The Boston Bruins began their three-game road trip with a 6-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Center.
It’s Boston’s third straight loss (0-2-1), while Ottawa improved to 13-1-1 in its last 15 games. The Bruins continue their road trip Saturday against the Florida Panthers.
Here are three takeaways from Bruins-Senators:
1. Ottawa Gains Ground In Playoff Race
The Senators climbed to within two points (with a game in hand, too) of the Bruins for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Ottawa also has a favorable schedule to end the regular season, including three more matchups with the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs. Boston’s schedule doesn’t get any easier, and it includes games against three Stanley Cup contenders (the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks) over the next nine days.
The B’s have a 56.4 percent chance of securing a playoff spot after Thursday’s loss, while the Senators have a 51.8 percent chance, per Sports Club Stats.
2. Wild First Period Produces Four Goals
In a matchup of two of the hottest goaltenders in the NHL, the story of the opening 20 minutes was offense.
The Senators struck first with a goal from Kyle Turris just 19 seconds after the opening faceoff. It was the quickest goal Boston has given up all season. The Bruins didn’t take long to respond as Carl Soderberg ended a 24-game goalless drought with a tally just 40 seconds later.
Ryan Spooner deflected a Milan Lucic shot past Ottawa goaltender Andrew Hammond to give Boston a 2-1 lead, but Milan Michalek tied the score at the 15:03 mark with his 200th career goal.
In addition to those four goals, Bruins center Patrice Bergeron and Senators winger Mike Hoffman both missed wide open nets. Hoffman’s miss happened near the end of the period after B’s goalie Tuukka Rask misplayed the puck behind the net.
These teams combined for 28 shots on net (14 apiece) and 21 scoring chances (14 for Ottawa, seven for Boston) in the first period.
3. Reilly Smith’s Ice Time Reduced
Bruins right winger Reilly Smith entered Thursday’s game with an 11-game goalless drought, a five-game scoreless streak and three goals in his last 33 games.
His struggles continued against the Senators with two mistakes that led to goals against. A poor pass by Smith early in the first period resulted in a neutral-zone turnover and started the build up to Turris’ goal. Smith made another turnover on a second-period power play that led to Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s shorthanded goal.
Smith was benched for the remaining 8:03 of the second period after the Pagueau goal. He took just one shift in the third period, and it was on the fourth line with Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille.
Smith finished with zero shots and zero points in 7:30 of ice time.
Thumbnail photo via Dennis Wierzbicki/USA TODAY Sports Images
