Boston Bruins Lack Effort In 4-1 Loss to Calgary Flames
The Boston Bruins opened their seven-game homestand with a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames Tuesday night at TD Garden.
Boston Bruins Lack Effort In 4-1 Loss to Calgary FlamesHeading into Tuesday’s game against the Calgary Flames, Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said his team had to cut down its penalties.
In the eventual 4-1 loss at TD Garden, the B’s took seven penalties – five in the third period, including a 10-minute misconduct for Charlie McAvoy – and allowed two power play goals.
The Bruins’ eight days without a game showed and, to be blunt, it was ugly.
“We weren’t good in any area. Their compete level was a lot higher than ours. We figured we’d be a little bit rusty, but we just didn’t have an effort, unfortunately,” Brad Marchand said.
Boston was awarded a 5-on-3 man advantage for 1:09 in the final frame after a Brayden Pachal hooking call and subsequent double-minor high-sticking penalty on MacKenzie Weegar.
While Pavel Zacha scored to cut the deficit to 2-1, a too-many-men call did away with the remainder of the power play, and McAvoy, Charlie Coyle and Jakub Lauko all found themselves in the box by the final buzzer – making an already sleeper of a game that much more lifeless.
“The 5-on-3, it was a momentum change, and then we took a penalty so that kind of took it away from us right away,” Zacha said.
The Flames were going from the start, though.
Calgary forward Andrei Kuzmenko gave the Flames a 1-0 lead at 4:20 of the first period while Brandon Carlo sat in the box for holding. Kuzmenko picked up a pass from Jonathan Huberdeau in the high slot and wristed it past Jeremy Swayman for his first goal on the Flames after being traded from the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31.
Connor Zary doubled the Flames’ advantage off the rush while skating 3-on-2 against Kevin Shattenkirk and Matt Grzelcyk. Zary shimmied past Shattenkirk on the left side and pulled the puck to his backhand before slipping it in the net for the 2-0 score at 13:01.
The Bruins ended the first on – a not very effective – power play. Flames forward Martin Pospisil was dealt a five-minute major and game misconduct for an after-the-whistle head shot on Brad Marchand in front of the Calgary net with four minutes remaining in the period.
“Stressing just to simplify. We talked about being simple to start the game – we didn’t do that,” Montgomery said of the message between periods. “Then we talked about moving our legs so our brains would follow because I thought our brains were not very good in the first.”
Marchand picked up a slashing penalty on the play, so Boston skated 5-on-4 for three minutes, including the opening 60 seconds of a middle frame which showed no improvement from the first. The Bruins registered four shots on goal in the second period.
Zacha’s power-play goal came at 4:14 of the third. Pastrnak dished the puck over to Zacha by the right face-off dot who blasted it past Jacob Markstrom to make it 2-1 and bury his 11th goal of the season.
Calgary regained its two-goal lead just over two minutes later, though, after the Bruins were called for too-many-men, and the teams skated four a side. Jonathan Huberdeau looped around Charlie McAvoy by the left circle and wired it top-corner for the 3-1 advantage at 6:23.
“Coming from a break, they came from a break too, so it’s not really an excuse for us,” Zacha said. “I think they were just the better team today. We had a plan of how to win a game, and we just didn’t do it the right way. They outplayed us today.”
Flames forward Noah Hanifin delivered the final blow with a back-hander off the rush at 9:44, marking Calgary’s second power-play tally of the night and bringing the game to its final 4-1 score. Hanifin waltzed into the zone as Derek Forbort watched him charge to the net.
The Bruins will look to bounce back Thursday as they host the first-place Vancouver Canucks for a 7 p.m. puck drop at TD Garden.
“Every single night in this league can be a humbling experience. I don’t think I’m going to look too far into it, to be honest with you,” McAvoy said. “This is good. This is good for us to know what to expect from everybody.”
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