The Anaheim Ducks aren’t a 2007 kind of mighty, but they’re a much tougher out than they were last year, and they kept coming at the Bruins like newcomer Radko Gudas had delivered a pregame speech about last spring’s playoffs.
Stick with it, he might have said, and they played like he did say that and they listened.
When the satisfied Bruins, up 3-1 with time running down in the third period, left the door ajar, the Ducks came crashing through en route to a 4-3, overtime victory, Boston’s first loss of the season (6-0-1).
The breakdowns were many, going back to squandering golden opportunities to make it a three-goal game, but the most disturbing moment came with 2:00 remaining in regulation and John Gibson on the Anaheim bench for an sixth attacker.
Pavel Zacha, entrusted early in his switch-to-center season with defensive-zone duty in crunch time, had the puck on his stick and a clean opportunity to clear it beyond the blue line. It looked like he tried to pass the puck instead.
A two-goal lead that late in the game is an understandable point to be taking a look before chopping the puck back to center, but in this case the Bruins were wilting. They’d begun looking like a team that just got back from a west-coast road trip. The ice was looking thinner and thinner under their 3-1 lead. Anaheim center Leo Carlsson (1-2-2 and +2 in 22:37) scored the goal that fully activated the unraveling of a distant replay of Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
Gudas had given the Ducks a 1-0 5:00 in the game. The primary assist: former Bruin D Urho Vaakanainen, whose helper gave him a plus-1 against his drafting team. Vaakanainen looked pretty solid in 13:15 of ice time.
The Bruins deserve no grief. The disappointment is more for them than in them. They didn’t mail this one in.
Before tonight’s game, the Bruins held a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting on Wednesday in Lewiston, Maine. Earlier in the day, the Bruins Foundation established a fund for the families of the victims.
Here is the press release:
BOSTON BRUINS FOUNDATION CREATES FUND TO SUPPORT FAMILIES AFFECTED BY TRAGEDY IN LEWISTON
BOSTON – The Boston Bruins and the Boston Bruins Foundation are heartbroken by the tragic and horrifying events in Lewiston, Maine, on October 25. Maine is a special part of the Bruins family and our hearts are with those affected by this terrible tragedy.
In that spirit, the Boston Bruins Foundation is pledging a minimum of $100,000 to those affected by these horrific events in Lewiston. To learn more about how you can contribute, please see below.
DONATE NOW: The Bruinshave created a fund to which people can donate by visiting BostonBruins.com/LewistonStrong.
PURCHASE 50/50 RAFFLE TICKETS: The Boston Bruins Foundation 50/50 Raffle for October 26 vs. the Anaheim Ducks will benefit those affected by the events in Lewiston. Residents of Maine, as well as Massachusetts and New Hampshire can all participate. To learn more or to purchase tickets, please visit BostonBruins.com/5050.
PARTICIPATE IN A UNIQUE STICK AUCTION: Members of the Boston Bruins and the Anaheim Ducks will be auctioning off player-signed sticks wrapped with blue tape, representing the state of Maine. These sticks will be available for auction beginning on October 26 at 7 pm ET, with proceeds benefitting the families affected by the events in Lewiston. Text Bruins to 76278 from your mobile device to learn more about sticks available and place your bids.
#10/26/23#
In other game-day action, defenseman Ian Mitchell, who cleared waivers, was assigned to the AHL Bruins, and left-shot forward Jesper Boqvist was recalled and made his Bruins debut skating left wing with center John Beecher and RW Patrick Brown.
FIRST PERIOD
As usual, the Bruins were loose defensively in the opening several minutes, and Linus Ullmark was called upon to stop some clean chances off the rush.
Later in the period, Brad Marchand had words with Trevor Zegras. A Ducks teammate stepped in and Brandon Carlo shot out of a cannon to see if Anaheim’s butter-inner, in the words of the great Paul Stewart, wanted to go. Alas, he did not. Carlo stayed out there, Anaheim changed up.
Moments later, Carlo went to the box for taking down Mason MacTavish, something the crowd roared at in disapproval upon viewing the replay on the centerboard.
MacTavish battled with both Carlo and Hampus Lindolm and wound up in the crease as the first puck of the night to get past Ullmark (with 5:00 remaining in the first period) was challenged (unsuccessfully) by the Bruins for goaltender interference.
MacTavish was completely behind Ullmark and the puck shot from the point by Gudas was heading wide left when it struck a defenseman and caromed in behind Ullmark, who was playing at the top of his crease.
SECOND PERIOD
Anaheim D Jackson Lacombe went off 49 seconds into the second period for crosschecking Matt Poitras into the boards. The two had been jousting since Poitras was whacked by Lacombe behind the net. The Bruins, Jake DeBrusk first but not alone, jumped Lacombe, but before a fight could materialize the linesmen and the Ducks (led by Cam Fowler)
Charlie Coyle redirected either a shank or a brilliantly disguised pass from David Pastrnak (who was lining up Ovechkin style) to tie the game at 1:41.
Moments after the goal, Ullmark had to stop former Bruin Frank Vatrano from the slot, as the Ducks had an excellent shift. Coyle took a hit from Vatrano getting the puck out of the zone and followed Vatrano up the ice, crosschecking the Ducks winger, who retaliated.
In the ensuring four-on-four with Coyle and Vatrano in the box, Brad Marchand made a great second effort to turn a faceoff lost into a faceoff won, and after Poitras cycled the puck to McAvoy, Grzelcyk fired home the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 Boston.
The Ducks are feisty tonight, and Sam Carrick got in on Ullmark and drew a penalty on Derek Forbort.
On the PK, Patrick Brown got a break and, though he lost ground with miles to make it a 2-on-1, he did a great job using his support, taking a give-and-go and then setting up John Beecher, who hit the near post with John Gibson hopelessly out of the play.
Carrick and Ross Johnston teamed up on Forbort after an Ullmark save. Shattenkirk joined the fray and a stalemate was separated by the linesman. During a TV timeout late in the second period, U.S. Navy Senior Chief Bill Printup was honored as a Community All-Star.
Brown and former Duck Hampus Lindholm were instrumental in pinning the Ducks, and when the Bruins got changes Poitras weaved and backed off Anaheim’s defense until his cross-ice pass was a little off the mark.
McAvoy carried through center and passed off to Pastrnak, whose shot drew a rebound when Pavel Zacha crashed the net. Pastrnak scooped up the rebound and made it 3-1 with 3:20 remaining in the middle period.
Pastrnak almost had another on a delayed penalty against Gudas for throwing down Coyle when the Boston center was stickless as he skated for a change.
Gibson was shaken up in the Anaheim net late in the period when Pastrnak wiped out and slid under him. McAvoy was dumped hard by Ducks D Ilya Lyabushkin on a zone entry in the final second, and the Bruins went to the room with 1:28 remaining on Gudas’ penalty and a 3-1 lead.
THIRD PERIOD
Nice backcheck by Zacha on Carrick, who pushed the Boston center into Ullmark. No reaction from Zacha, who was gassed and needed to get off the ice. But this might not be the end of that.
Boqvist’s quickness is evident, and Brown got a look from a sneaky backhand pass made by the winger freshly recalled from Providence.
The game got chippier when Johnston slammed James van Riemsdyk into the curved glass partition, as the Boston LW went to change. Simultaneously, there was a four-player scrum behind the Anaheim goal line, but no penalties were called. JVR took a knee as he discussed with the linesman stationed there when Johnston hit him.
Lindholm wound up with the lone penalty, but the Bruins were obviously preoccupied with protecting their two-goal lead. If they were going to lose their first of the season, they wouldn’t want to throw away a solid effort in a first-game-back scenario so prone to a flat performance.
The Bruins got the kill, but Ullmark had to make a Gerry Cheevers-autographed, skate save to deny Zegras on a one-timer from the left circle off the rush.
(The rest of what I wrote about the third period followed the dark period when I was offline and appears at the top of the blog entry.)
POSTGAME WRAP
Troy Terry’s and Mason McTavish’s tying and winning goals only piled atop the Carlsson goal in an eerie scene reminiscent of last spring’s Game 7 fall-apart against Florida. An inferior but determined opponent was relentless, and the Bruins ultimately buckled. And it should not have gotten to that point.
That’s the whole similarity, that’s how it looked, that’s how it felt.
The question Rink Rap had for Coach Jim Montgomery and Charlie McAvoy afterward was if this loss was harder to swallow because it was not a mail-in of the first home game after a hard road trip, it was a hard-fought game with the reward of being in a great spot only needing to manage a moment or two.
They agreed the Bruins had not laid an egg, they also agreed it is unacceptable to be up 3-1 with two minutes left and blow it.
The Bruins tried throughout, but they dominated the second period and scored all three of their goals in the middle frame.
At the end of the night, one good period isn’t how a team wins games. If anything, it’s a bounce-back period for a consistent winner. In the Bruins’ case this season, it seems like their second periods should be their firsts, because they continue to play a loose defensive game early on.
They hung in the rest of the way, playing well enough not to be beaten until the final two minutes. One can argue the game was getting away from them several minutes before Carlsson scored at 18:05 of the third period to make it a one-goal game.
In isolating Zacha’s opportunity, two things come to mind: 1. That puck gets out and the Bruins get fresh legs and there’s no way they lose; 2. Zacha had a full season to learn from watching Patrice Bergeron and skating alongside David Krejci.
The game did come down to this one moment in which Zacha should have identified a safe path for the puck out to center without icing but did not, instead finessing a play that became the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Heretofore, there has been no signature occasion to raise doubt as to how well Zacha will ultimately transition into a Bergeron-Krejci-type role, centering in the top six.
Things have started off more than well for the Bruins (6-0-1), and an early-season mistake with one standings point of ramifications is no place to cancel what’s being built.
It just came as a surprise, that’s all. If Zacha wants to succeed playing all situations as a center for the Bruins, this kind of mistake is not supposed to be on the radar.
Hampus Lindholm was on the ice for all four Anaheim goals. Hopefully, that was a distracted game against his former team.
THE BIGGER LOSS
Bruins great Ed Sandford, who was the oldest living NHL team captain (if not player – he was the senior Bruins alumnus), died on Wednesday at age 95. His son Mike Sandford, the chief off-ice official whose team generates the at-Boston official stats package common to all NHL games, worked last night’s game. “I think he’d want me to,” said Mike, solemn but matter of fact in discussing his father’s decline in recent weeks.
Ed Sandford was a member of the Bruins’ Historic 100 most legendary players, as chosen by a committee appointed by the team for the centennial season.
His reaction when learning of his inclusion and being handed the list, Sandford immediately rattled off names to his son, saying there were 10 other players who deserved spots ahead of himself.
A former off-ice official himself, Ed Sandford pioneered early charitable efforts to meet social needs, in his era (1940s and ’50s) meeting the needs of single mothers.
As a player, Sandford wore No. 7, shot right, and played left wing. He never won the Stanley Cup, but he played a role in helping the Bruins play the spoiler role on heavily favored Detroit in 1953.
Along with a Toronto player similarly injured, Sandford’s Achilles injury played a role in the fundamental redesign of the hockey skate to add its backside “tongue” in order to protect against dangerous skate cuts.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 