this time.

    To New York's credit, they stepped on Boston's throat from the beginning and never really let up. Something called Phillip Di Giuseppe opened the scoring for the Rangers as defenseman Julian Gauthier's shot deflected in thanks to the puck hitting the left wing while he was parked in a screening position on Rask. Former Bruins prospect Ryan Lindgren provided the secondary assist on Di Giuseppe's first goal of the season at 13:16 of the first period. New York doubled its lead early in the second period when center Ryan Strome whipped in a snap shot (his 6th goal of the season) from rookie left wing-and No. 1 overall pick-Alexis Lafreniere and BC's Chris Kreider at 2:32. 

    The Bruins showed a bit of a pulse before a quick flurry by the Rangers put this one to bed. The captain Patrice Bergeron re-directed a pass from right wing David Pastrnak and left wing Brad Marchand. Bergy's eighth goal of the season came at 4:02 and it cut the Rangers' lead down to 2-1. Two local guys scored 12 seconds apart to make New York's advantage way bigger heading into the third period. Harvard's Colin Blackwell tipped in a shot by his former Crimson teammate defenseman Adam Fox for a power play goal. The St. John's Prep alum's fourth goal of the season also featured a helper by Strome at 18:52. I'm guessing that Kreider's goal (his 9th of the season) at 19:04 is the one that Rask would most like to have back. Kreider didn't have much of an angle to shoot from and it wasn't a great shot but nonetheless it still went in the net with Strome registering the lone assist. 

    The entire third period was garbage time as far as I'm concerned and the B's played like it was since Rangers right wing Pavel Buchnevich and center Jonny Brodzinski each added a goal to make the final score even more impressive or depressing depending on who you root for. Boston's top line got the final goal as Marchand was rewarded for going to the net and sticking his large nose into the mix. His team-leading 10th goal of the season was also the 300th of his NHL career and he became only the seventh Bruin ever to reach that lofty mark. The B's will have a light practice tomorrow before a Sunday afternoon matinee (12, NBC) back at MSG. I couldn't tell you which Bruins goaltender will start but I feel like we could see Rangers goaltender Alexander Georgiev (31 saves, 3-2-2) again after he helped beat the Black and Gold tonight. B's defenseman Matt Grzelcyk is on this trip so there's been talk that he could return on Sunday. Their defense could certainly use any help that it can get as they try to avoid an 0-3 road trip (Celtics style!).

Who Wants A Sweep? Not The Bruins Apparently Who Choke Away Game 4 Vs. Rangers In OT

The Bruins clearly saw the awful forecast this weekend in New England so they thought, "we can't do anything outside so why don't we play another game against the Rangers instead?" Boston had a glorious chance to send New York home for the summer but they blew a pair of leads (2-0, 3-2) en route to a 4-3 overtime loss at Madison Square Garden in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Bruins still own a 3-1 lead in the series but this has been deceptively close since three of the four games have been decided by one goal with two in overtime.

Game 5 is Saturday (5:30 p.m., NBCSN) and it's only happening because of BC and Eastern Mass products Brian Boyle and Chris Kreider (who had the game-winner). Well that's not true, it also took a couple insanely improbable things to let New York climb back into this. Credit to the Rangers though as Boyle finally solved their power play drought (0 for 12 in the series before that) for the tying goal at 10:00 in the third period. Kreider celebrated his promotion to a better line (sorry Brad Richards) with a pretty tip-in from Rick Nash at 7:03 in overtime.

Just like Game 3, the B's took it to the Rangers from the start and New York played like they couldn't care less. Between swearing at the refs, John Tortorella kept busy during TV timeouts by updating his resume and creating a Linked In profile. Boston outshot New York 12-4 in the first period but they couldn't beat Henrik Lundqvist (37 saves). The Bruins struck twice on the power play in the second period to grab the 2-0 advantage. Nathan Horton slipped one past King Henrik at 4:39, his fifth of the playoffs, from David Krecji and Brad Marchand. Torey Krug scored his third goal in four games at 7:41 with a long range slap shot from Tyler Seguin and Horton.

Someone must have slipped booze in Tuukka Rask's (28 saves) water bottle since he made one of the worst mistakes I've ever seen by an NHL goaltender that totally changed the tenor of what was shaping up to be an easy win for the Black and Gold. 58 seconds after Krug's goal, Carl Hagelin innocently floated a backhander on Rask that caused him to trip over his own skates than attempt to flail his stick at the slowly moving puck. It didn't work, 2-1 Bruins.

Rask's flask was passed to Zdeno Chara in the Bruins dressing room between periods because then it was his turn to make an unbelievable mistake that never happens. Chara was going behind Boston's net when Derek Stepan stripped the puck from him then wrapped it around the goal and in before Rask could recover. It made Tuukka look bad too but I can't blame him nearly as much as Chara, what was that?

If those goals weren't strange enough, Tyler Seguin suddenly morphed into a guy with confidence that could finish around the net. He made it 3-2 at 8:06 from Dougie Hamilton and Chara, his first goal of the playoffs looked like it might clinch the series.

About that, Boston took its annual too many men on the ice penalty which led to Boyle's goal. As hopeless as New York's power play has been, you knew that eventually they would figure it out.

The shots were even 7-7 in overtime but it felt like the B's had better scoring chances and it was only a matter of time before they ended it. As Lee Corso would say, "not so fast my friend!" Boston fell to 3-1 in overtime this postseason while New York improved to 1-3. The Bruins are 1-3 in closeout games but unlike the Maple Leafs series, this time they gave themselves one more game of breathing room. Actually forget I said that, please end it on Saturday night!

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