BOSTON — The Boston Bruins didn’t fail to create scoring chances in Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars. Unfortunately for the B’s, they weren’t able to capitalize on enough of those chances, which has been a theme throughout the season.
The Bruins had a 44-32 shots on goal advantage, a 53-42 shot attempt edge at even strength and a 69-51 shot attempt margin overall against a Stars team that entered the game ranked 28th in goals against average.
“I think we had at least seven good scoring chances,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. “But a lot like last game too, we had some great opportunities right in front of the net and we’re not burying those. … So again it’s a challenge of burying your chances and what it ends up doing is giving them the opportunity to take a lead.
“And our power play wasn’t good, but at the same time we had lots of opportunities to score goals tonight throughout the whole night. We had lots of shots, lots of loose pucks in front, and because you don’t bury those you end up on the losing side of things, and that’s one of the reasons besides not having enough guys playing at their capabilities.”
— Backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg made his first start for Boston since Jan. 8 and was pulled after giving up three goals in the first period.
“First of all that this guy comes back and plays his first game and we didn’t give him much support at all,” Julien said. “I felt bad for him. He could have used a lot more support to get his confidence back and I think some of the goals coming in from the side obviously you’d like him to have those, but rebounds and our guys aren’t there to clear the rebounds (and) they score another goal. It was important for me to give our team some life and make that change, but certainly we didn’t give him a lot of help.”
— Patrice Bergeron was a minus-4, but he can’t be blamed for any of Dallas’ five goals. It’s further proof of how awful the plus/minus stat can be. The Bruins center scored a shorthanded goal to tie linemate Brad Marchand for the team lead with 15 goals, he won 64 percent of his faceoffs and drove more than 60 percent of even-strength shot attempts against the Stars’ top line and top defense pairing.
— Dougie Hamilton scored his ninth goal of the season in the second period. He leads all Bruins defensemen with 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists).
— Bruins rookie winger David Pastrnak picked up a primary assist on David Krejci’s first-period goal, giving him points in back-to-back games.
— Tyler Seguin missed Tuesday’s morning skate with the flu and was a game-time decision, but he ended up playing 18:01 against his former team. He was scoreless and won 50 percent of his faceoffs.
— Jamie Benn scored two first-period goals to give the Stars a 3-1 lead through 20 minutes. His first goal was the result of a powerful net drive and an excellent shot to beat Svedberg up high.
— After the morning skate, Benn was asked about his time with Bruins head coach Claude Julien when they were with Team Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“I learned that he’s a great coach,” Benn said. “I was more of a defensive, PK guy and he was our PK coach, so I got to learn some of the things he likes to do. He helped me out a lot on the defensive side of the game.”
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Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
