The Canucks converted just two of 33 chances in the seven games, with the Bruins actually outscoring Vancouver while down a skater with three shorthanded goals.
In the clubs' first meeting since, the Bruins played with fire one too many times. Vancouver once again came into the contest with the NHL's top-ranked power play at 23.6 percent.
The Canucks were even more proficient on Saturday, and the Bruins gave them far too many chances. Vancouver scored all four of its goal on the power play, finishing 4-for-11 on the day to squeak out a 4-3 victory over the B's.
"There was a lot of penalties," Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference said. "Obviously they have a good power play and converted. It's part of the game."
It was certainly a big part of this game. Both teams kept the penalty boxes filled, combining for 30 penalties totaling 107 minutes. Barely half of the game was played at even strength, with just 30:02 spent playing 5 on 5.
That hampered the Bruins' efforts to get into any sort of rhythm, and this time their penalty kill could not bail them out.
"Every time we started to get momentum we have a power play or a long power play to kill," Bruins goalie Tim Thomas said. "You know, I think we were really coming back there in the second period and I thought we were going to take the game over. Five on five, we dominated the play. But then they got the penalty and whether you agree with the calls or not they were a huge factor in the way the game turned out."
It wasn't just the number of power-play opportunities the Canucks had in the game. It was also the nature of those calls. They had a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes early in the first when a melee somehow ended up with the Bruins down two men and Milan Lucic ejected for leaving the bench. After the game, that game misconduct was rescinded by the league, as Lucic had come onto the ice on a legal line change. But that did little good for the Bruins.
They also had to play without Brad Marchand for much of the game, as he was ejected in the second period when he was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for clipping when he upended Vancouver defenseman Sami Salo.
"We had some pretty big obstacles to overcome, and some of it was losing two real good players out of your lineup and having a short bench," Bruins Claude Julien said. "That didn't help, but having said that, had we stayed out of the box, and not given them the power plays that we gave them, I really felt, 5 on 5, we controlled the play. That's where our strength is, and unfortunately, when you give up four power-play goals in a game, you've got to look at yourself and take the blame, and it's as simple as that."
That said, Julien did defend Marchand's actions on the play.
"We all have our opinions on what is going on with the game and the hits and everything else," Julien said. "All I'm going to tell you is that I always told my players that they need to protect themselves. The last thing I want my players to do is get hit and then end up with a concussion. They have to protect themselves. Whether it's the right way or the wrong way, it'll depend on how the league looks at it.
"I'd rather have a guy take a two-minute penalty than turn his back to the play, stand up straight, and then get his face knocked into the glass and be out for maybe the rest of the year with a concussion, or maybe end his career like [Marc] Savard," Julien continued. "So I think we have to really look at those kinds of things. In my opinion, if guys start protecting themselves the way Marchand did, maybe guys will stop taking runs at other guys because that's the consequences you end up paying for taking runs at guys, too. Who knows where we're going to go with this. I know we're all trying hard to fix that part of the game, but it's still there, and it's still not fixed."
The Bruins' discipline in this game needed some fixing as well. They battled back from Vancouver's early 5-on-3 goal to take a 2-1 lead on strikes by Marchand and Rich Peverley, but the Canucks tied it with Tyler Seguin in the box for tripping, then scored twice on Marchand's major penalty.
There were certainly some debatable calls made by referees Don VanMassenhoven and Dan O'Rourke, but after the game the Bruins put the blame on themselves rather than looking for excuses in the officiating.
"Our job is to assess our team," Julien said. "Our job is to assess our players. Our job is not to assess or comment on referees. I'm not stupid enough to stand up here and criticize them. What I can tell you is that [Vancouver] scored four power-play goals, so we gave them an opportunity to score on their bread and butter. Instead of criticizing the referees, I would much prefer criticizing us for the penalties. Whether they're worthy [of being called] or not, take the responsibility. We knew before the game started that they have a good power play."
Ference agreed, but he didn't feel that the Bruins had gotten out of control or away from their game plan to lead to so many calls.
"I'm sure some of them were probably good calls," Ference said. "It's our job to kill them off, not to cry about them if we dispute them or not.
"I think we actually did a good job of playing our style," Ference added. "I don't think anybody got out of hand. If we were to get out of hand it would have been very obvious. We got some penalties. We missed a couple kills. But I thought we played our game and I don't think we got pulled outside our comfort zone."
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