In a shocking turn of events, the Bruins' bid at never losing a game again ended tonight, capping the win streak off at 6. In just their second regulation loss all season, the Bruins fell short one goal to the Montreal Canadiens in what was nothing short of perhaps one of the most dramatic early November hockey games played.
To be fair, while it stinks to see the win streak come to an end, tonight's game was a nice reminder that the Bruins are humans too, and not just an offensive three-headed monster named "Puck Line Jesus," with an a brick-wall named "Tuukka Rask" as replacement for an actual being in goal. Two of the Bruins' biggest strengths, their top line and their goaltender, both struggled tonight in Montreal.
The biggest standout weakness from tonight's game was obviously Tuukka Rask. Believe it or not, even the elite have off days. What a crazy concept, huh? Rask allowed 5 goals on 31 shots, making it his worst game of the season by far. 3 of those goals came in the first period, giving the Bruins an ugly start. Not even two minutes into the game, the Habs struck first when Victor Mete buried what would be the first of two goals for him tonight past Rask. While the Bruins quickly answered the goal after with, and stop me if you've heard this before, a power play goal by David Pastrnak that took of all I don't know, six seconds into the power play to leave Carey Price looking like a dang fool, after that the Bruins' offense went quiet in the first period. An ugly first period for Tuukka and the Bruins' defense, it was an equally ugly period for the offense as well; the Habs outshot the Bruins, 13-6. On the bright side, it would appear Jake DeBrusk is finding his groove finally, as we saw in the first period. He appeared much more confident on the ice, something I believe stems from finally getting some results for himself offensively after scoring his second goal of the season last night, putting the Bruins on the board first against the Penguins. Tonight, he had some solid shots, with one in particular in the first period that just barely missed. He also had a great feed to Krug in the first, who also almost made an impressive goal in the first from DeBrusk.
As a matter of fact, with the first line relatively quiet for the most part tonight aside from Pasta's first goal, the storyline tonight for the Bruins' offense was all about that secondary scoring. Goals from Connor Clifton, Anders Bjork, and Sean Kuraly, helped to tie the game up once the third period rolled around. For Clifton, his second period goal was his first ever regular season goal in the NHL. Bjork, who was only recently called up from Providence, buried his second ever NHL goal in a span of just two weeks, and with the help of Chris Wagner, Sean Kuraly earned his first goal of the season, tying the game up 4-4.
Of course all that got overlooked after Charlie Coyle gave the Bruins the lead in the third, or so we all thought. I know people are going to blame the reversal of Coyle's goal on the fact they were playing in Montreal, but the offsides review nonsense that went down tonight is a problem that solely lies in the hands of the NHL. Not to mention, never would you think you'd be complaining about pace of play in hockey, but the NHL's replay process is just brutal. In the end, what stung the most about the overturned call was not even the fact it ended up being the difference in a 1-goal loss, but rather the only other regulation loss the Bruins have so far this season comes from an overturned goal as well, in another 1-goal difference game. Poor us, and our two regulation losses am I right?
After Ben Chiarot gave the Habs the go-ahead goal in the third with just about five minutes left in the game, the Bruins took some final solid shots at the net in an attempt to push the game into overtime. Unfortunately, the rather hot and cold Carey Price finished strong, and the Bruins were knocked from their high horse for the first time in weeks.
Disappointing as the loss was, it's certainly not anything to lose sleep over. The Bruins played three games in the last four days, battled it out just last night against the Penguins, then hopped on a plane and took an overnight trip to Montreal right after. So yeah, I'm going to imagine they're feeling a little burnt out at the moment. The good news is, they now have a few days to regroup and relax before their next game against the Red Wings who are uh, not good. So if for some reason you're feeling worried after tonight's game, just remember these three things: 1) It's one game. 2) The Bruins were not actually going to never lose again, thought I know it sort of felt that way. 3) Do not listen to Boston sports radio, because they will try to brainwash you into believing Tuukka Rask isn't the best goalie in the league after one bad game. Just relax. It'll all be okay.
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