BOSTON — Catch up hockey is losing hockey, and the Boston Bruins have been playing too much catch up hockey through the first five games of the season.
The B’s lost 4-2 to the rival Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at TD Garden, and just like they had in each of the previous four games, the Bruins gave up the first goal.
“It’s definitely concerning. We want to make sure it doesn’t become a habit,” Bruins defenseman Torey Krug said. “We’ve had a couple decent starts, but we’re not scoring goals and we’re not playing with leads. We have to make sure we put an end to it.”
Habs forward Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring in the second period, and while Boston was able to pull within one at 2-1 and 3-2 in the third period, scoring four goals on elite goaltender Carey Price proved too difficult of a task.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with some real poor mistakes, and we can’t afford to do that against the Montreal Canadiens,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said.
The Bruins have scored just two goals in the first period this season — 25 of 30 teams have more.
— The second period was where the the Bruins lost the game. The B’s had very little puck possession, which was a result of poor dump-ins, bad breakouts, sloppy passing and not winning 50-50 battles.
The Canadiens outscored the Bruins 2-0 in the period, and Julien described the frame as “terrible.”
“The second period came back to haunt us. We were flat,” Julien said. “We didn’t make good outlet passes and we spent way to much time in our own end, and because of that gave them some momentum. By the end of it, we cheated ourselves a little bit and pucks ended up in the back of our net.”
— The Bruins haven’t won a home game against the Canadiens since Jan. 12, 2012. Boston’s record in that span is 0-7-2.
— The line of Matt Beleskey, Riley Nash and Jimmy Hayes made no impact offensively. This trio had only one shot on goal and failed to drive possession (all three had a Corsi For percentage below 50 at even strength).
“You need something out of them besides minuses. I think they’re either minus-5 or minus-6 right now, and when you don’t produce that’s what ends up happening,” Julien said.
“We expect more, there’s no doubt. More or less we had three lines that are creating some sort of momentum. We need them to step up there and help us out, that would make a huge difference for our team.”
— Ryan Spooner was a healthy scratch for Thursday’s game against the New Jersey Devils but returned to the lineup Saturday as the left winger on the second line alongside David Krejci and David Backes. Spooner scored his first goal of the season during a third-period power play that reduced Montreal’s lead to 3-2.
“Better. He was better tonight,” Julien said of Spooner.
Rookie forward Danton Heinen was a healthy scratch with Spooner back in the lineup.
— Tuukka Rask was unavailable for Saturday’s game. His status is day-to-day, and Julien noted Friday that his No. 1 goalie was dealing with “general soreness.” Rask also looked a little shaken after making a save moving to his left during Thursday’s win over the Devils. After that stop, however, he looked perfectly fine.
Rask’s .947 save percentage was the second-best in the league entering Saturday’s slate of games.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images