I Never Thought I'd Say This But Khudobin Gives the B's a Much Better Chance to Win Than Rask

Tuukka Rask (3-8-2) made his first start in 11 days (November 15 at Anaheim was his last outing) but despite 32 mostly run-of-the-mill saves, he couldn't add to his meager win total as Edmonton (9-13-2) wrapped up a bumpy five-game road trip with a 4-2 victory tonight at TD Garden. Boston (10-8-4) saw its modest four-game winning streak come to an end as Rask has yet to record a win since November 6 at Minnesota (5-3). The Celtics (18-3) are the best team in the Eastern Conference and the Patriots (9-2) might be the top team in the NFL, so the Bruins' cloudy goaltending situation won't nearly get the attention as those more worthy clubs but I have to admit that it is getting pretty damn interesting.

Anton Khudobin (7-0-2) has won his last four straight starts and he hasn't lost in regulation this entire season (7-0-2). Still, Rask is the undisputed No. 1 (at least for the time being) so he had to get back in there at some point and the Oilers seemed like a good spot for him since they had dropped four out of their last five contests. Boston got off to a good start as David Pastrnak scored a power play goal at 14:03 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. Torey Krug and Rask had the assists on Pasta's team-leading 12th goal of the season. He finished the shot right in the nick of time before he got flattened by a pair of Edmonton players and Cam Talbot (23 saves)-who's had a miserable campaign himself-couldn't react to it in time.

Patrick Maroon apparently lives to play in Boston as he followed up his hat trick here last year with another goal, this one tying things up at 9:50 of the second period. Zach Kassian found him with a cross-ice pass and he was able to beat Rask up high to the top shelf for his seventh goal of the season. Edmonton took a 2-1 lead less than five minutes later at 14:20 as Adam Larsson (how's that Taylor Hall trade looking this season? Haha woof!) had a shot from the point deflect in off Charlie McAvoy's skate. Larsson's third goal of the season was assisted by the newly-acquired Mike Cammalleri and some nobody named Connor McDavid. The B's continued to get outshot at an alarming rate (17-5 in the 2nd!) but somehow it was knotted at two after two frames as David Krejci roofed one by Talbot at 15:31. Riley Nash, his temporary linemate, and Krug provided the assists on Krejci's third goal of the season.

With everything to play for in the third, Boston finally stepped on the gas-outshooting Edmonton 14-9-but it didn't really matter as a defensive breakdown allowed Ryan Strome to be wide open in the slot for an easy goal at 2:07 that Rask couldn't be expected to save in most instances. Leon Draisaitl had the lone helper on Strome's fourth goal of the season. Talbot came in with a horrid 3.13 goals against average so he tried his best to give away the lead but the Bruins couldn't take advantage of a shaky goaltender on the other end. Draisaitl ended it with an empty-net goal at 19:09: his first attempt was blocked but he stuck with it for his seventh goal of the season, assist by McDavid and old friend Milan Lucic (who earlier was mistakenly credited with Larsson's goal).

So where do the Black and Gold go from here? Well they are off tomorrow and then get back to practice on Tuesday before Tampa Bay (16-5-2)-the top team in the Eastern Conference and one point behind St. Louis (17-6-1) who has played one more game-is here for rivalry night on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Network). Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy has been around for too long to be baited into committing too early to his starting goaltender for that tilt but I honestly would be surprised if he goes back to Rask in that one. I still have a hard time explaining the reason behind it (maybe just that some things in life are unexplainable, son) but the fact remains that the Bruins are a unquestionably better team when Khudobin is in the net and not Rask. Tuukka wasn't bad today but a shutout or perhaps stealing a win for the B's-which is basically what he had to do-would have gone a long way at least in the near future for the struggling Finn.

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The Bruins Need To Drastically Shake Things Up and They Should Have Done It Already

It's been a long time since I was applying to colleges but from what I remember, they don't let dumb people into Harvard. My point being that Bruins GM Don Sweeney is a smart man so there is no conceivable way that he can sit by idly and watch Boston (20-17-4) piss away another entire season, right? How many times do fans have to see the same mistakes: slow starts, no offensive firepower, a stubborn head coach set in his (usually winning) ways, an awful power play and a team that you can never count on to perform at a high level at key moments? After sitting through another lackluster performance tonight at the Garden where the Oilers (20-13-7) beat the Bruins 4-3, all I can reasonably conclude is that something has to happen very soon before the Black and Gold repeat the same exact crappy script from the last two years (going to the last weekend of the regular season needing points to make the playoffs then not getting them).

Let's not waste any time, Claude Julien is a wonderful coach, in fact he's still one of the best in the NHL. However, as the longest-tenured guy behind the bench (almost 10 years), don't you have to wonder if many of his players have started to tune him out a bit? If you're not named Bill Belichick and winning at an insane clip year after year, eventually every coach reaches an expiration date. I'm not going to say that Julien deserves to get fired since I don't think you can expect much better results than he's getting with this flawed roster but perhaps it's simply time for a new voice. Changing coaches is always the easiest way to shuffle the deck for a team that's going nowhere fast but nearly all of the current roster needs to be under the microscope as well.

Sorry Danny Ainge, you can't rip off rival GMs on every trade so maybe the Bruins have to trade some of their supposed best players (David Krejci, Zdeno Chara, etc.) to prove that what's happening now and over the last few years isn't acceptable for a club that was one of the league's biggest powers just a few short years ago. How can a team be so good on the road (11-7-4) yet so mind-numbingly poor at home (9-10-0), again? If you've been paying attention, tonight's loss to Edmonton had so many of the usual elements of the Bruins' recent failures: a nobody (Patrick Maroon) had a career-night (his 1st career hat trick), they had a whopping 75 shot attempts (36 on goal, 19 blocked, 20 missed the net!) and the opposing goaltender-in this crease Cam Talbot (33 saves) did enough to gain the two points as the Oilers were up two goals in the third period and held on.

Connor McDavid's first career game in Boston was a memorable one as he had a pair of assists in helping the Oilers get their first regulation win over Boston since Oct. 17, 2000 and first regulation win here since Nov. 7, 1996. In fact, the Bruins had a 16-game point-streak (13-0-3) snapped by Milan Lucic's new team. No word on if Looch actually played in the game because I never saw him out there. McDavid threaded a perfect pass to Maroon for a one-timer only 1:08 into the contest. Leon Draisaitl had the other helper on Maroon's 12th goal of the season. Chara didn't like what he was seeing so he did what any good leader would do: he dropped the gloves with Maroon shortly after that initial tally. Is that still allowed in the NHL? Answer: barely.

Boston put together a short-lived lead as Colin Miller tied it at 7:16 of the first period when his shot bounced in the net off of former Northeastern defenseman Matt Benning. Austin Czarnik and Torey Krug assisted on Miller's third goal of the season. Patrice Bergeron continued to slowly percolate as he finished a pass from David Pastrnak for a 2-1 B's lead at 10:43 of the second period. Kevan Miller (his 1st point of the season) had the other assist on Bergeron's eighth goal of the season. Of course, the Bruins aren't allowed to taste success for very long these days at the Garden so Maroon tied it at two at 13:09. Maroon overpowered Adam McQuaid for a loose puck by Tuukka Rask (21 saves) and spun around to get the shot off. BU's Eric Gryba and McDavid had the assists.

Edmonton is having an unexpectedly good season thus far and they were helped out by a fortunate bounce of their own as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a puck ricochet off his body into Boston's net just 14 seconds into the final frame. After allowing such an early goal in the first period, how could the Bruins double down and give up a way faster one? My head hurts. Maroon completed his hat trick at 9:02 (his career-best 14th goal of the season) after fittingly forcing an ugly turnover by the B's in their own end. He wrapped around Rask and waited for a long time before sliding the puck in. Beautiful goal.

The Bruins had a 5-on-3 power play for 59 seconds and even they couldn't screw that up. With Gryba literally a second from jumping back on the ice from the penalty box, Krejci sent in a shot from the side of the net after Talbot had stuffed Bergeron at a better angle. Brad Marchand notched the other assist on Krejci's ninth goal of the season at 17:04. Boston pushed for a tying goal but as usual, it wasn't meant to be. How many times have we said, "why don't they play like that (as they do when they are coming back) more often?" Therein lies the main issue: who do you blame more for yet another up-and-down season? Make no mistake, the Jacobs' might not hold anyone accountable but someone has to notice that this group is fatally flawed.

Boston has practice tomorrow morning before flying out to Florida as the Bruins visit the Panthers (16-15-8) on Saturday night (7, NESN). They are in Carolina (17-14-7) for a bizarre 5 pm start time (on NESN) on Sunday. I wouldn't recommend viewing either game even though the B's will probably do well in them. Nope, Wild Card Weekend starts on Saturday afternoon and even though the Pats are off for a week, the NFL playoffs are much more interesting than this mess of a team. Look for center David Backes (who is recovering from a concussion) to return this weekend after he practiced yesterday but wasn't cleared to play for tonight.

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Bruins Blow Late Lead, Fall 3-2 in Overtime vs. Ducks

With Ottawa getting blown out 5-1 by the Rangers tonight, the Bruins had the perfect opportunity to go back ahead of the Senators if they could just hang on for a 2-1 win vs. Anaheim tonight at TD Garden. Predictably, Boston (36-25-13) gave up the tying goal to Corey Perry with 39 seconds left in regulation when the Ducks (47-22-7) had Frederik Andersen (27 saves) on the bench for an extra skater. Their other superstar Ryan Getzlaf won it with an absolute snipe at 3:09 into overtime. The Senators and Bruins both have 85 points but Ottawa has played one less game.

After a scoreless first period, Anaheim stuck first as Patrick Maroon (great name) made Matt Bartkowski look silly. He blew by him then beat Tuukka Rask (29-19-12; 29 saves) for the 1-0 Ducks lead at 10:18. Clayton Stoner and Sami Vatanen assisted on Maroon's ninth goal of the season. Boston's power play goal helped them tie it up less than three minutes later. Rookie Ryan Spooner shot the puck through Andersen's five-hole for his sixth goal of the season at 13:07. Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci (playing for the first time since February 20) had the assists.

Boston's power play struck again 27 seconds into the third period. Andersen left a juicy rebound that Loui Eriksson was able to knock in for his 19th goal of the season. Torey Krug had the primary assist and Krejci picked up his second helper of the evening. Perry's goal was a classic goal-scorer's tally as he parked himself in front of Rask and tipped in Getzlaf's shot. Cam Fowler had the other assist on Perry's 32nd goal of the season.

The Ducks only had two power plays in the entire game but when Zdeno Chara got called for a bogus hooking penalty 38 seconds into overtime, you had to think that Anaheim would end it right there. It's a credit to the B's that they were able to kill off that 4-on-3. Getzlaf's game-winner came off a pretty innocent play as he skated in basically by himself against two Boston defensemen. He uncorked a very hard shot from a few strides inside the blue line that went up and under the crossbar.

Boston is off tomorrow before they host the Rangers (47-19-7) on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN) then they travel to Carolina (27-36-10) on Sunday night (5, NESN). Needless to say, the Bruins can't afford to leave anymore points on the table like they did tonight.

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