The Boston Bruins failed to end their regular season on a high note, dropping each of their past two games. But the third period in Tuesday's 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators gave a glimpse at what Boston can bring if it starts the playoffs off right.
The Boston Bruins failed to end their regular season on a high note, dropping each of their past two games. But the third period in Tuesday's 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators gave a glimpse at what Boston can bring if it starts the playoffs off right.
BOSTON – The Boston Bruins are in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That much is old news. However, after the last two performances to close out the regular season, it’s fair to wonder how long they’ll last.
On one hand, with the Toronto Maple Leafs set as their first round opponent and the formality of regular season games finally over, we can expect to see a much more intense and motivated Bruins team come out when the puck drops for Game 1 this weekend. On the other hand, this team is not coming in playing its best hockey.
Despite falling 3-1 in the regular season finale to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, the Bruins did show something in the final period of the season, which you couldn’t say about Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals.
After sleep-walking through the first two periods and allowing two goals in a 51-second span, the Bruins woke up in the third, ultimately outshooting the Senators 23-2 in the final 20 minutes.
“We didn’t play very good the last two games,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said. “But other than that, we’ve been playing well. We’ve been playing within the structure and giving ourselves an opportunity to win every night. If we do that in playoffs, we’ll be tough to play against.”
Pavel Zacha cut the deficit to 2-1 when he struck on the new-look power play at 12:44 of the third, rebounding Kevin Shattenkirk’s shot with his backhand. In their previous 11 games, Boston went 2-for-30 on the power play. With a mixed-up unit on Tuesday, the Bruins went 1-for-2 with six shots on goal and five scoring chances.
“We just had a little bit more volume of shooting,” Zacha said. “I think before, we tried to pass it around the perimeter and didn’t [shoot] that many pucks, and this time [we] get a shot, tip netfront and I was lucky to get it there, so I think that’s something we have to focus on more, too.”
The Bruins put themselves in position to tie the game, perhaps their best chance coming on a Charlie McAvoy stuff attempt that Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg robbed at 15:26, but ultimately it wasn’t enough.
The Bruins received another power-play opportunity at 16:29 of the third when Shane Pinto hooked David Pastrnak. With the man advantage creating good looks, Montgomery pulled Ullmark ahead of an offensive zone face-off at 17:59 to create a 6-on-4 situation. However, with the puck cleared and Pastrnak regrouping in his own end, an errant pass fell right to Senators defenseman Artem Zeb in the neutral zone, and an easy shot to the back of the empty net derailed Boston’s chances to tie things up.
Montgomery said he didn’t see Pastrnak turn it over, but he still liked what he saw from the power play despite giving up the empty-net goal.
“The puck movement was better. It was crisper, it was more directness to the net,” Montgomery said.
With better intensity from the start (not just the third period) and a more confident power play, the Bruins could be in better shape than many think. How much their play in the past couple games matters will be determined by the first 20 or so minutes of Game 1 against Toronto. As far as records and past achievements go leading up to this point, it’s all out the window come puck drop.
“It’s all about getting in and playing well and getting hot,” Bruins forward Trent Frederic said. “Coming together as a group, and really playing well. So I don’t think it matters what seed you are, wild card or you won the Presidents’ Trophy, whatever it is. It’s just all about playing well in the times that matter, I guess.”
Now, they just have to prove it.
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