Hopefully after a long playoff run this spring/summer, the Bruins' (31-14-7 overall, 15-8-4 away) struggles with the lowly Devils (18-28-7 overall, 7-18-3 home) in the 2021 regular season will be all but forgotten. However, at the moment it's tough to rationalize how one of the better teams in the league had so many problems with one of the worst clubs from the opening games in January to the final week in May. It still makes no sense whatsoever but at least the madness ended tonight at the Prudential Center as NJ won their home finale 4-3 in overtime against Boston. Left wing Pavel Zacha scored his second goal of the game at 2:42 in the extra session leading to B's goaltender Jaroslav Halak (17 saves, 9-6-5) destroying his poor stick against the net then by the Bruins' bench as well for good measure.
Halak's last start was on April 3 so you can completely understand his frustration. He might not get another start before the postseason and would anybody be surprised if rookie Jeremy Swayman (6-2-0) has taken his job as Tuukka Rask's (14-4-2) backup? Of course, it shouldn't have come to that as the Bruins led 2-1 after two periods on the second night of a back-to-back and 3-2 midway through the third period. When they had playoff seeding to play for and New Jersey had nothing except pride or playing spoiler to motivate them, this needed to end with two more points for the visitors and their fifth straight victory. I guess the only good news to come out of this is that B's head coach Bruce Cassidy can simply get rid of all the Bruins-Devils highlights from this season and move on to other more pressing duties facing his team.
It was a great performance by Zacha who began the scoring with a wicked one-timer on the power play for his 14th goal of the season. Child center Jack Hughes and center Nico Hischier had the assists at 8:42 of the first period which turned out to be the only goal of the first frame. The Bruins outshot the Devils 15-9 in the first period but they turned up the heat even more in the second period where they blitzed them 12-4 and more importantly, outscored them 2-0. B's captain Patrice Bergeron tied it with a power play tally of his own at 4:36. He turned around and fired the puck past New Jersey goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood (33 saves, 13-16-4). Bergy's 21st goal of the season was assisted by right wing David Pastrnak and defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. Boston took its first lead on a fluky play as Grzelcyk tried to put the puck on net with left wing Taylor Hall crashing the cage against one of his former clubs. The puck actually ended up deflecting off of him and into the net, not exactly a top highlight reel play but nevertheless still very effective. Hall's eighth goal of the season was also assisted by center David Krejci at 14:02.
Halak did not have any puck luck on his side in this loss either since NJ's tying goal in the third period came off a deflection in front of him that led to an easy tap in for center Jesper Boqvist at 9:10. Defensemen Damon Severson and rookie Marian Studenic picked up the assists on the fourth goal of the season for Boqvist. The black and gold regained the lead thanks to a sweet feed from Pastrnak to an onrushing center Sean Kuraly who knocked it in at 10:42 for the 3-2 Bruins advantage. Defenseman Mike Reilly had the secondary helper on Kuraly's fourth goal of the season. A missed poke check by Reilly proved to be fatal mistake a few minutes later as rookie right wing Yegor Sharangovich was able to skate past him and fire a heavy wrist shot past Halak at 12:41. Rookie defenseman Kevin Bahl provided the second assist on Sharangovich's 16th goal of the season.
In overtime, the Bruins were about to be shorthanded but the Devils kept the puck and hemmed them into their defensive zone. Eventually, Boston collapsed under the pressure as Zacha simply drove to the net and roofed a backhander at 2:42. Hughes and defenseman Will Butcher had the assists on the game-winning goal. Boston got the pity point from the overtime defeat and coupled with another gift result from Buffalo (15-32-7)-in the form of a 4-3 shootout victory over the Islanders (31-16-6)-they were able to stay a point ahead of New York for third-place in the East Division. Pittsburgh (35-16-3) rolled 7-3 over the Flyers (23-23-7) so the Penguins are four points clear of the B's atop the East Division. Idle Washington (33-14-5) is two points behind Pittsburgh but two points ahead of Boston in second-place in the East Division.
There are only four games left in the regular season for the Bruins (3 at home) and up next, they get to have a two-game set at the TD Garden against the Rangers (26-21-6 overall, 12-11-3 away) who have been eliminated from playoff contention already. Boston hosts the Rangers on Thursday (7, NESN) and Saturday afternoon (3, NESN) and once again, they will be fortunate enough to miss New York's best player-star forward Artemi Panarin who is recovering from being ragdolled to the ice by Capitals goon Tom Wilson last night. The Bruins are 4-2 against the blueshirts this season so a win in either matchup will clinch the season series in their favor.
UPDATE 5/5/21: I forgot to mention last night that Bruins center Charlie Coyle left with an undisclosed injury after one shift in the third period and never returned so we'll have to see if he's ready to go tomorrow.
