BOSTON — Marc Savard was on his way to building some positive momentum.
He had played one of his better games since returning from post-concussion syndrome earlier this month, but it ended in disaster for the Bruins center.
In the closing seconds of overtime, Savard blindly dropped a pass back to the left point. But there was no one covering the point in the 4-on-4 extra session. Flyers captain Mike Richards pounced on the puck and led a 3-on-1 break the other way, ultimately taking the shot himself and scoring with three seconds left to lift Philadelphia to another demoralizing win over the Bruins, this one a 2-1 decision at the Garden on Saturday night.
"I just, you know, I just threw it back to the point and obviously, it was my fault there," said Savard. "Johnny [Boychuk] had gone down the net and I just thought [Dennis] Seidenberg was back there and he was in the middle more, so I just made a bad play, that's all."
It was a tough end to what could have been a positive night as Savard slowly works his way back into his old form after a six-month layoff.
"Yeah, I mean I feel like I'm building on stuff and then that happens, so it's tough, you've got to be strong," said Savard. "Obviously, I've been through a lot, so I'll come out of it, but definitely, you know, [Daniel] Paille coming in, had a great game with us. We had a good line going, good forecheck, so we created a lot of things, but unfortunately, I come out minus-2. The game's weird sometimes, but I'm strong, I'll get through it."
Bruins coach Claude Julien also saw some positive in Savard's game before the decisive gaffe.
"He was going well there for most of the game and it's unfortunate," said Julien. "I don't know if he thought he had somebody behind there supporting him, and it turned out to be a bad pass. This was a game of inches and you know, the smallest mistake would end up costing you."
It cost the Bruins an extra point, but they still concluded a very successful three-game homestand this week having collecting five of a possible six points.
"I thought it could have went either way," said forward Shawn Thornton of the game. "I thought we played really well, had a lot of chances. … I liked the way we played. I liked the way we played all week. I'll take five out of six [points] every week if we can."
Julien agreed.
"I think we had an opportunity here tonight to get that extra point," said Julien. "It was there for us for the taking. It's unfortunate that it ended the way it did, but again, the last couple weeks we've picked up 10 out of 12 points. I think any team around the league would be happy with that."
