3 takeaways from Bruins 3-1 loss to Columbus Blue Jackets

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins were dealt a painful loss Saturday night, losing by a score of 3-1. Carl Soderberg scored Boston's only goal while Tuukka Rask was good for much of the game.

Below are some takeaways from the loss...

Winning streak over

The Bruins were riding high going into this game. They had won five straight contests and taken points out of their last 13 games.

Though they played similarly to the way they have been throughout this streak, Saturday's loss ruined the absoluteness of their early 2015 run. The Bruins, having also watched as the Rangers beat the Blue Jackets the night before to reclaim the first wild card spot, now have their record drop to 24-16-6 on the season and will have to wait until Tuesday to get their next chance at leapfrogging New York.

Bruins absorb loss of Marchand

One of the biggest storylines going into Saturday's game was that surrounding the suspension of Brad Marchand for slew-footing Rangers forward Derick Brassard. Marchand was suspended two games by the Department of Player Safety Friday and spoke to media Saturday morning on the topic.

While there was little opposition to the suspension within the Bruins or even Boston as a whole, there was much to be said about how the team would absorb the loss of him vs Columbus.

Very simply, the Bruins seemed to play seamlessly without the grit of Marchand. Fourth line winger Danial Pallie was promoted to Marchand's normal line consisting of Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith. He and his line rattled off 10 shots and played normal ice time.

Though the Bruins definitely missed Marchand, Saturday's game seemed to settle some fluttering fears that his absence would devastate the team's momentum.

Milan Lucic dominates finesse game

Milan Lucic, who already had three goals in the new year, played one of his best fundamental games fans have seen out of him in a while.

He and linemates, David Krejci and David Pastrnak, were connecting on passes with showstopping consistency Saturday. Furthermore, Lucic himself put up five shots in the loss, more than he had in any game this season. Though he did not factor into the score sheet in a major way, Lucic was arguably the Bruins best offensive player vs the Blue Jackets; something that has not been true for a long time.

Read More

The Inaguration: Bruins win Presidents Trophy in brutal clash with Buffalo

The NHL first awarded the Presidents Trophy in 1985 to the Edmonton Oilers. Since then, it has been given annually to the NHL team with the best regular season record and yet, though they had been given 27 cracks at taking home the shiny trophy, on just one occasion had the Bruins won it.

Instead, in the first 27 years of the trophy's existence, teams like Detroit, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary dominated the regular season and by default dominated ownership of the Presidents Trophy. The Redwings won 6 times in the 13 seasons between 1994 and 2008, while the Oilers, Flames, Chanuks, Avalanche, Stars, Blackhawks and Rangers all won twice. Sandwiched in there were solo Presidents Trophy wins by the Sennators, Rangers, Penguins, Blues, Sharks, Capitals and Sabers.

Prior to today, the Bruins were included on that list.

But now, after a triumphant but brutal at the same time 4-1 victory over Buffalo, the Bruins 101 point Presidants Trophy winning 1989-1990 season no longer stands alone as the highest seed the Bruins have ever achieved going into the playoffs.

Having already played 80 games out of 82, the Bruins came into Saturday's game with Buffalo with 115 points and the knowledge that a win of any sort would give them a 5 point cushion on the Ducks for the number one spot in the league. Basically, it came down to one simple fact, if the Bruins won, they would be the Presidents Trophy winners.

But for a team that has spent the entirety of its 6 year, Claude Jullian coached string of dominant seasons, they could easily be labeled one of the most regretful recipients of the Presidents Trophy in the Award's history. All season long they have villinised individual accolades never getting to high and never getting to low. Even during their run of 14 games without a regulation loss, the Bruins were constantly muttering about how they could get better and how their game still was not good enough for the playoffs.

Even after they won Saturday, humility was almost involuntary within the Bruins locker room.

Also they say it starts with the top. “The Presidents' Trophy identifies a team that’s been good for the regular season; the other thing is, it also guarantees home ice as long as you’re in the playoffs,” Head Coach Claude Julien said “So those are two things we’re really proud of, but that’s where it stops.”

“The next step is we still got to do some work here in order to get the trophy that we all really want here.”

1st line center David Krejci also had things to say about not saying anything about the win and what it gave the team.“It is a nice achievement, that’s for sure, but that wasn’t our goal going into the season. So one thing that’s good about it is as long as we’re in the playoffs, we’ll be starting at home, so that’s good. But we’re trying to accomplish something different, so we have one more game tomorrow, and we need to play a really strong game and feel good about our game going into the playoffs.”

For a few frustrated reporters who should have known better than to try to get some Presidents Trophy oriented quotes out of the Bruins, they quickly realized that the only thing the team would elaborate on was the list of players they lost in game. After scoreing his 30th goal of the season, hugely successful Bruins center, Patrice Bergeron failed to get back in the game in the 3rd period. 

And yet his worrisome departure was not the worst thing that happened to the Bruins and the bodies of their players in the final period of the game. 

Just over 7 minutes into the 3rd period, Bruin 4th line winger Danial Pallie turned up ice with the puck and failed to see Sabers defenceman Jake McCabe barreling towards him. Though he was not carrying much speed up ice, Pallie lunged forward in an attempt to launch a targeted pass to one of his line mates. As he did so however, McCabe delivered a massive but clean hit on Pallie launching him back onto the ice and halting play immedealty.

As Pallie pealed his dazed figure off the ice, two Bruins rushed in to give McCabe a piece of their mind while still more gathered around Pallie to see that he was okay. He was not. Though he tried to get to his feet on his own, Pallie lost all balance and fell backwards only staying upright because of the 4 players and referees around him who grabbed his body before it fell back to the ice. 

Pallie who has already suffered 2 concussions this season while scoring 9 goals on the crucial Merlot Line, was by far the biggest casualty of this game and the Presidents Trophy that was rewarded at the end of it. He will be sorely missed and will remain a huge question mark going into the Bruins first round series with Detroit. 

Read More

The 4th line frame of mind: A look at Gregory Campbell's recent hot streak and how it has reguvinated the Bruins 4th line

Gregory Campbell is 30 years old, he has played 9 NHL seasons and yet, he has never before scored 4 goals in 4 games. Until now.

In the first four games the Bruins have played in March, Campbell has been a force to be reckoned with, taking 10 shots, and of course scoring on 4 of them. For him and his line-mates, this 4 game explosion has been one of great power and one that has helped right the ship for the Bruins who struggled immediately out of the Olympic break.

Prior to the Bruin's March 1st game against Washington, Gregory Campbell had scored just 2 goals in the entire season and had not scored since January 14th or a total of 12 games. Altogether, this Bruins 4th line that has been one of the best 4th lines in hockey for at least 3 years now was once again being asked to deliver the 30-40 goals it had in seasons like 2012 and unfortunately, that simply was not happening. This line had lost its identity ever so slightly in the early parts of this season. In games like that infamous December 7th clash with Pittsburgh that saw Shawn Thornton KO Brooks Orpik and earn a 15 game suspension, they crossed that line separating rough play and dirty play and therefore committed penalties that gave their team no emotional boost. In other games, they tried to get too flashy, trying to out maneuver defenders rather than going straight through them as they had in years past.

While that style of play did pay off at times, namely on Thursday, January 28th when Shawn Thornton deaked 2 Florida defenders to backhand in one of the best goals of his career, overall it resulted in far more turnovers by the Merlot line and the fewest goals total by a Bruin fourth line through the first 58 games of a full season in the 4 years this group has been together. Just 14 goals.

When they lost Shawn Thornton to kick off the month of January, the team also lost some of that grit and ferocity that has done so well to supercharge the atmosphere at these games. During the suspension, their fight totals went down and no one on the 4th line except Danial Pallie scored a goal thus limiting the multi-faceted attack that the Bruins' 4th line give them. Even when he returned they simply were not the same.

But nevertheless, the 2 week Olympic break seemed to get something to click with this trio. None of them represented their countries in Sochi just as none of them were forced to deal with any scrutiny by the fans. While it can be assumed that they did log considerable hours in the gym during the games, they used this time to gain something that especially right out of the break would be something not many teams had. That is, a full line of capable scorers who instead of playing grueling hockey on a big international ice sheet for 2 weeks had taken a little off-season in the middle of the year.

More than any other time in the entire season, the odds were in favor of a big surge by them.

They seized the chance.

After a team wide hiccup in their first game back vs. Buffalo, the 4th line was the highlight of the latter half of their March 1st game against Washington notching a goal that sat much more easily with the kind of game they play. Taking the puck at the blue line, all 3 Bruins 4th liners raced towards the goal. With Danial Pallie skating a line that had him crossing the goal right at the top of the crease, Gregory Campbell following close behind him and Shawn Thornton skating behind and to the left of the two Bruins, a relaxed Washington defense allowed Thornton to toss the puck in the general direction of Campbell.  With Pallie parked right in front of the net with his back towards Campbell, Campbell reached across the body of a defender in order to try to tag the puck and redirect it on goal. As he did so however he was tripped and sent crashing into the ice, Pallie and a bewildered Braden Holtby. The puck trickled in and Campbell sported an ear to ear grin as he untangled himself from the pile of bodies near the left goalpost.

That goal was the perfect Gregory Campbell goal and it provided this 4th line with a powerful boost that has carried them through this week as the best thing going for the B's. The very next day in a game against the New York Rangers, the Bruins overcame an early deficit to beat their Big Apple foe's 6-3. Campbell scored twice in that game marking the first time he has done so in the regular season since April 10th of last season. But that was not the best part of this game for "Soupy" as he is called by the team. With 10 minutes to go in the game and the Rangers nipping at the Bruins' heals Campbell took the puck on a shorthanded breakaway. This time instead of barreling into goalie Henrik Lunquvist however, he threw in a last second forehand/backhand move and tucked the puck in as he passed the right post. His next goal reverted back to the 4th line mold as he tipped a Pallie shot in a physical crossing pattern across the front of the net.

The goal was reviewed to see if the puck was kicked in but in the end it stood. Though he did take a day off from scoring Tuesday against the Panthers, Campebell completed the 4 goals in 4 games domination Thursday against Washington once again, this time tipping in yet another Danial Pallie shot.

Yet much like the rest of the Bruins, Campbell is humble when talking about his success.

“I’m just trying to get our line going here,” Campbell said after Thursday’s 3-0 shutout of the Capitals at TD Garden. “I feel like we’ve been playing a lot better. We’re working hard, we’re working smart and trying to read off of each other and get back to playing with one another. And you know, our lines are playing really well and have been contributing on a nightly basis, and everybody knows that to have four lines cruising into the playoffs is a good recipe.”

Claude Jullian however had to applaud the effort this line has given the team in the last games.

“Obviously, they have been much better,” Julien said after the 6-3 win over New York. “Because, number one, I think their line at one point was doing a lot of duplication. They’d end up with two guys as the first forechecker and they were a little bit all over the place and they didn’t get the results they wanted, and then spent a lot more time in our D zone than they should. They got themselves back in sync. Gregory has kind of turned the page there, and it’s important for him to have a good finish. So it was important to start from scratch, and that line sort of looked at some video and talked about how they needed to play, and they have been a really good line for us. They’ve scored goals - not by fluke - but more by the way they’ve worked together and how hard they’ve worked and how hard they’ve been working at putting pucks at the net."

All and all, adversity is something the 4th liners have come to know very well. At the same time such familiarity has also given them a whole list of ways to overcome that adversity. At the top of that list, score goals the way you are meant to score goals and in these 4 games, at least Gregory Campbell has done just that.

Read More

Caps outlast Bruins: Another game of so-so defense dooms Boston

That man, yeah the one in the picture might as well be an evil terminator sent from the future to destroy the hopes of every other player and team in the NHL. Alex Ovechkin scoured 2 goals in this game and singlehandedly helped lead his team towards the dominant outcome that the Capitals enjoyed on the first day of March.

Playing in their second game since the Olympic break, the Bruins came in still feeling a bit of the shame of loosing to the lowly Sabers on Wednesday night. With Tuukka Rask back in net however, this seemed like a team who was ready to take out these Capitals and simply snag a win. But unfortunately for Boston, things did not necessarily follow that path. Though the Bruins jumped into a shot heavy offensive set, they did something early in the game that you just cannot get away with when you are playing against the Capitals. They committed penalties.

All season long, the combination of Niklas Backstrom and oh so potent Alexander Ovechkin have made it so that the Capitals have scored on close to 1 quarter of their power plays. Ridiculosly, they score these power play goals largely off of an unmatched mantra of shot taking. They average 7 shots per power play opportunity. The Bruins however were taking penalties right from the start of this game and it did not take them long to feel the effects of that Washington power play.

Carl Soderberg was whistled for holding the stick 4 minutes into the game and on the ensuing power play, though they did not score, the Capitals pelted Tuukka Rask with 5 shots and close to a constant presence in the offensive zone for that entire 2 minute advantage. As if that was not good enough, after Boston squandered a 2 minute 5 on 3 advantage later in the period, a Chris Kelly interference penalty put the Capials on the man advantage once again. This time, the league's best power play scorer was up to the task of putting the puck in the back of the net. With under 2 minutes left in the 1st period, Alex Ovechkin put the Capitals up 1-0.

"Well, I mean, if he gets those one-timers with a half-empty net, you're pretty much going to score. You have to recognize that he's out there and I don't think we did a very good job today with that," said Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask,  "He had that shot in the first period before he scored and then he gets that goal and the next one I was almost positive he was going short sided, but he kind of knuckled and he stalled and it went in. But if you keep giving him those one-timers he's going to find the back of the net."
4 minutes later, 2 minutes into the 2nd period, Ovechkin doubled that lead scoring another power play goal, this time off of a tripping penalty charged to Matt Bartowski. When Joel Ward absolutely humiliated the Bruins defense later in the period when he intercepted a D to D pass and roared his way up the middle on his way towards deaking out Tuukka Rask and sealing off a 3-0 lead for Washington.

The Bruins however seemed to get the memo after that goal and started to work to pry that lead away from the Caps. Within minutes of the Ward goal, Dougie Hamilton took a pass from Reilly Smith and slid down through the face off circle. Drawing two defenders too his side, Hamilton selflessly slid a pass of his own towards a completely unchecked Patrice Bergeron. He ripped the one timer past Bradan Holtby igniting, the TD Guarden, his teammates and the never quit spirit that has made Boston such a great team year in and year out.

"They got a little bit of momentum and the crowd got them into it, their fourth line got them into it and then we got to see a little bit of Boston and the way they have played all season long. And it's a tough team to defend against," Capitals defender Carl Alsner said when asked about the goal.

The Bruins fought hard for the remainder of that period, mashing bodies and pounding the Capitals with that annoying kind of skate through the opponent hitting that many of the Bruins forwards excel it. Before the 2nd period drew to a close, a goal that purely exemplified the Bruin's forth line play had turned this into a 3-2 game. That goal was scored when Shawn Thornton grabbed the puck along the left side boards. With Gregory Campbell streaking towards the net, Thornton slammed the puck towards the hash marks. Though the name of the person who actually hit the puck at that part of the ice is still up for debate, Cambell basically threw his body in it's direction, bouncing the puck of of either his or the defending Capital's stick and into the net. As Campbell, Pallie and Thornton all pealed themselves out of the carnage that piled up as Campbell knocked over everyone in his path, there was a kind of exuberant joy in the Garden. All of a sudden, this was a game. 

Before long however, it was all Capitals once again. Halfway through the 3rd period, Eric Fehur scored to put his team up 4-2 effectively sealing the game and sinking the ship on this game for Boston. 

"I think at this point in time the areas that I guess we haven't been as good at need to be addressed, because that's how we want to be as a team. We want to be held accountable to the areas that we didn't do as well tonight as I think we would like to," Bruins center Gregory Campbell said. "I think there were some positives in the game, but I mean it's another loss. We really don't like to lose two games in a row. At this point in time you're going to get the best from every team. That team is fighting for a playoff spot. It's just some details in the game that as a team we make a point to focus on."

A loss is a loss but this being the first time the Bruins have lost back to back games in over a month, this one hurts a little more. 

Read More