The Boston Bruins had a much-needed offensive breakthrough Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks. Unfortunately, they also played their worst defensive game of the season in a 7-4 loss.
Tuukka Rask gave up a career-high seven goals, but the reigning Vezina Trophy winner actually played well for Boston. Four of San Jose’s goals were off deflections, and the Sharks easily could have hit double digits if not for Rask’s 37 saves, 11 of which were on the penalty kill.
“We just were really, really poor defensively, and poor in a lot of areas, so it was a tough night, a bad night for our hockey club,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien told reporters.
One major issue for the Bruins was their inability to consistently possess the puck, leading to the Sharks’ 81 shot attempts. It was the most shot attempts against total in a game Boston this season, 10 more than the previous high (71 to the Minnesota Wild on Oct. 28). The Bruins’ 57 shots allowed during 5-on-5 play is their second-highest total of the season.
The Sharks entered this game ranked seventh in Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5, so it’s not surprising to see them outshoot the opponent. It is, however, a surprise to see it happen against a Bruins team that ranked fifth in 5-on-5 CF% and has outshot the opponent in 19 of 27 games.
The penalty kill also took a step back. This unit was fantastic in the two previous games and had been successful in seven straight shorthanded situations, but the Sharks scored twice with the man advantage to lower the Bruins’ penalty kill percentage to 78.6 (22nd in the league).
The B’s were lucky to escape the opening period without a power-play goal against because Rask made a number of clutch saves, including one on Joe Pavelski at the top of the crease.
The Bruins made a few defensive errors on Pavelski’s power-play goal that tied the score 4-4. Â The Sharks entered the attacking zone far too easily, Patrick Marleau beat Kevan Miller too easily on the outside and Pavelski was able to get inside position on Matt Bartkowski in front of the net.
The Bruins had let down their guard a bit when they took a 2-0 lead early in the first period, and that’s a recipe for disaster against a Sharks team with elite offensive talent in their top-six forward group. Boston gave up four goals in the second period, which puts them at 30 second-period goals against on the season. That’s one behind the Edmonton Oilers for the highest total in the league.
In fairness to the Bruins, four of the goals were deflections and those often are hard to stop. With that said, the other three goals the Sharks scored were the result of them entering the attacking zone too easily, winning puck battles along the boards and/or beating Bruins defensemen to the net.
It’s too early to tell if this loss is simply an outlier or a real concern. The Bruins had given up an average of just 1.88 goals in their last eight games entering Thursday’s matchup and the goaltending over that span was good.
We’ll learn more when the Bruins end this road trip Saturday night in Arizona against a Coyotes team that ranks 22nd in goals scored per game.
GIF via Twitter/@MyRegularFace
Thumbnail photo via Lance Iversen/USA TODAY Sports Images
